SB 973 Disclosure Form: What It Must Include

Key Takeaways

• Four mandatory disclosures: The law specifies exactly what language must appear — who you are, what you intend to do with the contract, that the price may be below market value, and a recommendation that the seller seek independent legal counsel.
• Format is law, not preference: The disclosure must be a completely separate standalone document, printed in boldface 12-point font minimum, and signed by both parties at the time of delivery — not at contract signing.
• One wrong element = automatic cancellation right: If any required element is missing or the form is buried inside your purchase contract, sellers retain the right to walk at any time before closing — with their earnest money returned.

Most of the conversation about Missouri's SB 973 has focused on the 14-day waiting period — the mandatory window before any purchase contract can be signed. That's understandable. A two-week pause at the front of every acquisition is a meaningful operational change.

But the harder compliance question isn't about when you deliver the SB 973 disclosure form. It's about what the form must actually say — and how it must look. Get the timing right and the content wrong, and you're still fully exposed under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.

Here's what Missouri's new law requires inside the disclosure document itself.

The Four Disclosures Your Form Must Make

SB 973 specifies four distinct pieces of information that must appear in every wholesaler disclosure. These aren't guidelines — the law treats an incomplete disclosure the same as no disclosure at all.

1. You are acting as a wholesaler.

The disclosure must explicitly state that the buyer is acting as a wholesaler. This isn't the same as identifying yourself by name. The form must make clear what role you're playing — that you are not a licensed agent representing the seller, not a traditional buyer intending to occupy or hold the property, and that you meet Missouri's statutory definition of a wholesaler.

2. The contract may be assigned to another buyer for a profit.

This is the disclosure that closes the gray area. The form must tell the seller, in plain language, that you intend to profit by selling your interest in the contract — and that the person who ultimately buys the property may not be you. If you're planning a double close rather than a straight assignment, note that SB 973's coverage is based on your intent when the first contract is signed, not how you eventually close. That distinction carries real legal weight under the law.

3. The purchase price may be below market value.

The form must affirmatively tell the seller that the price you're offering may be less than what they could get on the open market. This is the provision investors most frequently try to soften with qualifying language — but the statute requires it to be stated directly. No hedging, no "as-is" framing that obscures it.

4. The seller should seek independent legal counsel.

The disclosure must recommend that the seller consult an attorney before signing anything. This mirrors requirements that apply to licensed real estate agents in many states, and it's a deliberate addition — the legislature wants sellers to know they have a right to outside advice before agreeing to the transaction.

All four disclosures must appear in the same standalone document. You cannot split them across multiple communications, bury one in a follow-up email, or argue that the seller already understood something implicitly.

The Format Requirements Are Part of the Law

The content requirements get most of the attention, but SB 973 also specifies how the disclosure must be formatted. These requirements exist to prevent wholesalers from technically complying while making the disclosures practically invisible.

The law requires the disclosure document to:

• Be a completely separate, standalone document — not a section of your purchase contract, not an addendum, not a highlighted paragraph in a longer agreement. A separate piece of paper, physically distinct from any contract.
• Be printed in boldface type at a minimum 12-point font size. Standard body text on most documents runs 10–11 points. The 12-point boldface requirement is designed to make the disclosure both legible and visually prominent.
• Contain no contract language or terms. The disclosure is a disclosure only — the moment you embed purchase terms inside it, you've crossed into contract territory before the 14-day window has closed.

This means your disclosure document cannot also function as a letter of intent, a memorandum of understanding, or a preliminary agreement. It is a disclosure form. Nothing more.

Delivery and Signature: Getting the Timing Right

The content only holds up if the delivery is done correctly. SB 973 specifies that the disclosure must be:

• Delivered and signed at least 14 calendar days before the purchase contract is executed. The clock starts when both parties sign the disclosure — not when you hand it over, not when you email it. If your seller receives the form but doesn't sign it for three days, your 14-day window starts on day three.
• Signed by both parties at the time of delivery. The wholesaler's signature and the seller's signature must appear on the same document, executed at the same time. You cannot pre-sign and send. You cannot collect remote signatures without a timestamped record.

The practical implication: your disclosure process needs a documented paper trail. Dated signatures, timestamped delivery records. If enforcement or litigation comes, your compliance lives or dies on the documented timeline — not on your recollection of what happened.

For wholesalers working in St. Louis or Kansas City, this means building a front-end system where disclosure delivery is the formal opening of a tracked, documented acquisition process — not an afterthought.

What Happens When the Form Is Incomplete

The MMPA exposure from SB 973 does not require the deal to go wrong. A clean closing in September can generate legal liability in February if the original seller can demonstrate the disclosure was missing a required element or wasn't delivered correctly.

Under the law, if the disclosure was not properly made before the purchase contract was signed:

• The seller can cancel at any time before escrow closes. There's no deadline for the seller to exercise this right — they can cancel the morning of closing. Your earnest money is returned to them within 30 days of cancellation, regardless of how far along the transaction is.
• The violation constitutes an unlawful practice under the MMPA. The seller can bring a private lawsuit. The Missouri Attorney General is mandated to pursue civil enforcement. Neither requires the deal to fall apart first.
• No waiver is possible. Any contract provision that attempts to waive the seller's rights under SB 973 is automatically null and void. You cannot contractually protect yourself against a disclosure failure.

This is why the disclosure form — not just the 14-day timeline — is where SB 973 compliance actually lives.

Building Your Compliant Disclosure Process Before August 28

The effective date is August 28, 2026. That gives Missouri wholesalers a defined window to build the right process. Here's what a compliant operation looks like:

Draft the form with a Missouri real estate attorney. The statute specifies required content but doesn't provide template language. An attorney familiar with MMPA practice can help you craft language that satisfies each disclosure requirement without inadvertently creating contract terms or giving sellers grounds to challenge the form's sufficiency.

Build signature and timestamp documentation into first contact. The disclosure has to be signed before the 14-day window starts — which means your first seller interaction needs to include a disclosure delivery step, not a contract conversation. First touch is disclosure touch.

Separate your disclosure files from your contract files. Audits and legal disputes turn on documentation. Keep disclosure records — with delivery dates, seller signatures, and timestamps — in a completely distinct system from your contracts.

Work with a title company that knows the structure. When your 14-day window closes and you're ready to execute, your title company should be able to confirm the disclosure was properly delivered as part of the pre-closing file review. At Aureo Title, we handle investor closings across Missouri — St. Louis, Kansas City, and beyond — and we're already incorporating SB 973 disclosure verification into our intake process.

The Form Is Where Compliance Holds or Breaks

Every Missouri wholesaler conversation about SB 973 eventually comes back to the 14-day rule. But the disclosure form is the actual mechanism — and it's where most compliance failures will originate. A form with missing language, wrong formatting, or incorrect delivery timing carries the same MMPA exposure as skipping the disclosure entirely.

Investors who build their disclosure process around the full statutory requirements — content, format, and delivery — will be positioned to operate in Missouri's post-August-28 market with confidence. Those who treat the form as a box to check will find themselves exposed.

If you're wholesaling in Missouri and want to talk through how your closing process and documentation need to adapt before August 28, reach out to our team. We're already helping Missouri investors structure compliant deals across St. Louis and Kansas City — and the right time to build the system is before your next acquisition, not after it.