Who pays the buyer's agent now? Commissions after the NAR settlement, explained

The 2024 NAR settlement generated years of headlines and a durable fog of misunderstanding. Here is what actually changed, what didn’t, and what it means for your money — current through the appellate ruling that settled the question in August 2026.

What changed on August 17, 2024

Two mechanical rules, per the settlement’s own terms:

Compensation offers came off the MLS. A listing can no longer advertise “buyer’s agent gets X%” on a Realtor-affiliated MLS. The offer itself remains legal — it just moves off-MLS: communicated agent to agent, posted on a brokerage’s own site, or structured as a seller concession in the purchase contract (concessions may even be displayed on the MLS; compensation offers may not).

Buyers sign before touring. An agent who is an MLS participant must have a written buyer agreement in place before touring a home with you. The agreement must state the compensation specifically and objectively — no open-ended “whatever the seller pays” — and must say plainly that commissions are negotiable and not set by law. The agent can’t collect more than the agreed amount from any source.

What did not change

The seller’s ability — and, in practice, tendency — to fund the buyer’s agent. Redfin’s market reporting through 2025 found most sellers continue to cover buyer-agent compensation, commonly in the 2–3% range, because the alternative shrinks the buyer pool: a buyer who must bring their agent’s fee in cash has less to bring to you. What changed is that this is now a decision, negotiated deal by deal, rather than a number printed on the MLS before anyone asked.

And the money itself moved less than the headlines promised. The average buyer-side commission was 2.42% in Redfin’s late-2025 data — up slightly from the post-rule low — with a telling split: about 2.5% on homes under $500K, closer to 2.2% above $1M. Total commissions in 2026 industry surveys still cluster around 5.5–6%. The settlement didn’t reprice the industry; it repriced the conversation.

What it means for a seller

Buyer-agent compensation is now part of your pricing strategy. Offer too little in a buyer-thin market and showings suffer; offer a full concession in a multiple-offer market and you may have paid for nothing. The right answer is market-specific and current — which makes it a test question for listing-agent interviews: “What are buyer-side concessions actually running in this neighborhood right now, and what do you recommend for my house and why?” An agent with a real answer cites recent deals. An agent without one recites a default — usually the old one.

What it means for a buyer

Your agreement is now the whole game. Before signing, check four terms: the fee (specific, and understand who’s expected to fund it); the duration (California caps it at three months with no auto-renewal — elsewhere, negotiate it down); exclusivity and scope (all properties everywhere, or a defined area?); and the exit (how you part ways if it isn’t working). If the seller’s side won’t cover the full fee, your options are negotiating a concession into the offer, negotiating the fee itself, or paying the difference — and which is realistic depends on that market’s temperature. The deeper dive: what to check before signing a buyer agreement in California.

The quiet consequence for agent selection

Before 2024, buyer-agent compensation was ambient — printed on the MLS, rarely discussed. Now it’s negotiated on every deal, twice: once in the buyer agreement, once in the offer. That moves negotiation skill from a nice-to-have to a line item that touches your proceeds or your purchase price directly, on both sides of the table. It’s also verifiable before you hire anyone: recent deals, actual concession outcomes, actual agreements. That evidence-first vetting is what we do — and the published scorecard shows exactly where fee handling fits.

Questions people ask

As a seller, do I have to pay the buyer's agent?

No — and you never legally did. But most sellers still choose to, because it widens the buyer pool: buyers who must pay their own agent out of pocket have less cash for your house. The change is mechanical: instead of a compensation offer published on the MLS, it's now communicated off-MLS or handled as a negotiated concession in the purchase contract. Decide with your listing agent deliberately, market by market — it's a pricing strategy now, not a default.

As a buyer, what am I actually signing before touring homes?

A written buyer representation agreement stating your agent's compensation specifically — a flat fee, percentage, or hourly rate, not an open-ended 'whatever the seller offers.' The agent cannot collect more than the stated amount from any source, and the agreement must state that commissions are fully negotiable. Read the fee, the term length, the exclusivity, and the cancellation clause before signing; in California the agreement is capped at three months and can't auto-renew.

Did commissions actually go down after the settlement?

Not measurably, so far. Redfin's transaction data put the average buyer-side commission at 2.42% in late 2025 — slightly higher than the level right after the rules took effect — with lower rates on luxury homes and higher rates on affordable ones. Industry surveys in 2026 put typical totals around 5.5–6% nationally. What changed is that rates are negotiated openly, in writing, deal by deal — which rewards people who actually negotiate.

Is the settlement final, or could the rules change again?

A federal appeals court affirmed the settlement in full in August 2026, rejecting every objection. The practice changes — no MLS compensation offers, written buyer agreements — are settled rules now. Related buyer-side litigation is resolving through a separate homebuyer settlement fund. Nothing in the pipeline as of this writing would undo the day-to-day mechanics described here.