Instead, before she even began looking, Rachelle (who asked that her last name not be published for privacy reasons) signed an agreement with the real estate agent she contacted for help with her house hunt. Last year, when new consumer-protection rules went into effect, this became a rule for most potential home buyers working with brokers.

Until then, buyer’s agent commissions, traditionally paid by sellers as part of their closing costs, were disclosed in MLS listings, where most homes for sale in the U.S. can be found. And though some jurisdictions required buyers’ agents to have written agreements with their clients, many did not. The upshot: Many buyers effectively had no input into how much their agents were paid, because the sellers typically paid commission fees that were lumped into the sales price.

“Buyers could negotiate with their agents, but most consumers were not aware of this, since they assumed that the sellers would pay for everything,” says Lora Cusumano, president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, an organization of real estate professionals who work only with buyers.

As a result, argued plaintiffs in lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and major brokerages, sellers were required to pay “an inflated amount” to brokers representing the buyers of their homes. Those public listings of compensation, plaintiffs alleged, kept commissions artificially high.

Under the NAR’s new rules for its members, who constitute a majority of U.S. real estate agents, sellers can no longer advertise buyer’s agent commissions on MLS systems. Instead, sellers, who typically cover buyer’s agent commissions in their closing costs, can disclose or negotiate one-on-one a buyer’s agent commission, if they choose to pay one.

Also under the settlement, buyers’ agents must have a signed agreement with their clients explaining how they are paid. Buyers can negotiate with their agent on that payment, often a percentage of the sales price that ranges from 2 to 3 percent. Rachelle, who bought a four-bedroom home for $128,000 with financial assistance from the nonprofit developer CHN Housing Partners, says she would have paid the 2 percent commission she agreed to, though the seller ended up covering it.

One goal of these changes is to highlight for buyers that they have input on their agent’s compensation. Commissions have always been negotiable, but it’s typically been the sellers who have negotiated with agents on both sides.

The buyer’s agent agreements require buyers to specify their agent’s compensation, among which can be a flat fee or a percentage of the home price. These agreements should state that agents can be paid only what the buyer negotiated; for example, if a buyer agrees to a commission of 2 percent of the purchase price and a seller is offering a 3 percent buyer’s agent commission, the agent can get only 2 percent from the seller—even though the seller is willing to pay more.

So far, the effect of the new rules appears to be limited: Average buyer’s agent commissions for closed home sales went from 2.35 percent in August 2024 to 2.34 percent in October 2024, according to Redfin real estate brokerage research.

But the opportunity the rules give buyers to negotiate will mean bigger changes over time, predicts Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow with the Consumer Federation of America. “It’s very likely that real estate agent commissions will be reduced,” he says. Total commissions for the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent mostly fall within the range of 5 percent to 6 percent now, and Brobeck expects that to eventually decline to an average of 3 percent to 4 percent.

“Consumers should start talking to their agents about compensation on both sides in dollars rather than percentages,” Brobeck says. “That will put pressure on the marketplace and help lower commissions, which in turn will help with affordability issues.”

Many agents say they’ve seen little change in market practices beyond the new written agreements. And although those agreements specify that buyers are ultimately responsible for compensating their own agents, a large majority of sellers are still willing to cover the buyer’s agent’s compensation, Brobeck says.

In part, that may be a function of supply and demand. In Florida, the market has softened a little, so sellers have more incentive to offer to pay a buyer’s agent fee, says Alex Vastardis, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in Orlando, Florida.

Or it could be a reflection of industry tradition. “Right now, we still have low inventory in most places,” says Tim Yee, a broker associate with Re/Max Gold in the San Francisco Bay area. In theory, then, sellers have less of an incentive to pay the buyer’s agent. But sellers still worry that if they don’t offer to pay, they will lose a lucrative deal.

Another reason change might be muted: For several reasons, lenders don’t want buyers to include their payments to an agent in their mortgage, so many deals are doable for first-time buyers only if the seller covers that cost.