Buying or selling a home? How the real estate fee structure impacts you

A ‘For Sale’ sign is posted on the lawn in front of a home on March 15, 2024, in Miami, Fla. The National Association of Realtors announced that it had reached a nationwide $418 settlement of claims that the industry had conspired to keep agent commissions high.

For decades, the norm in this country has been for the person selling a home to pay both her own agent and the buyer’s agent. What’s more, the buyer’s share of that commission had to be spelled out in order to advertise the home on the big regional listing sites. Realtors insist they never fixed those commissions, but as a practical matter, the public notice worked to set a standard — often in the neighborhood of 5 or 6%, split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent.

Sellers may be able to negotiate a flat fee to market their house, not connected to the selling price. Buyers may be able to purchase a la carte services — paying less if they do their own house-hunting on the Internet and more if they want to be chauffeured around to open houses. Prospective home buyers leave a property for sale during an Open House in a neighborhood in Clarksburg, Md. on September 3, 2023. The new real estate commission structure could mean buyers have to pay more out-of-pocket fees starting in July. Agents are still sorting out what this might mean for their business. When fees are more negotiable, agents will have to make the case for what they’re worth. But the best agents feel like they do that already.

“Do we see agents that work with buyers start to phase out of the business because they’re just not getting as many clients?” asks Jovani Ortiz, an agent on Long Island. “These are sort of the unknowns that most agents are looking at right now.”

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