Do sellers still have to pay the buyer’s agent commission?
No — it is optional, and it has been since the National Association of Realtors settlement took effect in August 2024. Offers of buyer-agent compensation can no longer be advertised in the MLS, and each side negotiates its own representation. In practice most sellers still contribute something: roughly 78% of 2025 sellers offered buyer-agent compensation, averaging about 2.4%, because it can widen the buyer pool.
Reviewed · Reviewed by Kristian Peter, CA DRE #01308663
The change is procedural rather than economic. Before the settlement, a single commission was commonly split between both sides and the buyer-side share was published in the MLS. Now buyers sign their own written representation agreement with their agent before touring, and whether the seller contributes to that cost is a term of the deal like any other.
That means you have three realistic choices: offer nothing and let buyers pay their own agents, offer a specific amount or percentage, or offer a general concession the buyer can apply to their agent, closing costs, or rate buydown as they prefer. The third is increasingly common because it is flexible without being a commission promise.
Whether contributing helps depends on your market. Where inventory is tight and buyers are competing, sellers can often offer little or nothing. Where homes sit, a contribution can be the difference between a showing and a skip — particularly for buyers stretched by their down payment who cannot also fund their agent out of pocket.
Commissions did not collapse the way many predicted. Total commissions averaged about 5.46% in an August 2026 Clever survey of 434 agents, down from 5.70% in its February survey; a Cotality/ResiClub survey around that February found roughly two-thirds of agents reporting no significant change since the settlement. The rules changed; habits mostly did not.
Related
A plain-English breakdown of what selling a house actually costs — agent commission, closing costs, concessions — and how those deductions decide the net proceeds you keep.
Guide · CommissionReal Estate Agent Commission: Who Pays It and How It’s NegotiatedHow real estate agent commission works — who pays it, how it is split between the listing and buyer sides, what the 2024 NAR settlement changed, and how sellers negotiate the rate.