For nearly three decades, buying or selling a home in the United States followed a predictable script: the seller paid both their own agent's commission and the buyer's agent's commission, and that split was advertised right on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That script changed in 2024, following a landmark legal settlement, and by 2026 the new system has become the standard way real estate transactions work.
The changes trace back to a federal antitrust case, Sitzer/Burnett v. NAR. A jury found that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) had conspired with large brokerages to keep agent commissions artificially high, largely by requiring listing agents to advertise a fixed buyer-agent commission on the MLS — a structure critics said pressured sellers into paying more than they otherwise would have and discouraged buyer's agents from showing lower-commission listings.
To resolve the case, NAR agreed to pay $418 million in damages and to overhaul how commissions are handled nationwide. Those rule changes took effect on August 17, 2024.
1. Commission offers are banned from the MLS. Listing agents can no longer advertise how much they're willing to pay a buyer's agent inside the MLS database. Commission terms still exist — they're just negotiated privately and disclosed elsewhere, not baked into the listing itself.
2. Buyers must sign a written agreement with their agent before touring homes. Buyer's agents are now required to have a signed buyer-representation agreement in place before showing a property. That agreement has to spell out how the agent gets paid — a flat fee, an hourly rate, or a percentage — and give the buyer a chance to negotiate it, rather than assuming a standard percentage will simply come out of the sale.
It's worth being clear about what the settlement didn't do:
For buyers: You'll now be asked to sign a representation agreement before an agent shows you homes, and that agreement will state exactly how much you owe your agent and under what conditions. If a seller isn't offering to cover that fee, you can try to negotiate it into your purchase offer, negotiate a lower rate with your own agent, or in some cases forgo an agent altogether for a more straightforward transaction.
For sellers: You're no longer defaulting into paying a buyer's agent commission just because that's "how it's done." You can choose whether to offer buyer-agent compensation, and if so, how much — but many agents caution that offering little or nothing can narrow your buyer pool, since the deal terms are worked out through the listing agreement, the buyer's agreement, and the purchase offer, rather than assumed automatically.
For agents: Compliance now means keeping commission terms out of MLS fields entirely (including private remarks sections, which some agents have been fined for using as a workaround) and documenting compensation clearly in listing agreements and buyer agreements instead.
The 2024 settlement didn't eliminate real estate commissions or force them down — it made them a matter of explicit, written negotiation rather than an unstated default baked into the MLS. Two years in, that's mostly what happened: more paperwork and more upfront conversations about fees, but not the dramatic price drop many expected. The structural shift, however, is real and now considered the norm rather than a temporary disruption.
This article reflects rules and data current as of mid-2026. Commission practices can vary by state and local MLS, and further regulatory changes remain possible.
