Who Pays Realtor Commission Now, After the NAR Settlement
2 min read · Last updated 2026-08-03 · Reviewed by Camilo Palacio, Licensed Florida Real Estate Professional (License #3280644, REALTOR®)
Sellers and buyers now negotiate their own agent's commission directly. The 2024 NAR Sitzer/Burnett settlement, effective August 17, 2024, ended the practice of automatically listing buyer-agent commission on the MLS and requires buyers to sign a written agreement with their agent before touring homes. A seller can still offer buyer-agent compensation, sell without an agent, or use a company like Cash Flow Deals that locks a net price before repairs get scoped.
| Factor | Traditional Route | Cash Flow Deals |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the commission | Seller negotiates a listing fee with their agent, buyer-agent compensation is negotiated separately off the MLS since August 17, 2024 | Cash Flow Deals is paid a separate, itemized fee on the closing statement, not a percentage tied to price |
| When the number is final | Final commission depends on negotiation and can shift as the deal moves through offers | Net price is locked before repairs even get scoped |
| Who handles the paperwork | Seller and agent, or seller alone, manage disclosures, contracts, and negotiation | A licensed local broker partner structures the transaction as a novation, from contract to closing |
What Changed on August 17, 2024
The National Association of Realtors reached a nationwide settlement in the Sitzer/Burnett case, and the practice changes took effect August 17, 2024. Two changes matter most for sellers. First, buyer-agent commission is no longer automatically displayed as a fixed number on the MLS listing itself. Second, buyers now have to sign a written agreement with their agent before that agent can tour homes with them. Both changes were built to make commission a discussion between real people instead of a number that shows up on a listing page before anyone talks price.
Who Actually Pays the Commission Now
Nothing in federal law requires a seller to pay a buyer's agent, and nothing ever did. What changed is how that offer gets made. A seller can still choose to offer compensation to a buyer's agent to make the home more attractive to buyers who are working with representation, but that offer now gets negotiated and put in writing off the MLS, not posted as a blanket percentage on the listing. A buyer can also pay their own agent directly out of their own funds, which was always legal and is now more common.
What This Means If You're Selling
A seller weighing a traditional listing has to decide, upfront, whether to offer any buyer-agent compensation and how much, since that number no longer appears automatically to every buyer's agent browsing listings. That decision affects showings, since some buyer's agents steer clients toward homes where compensation is clear. Sellers who want to skip that calculation entirely sometimes look at other paths, including selling without an agent or working with a company that prices its fee as a flat, separate line item rather than a percentage tied to buyer-agent negotiations.
Cash Flow Deals' Process for Sellers Who Want a Fixed Number
Cash Flow Deals is a real estate investment company, not a brokerage itself, that removes the commission variable from the equation entirely. It works in three steps. One, a seller requests a net-price review and gets a number locked before any repair scope gets discussed. Two, a licensed local broker partner structures the sale as a novation, so title transfers once, directly from the seller to a real FHA or conventional homebuyer whose own lender funds the purchase. Three, Cash Flow Deals gets paid its fee as a separate line item on the closing statement, never folded into the sale price. A seller can compare that fixed number against what a traditional listing is likely to net after commission negotiations, repairs, and closing costs.
Options Beyond a Single Listing Agent
A traditional full-service listing is only one path. Selling without any agent, working with a discount broker for a reduced listing fee, or using a flat-fee service to get onto the MLS are all still available, and all of them now operate under the same August 17, 2024 rules on buyer-agent compensation. The right path depends on how much time a seller has, how much negotiation they want to do themselves, and how much certainty they want about the final number before repairs, inspections, and buyer financing enter the picture.
Common questions
Do I have to pay my buyer's agent's commission now?
No. Federal law never required a seller to pay a buyer's agent, and the 2024 NAR settlement didn't change that. What changed is that any offer to pay buyer-agent compensation now gets negotiated and written down instead of posted automatically on the MLS.
Is realtor commission a fixed percentage?
No. Commission has always been negotiable. The Sitzer/Burnett settlement, effective August 17, 2024, reinforced that by requiring written, itemized buyer-agent agreements instead of a blanket rate shown on every MLS listing.
What is the NAR Sitzer/Burnett settlement?
It's the nationwide settlement the National Association of Realtors reached after a jury sided with home sellers in the underlying Sitzer/Burnett case. The practice changes from that settlement took effect August 17, 2024, including removing buyer-agent compensation fields from the MLS and requiring signed buyer representation agreements.
Can I sell my house without paying any commission at all?
Selling without a listing agent, or using a company that charges one flat fee instead of a percentage commission, are both ways to avoid a traditional commission structure. Each comes with its own trade-offs worth weighing against what a full-service listing typically nets.