Do You Have to Pay the Buyer's Agent's Commission?

No. Since August 17, 2024, a seller is not required to offer or pay a buyer's-agent commission. At a minimum, it's entirely your discretion. Handled well, it goes further — a real negotiating tactic that can work in your favor and put more money in your pocket, not just a cost you're avoiding.

Here's what actually changed, why being open to it beats offering it upfront, and exactly how it gets handled once an offer is on the table.

The question assumes something that isn't true anymore

Almost every seller starts from the same place: "How much do I have to pay the buyer's agent?" Not "should I offer one at all," not "how much actually helps me" — just how much, like it's a fixed cost of selling a house, the same as a transfer tax.

That's not an accident. For decades, it genuinely was fixed — quietly, by an MLS rule most sellers never saw. A lot of the industry still talks about it the same way today, two years after that rule was struck down. Old scripts don't retire just because the law under them did.

The commission didn't stop being optional. The narrative just kept running after the rule that required it was gone.

What actually changed — the lawsuit, plainly

In October 2023, a federal jury in Kansas City sided with a class of home sellers who sued the National Association of Realtors and several major brokerages over the industry's Cooperative Compensation Rule — the MLS requirement that a listing broker publish a guaranteed payout to any buyer's agent who brought a buyer. The plaintiffs argued this artificially inflated commissions nationwide. The jury agreed, awarding $1.78 billion in damages — an amount that could have tripled to $5.3 billion under antitrust law if it went to further trials.

NAR settled for $418 million, paid out over four years, and agreed to two changes that matter here:

• The Cooperative Compensation Rule was repealed. A buyer's-agent payout can no longer be advertised or guaranteed on the MLS. It's off the listing entirely.

• Buyers now sign a written agreement with their own agent before touring homes, spelling out what that agent is owed. That commission is now a conversation between the buyer and their agent first — not something assumed to flow from the seller automatically.

The new rules took effect August 17, 2024. In August 2026, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the settlement — it's not under appeal, it's not in limbo, it's the standing rule.

Net effect: your listing side and the buyer's agent's fee are now two fully separate conversations. They used to be one bundled number nobody outside the deal ever saw broken apart. Now they're not.

So why does it still get talked about as mandatory?

Because "6%, split three and three" was the only model most agents ever trained under. When something has been industry default for generations, habit outlives the rule that enforced it — and the version of that habit that keeps the money flowing tends to survive longest. That's worth naming plainly: the assumption gets repeated because it benefits whoever's collecting it, not because it's still required.

"Entirely your discretion" is the floor — here's the tactic

Here's the direction we take with our sellers, and it's a sharper distinction than it sounds: be open to the possibility of offering buyer's-agent compensation, but let the offer — and what it actually nets you — come first. Don't offer compensation before you've seen a single offer.

Offering it upfront means you've committed the money before any negotiation has happened. The buyer's agent tells their buyer it's covered, and from that point on, it's assumed, not earned. Nothing about the specific offer they submit has to work any harder to get it.

Staying open does the opposite. It keeps the decision conditioned on the outcome — the price, the terms, the net proceeds of the actual offer in front of you — not a commitment made in the abstract, before you know what you're negotiating against.

In practice, that means we don't meet an agent's question about compensation with a yes, a no, or a number. We turn it back toward the buyer's side — whether their buyer already has representation covered, and if not, whether their buyer intends to ask the seller to fund it. That keeps the ask where it belongs: something the buyer's side has to raise and justify, not something assumed to already be sitting there waiting for them.

What we've seen happen next: the buyer's agent goes back to their buyer with something closer to "the seller is open to it — make sure your offer reflects that." Buyers tend to sharpen the rest of the offer in response, because the concession isn't free anymore. It's something they're asking the seller to agree to, so the rest of the offer has to earn it — price, terms, or an explicit compensation line, laid out plainly rather than assumed.

Compare that to offering compensation upfront: the buyer's agent already has what they need before the offer is even written, so nothing else in that offer is under any pressure to be stronger. Conditioning it instead of offering it tends to produce better offers overall, because now the buyer, not the seller, is the one asking for something.

Being open to buyer's-agent compensation is not the same as offering it. One is a condition your offer has to meet. The other is a commitment you've already made — before you've seen a single offer.

Once it's on the table, here's how it's actually paid

A buyer-agent commission ask usually surfaces at the offer stage, not before — inside the terms of a specific offer, once the question above has already been asked and answered. From there, there are three distinct ways to handle it, and they are not interchangeable.

You pay it directly, as a contract line item

Negotiated into the purchase contract as a specific commission to the buyer's agent. Per Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidance, this does not count against a buyer's standard loan seller-concession limits, as long as it's in line with local market norms and clearly itemized in the contract.

The buyer covers their own agent

Increasingly common now that buyers sign a written fee agreement with their agent before ever touring a home — they may simply pay it themselves, out of their own funds, especially if their offer is otherwise strong.

A general seller concession the buyer applies to it

You offer a closing-cost credit, and the buyer chooses to put some or all of it toward their agent's fee. This route is capped by loan type — conventional loans allow 3–9% of price depending on down payment, FHA caps at a flat 6%, VA at 4% (with a separate, uncapped allowance for standard closing costs).

None of this is a blanket policy you set once. You evaluate it offer by offer, the same way you'd weigh price, contingencies, or closing timeline. It's a negotiating lever now, not a fixed line on every deal.

The locqube difference

The old 6% hid this decision inside one number you never saw broken apart. With locqube, your fee — 1.99% with a Signature agent, or a flat $899 with Self-Serve — covers your side, in full view. Nothing else is bundled into it.

So when a buyer-agent request lands in an offer, you're not discovering a hidden cost, and you're not committing to one before you've seen an offer either. You're staying open, letting the offer make its case, and negotiating a visible cost deal by deal, based on what actually nets you the best outcome. You're always the one deciding what's best for you.

Frequently asked questions

Do I legally have to pay the buyer's agent's commission?

No. As of August 2024, it's entirely at your discretion as the seller — that's the floor. Handled well, it becomes a negotiating tactic that can work in your favor, rather than just a cost you're avoiding.

What happens if I offer nothing to the buyer's agent?

Nothing prevents it. It may narrow your buyer pool in some markets, which is why most sellers still offer something — but the decision, and the amount, is entirely yours to make based on your sale.

Can the buyer just pay their own agent?

Yes, and it's increasingly common — buyers now sign a written agreement with their agent stating what's owed before they even tour a home.

Should I offer buyer's-agent compensation upfront, before I have any offers?

We recommend against it. Staying open to the possibility, without committing to it before you've seen an offer, keeps the decision tied to what an actual offer nets you, and tends to put the burden of asking on the buyer's side rather than assuming the seller is already paying.

Does paying a buyer's agent commission count against my seller-concession limit?

Not if it's paid as a direct commission line item consistent with market norms. A general closing-cost credit toward the buyer, which they then apply toward their agent, is subject to loan-type concession caps.