Short answer: In New York, sellers traditionally pay 5–6% of the sale price in total commission — split between the listing agent and the buyer's agent. On a $700,000 Long Island home, that's $35,000–$42,000. On a $2M Manhattan sale, $100,000–$120,000. But "traditional" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. After the NAR settlement that took effect August 17, 2024, the structure that forced sellers into a fixed commission was dismantled — even though most brokerages are still operating like nothing happened.
Here's what NY sellers actually pay in 2026, what changed, and how to keep more of your equity.
What changed in August 2024 (and why most brokerages are pretending it didn't)
The National Association of Realtors' $418M settlement, effective August 17, 2024, did one specific thing that mattered structurally: it eliminated the MLS field where listing agents made blanket offers of buyer-agent compensation.
That field was the entire enforcement mechanism for the old system. When a seller signed a listing agreement, the agent would post the property to the MLS along with "and we're offering 2.5% (or 3%) to whoever brings the buyer." Every buyer's agent in the market knew exactly what they'd get paid before they even showed the property. The seller had committed to that fee upfront — regardless of:
how much work the buyer's agent actually did
the level of representation the buyer received
whether the buyer was paying their agent independently
The settlement killed that field. On every NAR-participating MLS — which is effectively all of them in New York — listing agents can no longer publish a blanket buyer-agent commission offer.
Here's the part the headlines missed: most brokerages have continued operating the old way outside the MLS. The expectation that the seller will offer 2.5–3% to the buyer's agent persists, just in conversation rather than in a listing field. The market hasn't been retrained.
That's the opportunity for sellers who pay attention. The structure that locked you in is gone. What replaces it is up to you.
The traditional NY commission breakdown
For context, here's what "5–6% commission" actually means in a typical New York transaction:
Component | Typical % | Who it goes to |
|---|---|---|
Listing-side commission | 2.5–3% | Your listing agent's brokerage |
Buyer-side commission | 2.5–3% | The buyer's agent's brokerage |
Total | 5–6% | Paid out of seller's proceeds at closing |
A few things sellers rarely hear from their agent:
The agent doesn't keep all of it. Most listing agents split with their brokerage — commonly 50/50 or 60/40, sometimes 70/30 for top producers. On a 3% commission, the agent personally nets ~1.5–2%.
It's never been required by law. The 5–6% number is a convention, not a regulation. New York law sets no minimum commission.
It's paid out of seller proceeds. Even when listings say "buyer's agent compensation paid by seller," the money comes out of the price the buyer pays. Functionally, the buyer is paying both sides — through you.
That last point reframes what you're actually negotiating. You're not just negotiating your listing agent's fee. You're negotiating the entire cost structure that gets baked into your sale price.
What you actually pay in New York: the math
Real numbers at common NY price points:
Sale price | 6% traditional | Redfin ~1.5% listing* | locqube 1.99% | locqube $900 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
$400,000 (Buffalo/upstate) | $24,000 | ~$18,000 | $7,960 | $900 |
$700,000 (Westchester/LI median) | $42,000 | ~$28,000 | $13,930 | $900 |
$1,200,000 (NYC outer borough) | $72,000 | ~$45,000 | $23,880 | $900 |
$2,000,000 (Manhattan median) | $120,000 | ~$70,000 | $39,800 | $900 |
*Redfin's listing-side fee is roughly 1–1.5%, but they typically still recommend offering 2.5–3% to the buyer's agent. The numbers above include the standard buyer-side offer, since that's what most sellers actually end up paying. locqube's 1.99% is listing-side only; the buy-side is handled separately under our Smart Negotiation framework — see below.
The savings aren't theoretical. On a $700K Westchester sale, the difference between a traditional 6% and locqube's Agent-Assisted 1.99% — before any Smart Negotiation on the buy-side — is $28,070 in your pocket at closing.
The competitive landscape in New York
You have more options than your aunt's realtor wants you to know about. An honest tour:
Compass, Corcoran, Douglas Elliman, Brown Harris Stevens. Full-service NY and NYC brokerages, 5–6% commission. Worth it for high-touch complex sales (NYC luxury, estate sales, off-market deals). Overkill for standard suburban resale.
Redfin. Operates in NY at ~1–1.5% listing-side. National scale, decent technology, agent quality varies. Typically still expects you to offer 2.5–3% to buyer's agents — so the listing fee comes down, but the buyer-side fee stays the same.
Clever Real Estate. A referral network that matches you with traditional agents who agree to lower fees (often $3K flat or 1.5%). Quality depends on whichever agent in their network you're paired with.
Ideal Agent, HomeLight, UpNest. Referral platforms that compare local agents. Useful for getting competing bids, but they're matchmakers, not brokerages. The actual representation comes from whichever full-service agent you pick.
Flat-fee MLS services (ListWithFreedom, Houzeo, etc.). Pay a few hundred dollars to get your home on the MLS. You handle everything else. Real savings if you're confident going hands-on, but no agent support.
locqube. Two paths — Self-Serve at $900 flat or Agent-Assisted at 1.99% listing commission, with Smart Negotiation on the buy-side regardless of path.
The pattern: most "discount" options brought the listing fee down but kept the buyer-side fee intact. They saved sellers some money but left the structurally misaligned part of the system in place. locqube is one of the few brokerages addressing both sides.
Smart Negotiation: how locqube approaches commission
Here's where the system actually changes. locqube's Smart Negotiation rests on three principles for protecting seller equity:
1. Get the highest possible price for the home. Standard listing-agent duty — but it matters more when commission isn't eating the gain. A 2% pricing improvement on a $700K home is $14,000. That's real money if commission isn't quietly absorbing it.
2. Listing commission fixed at 1.99%. Pre-negotiated, transparent, no haggling. You know what you'll pay before you sign anything. (Or $900 flat on Self-Serve.)
3. No upfront commitment to buy-side commission. This is the structural difference. Other brokerages — even the discount ones — still treat 2.5–3% to the buyer's agent as a default expense. We don't. When an offer comes in, we ask the buyer's agent three questions:
Is your buyer paying you a commission, and if so, how much?
If your buyer isn't paying you, are you asking the seller to pay for your work?
If you're asking the seller to pay, that compensation needs to be reflected in the offer price.
What these three questions do is force a conversation between the buyer and the buyer's agent before the offer arrives on your table. That conversation should have been happening all along. For decades, the MLS field handled it invisibly: the buyer's agent knew what they'd get, the buyer never had to think about it, and the seller was already on the hook.
Now? If the buyer's agent wants 2.5% and the buyer isn't paying it, that compensation has to come from the offer price. Which means the buyer's agent is incentivized to bring an offer that's higher — not lower — to make room for their fee. Their incentives align with yours.
This is the structural point that's hard to defend once you see it clearly: a buyer's agent paid by the seller is negotiating against the seller for compensation that comes out of the seller's pocket. That's misaligned by design. The settlement made it possible to fix; Smart Negotiation is one way to actually do it.
If you're not using locqube, negotiate harder
Commission has always been negotiable in New York. New York law sets no floor. A few tactics if you're going with a traditional agent:
Get three listing presentations in writing. Don't just take meetings — ask each agent to put their commission, services, and marketing plan in writing. Then use them against each other. Most listing agents have 1–2% of wiggle room they won't volunteer.
Negotiate a tiered or sliding commission. Example: 5% if it sells in the first 30 days, 4% after 60. This aligns your agent's incentive with speed and price, not just closing.
Cap the broker fee at a flat dollar amount. Especially useful on higher-priced homes where the percentage produces an outsized payout. A $42K commission on a $700K sale is hard to justify when the work isn't 1.5x harder than the same agent's $400K listing.
Don't auto-commit to the buyer-side commission. This is the post-settlement opportunity most sellers still miss. You're no longer obligated to publish a 2.5–3% buyer-agent offer. You can choose to handle it case-by-case — which is exactly what Smart Negotiation does systematically.
NYC co-ops, condos, and the rest of the math
NY transactions have wrinkles that affect what "commission" really costs:
Co-ops often involve board package fees, flip taxes (commonly 1–3% on top of commission, especially in older Manhattan and Brooklyn co-ops), and sometimes additional broker fees built into the building's rules.
Condos are more conventional but still involve transfer taxes and, above $1M, mansion tax (1% in NY plus an additional NYC mansion tax that scales up to 3.9% on $25M+ sales — paid by the buyer, but it raises the total transaction cost and affects what buyers can afford to offer).
Brownstones and townhouses typically follow standard residential commission patterns (5–6%) but with higher absolute dollar amounts at NYC prices.
None of these are commission per se, but they all share one feature with the commission system: they get paid out of the same pool of seller proceeds. The more you pay one party, the less ends up in your pocket. Which is why getting the listing commission right is one of the few things sellers actually have control over.
FAQ
Who actually pays the real estate commission in New York? The seller pays the total commission at closing, out of the sale proceeds. Even when listings say "buyer's agent compensation paid by seller," the money functionally comes from the price the buyer pays — so the buyer is paying both sides through you.
Do I still have to pay the buyer's agent after the NAR settlement? No — and that's the headline change. Post-August 2024, sellers in New York are no longer obligated to publish a buyer-agent commission offer through the MLS. Many sellers still choose to offer something to attract buyers, but it's now negotiable and case-by-case rather than automatic.
Is 6% standard in NYC? 6% is common in NYC and 5% is common upstate and on Long Island, but neither is mandatory. NYC luxury sometimes runs 6% because the absolute dollars are higher and the marketing is more involved; suburban and upstate sales increasingly close at 5% or below.
What's the difference between commission and broker fee? "Commission" usually means the percentage paid out of the sale price (5–6%). "Broker fee" is sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes refers to additional flat fees a brokerage charges on top — marketing fees, transaction coordination fees, or administrative fees. Always ask in writing what your full all-in cost will be.
Can I sell with no commission at all? Yes — FSBO (For Sale By Owner) involves no commission, but you also lose MLS distribution unless you pay for a flat-fee MLS service. locqube's Self-Serve at $900 gets you on the MLS without the percentage commission. (For a fuller answer on whether you need a broker at all, see Do I Really Need a Real Estate Broker to Buy or Sell?)
Does the NY mansion tax affect commission math? Indirectly. Mansion tax is a separate transfer tax on sales above $1M (1% in NY, scaling higher in NYC). It comes out of the buyer's pocket, not the seller's commission. But it does make the total transaction cost higher, which is why high-end sellers in particular pay attention to every percentage point on the listing side.
Should I just accept the highest-price offer regardless of who their buyer's agent is? Almost — but factor in the buyer-agent compensation. If two offers come in at the same price and one buyer is asking you to pay their agent's 3% while the other buyer is paying their own agent, those aren't equivalent offers. The math matters. This is exactly what Smart Negotiation makes visible.
See if locqube fits your sale.
Most NY sellers are still paying 5–6% out of habit. Most don't know that the structure that forced that fee was dismantled in 2024. locqube was built for the new rules — $900 self-serve or 1.99% agent-assisted, with Smart Negotiation on the buy-side either way.
