Homebuyers: Here's What the NAR Settlement Means for You
Buying a home is one of the largest financial transactions most people will ever undertake. Agents who are REALTORS® are a trusted source of advice and stand ready to help you navigate your homebuying journey and make the choices that work best for you. NAR’s recent settlement has led to several changes that benefit homebuyers, and we wanted to clearly lay them out for you.
You will sign a written agreement with your agent before touring a home.
Before signing this agreement, you should ensure it reflects the terms you have negotiated with your agent and that you understand exactly what services and value will be provided, and for how much.
The buyer agreement must include four components concerning compensation:
Home Sellers: Here's What the NAR Settlement Means for You
You still have the choice of offering compensation to buyer brokers. You may consider doing this as a way of marketing your home or making your listing more attractive to buyers.
Your agent must conspicuously disclose to you and obtain your approval for any payment or offer of payment that a listing broker will make to another broker acting for buyers.
This disclosure must be made to you in writing in advance of any payment or agreement to pay another broker acting for buyers, and must specify the amount or rate of such payment.
If you choose to approve an offer of compensation, there are changes to how this can happen.
You as the seller can still make an offer compensation, but your agent cannot include it on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS)—MLSs are local marketplaces used by both buyer brokers and listing brokers to share information about properties for sale.
Your agent can advertise your listing via off-MLS platforms such as social media, flyers and websites.
You as the seller can still offer buyer concessions on an MLS (for example, concessions for buyer closing costs).
These settlement practice changes will go into effect August 17.
