What you should know about the $418 million NAR settlement on home-sale commission
How will the buyer come up with the money to pay for the buyer’s agent’s commission if the seller refuses to play ball? There is some talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, secondary mortgage market leaders, allowing buyers to finance their buyer’s agent commissions. Which means buyers will pay interest on this amount for the term of the mortgage.
So far, we’re having trouble understanding how buyers could pay less. They’re bringing all the money to the table (to pay for the house), but they could wind up paying more.
Another piece of the settlement is that multiple listing services cannot advertise how much of the commission the seller’s agent is willing to share. But, listing agents can advertise on third-party websites, like Homes.com and Zillow, or on their own personal websites. We’re willing to bet that the word will get out about who is willing to pay what. We’re also fairly sure the Realtors legal counsel is already working on drafting new listing agreement forms that allow sellers to check a box and assign a specific portion of the commission to the buyer’s agent.
Which is why we think the most likely scenario is that nothing much will change. Real estate agents will end up with a workaround solution that keeps everything much as it is today: listing agents and buyers’ brokers will get paid at closing, sharing the commission, and we won’t see changes in the sales price.
We’ve already heard that real estate agencies are working with their agents to make sure buyer’s agents get paid as they always have. Agents are pushing sellers to pay the listing broker’s commission as well as the buyer’s broker’s commission.
Sellers, remember that the commission is negotiable. And if your agent doesn’t want to work for the amount you’re offering, you can always go find someone else. That’s what the free market is supposed to be about.
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(Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask” (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, a financial wellness technology company. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.)
©2024 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
