NAR Commission Settlement: MLS Changes, Buyer Agreements, Claims

The National Association of Realtors commission settlement resolved a wave of antitrust lawsuits with a $418 million payment and two major changes to how real estate agents get paid.¹ Buyer agent compensation can no longer appear anywhere on an MLS listing, and buyers must sign a written agreement stating exactly what their agent will be paid before touring a single home. The new rules took effect on August 17, 2024, and a Missouri federal court granted final approval on November 27, 2024.² Sellers who paid commissions during the class period had until May 9, 2025 to file a claim on the main NAR fund, though late claims can still be submitted.

What Changed on the MLS

Before August 2024, a listing agent could post the buyer-side commission directly in the MLS, and that number flowed to every real estate website pulling data from the service. The settlement eliminated that field entirely. MLS platforms can no longer include any field displaying buyer broker compensation, whether as a percentage or a flat fee.³ Historical compensation data has been removed, data feeds to third-party sites are barred from transmitting it, and if a listing agent tries to enter compensation the system must reject the entry.

Software features that allowed agents to sort or filter properties by commission amount were switched off at the same time. That was the quiet engine behind the old system. An agent could steer buyers toward higher-paying listings without ever saying so, and removing the data removed the tool.

The MLS still allows a separate seller concession field, which can display a dollar amount or percentage the seller is willing to credit toward buyer closing costs.³ That field is optional and not binding on the seller. A concession is money offered to the buyer for closing costs, not a commission offer to the buyer’s agent.

The Written Agreement Buyers Must Sign

Every buyer working with an MLS-participating agent must now sign a written representation agreement before touring any property, whether the showing is in person or a live virtual walkthrough.⁴ This is the change buyers feel most directly, and it shifts who decides what a buyer’s agent gets paid.

The agreement must include four things related to compensation:

The amount or rate the agent will receive, stated conspicuously.
Objective terms: a fixed dollar amount, a percentage, or an hourly rate. Open-ended language like “whatever the seller offers” is prohibited.
A cap: the agent cannot receive more from any source than the amount agreed to in the buyer’s contract.
A prominent statement that broker fees are fully negotiable and not set by law.⁴

The cap is the piece most people miss. If you sign an agreement for 2.5% and the seller happens to offer 3% toward buyer agent compensation, your agent still keeps only 2.5%. That’s a structural change from the old model, where the listing effectively set the payout.

Duration and Termination

NAR does not dictate how long these agreements last. Buyers and agents negotiate the term freely, including whether it automatically extends through closing once a purchase contract is signed. Agreements can include termination provisions with or without cause by either side. Watch for the “carryover period,” a clause that requires you to pay the agent’s fee if you terminate the agreement and then buy a property the agent previously showed you within a set window afterward.⁵ Before signing, ask about duration, how to terminate, and whether a carryover applies.

How Sellers Can Still Pay the Buyer’s Agent

The settlement banned compensation offers on the MLS. It did not ban them altogether, and most transactions still involve some form of seller-paid buyer agent fee.

A listing agent can state on the brokerage’s own website, in email correspondence, or through direct outreach to buyer agents that the seller is willing to pay a specified amount or percentage toward buyer representation.³ The information stays accessible; it just does not travel through the centralized MLS system the settlement targeted.

Sellers also use concessions written into the purchase contract. The seller credits a dollar amount to the buyer at closing, and the buyer directs those funds toward their agent’s fee as outlined in their representation agreement. Lender rules govern how much a seller can contribute this way, so the concession language needs to be structured carefully, with the purpose of the credit spelled out to avoid problems during underwriting.

Direct broker-to-broker conversations remain valid. A buyer’s agent can call the listing agent, ask whether the seller will contribute to the buyer-side fee, and get whatever they agree to written into the purchase contract.

FHA and VA Buyers

Government-backed loans add their own constraints on what buyers can pay and what sellers can contribute.

FHA

FHA allows sellers and other interested parties to contribute up to 6% of the sale price toward a borrower’s closing costs, origination fees, prepaid items, and discount points. Real estate agent commissions that are customarily paid by the seller do not count toward that 6% cap.⁶ If a seller contributes more than 6% in concessions beyond commissions, FHA treats the excess as an inducement to purchase and reduces the property’s adjusted value dollar for dollar before calculating the loan-to-value ratio.

VA

VA-backed purchases hit a unique snag when MLS compensation disappeared. Before the settlement, veterans rarely paid their own buyer agent because the seller’s offer was built into the listing. In August 2024 the VA issued a temporary variance allowing veterans to pay reasonable buyer-broker fees directly. Two constraints matter: buyer-broker charges cannot be rolled into the loan amount, and the lender must verify the veteran still has sufficient liquid assets to close after paying those fees. The VA has said it will develop a permanent policy through rulemaking as the market stabilizes, but as of early 2026 the temporary variance remains in effect.⁷

Sellers can still pay the veteran’s buyer-broker charges, and the VA does not count that payment as a seller concession.⁷ Veterans should negotiate this point during the offer stage. Paying the fee out of pocket reduces the cash available for closing.

Who Qualifies for a Payout and How to File a Late Claim

The $418 million fund is available to home sellers who paid a broker commission on a residential property listed through a participating MLS during the class period, which generally covers sales between 2014 and 2024. The exact eligible window depends on which lawsuit and which brokerage’s settlement applies. Commercial transactions are excluded.

The primary NAR claims deadline was May 9, 2025. A later round covering settlements with William Raveis, Howard Hanna, EXIT, and Windermere closed on December 30, 2025. Both deadlines have passed. Late claims can still be submitted through the settlement administrator’s website, but there is no guarantee they will be accepted.⁸

If you think you qualify, file at realestatecommissionlitigation.com. You will need documentation showing you were the seller in a qualifying transaction, typically a closing disclosure or HUD-1 settlement statement showing the commissions paid. The individual payout depends on the total number of approved claims and the commission each seller documented. NAR is funding the $418 million over roughly four years using financial reserves and other assets.³ With potentially hundreds of thousands of eligible sellers, individual checks are expected to be modest relative to the commissions originally paid.

Have Commission Rates Actually Dropped

So far, no. Average total commission rates nationally were roughly 5.3% in 2024 before the new rules took effect, rose to approximately 5.4% in 2025, and have continued edging upward into 2026. Rates increased in the majority of states between 2024 and 2025. The biggest practical shift is that sellers now have the option to decline paying the buyer’s agent, but most are still choosing to offer compensation because they believe it attracts more competitive offers. Whether the structural changes eventually produce downward pressure on fees remains an open question as the market continues to adjust.

1
National Association of Realtors. NAR Agrees to Major Rule Changes Beginning in July, Pays $418M To Settle Commission Suits
2
National Association of Realtors. Final Settlement Approval Order
3
National Association of REALTORS®. NAR Settlement FAQs
4
National Association of REALTORS®. Homebuyers: Here’s What the NAR Settlement Means for You
5
National Association of REALTORS®. Written Buyer Agreements 101
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). What Costs Can a Seller or Other Interested Party Pay on Behalf of the Borrower
7
Department of Veterans Affairs. Circular 26-24-14: Temporary Local Variance for Certain Buyer-Broker Charges
8
Real Estate Commission Litigation. Claim Form Landing