NAR Settlement Agreement PDF: Class, Claim Deadline, and Appeals

The NAR settlement agreement is a $418 million antitrust deal between the National Association of Realtors and home sellers who alleged that NAR’s rules kept real estate commissions artificially high. In exchange for the payment and sweeping changes to how buyer-agent commissions are advertised and negotiated, the settlement releases NAR and more than a million of its members from the sellers’ claims. The practice changes have been in effect since August 17, 2024. The money has not moved: appeals filed with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals are holding up distribution to class members.

What the Settlement Actually Changed

Two changes matter for anyone buying or selling a home.

Commission Offers Are Off the MLS

Before the settlement, listing agents routinely posted on the Multiple Listing Service the commission a seller was willing to pay a buyer’s agent. That posting is now prohibited. A seller can still offer to compensate the buyer’s agent, but the offer has to travel outside the MLS, through a broker’s website, a direct call between agents, or a written concession negotiated into the deal.¹

Buyers Must Sign a Written Agreement Before Touring

Any agent participating in an MLS must sign a written agreement with a buyer before showing them a home, whether in person or on a live virtual tour. The agreement has to include several specific terms:²³

The amount or rate the agent will be paid, or a formula that makes it objectively ascertainable.
No open-ended terms like “whatever the seller offers.”
A cap: the agent cannot collect more from any source than the buyer agreed to.
A conspicuous statement that broker fees are fully negotiable and not set by law.

Everything else is negotiable. Buyers and agents can agree to an exclusive or non-exclusive arrangement, set the length of the relationship, and choose how the agent gets paid, whether that’s a percentage, a flat fee, an hourly rate, or nothing.²

Listing agreements and pre-closing disclosures also have to state prominently that commissions are negotiable. The settlement reinforces the prohibition on steering, meaning agents cannot push buyers toward or away from homes based on what the seller is offering the buyer’s agent.¹

Who Is in the Class

The settlement class generally covers home sellers who sold a property between October 31, 2019, and August 17, 2024. Eligibility dates and criteria vary by location and brokerage, and some markets reach back as far as eleven years.⁴

On the other side, the release covers NAR itself, more than one million NAR members, all state and local Realtor associations, association-owned MLSs, and brokerages with an NAR member as principal that had $2 billion or less in 2022 residential transaction volume. Larger brokerages had to negotiate their own releases and make additional payments.¹

A boundary worth stating: this is a seller settlement. It compensates people who paid commissions as home sellers, not buyers.

The Money, the Claim Deadline, and Why No One Has Been Paid

NAR agreed to pay $418 million over four years. The fund is administered by JND Legal Administration, and claims went in through RealEstateCommissionLitigation.com or by mail, one claim per home sold.⁵ The general claim deadline was May 9, 2025, and it has passed.⁶

By November 2024, more than 491,000 claims had been submitted with the window still open.⁷ Payments will be calculated based on the commissions each claimant paid and distributed pro rata if valid claims exceed available funds. Early estimates for individual payouts ranged from about $13 to $50, with the final figure depending on the number of valid claims and the deductions taken from the fund.⁴

The court approved attorney fees totaling roughly a third of the settlement fund. Judge Stephen R. Bough justified the award by pointing to the complexity of antitrust litigation, the difficulty of dislodging entrenched brokerage practices, and the nearly $13 million plaintiffs’ lawyers had advanced with no guarantee of recovery.⁸ Objectors have called the roughly $333 million fee disproportionate to the roughly $16 per-claimant recovery.⁹

Where the Appeals Stand

Judge Bough granted preliminary approval on April 23, 2024, final approval on November 27, 2024, and entered final judgment on January 15, 2025.¹⁰ The court received 36 objections and 39 opt-outs, numbers it described as minimal against hundreds of thousands of claims. All objections were overruled.⁷

Several objectors then appealed to the Eighth Circuit. At least eight appeals were filed and consolidated.¹¹ The lead objector, Professor Tanya Monestier of the University at Buffalo School of Law, filed a 136-page objection in the district court before taking her challenge up.¹² Her appeal argues that the named plaintiffs, all past sellers, lacked standing to seek forward-looking injunctive relief; that Judge Bough outsourced the drafting of the final approval order to plaintiffs’ counsel; and that the practice changes are inadequate because workarounds still allow steering.¹³

Oral arguments took place January 14, 2026, before a three-judge panel of Lavenski Smith, Ralph Erickson, and Jonathan Kobes. A decision is expected by late spring or early summer of 2026. Until the appeals are resolved, the settlement cannot become final and no money can be distributed. NAR has stated the appellate arguments do not change the practice changes or any part of the court-approved settlement while the process plays out.¹⁴

What Has Happened to Commissions So Far

Commissions have barely moved. According to Redfin data cited by Kiplinger, the average buyer’s agent commission was 2.34% in October 2024, essentially unchanged from 2.35% in August 2024 when the rules took effect. By the first quarter of 2025 it had ticked up to 2.40%.¹⁵

Segmented by price, buyer-agent commissions on homes under $500,000 rose from 2.42% to 2.49% between the third quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. Homes above $1 million saw a dip from 2.22% to 2.17%. Sellers in many markets are still covering the buyer’s agent to keep their buyer pool wide. The written buyer agreements have caused some hesitation among buyers asked to commit before they understand the payment structure. So far, inventory, interest rates, and location have shaped transactions more than the commission rules have.¹⁶

1
National Association of Realtors. NAR Settlement FAQs
2
National Association of Realtors. Written Buyer Agreements 101
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National Association of Realtors. What the NAR Settlement Means for Home Buyers and Sellers
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Yahoo Finance. NAR Settlement
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ClassAction.org. Real Estate Broker Commission Settlements
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Real Estate Commission Litigation. Real Estate Commission Litigation Homepage
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U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri. Final Settlement Approval Order, NAR and HomeServices
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Real Estate News. Judge Explains the Why of Rulings on Settlements, Attorney Fees
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University at Buffalo. Professor Tanya Monestier Challenges NAR Settlement
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U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri. Final Judgment, Burnett v. NAR
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CourtListener. Sitzer v. National Association of Realtors, Docket
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University at Buffalo School of Law. Professor Tanya Monestier, NAR Settlement Appeal
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University at Buffalo School of Law. Monestier Opening Brief, Eighth Circuit
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Real Estate News. Appellants Have Their Final Say About Commissions Settlements
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Kiplinger. Landmark Real Estate Commission Settlement: Why Costs Haven’t Dropped
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CapCenter. What’s Actually Changed Since the NAR Settlement