Following the 2024 NAR settlement, buyer agent compensation in many markets no longer appears as a default MLS co-broke offer attached to a listing. Compensation is instead documented in buyer representation agreements, which buyers typically sign before touring properties. Those agreements must describe how the buyer's agent will be paid - commonly as a percentage of the purchase price, a flat fee, an hourly rate, or a hybrid structure - and how any seller contribution fits into the arrangement.
Published industry reporting from 2025 into 2026 describes a market that is still adjusting to that framework. National averages cited in trade press have remained in a familiar range for many transactions, even as individual listings, neighborhoods, and price tiers tell different stories. The figures discussed below reflect broad reporting and commentary from industry publications, not a single uniform rate that applies to every home or every buyer's agent.
How buyer agent compensation works after the settlement
Before the settlement-driven rule changes, listing brokers often advertised a cooperative compensation offer for buyer's agents through MLS fields. That default visibility shaped expectations for decades. Under the post-settlement framework, the buyer's agent compensation terms are spelled out in a written buyer representation agreement, and sellers may choose whether and how to contribute toward that cost.
The term co-broke refers to the traditional sharing of commission between listing and buyer's brokers. MLS systems no longer mandate cooperative offers as a default listing feature in the way many markets did before late 2024. That change removed automatic, system-wide visibility - not the underlying ability of sellers and listing agents to offer compensation. In current practice, many sellers still contribute through closing concessions, direct payment arrangements, or other structures permitted by local contract forms and lender guidelines. When compensation is offered on a property, it may appear on listing marketing materials and on transparency platforms that collect seller-posted disclosures.
In practice, many transactions still involve seller participation. Sellers may offer a concession at closing, pay a portion of the buyer's agent fee directly, or structure terms another way permitted by local practice. The buyer's agreement establishes the contractual relationship between buyer and agent; the seller's role, when present, is negotiated as part of the overall offer rather than assumed from a listing field alone.
Several compensation structures appear repeatedly in market commentary and contract discussions:
- Percentage model: Compensation calculated as a percentage of the home's purchase price, often discussed in the roughly two-to-three percent range in national reporting.
- Flat fee: A predetermined fixed amount for the agent's services, which can produce a lower effective percentage on higher-priced homes.
- Hybrid model: A combination such as a reduced percentage plus a flat component or performance-based element.
- Seller concessions: Credits at closing that can offset buyer costs, including buyer's agent fees where permitted by the purchase contract and loan program.
- Co-broke: The traditional sharing of commission between listing and buyer's brokers - still familiar in conversation, but no longer the automatic MLS default in many areas.
These terms interact with state disclosure requirements, lender limits on concessions, and how listing agents describe compensation on marketing materials. The result is a more visible negotiation surface than under the old co-broke default, even when closing-statement outcomes look similar to prior years.
National commission trends in 2025 and 2026
Industry reporting on buyer's agent commissions in the first full years after the settlement has emphasized stability more than collapse. HousingWire analysis of transaction data reported that buyer's agent commissions averaged 2.42% in the third quarter, described as a modest tick upward compared with some earlier post-settlement readings. Related coverage in Inman characterized a rebound in buyer's agent commissions in the wake of the rule changes, framing the shift as adaptation rather than a permanent downward break from pre-settlement norms.
Those published averages sit at the national or multi-market level. They blend resale and new construction, varying price points, and different agent business models into single figures that can obscure local spread. HousingWire and Inman both present them as broad indicators - useful for understanding direction of travel in reported data, not as a quote for a specific property or ZIP code.
Redfin and other data providers have tracked similar patterns in commentary, with commissions often discussed in the low-to-mid two percent range across many markets. HousingWire has also reported on first-time buyer segments, noting that compensation for that group has largely held steady in some surveys cited by trade press. Social media and industry forum discussions frequently reference these ranges when agents and consumers debate what constitutes fair compensation under the new rules. Flat-fee providers that advertise fixed dollar amounts can translate to significantly lower effective percentages on higher-priced homes, which adds dispersion around any national average.
Quarter-to-quarter movement in these reports has been modest rather than dramatic. When averages tick up or hold flat, commentary often points to continued seller participation through concessions, persistent buyer demand for representation, and listing agents who still treat buyer-agent compensation as part of competitive marketing. None of that guarantees identical outcomes in every metro, but it explains why national headlines often describe continuity rather than a wholesale reset of buyer-side pay.
Seller concessions and market adaptation
One of the more visible post-settlement experiments involved listings marketed with little or no advertised compensation for a buyer's agent. Industry commentary in national real estate publications has described cases where sellers or listing agents tested that approach, sometimes followed by fewer offers, longer marketing periods, or price adjustments to regain buyer interest. The pattern described in that reporting suggests many markets continued to treat buyer-agent compensation as a practical part of attracting qualified offers, even when it is no longer pre-set in MLS co-broke fields.
Concession language in purchase offers has become a common adaptation path in reported deal structures. Rather than eliminating buyer representation, many transactions incorporate seller credits that buyers can apply toward closing costs, including portions of the buyer's agent fee where contract and loan rules allow. Lender guidelines cap how much concession money can flow to the buyer on many loan programs, which introduces another layer of variation independent of what agents and sellers negotiate at the table.
Flat-fee and discount brokerage models remain part of the landscape as well. Providers that advertise fixed dollar amounts for buyer representation can translate to substantially lower effective percentages on higher-priced homes, which adds dispersion around any national average. That dispersion is one reason published national figures and individual listing outcomes can diverge without either being wrong - they measure different things at different scopes.
Regional and transaction-type variation
Commission levels and effective compensation rates differ by region, price tier, and transaction type in ways national averages cannot fully capture. Coastal and high-cost markets often show different concession habits and agent fee structures than many Midwest or Sun Belt metros, reflecting local competition, median prices, and how long listings sit on market.
New construction, for-sale-by-owner arrangements, and investor purchases frequently depart from the standard resale patterns that dominate national averages. Builder incentives, direct seller marketing, and bulk investor acquisitions follow their own compensation customs. Appraisal guidelines, state-specific disclosure forms, and local board or association policies add further variation that shows up in closing documents rather than in a single national statistic.
Luxury segments and entry-level homes can also diverge within the same metro. A percentage-based fee on a multimillion-dollar property produces a different dollar outcome than the same percentage on a starter home, which influences how flat-fee and hybrid models are positioned. First-time buyers often encounter percentage-based agreements tied to modest purchase prices, where the dollar amount of a two-to-three percent fee differs sharply from the same percentage on a luxury listing. Loan type - conventional, FHA, VA, and others - can further affect how much of a seller concession actually reaches the buyer's side of the ledger at closing.
What buyers, sellers, and agents often encounter
Percentage-based compensation remains the most frequently cited structure in industry reporting on buyer's agent pay, but it is not the only model in active use. Flat-fee arrangements appear where buyers want predictable costs or where effective percentages would otherwise rise with home price. Hybrid structures attempt to balance a lower upfront percentage with additional fees tied to services or milestones.
Buyers reviewing representation terms often compare percentage, flat-fee, and hybrid proposals against published national ranges and against compensation disclosed on individual listings in their target areas. Local patterns on active listings can differ meaningfully from national averages, particularly when seller concessions vary by neighborhood or price band. Understanding how a seller contribution might interact with total cash to close on a specific loan program is a recurring theme in post-settlement transaction discussions.
Sellers weighing compensation offers frequently look at how a concession for buyer-agent fees compares to a price reduction in terms of net proceeds and marketing time. Listing agents in many markets maintain records of recent closed transactions showing buyer-agent compensation amounts accepted in a neighborhood, which can inform how a property is positioned relative to nearby listings. Marketing language that signals buyer-agent compensation available via concession appears in some markets as a differentiation tactic, though results depend on local demand and property appeal.
Buyer's agents operating under the post-settlement framework often track quarterly reports from sources such as HousingWire and Inman alongside their own closed-deal experience in primary markets. Side-by-side comparisons of percentage, flat-fee, and hybrid options using local transaction data appear in client conversations, particularly where national figures and neighborhood norms diverge. Individual negotiations and service scope ultimately shape outcomes in any given transaction.
Buyer representation agreements are the document where these models become concrete for a specific client. The agreement typically covers scope of services, duration, compensation method, and how payment occurs if the seller does not contribute the full amount. Listing agents, meanwhile, decide how - or whether - to communicate buyer-agent compensation on individual properties, subject to settlement-related rules and local practice.
The post-settlement environment has made those property-level disclosures more important for comparison across homes. A buyer reviewing multiple properties may encounter different advertised compensation offers from listing to listing, even within the same city. That listing-by-listing visibility is a shift from an era when a cooperative offer was often uniform across MLS entries in a market.
How Find BAComps helps
National averages from industry reports describe direction at a broad level; individual listings show what is actually being offered on properties a buyer may tour today. Find BAComps is a venue for that listing-level transparency - not an MLS, broker, or party to transactions.
On Find BAComps listing search, active listings can be filtered by state, city or ZIP code, price range, and disclosed buyer-agent compensation amount. Each listing page shows the buyer-agent compensation advertised for that property. Listing agents and sellers can post and update compensation offers on their listings in a NAR-settlement-compliant way. The Find BAComps browser extension detects property addresses on brokerage and MLS sites a user visits and overlays matching compensation data when a listing is available on the platform. Buyer's agents can search, compare, and share those disclosed offers with clients while evaluating homes - useful context when industry averages and a specific listing's terms may not align.