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If you’re thinking about buying or selling real estate in 2026, you’ve probably heard that something changed with how commissions work. And you’d be right. But what actually changed and what it means for you as a buyer or seller is probably different from what the headlines told you.
Most of the confusion stems from the Sitzer-Burnett lawsuit in 2024, an antitrust case that was settled against the National Association of Realtors for nearly half a billion dollars. That settlement led to some important rule changes in how commissions are handled. It also led to a lot of predictions that didn’t play out.
What actually changed? The biggest change is mechanical. In the past, when a seller listed a property for sale, they would typically agree to a set commission to be paid to the buyer’s agent. That amount was baked into the listing agreement upfront and advertised within the listing itself, privately, to other agents through the MLS. That’s how buyers’ agents knew what they would be paid.
That can no longer happen. The buyer’s agent commission cannot be advertised in a listing on the MLS. Instead, buyers are now required to sign what’s called a buyer representation agreement with their agent before they start touring homes. That agreement defines the agent’s fee and the terms of service. And when the buyer makes an offer, the buyer’s agent’s commission becomes a negotiable term written into the offer.
So the commission didn’t go away. It moved from being predetermined in the listing to being negotiated in the offer.
What buyers need to know. If you’re a buyer working with an agent, the most important thing to understand is that before you tour homes, you’re going to sign a buyer’s representation agreement that states what your agent’s commission is. When you make an offer, if the seller agrees to pay that fee, nothing changes from your perspective. But if the seller won’t pay the buyer’s agent commission in full, or won’t pay it at all, you, as the buyer, could be responsible for paying the full amount or some portion of it.
That’s an important conversation to have with your agent so you understand the ramifications before you find yourself in that situation.
In practice, here’s what we’re actually seeing. Most sellers are paying the buyer’s agent commission. In our experience, it’s typically around 2.5%. And despite all the talk about buyer agent commissions disappearing completely, that just didn’t happen. Nearly 90% of buyers who purchased property in the past year worked with a licensed Realtor and signed agreements like this in order to do it.
Those are mechanical changes in how we work with clients, but fundamentally, buyer-agent commissions haven’t changed much at all.
What sellers need to know. When the lawsuit was settled in 2024, a lot of people started saying things like, “Sellers won’t have to pay buyer agent commissions anymore. There won’t even be buyer agent commissions in the marketplace. Lots of agents are going to be forced out of the business.”
None of that happened.
But there is an important change for sellers to understand. When you sign a listing agreement now, only the listing side of the commission is stated in that contract. When you receive an offer, the buyer’s agent will fill out a section of the contract that specifies how much they’re asking you to pay for the buyer’s agent commission.
It’s negotiable. You can say no. You can say you won’t pay the full amount. But here’s what happens in practice when sellers refuse to cooperate.
You might scare off buyers’ agents from even showing your property. Agents are now calling each other behind the scenes to ask whether sellers are willing to pay a buyer’s agent commission, because that information is no longer visible in the listing. If the answer is no, some agents may not even choose to show that house.
You might also motivate buyers to offer less. If a buyer knows they’re going to have to pay their own agent out of pocket on top of a down payment, on top of closing costs, and on top of interest rates that are hovering around 6.5% right now, that’s a lot of financial pressure. The combination can be enough to scare them off entirely.
So ironically, a seller who refuses to pay a buyer’s agent commission might end up with fewer showings, less competition, and ultimately a lower sale price than they would have gotten by simply cooperating.
The bottom line. In practice, even though we have some mechanical changes to how the paperwork and process around commissions are handled, what we’re seeing at the street level is that most sellers are still paying the standard commission rate that was in place prior to the 2024 settlement. Things are working more or less the same as they were before.
We know this can sound complicated, but it really isn’t. We’re helping people successfully buy and sell property in Oregon all the time. If you have questions about how commissions work in your specific situation, we’d love to have an exploratory conversation with you. Call or text us at (503) 432-5450, email us at will@fendonproperties.com, or visit fendonproperties.com. We’re here to help.
