Whoever the purchase contract says — and the agreement you are being asked to sign before you tour decides what your agent is owed, not where the money comes from. This guide is the settlement text quoted rather than summarised, the seven clauses that decide what the agreement costs you, and the four routes by which the fee actually gets paid.
Settlement agreement, Burnett v. NAR, W.D. Missouri, filed 19 April 2024; Burnett v. Spring Way Center, LLC, 8th Cir., 19 August 2026.
Four publishers have measured or modelled what happened to commissions. They disagree with each other, and none of them reports a meaningful fall. What did change is that the fee now has to be specified, in writing, at the one moment when you can still do something about it.
Federal Reserve Board, FEDS Notes, 12 May 2025 — the effect of the buyer-agreement mandate on commissions was ‘not statistically distinguishable from zero’. Redfin, 8 December 2025 — a brokerage measuring the market it earns in. Consumer Federation of America, 16 April 2026 — an advocacy non-profit. The book prints all four separately and averages none of them.
It did not and could not. Compensation remains fully negotiable. The settlement governs disclosure and where offers may be published, not amounts.
They can. What changed is that the offer may not be made on the MLS. It can still be negotiated off-MLS and in the purchase contract.
The settlement expressly permits sellers to offer buyer concessions on the MLS, so long as they are not conditioned on retaining or paying a particular buyer broker. Paragraph 58(xiii).
It filed a statement of interest objecting to the tour-first written-agreement requirement, and expressly preserved its right to bring future enforcement: compliance with the settlement ‘affords no defense’.
The guide is built around the document in front of you and the offer you are about to write.
Quoted, not summarised. The compensation must be specified and conspicuously disclosed, objectively ascertainable and not open-ended — and your agent may not receive more than that figure from any source. That last clause is a cap in your favour.
Seven clause types, with the question that belongs to each — including the protection period, which can survive the agreement by months and which almost nobody asks about.
Term, scope, protection period and how a shortfall is handled. A specific list, with what to ask for, and the sentence that does it without starting an argument.
Four routes, four constraints — and the four questions to put to your lender in writing, because whether a fee can be financed depends entirely on the loan type.
Broker compensation appears there under Regulation Z. If what you agreed is not on the form, a query three days before closing is routine; the same query at the signing table is a crisis.
Instant download. PDF and DOCX, so the letters can be edited rather than retyped.
Seventeen chapters in four parts — the agreement, the money, context and complaints, and the paperwork.
Paragraph 58(vi) in full, with what each of its three clauses does for you — including the one that caps what your agent can receive from all sources combined.
Every clause type in a buyer agreement, in the order they usually appear, with the question that belongs to each.
Eight terms, how negotiable each one actually is, and the specific thing to ask for.
How a buyer's agent gets paid, the constraint on each route, and what the VA, FHA and Fannie Mae actually publish — with three things this book checked and could not confirm, stated as such.
Request to amend before signing; request for a shorter term and narrower scope; notice terminating an agreement; request for the written list under a protection period; a Closing Disclosure discrepancy query; a complaint to a state real estate commission; a complaint to the supervising broker; and a request for written confirmation of compensation terms.
To your lender before the offer; interviewing an agent; asking what the seller is offering; asking to amend the agreement; ending the relationship; and escalating to the broker.
Four publishers, four answers, each with what they are — government, brokerage, advocacy non-profit and academic model — and no average taken.
What you save, what you take on, the specific risks, and the flat-fee middle option people forget.
Twelve rows, three columns, so the choice is made on what they will actually do.
Four prompts that help, and three checklists — before you sign, before you offer, before you close.
Paragraph 58(vi), in full. Almost everything written about this settlement is a summary of a summary, and the clause that caps your agent's compensation from all sources is the one that keeps getting lost.
A very large share of what is published about this comes from the agents' trade association or from brokerages selling the service. Both are useful. Neither is neutral, and the book says which is which on the spot.
Rather than averaging them into a number nobody reported. And it states plainly that no source located reports commissions falling after August 2024.
Including whether buyer-broker fees can be financed into a VA loan, the HUD handbook section for FHA's concession cap, and which states ban dual agency. Each is named rather than guessed at.
Chapters 1 to 4, before you sign anything.
Chapter 8. It is the clause that decides whether you need extra cash at closing, and the question belongs at signing.
Chapter 7 and Call script 1 — the four questions to put to your lender in writing first.
Letter 5, three days before closing rather than at the table.
Chapter 9 gives you both columns honestly, plus the flat-fee middle option.
Four publishers disagree, and the book refuses to average them.
In several states one is customary or required at closing, and this does not replace one.
The settlement, the loan programmes and the state regulators are all American.
The compensation clause in the agreement in front of you is a number in a contract. Reading it properly costs an evening.
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An explanation of a consumer process. Not legal advice, not a substitute for a real estate attorney, and buying it creates no professional relationship.
Four publishers measured it and disagree. All four appear, labelled, and none is averaged with the others.
The National Association of Realtors is the agents' trade association. Brokerage research is marketing. Both are cited where useful, and identified as what they are.
Including the VA financing question, the FHA handbook citation, and which states ban dual agency. Naming them is more useful than filling the gaps.
This edition has just been released. Rather than publish testimonials from people who do not exist, these spaces are held for the first genuine reader reviews. On a product about reading a contract before you sign it, that seemed like the only defensible choice.
If asking for a shorter term and a narrower scope got you an amended agreement, we would like to hear it — in your own words, with your permission.
We will not publish claims about commissions negotiated down. Outcomes depend on things no document controls.
Reserved for someone who queried a Closing Disclosure three days out and had it corrected. That is the chapter we would most like to hear worked.
If the agent is an MLS participant working with you as a buyer, the settlement requires a written agreement before you tour. Several states have legislated their own version with different triggers — Texas, effective 1 January 2026, carves out an agent who simply unlocks a door and gives no advice. Check your state.
Yes. It is a term in a contract between you and a business, and the settlement's own materials say compensation remains fully negotiable. What you cannot do is claim the settlement requires a particular rate, because it does not.
Whoever the purchase contract says. There are four routes — seller pays under the contract, seller concession, listing broker shares, or you pay in cash — and Chapter 7 sets out the constraint on each.
Then the gap is yours to close, and how depends on the clause you signed. Which is why ‘what happens if the seller pays less?’ belongs at signing, not at closing. Chapter 8.
Ask your lender in writing before you write an offer. It depends on the loan type, and this book is explicit that it could not verify the VA position from the circular text itself. Call script 1 asks the four questions.
No source located for this book reports that they did. The Federal Reserve found no statistically distinguishable effect, a brokerage's own data shows a slight rise, and an advocacy group reports no significant fall. Chapter 6 prints all of them.
Both. Every purchase includes the PDF and an editable DOCX.
Email sales@viralbydesign.co within 7 days of purchase for a full refund. No forms, no explanation required.
Open it, read the settlement paragraph quoted in Chapter 1, and check whether the agreement in front of you complies with it. If it is not what you expected, email sales@viralbydesign.co within 7 days of purchase and you get a full refund. No forms, no explanation required.
The settlement requires the compensation to be specified, conspicuous, objectively ascertainable and not open-ended — and provides that your agent may not receive more than that figure from any source. That clause is worth real money, and only if you know it is there.
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