The rules on agent compensation changed in August 2024. Here is what actually changed, what did not, and the questions worth asking before you sign a buyer agreement.
If you have started looking at homes recently, you were probably asked to sign something before anyone would unlock a door. And somewhere in that paperwork was a number attached to your agent's name.
That is new, and it has caused a lot of confusion. Here is what actually changed, what did not, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
Two things came out of the National Association of Realtors settlement that took effect in August 2024:
That is the whole structural change. Everything else — inspections, appraisals, contracts, who represents whom — works the way it always did.
There is a common belief that sellers used to pay the buyer's agent directly. They did not. Brian Foraker walked through the actual mechanics on the Foraker Realty Podcast:
The seller never paid a buyer agency commission. What happened was, if you were hiring me as your agent, you would pay me customarily, and then out of that we would offer a portion to anyone that brought a buyer. So it was really the seller paying us as their listing agent, and we're paying a buyer's agent out of that.
The money moved through the listing side. What the settlement changed is that this arrangement can no longer be advertised up front — not that the arrangement itself is banned.
It is also worth being clear-eyed about where the money originates. In most transactions the buyer brings the funds to the closing table, the seller's proceeds are calculated from those funds, and everyone gets paid out of the same pot. Restructuring who writes which check does not change that arithmetic much. It changes who negotiates it, and when.
When compensation is not being offered, there are three practical routes, and they were laid out plainly on the podcast:
Which one fits depends on your cash position and how competitive the property is. That is a conversation to have with your agent before you find a house you love, not after.
The reasonable objection to a buyer agreement is that you are being asked to commit to a person you met twenty minutes ago, in a driveway.
There are narrower versions of the agreement that address exactly this. A property-specific agreement covers one house and expires when you leave it. A non-exclusive agreement does not tie you to one agent. As Brian put it:
Look, I'm not trying to get married here. If you do buy this home, would you want us to represent you? After we leave this property, it expires.
If an agent presents a twelve-month exclusive agreement as the only option, that is a choice they are making, not a rule. Ask what else is available.
The clearest way to understand what a buyer's agent does is to look at what the listing agent cannot do for you. They were hired by the seller to get the highest price on the best terms. That is their job, and a good listing agent does it well.
Which means, as Brian pointed out, that recommending you get a home inspection is not in their client's interest. Neither is recommending a title search. Neither is telling you which of the local inspectors actually finds everything.
The same applies to details that are easy to miss if you are not doing this every week. Delaware's realty transfer tax is 4 percent, customarily split evenly between buyer and seller — but customarily is not automatically. It is negotiated in the contract. If nobody on your side is watching that line, you can end up agreeing to the whole thing without realising it was ever a question.
There is a story on the podcast about a real estate attorney who bought a home without an agent, on the reasonable theory that she knew the contracts better than most agents do. Her verdict afterwards was that she had accidentally taken on a second full-time job, and that she would not do it again.
Any agent worth hiring will have clear answers. If the answers are vague, that tells you something useful.
The full conversation is on the Foraker Realty Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhKxm94iTHg
Thinking about buying in Delaware, Pennsylvania or Maryland and want a straight answer about how representation works? Call us at (484) 888-9006.
