Buyer Agency Agreements Are Now Required: What to Know

Why these agreements are suddenly mandatory

If an agent hands you paperwork before unlocking a front door, you are not being singled out. You are seeing the biggest structural change to home buying in a generation play out at the doorstep.

It traces back to antitrust litigation against the National Association of Realtors. In March 2024, the National Association of Realtors agreed to a $418 million settlement that fundamentally changed how buyer agent compensation works, and the key change was that sellers are no longer required to offer a commission to the buyer's agent through the MLS. Part of that same settlement created a new rule aimed directly at buyers.

As of August 17, 2024, an MLS Participant working with a buyer is required to enter into a written agreement with the buyer prior to touring a home, including both in-person and live virtual tours. In plain terms: before an agent who belongs to the MLS shows you a property, they need your signature on a document that spells out what they do and what they get paid.

The trigger is narrow but specific. The obligation to enter into a written buyer agreement is triggered just prior to an MLS Participant taking a buyer to tour a home, regardless of what other acts the MLS Participant performs for the buyer. Simply chatting is not the trigger. You do not need a written agreement if you are just speaking to an agent at an open house or asking them about their services.

The honest read on this: the rule was designed to make agent pay visible and negotiable instead of buried in the transaction. Agent compensation for home buyers and sellers continues to be fully negotiable. That is the part marketing copy tends to skip. The document in front of you is a starting offer, not a fixed price list.

What you are actually signing

Buyer agreements go by different names depending on your state and brokerage: a buyer representation agreement, a buyer-broker agreement, or a buyer agency agreement. The name matters less than four lines inside it. Read these before you sign anything.

On compensation, the settlement is strict about clarity. Those written agreements must include a specific and conspicuous disclosure of the amount or rate of compensation the real estate agent will receive or how this amount will be determined. A vague phrase like "prevailing market rate" is not that. If you see it, ask for a number.

Pay close attention to a clause the Consumer Federation of America has flagged as troubling. The most troubling provision, included in almost all recent contracts, protects agents from uncoupled commissions, and to preserve 5 to 6 percent commissions, contracts now allow buyer agents to collect commissions both from their buyer clients and from sellers. You want language that credits anything the seller pays against your fee, so you are not charged twice for the same service. For a fuller breakdown of how commissions are structured on both sides of a deal, our guide to how much realtors charge walks through the math.

Do not sign with the first agent who hands you a clipboard

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Do you have to sign a buyer broker agreement?

Yes, if you want a specific MLS-member agent to tour a listed home with you. No, in the sense that the industry does not get to dictate the terms, the length, or which agent you commit to. Those are two different questions people blur together.

Here is the counterpoint the doorstep pressure obscures: a full months-long exclusive contract is not the only option, and a growing share of the market offers alternatives. Half of the agents one research group engaged with offered some kind of short-term touring agreement without any termination penalties for the buyer. The Consumer Federation of America goes a step further. The Consumer Federation of America tells consumers not to agree to pay an agent just to see a home, but to sign a touring agreement with no financial obligation instead.

A touring agreement is a lighter document. Touring agreements cover only touring services, expire after a short time, contain no exclusivity clause, and provide that the buyer broker shall not receive any compensation for the touring services. It satisfies the rule so you can get in the door without committing your whole search to one person. Be aware that some attorneys argue a bare touring agreement may not fully satisfy every state's requirements, so ask the agent to confirm their form is compliant in your state.

The point is not to avoid representation. A good agent is worth real money in a negotiation. The point is that you choose the commitment level. If you want a deeper look at evaluating an agent before you sign, see our guide on finding buyer's agents based on real negotiation performance.

How to negotiate or cap the fee

The compensation line is where the real dollars live, and it moved less than reformers hoped. National data compiled by Redfin put the average buyer's agent commission around 2.42% for homes sold in the third quarter, up from 2.36% a year earlier. Meanwhile the trend among agents has been to ask for more, not less. When compared to a similar study in 2022, the percentage of buyer agents requesting or charging 3% per transaction increased from 40% to 64% in the last three years. Some of that is a defensive move. Report authors suggest some agents may be charging a risk premium to help ensure the continuation of pre-settlement rates.

That means the number on the form is negotiable and often padded. Here is how to push back without blowing up the relationship.

Run your own numbers before the meeting so you walk in knowing the stakes. The worksheet below turns a proposed rate into a dollar figure and shows it against a rough market benchmark.

For negotiation tactics that carry over to the home price itself, our piece on how to negotiate home price is a useful companion.

State wrinkles: California went further than the settlement

The NAR rule is a national floor. Some states stacked their own laws on top, and California is the clearest example. The California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 2992, which the Governor signed on September 24, 2024.

The state law is broader than the settlement in two important ways. The settlement required licensees to have a written agreement with a buyer before showing properties listed on the MLS, but AB 2992 expands this requirement to all properties, whether listed on an MLS or not, and imposes several additional requirements. It also reaches every licensee, not just Realtors. Unlike the settlement, which applies only to MLSs, AB 2992 applies to anyone licensed in California to sell real estate, so if you are licensed as a real estate broker or agent, you must comply with the statute.

Two provisions protect buyers directly. First, a hard cap on length. Buyer-broker representation agreements cannot last longer than 90 days unless it is between a broker and a corporation, LLC, or partnership. Second, real teeth if the agent uses a non-compliant form. As a consequence of failing to adhere to Civil Code section 1670.50, any agreements that violate its provisions are void and unenforceable.

Timing differs too. The bill requires that a buyer's agent and a buyer execute a buyer-broker representation agreement as soon as practicable, but no later than the execution of the buyer's offer to purchase real property. The California Department of Real Estate notes this filled a real gap. While California already required a written listing agreement between sellers and a listing agent, the state did not require a written agency agreement between buyers and their agents prior to AB 2992.

Red flags to watch for before you sign

• A long exclusive term for a first meeting. Six or twelve months tying up your entire search to someone you just met is not normal or necessary. Ask for days, not months.
• No number in the compensation line. The settlement requires a specific figure or formula. A blank or a vague phrase is a compliance problem and a negotiating trap.
• No credit for seller-paid compensation. If the form lets the agent keep both your fee and whatever the seller offers, you are paying twice. Insist on an offset.
• A long protection period. This clause makes you owe a fee if you buy a home the agent showed you, even after the contract ends. A short window is reasonable; a year is not.
• "Everyone signs the same thing, it is standard." Nothing here is fixed. Pressure to sign as-is on the spot is your cue to slow down and read.

Match with an agent who explains the contract, not one who rushes it

The right buyer's agent will walk you through every term and earn the fee in the negotiation. We rank local agents on results so you can commit with confidence.

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Already signed and want out?

Signing is not a life sentence. Your first move is to reread the termination clause you signed, because that governs your exit. Most agreements let either party cancel in writing, and many carry no penalty if the agent simply is not performing.

If you are in California, you have added leverage: the 90-day cap and the void-and-unenforceable rule mean a non-compliant or expired agreement may not bind you at all. Elsewhere, the cleanest path is usually a written request to release you, followed by a brokerage-level conversation if your agent resists, since the contract is technically with the brokerage.

Watch the protection-period clause on the way out. It can obligate you to pay a fee on homes that agent already showed you, even after you leave. We cover the mechanics in detail in our guide on changing your real estate agent after signing a contract.

One more situation worth naming: if a single agent proposes representing both you and the seller, understand what you are giving up in negotiating power first. Our honest take on whether to agree to dual agency lays out the tradeoffs. In California, buyers facing a seller who will not cover the fee also have options: buyers may pay the broker out of pocket in addition to the purchase price, consider dual agency, or forgo representation altogether, although the last two options carry risks.

Frequently asked questions

The honest bottom line

The paperwork at the door is real and it is not going away. But the pressure to sign a long, exclusive, full-rate contract on the spot is a choice the industry is making, not a legal requirement. You can get inside a home with a short, limited agreement, you can name your own fee and cap it in dollars, and in states like California you have hard statutory protections behind you. A great buyer's agent is genuinely worth paying, sometimes worth more than 2 percent, because the money is made in the negotiation and the problems avoided. The trick is reading the four terms that matter, saying no to the ones that do not serve you, and choosing that agent on purpose rather than because they happened to be holding the keys.