Do Sellers Still Pay Buyer's Agent Commissions in Granbury?

If you’re thinking about selling your home, you’ve probably wondered how the 2024 rule change affected real estate commissions. We get this question pretty often.

The most common version is this: Do I still have to pay a buyer’s agent to sell my home? Yes. Sellers are still paying buyer’s agents. That part has not changed.

Back in 2024, a lawsuit shifted the landscape for how commissions work in real estate. There was quite a bit of upheaval at first, but at the end of the day, the structure is still the same. Sellers are still paying buyer’s agent fees. The conversations around them just look different now.

The conversation about commissions is now happening on both sides of the equation. The buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent are each having conversations with their individual clients about commissions. That means the way we arrive at the commission is more transparent for the buyer, and it gives you more control as a seller.

Looking at the averages, commissions have remained pretty stable. They’re about the same as they were before the law changed. But there’s more conversation happening around them, and that conversation now shows up in the contracts.

If you’re a buyer, there’s a new document. This is worth knowing if you’re thinking about buying and selling. Sellers are buyers too. Before you view your first home, you’ll need to sign a document. That document stipulates commissions and a few other items.

It’s an agreement that your agent will be compensated a certain commission, and it’s part of your initial search before you tour any homes. That’s a change from how things used to work.

What changed for sellers. It used to be that when you sat down with your agent, the conversation went something like this: “Josh, we’re going to give you a 6% commission, and you’re going to split it with the buyer’s agent. You take three, they take three.” That was a broker-to-broker transaction. I was the one being paid the full six, and then I was the one paying three to the other agent.

Now, the conversation is different. We talk about what you’re going to pay me and what you, as the seller, will pay the other agent. Then that gets made transparent throughout the process.

When a buyer’s agent brings an offer, there are now two different types of commission arrangements. There are seller-paid commissions and broker-to-broker commissions.

If we have an agreement upfront that I’ll be the one paying the other agent, that’s a broker-to-broker setup, and it’s spelled out in a specific part of the contract.

But if we want to handle commission as part of the offer negotiation, there’s another spot where it gets negotiated as a seller-paid commission.

We’re actually seeing more contracts go with the seller-paid commission option rather than the broker-to-broker. That way, everything gets hashed out between the buyer, buyer’s agent, seller, and seller’s agent, all in one part of the contract.

For the seller, commission is now another item on the contract that has more potential to be negotiated. Let’s say you get an offer that isn’t quite where you want it. Sometimes you can make a small adjustment to the commission to negotiate that particular item, as one term among the dozens of things that get negotiated in a contract.

You’ll go down to this price, but commissions will have to be adjusted somewhat, similar to how you’d negotiate a lowball offer.

The big picture. Average commissions are about the same as they were before. Buyers are still using Realtors. According to the National Association of Realtors, 88% of all sales included Realtors, which is the same as before the rule changed. Sellers are still paying buyer’s agent fees. Average commissions actually increased by 0.1% since the rule changed. So if anything, commissions have gone up just a little bit, which is the opposite of what a lot of people anticipated.

A lot of folks thought buyer’s agents were just going to go away and that nobody would be paying them anymore. That hasn’t happened. The situation is pretty stable. The conversations are just more transparent than they used to be.

We thought this video would be helpful, especially for anyone thinking about putting their home on the market this spring. If you have any questions about commissions, the contract changes, or what this all means for your sale in Granbury, reach out. Call or text me at 817-573-3174, email josh@hggrealty.com, or visit hggrealty.com for more info.