The real estate industry got its biggest jolt in years last month, when new rules kicked in for the 1.5 million members of the National Association of Realtors, giving consumers more flexibility to set agent commission fees under a historic $418 million settlement.Now these changes are affecting the real estate market on the ground, as Michael Rodriguez recently found out. When the first-time home buyer started his search in Northern Virginia early this year, the settlement hadn’t yet been announced — and he didn’t even know then how agents got paid.“My agent explained that the industry was in the middle of a lawsuit but that I would be covered by the old rules even if things changed by the time I bought a house,” he explained.It turns out the settlement, announced in March, upended many of the old ways of doing business, as Rodriguez discovered.AdvertisementEnd of carouselSellers can no longer advertise an offer to compensate the buyer’s agent on databases known as multiple listing services (MLS), on grounds that buyer’s agents might be more likely to bring their clients to properties where owners offered the most compensation. They can discuss fees with the buyer and the buyer’s agent offline, though.The settlement also required that buyers using an agent first sign an agreement that spells out how much that agent will be paid — either a percentage of the sales price or a fee for services — with the buyer on the hook for the payment unless they negotiate a contribution from the seller.Both chang …
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