New to me - How to handle Buyer's agent now?

Question

So I'm listing a house (PersRes) and the listing site I use has a new disclaimer/warning on many of it's pages. This relates to that MLS ruling from earlier this year. The last house I sold was last year before the ruling.

You are not allowed to mention compemsation of a Buyer Agent anywhere in the listing (according to the warnings) and to do so owill result in fines imposed by the MLS. Here is an excerpt:

Important: Compensation offers have been removed from the MLS. Any mention or indication of a commission (or similar) will be an MLS rule violation and subject to a fine of $1,500+ (paid by you). Any concession offer can ONLY be in the concession fields and cannot include an offer to pay agents. So my question is this: How is this handled by you Pro Agents who list properties? Because typically when I put a house up for sale, I will get a call from an agent that has (allegedly) a buyer, and they ask "are you willing to pay me 3% (or 2.5%)" and i usually work out something that works for both parties.

But I wonder...is the buyer now responsible for paying their agent? That would be nice, but I suspect that I will somehow be involved in it...?

Thoughts?

Sean Hudgins · Answer

@Russell Brazil definitely nailed it. The thing that some sellers are having trouble with is understanding that this is now a variable in the transaction where it use to be somewhat set at the beginning of the transaction. But it leaves room for the savvy listing agent to negotiate more money for the seller. And on the flip side, if I know that I'm going to be the only offer on a house as a buyers agent, I have a pretty solid chance of getting the service fee that I want.

Russell Brazil · Answer

Sellers are still paying the agents at the same rate as they were before. It merely is includes in the offer now as opposed to being listed on the MLS.

There are pluses and minuses to this. Top tier agents are making out substantially better in the new system. Weak agents are washing out of the industry. (Which is also good for top tier agents)

To the consumer, there are also pluses and minuses. The plus is less of the hobbyist and bad agents to deal with. The con is it is putting upward pressure on the cost of service.

Caleb Brown · Answer

A lot of my clients on the listing side will check mark they are willing to pay a buyers agent but not disclose the amount. When the agent sends an offer we can negotiate and see. As a buyers agent I haven't seen a impact. We include my commission and negotiate as normal. Off market buyers pay my commission if I bring them a deal as before.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I thought the way it used to work was just fine. Why did this all change? It certainly complicates an easy concept....

Don Konipol · Answer

If lenders would consider a 2-3% buyers agent commission as part of the purchase price and LTV based on this (contract price + buyers agent commission) we can end this Byzantine step of the buyer’s agent having a separate agreement executed with the seller for the seller to offer to cover the buyers agent commission. Would be much more efficient.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Kinda what I figured but thought I'd ask....thanks, Russell!

New to me - How to handle Buyer's agent now?

New to me - How to handle Buyer's agent now?

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