Buyer Agency After the Rule Changes: What You Sign, and What You Pay
Since August 2024, a buyer working with an MLS-affiliated agent signs a written representation agreement before touring homes, and that agreement must state the agent's compensation in specific terms. Offers of compensation to buyer agents can no longer be published in the MLS. Sellers may still offer compensation, but it is negotiated outside the MLS rather than advertised inside it.
These changes came out of the National Association of Realtors settlement, and they apply nationally. What they mean for a Massachusetts buyer in practice: the conversation about who pays your agent now happens at the beginning, in writing, rather than being an invisible arrangement embedded in the listing.
That is genuinely better for buyers, but only for buyers who read the agreement. It is a contract, and its terms vary between brokerages.
What must the written agreement contain?
The compensation term has to be objective and specific — a flat fee, a percentage, an hourly rate, or zero. It cannot be open-ended or defined as "whatever the seller offers." And the agent cannot receive more than the amount stated in the agreement, regardless of what a seller might offer.
Beyond compensation, look at:
Duration. How long does this run? A short initial term is entirely reasonable, and a long exclusive commitment to an agent you have just met is not.
Scope. Does it cover a specific property, a defined geography and price range, or everything everywhere? Narrow is better at the start.
Exclusivity, and what happens if you find a house yourself. Read this carefully.
How it ends. A right to terminate matters. So does whether obligations survive termination for properties the agent already showed you.
Who actually pays the buyer's agent now?
It depends on the deal, which is the honest and unsatisfying answer.
In many Massachusetts transactions, sellers still offer compensation to the buyer's agent — the motivation has not changed, since a seller wants their property shown to as many qualified buyers as possible. What changed is the mechanism: it is no longer advertised in the MLS, so your agent has to ask on each property, and the answer is now a negotiable term of your offer rather than a given.
Where the seller offers less than your agreement provides, or nothing, the difference falls to you. That can be negotiated into the transaction — asking the seller to contribute toward buyer-side compensation is a normal offer term now. It is also one more thing competing for room in a multiple-offer situation.
The practical upshot: ask your agent, before you write an offer, what the compensation situation is on that specific property and what it means for your cash at closing. A good agent raises this unprompted.
What does a buyer's agent actually do for that money?
Worth stating plainly, because the rule changes have made the question fair.
Access and screening. Not the listings themselves — those are public. Knowing which ones are worth your Saturday, what is coming, which listing agents are reliable, and which properties have quiet problems.
Local judgment. In Greater Boston this is specific and hard to substitute: which streets flood, which stretch is under a flight path, what the school assignment actually is, which condo buildings have reserve problems, what a comparable sale two blocks away really means.
Offer strategy. Which terms this particular seller will value, what the competition is likely to do, and where your money is best spent. This is where an experienced agent earns their fee outright — see our guide to winning a bidding war.
Managing the transaction. Inspection, attorney, lender, appraisal, deadlines. Massachusetts deals run on a tight sequence of dates, and missed dates cost real money.
Fiduciary duty. A buyer's agent owes you loyalty, confidentiality, and full disclosure. The listing agent owes those to the seller. This is the distinction that matters most and is understood least — the agent at the open house works for the other side.
What should you ask before signing?
- What is your compensation, and what happens if the seller offers less?
- How long is this agreement, and how do I end it?
- What geography and price range does it cover?
- How many buyers are you working with right now?
- Who covers for you when you are away?
Ask them of more than one agent. The written agreement requirement has made it normal to interview before committing, which is a change worth using.
Describes rules in effect as of 2026. General information, not legal advice.