PEORIA, Ill. – Back in March, the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million to settle lawsuits alleging its policies harmed home sellers and drove up realtors’ commissions.
Starting Saturday (August 17), new rules go into effect that change how those realtors are paid.
Peoria Area Association of Realtors President Bill McCarthy says going forward, buyers will have to sign a legally binding contract with an agent to tour any homes.
“It lays out how the agent is going to be compensated. In the past, it was done with our listing contract, but now this lawsuit lays out how we’re going to get paid,” McCarthy says.
McCarthy tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan”, your realtor’s fees can be negotiated in the contract to buy your home, but most buyers will now cover the cost that’s traditionally been paid by the seller.
“The idea of splitting this off…so that seller you pay your agent, buyer you pay your agent, it’s complicated now that its got a contract involved…which isn’t necessarily complicated in itself, but the fact that you’ve got buyers that perhaps can’t afford to pay that commission when they’re scraping together a down payment…and then there’s closing costs on top of that, and now you’re expecting them to pay their realtor,” McCarthy says.
McCarthy adds, once you sign a Buyer’s/Agent agreement with your realtor, you won’t be able to look at homes with any other agents. That’s because working with more than one agent would leave a buyer responsible for paying multiple commissions.
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