On August 17, 2024, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement reshaped how American homebuyers work with agents. The single biggest change: a written Buyer Broker Agreement (BBA) is now required before any showing.
Why this matters
Before the settlement, buyer agent compensation was typically advertised in MLS — buyers rarely saw or signed anything until making an offer. The new rules require:
- A written agreement defining compensation terms (flat fee, hourly, percentage) before the first showing.
- MLS feeds must NOT contain buyer agent compensation fields.
- Compensation can be negotiated as part of the offer, paid by buyer directly, or covered by seller concession.
What this means in practice
- You'll sign a BBA online (DocuSign or e-sign) before your first home tour.
- The BBA specifies how your agent gets paid — clearly, in writing.
- You retain flexibility: many buyers ask sellers to credit closing costs to cover buyer agent compensation.
How we handle this
Our platform enforces the BBA hard gate in three layers — UI, API, and database constraint. There's literally no path to schedule a showing without an active, signed BBA.
We also automatically strip any buyer agent compensation field from outbound MLS payloads (the "outbound sanitizer"). This is a fail-closed gate — a single bug means the listing is rejected, not leaked.
Compliance is built in. You don't have to think about it.