Money talks, but it’s hard to talk about money. This is something real estate professionals have been discovering first-hand in the wake of the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) settlement in the Burnett case last year. As NAR’s promised practice changes went into effect back in August 2024, agents and brokers have been confronted with the challenge of adapting their businesses to operate in the new normal.
As per NAR’s new rules, offers of cooperative compensation to a buyer’s agent/broker cannot be listed on a NAR-affiliated MLS. Cooperative compensation agreements between two parties in a real estate transaction are still permitted, but they cannot be advertised on listings, based on accusations of “steering.” The second major rule change mandates that buyer’s agents must obtain a written representation agreement from any prospective buyer before touring a home in order to increase transparency between agents and clients surrounding services and commissions.
Transparency continues to be at the center of the conversation, both before and after the settlement and practice changes, with homebuyers and sellers expecting to have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision. They want to understand how compensation in real estate works—and exactly what services they’re receiving for their money.
As we continue to adapt to today’s new normal, agents and brokers must increase their efforts when it comes to explaining the compensation process and presenting their value proposition to clients in order to be successful. This is what leaders across the industry have been educating on since the settlement, whether in their own company training programs, or at larger industry events like RISMedia’s 2025 Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year virtual conference.
Accurately explaining how you get paid, and by whom, is now critical for success and compliance.
A confident and thoughtful value proposition
Darryl Davis—CEO of Darryl Davis Seminars and a well-known industry speaker and coach—has been touting this message as of late in his efforts to educate. At Rocking in the New Year, Davis expressed that post-settlement, communication is more important than ever before when it comes to being successful.
“You don’t have to be a big storyteller, but you have to be masterful at communicating that which you want to communicate,” he said. “People are going to question your integrity, they’re going to question your professionalism, your knowledge. You’ve got to deliver it with conviction, with clarity and confidence, and that’s key right now.”
Premier Plus Realty President Jillian Young echoed Davis’ sentiment, adding that it’s important to bring up the value proposition right away. In fact, she and her leadership team want their agents to ensure they’re “explaining immediately what our agency relationship is, what we do and don’t do as transaction brokers, or what happens if they choose to go single agency and have fiduciary duty.”
“What that means is that our clients are not so familiar with what agency relationships entail in terms of a real estate advisor,” she explained. “It’s important that we are communicating right upfront, setting those expectations just like you would with any sort of professional conversation.”
With the need to have a compensation conversation now more prevalent due to buyer agency agreements, and the inability to list a home with an advertised offer of cooperative compensation, the way in which agents get paid may be shifting as well. In fact, RISMedia’s 2024 Contract & Commission Study found that cooperative compensation was less common in the weeks after the NAR settlement went into effect, particularly in transactions involving less experienced agents. Therefore, agents should be prepared to face negotiations with clients about their commission in the new normal.
Keith Robinson—chief strategic officer at NextHome, Inc.—explained that negotiation “has always been important,” clarifying that it has become “hypercritical because there’s a whole new layer of things we have to negotiate about.”
“We have to start leveling up our negotiation skills in a way that is fair to all the parties. The ‘win-win’ thing gets thrown around a lot, but that really is how you have to focus as you’re thinking about how to negotiate,” he continued.
Robinson added that your value proposition has to be well thought-out and rock-solid in order to handle possible negotiations.
“You have to provide so much value in what you’re doing that the negotiation becomes easy,” he said. “It’s not really a negotiation; it’s an explanation of the service.”
Robinson continued, saying that the business agents and brokers should want to build is one based around service—and in order to do that, you need to have a strong value proposition.
“Take your old listing and buyer consultation, drop it in the shredder and start from scratch,” he said. “You need to pack as much service and value into that as you can, because as your confidence level grows in your offering, your ability to negotiate goes way up.”
Other industry luminaries have made similar points. On a livestream late last year, eXp SVP of Brokerage Operations Holly Mabery compared the agent value proposition to how rideshare services present different options—some more expensive, but offering great convenience, reliability or speed.
“Sometimes people are willing to pay more for time. If you can give me time back in my day—oh my goodness, let’s go,” she said. “Talk about how long it takes to buy a home in your market right now…are you better than the national average? Can you help people? What are your techniques to do that?”
“Packaging yourself” with these types of value propositions—in your marketing, branding and conversations—can help ensure future clients see your fee as worth the cost based on speed, experience or other services you offer above and beyond other agents, Mabery said.
Davis expanded on this as well, noting that having a confident and thoughtful value proposition is a key factor in setting yourself apart from the competition. “Be clear about who you are in the matter of your own career, and that will give you so much distance,” he said. “You’ll succeed so much better than other agents.”
The new normal: Adapting to a new mindset
Young also noted that practice is critical as real estate professionals continue to adapt to both a new mindset and a new normal. “We’re trying to teach our agents to have a flexible mindset, a growth mindset, expect change and create margin in your day to learn and practice, because we need to reset that muscle memory for those conversations,” she said.
Further, Young added that now is the time for agents to be leaning on one another and getting support from their leaders in order to adapt to the change.
“If you’re an agent out there just trying to read the internet to figure out what’s going on, call your broker, call your team leader or another partner in the industry and have those conversation strategies/practice sessions with them so you can gain that muscle memory and change.”
While learning the importance of proper communication and a strong value proposition, it’s also important that agents and brokers take the time to understand the legalities of NAR’s practice changes, and what they can and can’t do.
Young explained that, first and foremost, agents and brokers need to be checking in with their state and local boards to not only understand specifics, but to also get the forms they need—emphasizing that “you do need to work through your forms in detail,” both before and after you present them to clients.
“Please do not send a buyer agreement to a client through Docusign and have them blindly sign it,” she said. “You need to take the time to work through the form before you ask them to accept it.”
Young also noted that avoiding steering is critically important. Withholding properties from a client based on their offers of compensation is a large no-go, no matter what kind of permission your client may have given you.
“You need to show those buyers every single property they’re interested in and that meets their articulated criteria, and don’t commit commercial bribery,” she explained. “Be truthful. It’s in our code of ethics. It’s the right thing to do. All of our licensing laws want you to be truthful.”
All in all, Robinson said that the changes aren’t as complicated or daunting as they may feel. “The paperwork is new, the process is slightly new, but what it takes to affect a transaction hasn’t changed,” he said.
In order for the compensation conversation to be effective and successful with clients, Robinson said agents and brokers need to do what they always should be doing, being “active listeners.”
“They say they want to do something, we explain to them the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses of that choice, and then we help them execute whatever they decide. Be clear about the options,” he concluded.
