Real estate agents who use and list properties for sale on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS)—a local marketplace used by real estate professionals (both buyer brokers and listing brokers) to share information about inventory in a particular area—will be required to enter into written agreements with buyers before touring a home. Those written agreements must include:
A specific and conspicuous disclosure of the amount or rate of compensation the real estate agent will receive or how this amount will be determined.
Compensation that is objective (e.g., $0, X flat fee, X percent, X hourly rate)—and not open-ended (e.g., cannot be “buyer broker compensation shall be whatever the amount the seller is offering to the buyer”).
A term that prohibits the agent from receiving compensation for brokerage services from any source that exceeds the amount or rate agreed to in the agreement with the buyer; and
A conspicuous statement that broker fees and commissions are fully negotiable and not set by law.