If you are buying a house, you will want to engage with a "BUYERS AGENT" in order to protect your interests and optimize your overall outcome in a purchase.
As of 2024, we are witnessing a sizeable change in what to expect for "standard operating procedure" in a real estate purchase - mostly around how Realtors, and specifically brokerages on the Buy-side are compensated. Since the late 1990's Real Estate Agents were most often compensated out of a negotiated fee built into the purchase price of the home. This fee was deducted from the SELLER's net proceeds and split between the 2 brokerages for whom the 2 real estate agents were employed.
WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Since the National Association of Realtors was sued in 2023, and effectively lost the case, Realtor compensation between the two cooperative agents is no longer implicitly required to be paid by the seller. These changes are convoluted and have created a TON of sensational "click bait" type news reports about how much "money you will save" by not having to pay for Real Estate representation in the future. I would caution any expectations around that idea. Here is a link to some more measured reporting that I found browsing links after searching "NAR Class Action Lawsuit"
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR A BUYER?
If you're a buyer - this means you will now be entering a contract with your buyer's agent, called a "Buyer Broker Agreement". This contract will explain the nature of the representation as well as an agreed compensation amount that you will be responsible for covering in the case where the house you want to buy does NOT include any compensation to be paid out.
Here is where partnering with an experienced and savvy mortgage financing team will pay big dividends for you on the buy side.
In the event that the home you want is not covering the agreed compensation in full, there are ways to structure your financing to accommodate the buy side realtor compensation. Please review the video explainer found above where I walk you through how that might look. ⬆⬆⬆