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As the spring market shifted into high gear, more clients than ever started seeking favorable deals with agents under the rules of the NAR settlement.
But for most agents, the impact on commissions in the short run remains minimal, according to Intel’s latest survey of real estate professionals.
Nearly 58 percent of the agents Intel surveyed in late April said that commission rates have remained unchanged or even increased as a share of the purchase price since the new rules went into effect last year. That share has steadily climbed since 48 percent gave the same response in December’s survey.
Still, there are clear signs of ongoing downward pressure on commissions, which, if they continue, could meaningfully erode compensation rates over a longer period of time.
And the agents who are feeling the heat most say it’s coming from both ends of the deal.
Read the full breakdown of the latest industry survey results in this week’s report.
A loosening grip
Since the new rules went into place in August, agents have been largely successful in persuading most of their clients to guarantee buyer’s agents their full commission, and to pay it primarily through the seller side.
Still, there have been clear signs in recent months that this success might be slipping as more clients try to negotiate a lower buyer’s commission — or try to pocket the buyer-side fee that sellers have traditionally paid to agents on the other side of the deal.
- The share of agents who say at least some of their buyer clients are trying to negotiate commissions over the previous three months rose from 33 percent in December to 41 percent in April.
- Despite this, few agents say that they are beset by demands from a majority of their recent buyers. Only 6 percent of respondents in April said that more than half of their buyers were trying to negotiate their compensation downward, while another 10 percent of agents said that the share was between 1-in-10 and half of buyers they worked with.
But even as negotiations heated up in the spring, agents continued to score wins as they made the case for the value they bring to buyers, the results suggest.
- Only 30 percent of agent respondents in April said that any of their signed buyer agency agreements ended up agreeing to a below-market commission rate.
- The share of agents who gave that response crept upward from 25 percent at the end of 2025.
On the seller side, agents are facing even more settlement-related questions from clients — and having even more success arguing for a traditional listing approach.
But that power of persuasion may be weakening over time.
- 78 percent of agent respondents in April said they face these questions from sellers about whether they should cover the buyer’s agent, a share that has remained essentially unchanged throughout the opening months of the year.
- Despite the widespread questions from sellers, only 36 percent of agents in April told Intel that any of their sellers have opted to take a hard-line approach against covering the commission. Notably, this share has climbed from 26 percent in December.
A clearer picture emerges
All this adds up to an increasingly divided environment for agents.
Instead of a single fairly standard compensation rate for buyer’s agents, a greater share of real estate professionals say that rates have fallen — or even increased.
- 11 percent of agents in April told Intel that they have seen an increase in their negotiated compensation rates since the new rules went into effect.
This group, while small, has steadily grown over time as more agents have been able to make a strong value case with clients.
Still, it was outnumbered 3-to-1 by agents who reported their compensation rates have declined.
- Nearly 2 in 5 agent respondents said that their rates had declined since August, but only 1 in 20 agents described a “significant” decrease.
Agents are also increasingly confident they understand the effect that these new policies are having on their business revenue.
- Only 4 percent of agent respondents now say it’s too early to determine the effect of the new rules on their business, down from 12 percent in December.
As agents have become more familiar with the rules — and the way their counterparts are handling edge cases with clients — many have also shifted their go-to methods of dealing with them.
- In August, when the rules had just gone into effect, only 21 percent of agent respondents said they were submitting buyer’s offers that stipulated the seller would cover the full buyer’s side commission without first reaching out to the listing agent. Under this model, their buyer client would first learn of the seller’s position on covering their commission later on in the process of normal negotiations.
- In the months since, the share of agents opting for this approach has grown steadily, and by April had more than doubled to 43 percent of agents.
- The other main group — agents who start out by reaching out to the listing agent to learn their client’s position on the buyer-side commission — declined from 63 percent in August to 48 percent in April.
It’s important to note that real estate is a highly seasonal business, and this is the first spring buying season in which these new rules have been in place.
Whether they are part of an ongoing long-term trend dragging lightly downward on commissions, or merely a seasonal blip, will be a question Intel will track closely as it continues to survey the brokerage world in the months to come.
Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted April 17-May 2, 2025, and received 428 responses. These results are preliminary and may be revised. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
