Working with an agent in Florida after the 2024 commission changes

What changed in 2024, and why does it matter to me?

Since August 2024, an offer of compensation to the buyer’s agent can no longer be published on the MLS — and buyers must sign a written agreement with their agent before touring a home.

It is the biggest structural change to how American residential real estate is paid for in decades, and it came out of the settlement of antitrust litigation against the National Association of Realtors. Two concrete effects:

• Compensation is no longer advertised in the listing feed. It can still be offered and negotiated — it just is not published there.
• The buyer’s side is now an explicit, written arrangement between you and your agent, agreed before you start looking rather than assumed.

What did not change: commissions were always negotiable and still are. What changed is that the negotiation is now visible to the buyer, which is the point.

Do I have to sign something before seeing houses?

Yes. A written buyer representation agreement is required before an agent tours a property with you.

Read four things before you sign:

• The term. How long does it run? Ask for a shorter period than offered if you are not sure about the agent — 30 days is reasonable to start.
• The scope. Is it exclusive, and does it cover the whole state or a defined area? A statewide exclusive with a long term is a lot to give someone you met last week.
• The compensation. A percentage, a flat fee, or hourly — and crucially, what happens if the seller offers less than that figure.
• How to end it. There should be a way out. If there is not, that tells you something.

So who pays the buyer’s agent now?

It depends on the deal — and that is the real change. It is now a negotiated term of the transaction rather than an assumption baked into the listing.

Three ways it gets paid, in rough order of frequency:

• The seller offers compensation, negotiated between the brokerages outside the MLS. Still very common, because a seller who does not is competing at a disadvantage.
• The buyer asks the seller to cover it as a term of the offer, the same way a buyer asks for a closing cost credit.
• The buyer pays their agent directly. Least common, and the outcome the shortfall clause is designed for.

For a buyer moving from out of state, this is a budgeting question. If there is a possibility you pay part of your agent’s fee in cash at closing, it belongs in the cash-to-close calculation alongside the down payment, closing costs and the first year of insurance.

What is negotiable, and how?

All of it. The rate, the structure, the term and what happens if the seller offers less.

What actually gets agreed in practice:

• The rate itself. There is no standard rate and never legally was one.
• A flat fee instead of a percentage — more common on higher-priced properties, where a percentage stops correlating with the work.
• A tiered structure, where the fee changes with the price or with what the seller contributes.
• A shorter term, or a narrower geography, so you are not locked in.

The seller side is equally negotiable, and always was. On a $500,000 Florida sale, total agent compensation of 5% to 6% is $25,000 to $30,000 — the largest line in the seller’s closing statement by a wide margin.

Who does my agent actually represent in Florida?

By default, neither side exclusively. Florida presumes transaction brokerage, which is a limited form of representation, and it surprises buyers from states where full agency is the norm.

Related: Florida law requires that the brokerage’s registered name appears in advertising, and that a team or group name is not shown larger than it. If you cannot tell which brokerage an agent works for, that is worth noticing.

Do I even need a buyer’s agent?

You can buy without one. Whether you should depends on how much of the Florida-specific risk you are willing to carry yourself.

Going direct to the listing agent means one agent handling both sides, with the limits on representation that implies. Going without any agent means you manage the contract, the timelines and the contingencies yourself.

What the buyer’s side actually does in Florida, beyond opening doors:

• Protects the inspection period — the one window where you can discover the roof, the insurance, the flood zone and the association’s finances and still walk away.
• Knows what the tax bill resets to for a new owner, rather than quoting the seller’s.
• Knows which buildings lenders will not finance, which saves weeks.
• Has the insurance agent, the inspector and the wind mitigation inspector available in the days you need them, not the weeks after.

None of that is about the house. It is about the five things that make a Florida deal fail after the contract, all of which happen on a clock.

How do I choose one?

Interview more than one, and ask questions that have factual answers.

1. How many transactions have you closed in this specific area in the last twelve months? Not career total.
2. Are you a transaction broker or will you act as a single agent for me?
3. What is your fee, and what happens if the seller offers less than that?
4. Who do you use for inspections, wind mitigation and insurance, and how fast can they move? In Florida this is a real differentiator.
5. What is your term, and how do I end the agreement?
6. Which brokerage are you with? Every licensee works under one.

You can verify any Florida licence, and any disciplinary history, on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s public site. It takes two minutes.

What should a good agent do that a listing site cannot?

Everything that happens after you like the house — which is where the money and the risk are.

A portal shows you inventory. It does not tell you that the tax will triple when the cap resets, that the building has a milestone inspection pending, that the roof is two years from uninsurable, or that the CDD assessment inside the tax bill adds $168 a month. It does not get you an insurance quote in four days when your inspection period is ten.

The test is simple: ask what they will have in writing for you before your inspection period ends. An agent who answers that question with a list is doing the job. One who talks about photography is selling something else.