The real estate unbundling trend is moving past commission debates

Nearly two years after real estate compensation rules underwent their biggest overhaul in decades, we finally have enough distance to see what was hard to spot in August 2024: the rules changed, but the basic structure of the transaction remained virtually untouched. When the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld final approval of NAR’s nationwide commission settlement on August 19, it affirmed the removal of buyer broker compensation offers from participating MLSs and required written agreements before property tours. Yet, the dramatic compression in commission rates that many industry observers predicted simply has not materialized. In fact, an analysis published by Alloy Advisors noted that national average commissions actually edged up to 5.44% in mid-2025 from 5.32% the year before. The same study estimated that a standard $400,000 home resale still carries roughly $39,660 in total transaction costs, with agent commissions accounting for $23,000 of that total. That does not mean the settlement failed; it just proves that regulatory transparency and true structural change are two entirely different things. The settlement made fees explicit and negotiable, but it did not give b...