It depends on what your written agreement says and on what gets negotiated in the contract. There is no default anymore. On August 19, 2026, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the settlement that ended the Sitzer/Burnett commission litigation, which makes the practice changes that took effect in 2024 permanent and no longer under appeal. The part most buyers still get wrong: a seller contributing toward your agent’s fee is negotiable and common, but it is not automatic, and it was never free.
Does the seller pay the buyer’s agent commission?
Sometimes, and only if it is negotiated into the contract. Under the current rules, the seller’s side can offer to contribute, the buyer can ask for a contribution as a term of the offer, or the buyer can pay their agent directly. All three happen in Georgia right now.
What changed is where the conversation lives. Offers of compensation to a buyer’s agent can no longer be published on the MLS. That single change moved the question out of a database field and into your contract, which means it is now something you negotiate rather than something you inherit.
| Who pays | How it happens | What has to be in writing |
|---|---|---|
| Seller, as a concession | Requested as a term of your offer and accepted in the purchase agreement | The purchase and sale agreement |
| Listing broker | An offer of compensation made outside the MLS, communicated before you write | Your buyer brokerage agreement, plus the broker’s written offer |
| Buyer, directly | Paid at closing from the buyer’s funds | Your buyer brokerage agreement |
| A combination | Seller covers part, buyer covers the difference | Both documents |
Notice that your buyer brokerage agreement appears in every row. That is the document that actually sets what your agent is owed. Everything else is a question of who funds it.
Is a buyer broker agreement required in Georgia?
In practice, yes. Under the settlement’s practice changes, an agent who participates in an MLS must have a written agreement with you before touring a home with you. Georgia’s Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act separately governs how agency is created and disclosed in this state.
This is the change buyers notice first, and it is usually the one they resent, because it arrives at the least convenient moment. You found a house online at ten at night. You want to see it Saturday. Now there is paperwork.
The agreement can be short. It can be limited to a single property or a single day. It does not have to be exclusive, and it does not have to run for six months. What it does have to do is state a number, because that is the point of it.
What is the average buyer’s agent commission?
There is no standard rate, and any figure presented as a national average should be treated as a lagging indicator rather than a benchmark. Rates are set independently by each brokerage and negotiated with each client.
We are not going to publish a number here, and you should be mildly suspicious of any site that does. The premise that a customary rate exists is a large part of what the litigation was about. What we can tell you is the structure: fees are typically expressed as a percentage of the purchase price or as a flat amount, both are legitimate, and whichever applies to you will be written in your agreement in plain figures before you sign it.
If an agent cannot state their fee clearly when you ask, that is information about the agent, not about the market. The difference between representing a buyer and representing a seller is worth understanding before you decide what that representation is worth to you.
Should the seller pay the buyer’s agent?
That is a negotiation, not a rule, and it is priced into the deal either way. A seller who contributes toward your agent’s fee is accounting for it somewhere, usually in the price they will accept.
This is the part that gets lost in the argument about who “really” pays. Money in a transaction is fungible. A seller contribution reduces the cash you need at closing, which matters enormously if cash is your constraint. It does not make the representation free. It changes which side of the ledger it sits on and when you feel it.
If your constraint is cash rather than price, ask for the contribution. If your constraint is price, understand that asking for one may cost you elsewhere. Closing costs work the same way, and for the same reason.
Are buyers paying their agents now?
Some are, most are not paying the full amount out of pocket, and the mix varies by price point and by how competitive the property is. In a house that has sat for sixty days, a seller contribution is an easy ask. In a house with three offers by Sunday, it is a real concession that costs you something.
That variability is the actual answer to the question, and it is why the written agreement matters more than the custom. The custom is gone. What replaced it is a conversation you are now entitled to have before anyone shows you a house.
The old system had one advantage. Nobody had to ask. That was also, as it turns out, the problem.