You are not legally required to sign a buyer agent agreement, but as a practical matter, if you want a real estate agent to show you homes, you almost certainly will. Since August 17, 2024, a nationwide rule from the National Association of REALTORS® settlement requires any agent who participates in a Multiple Listing Service to have a signed written agreement with you before touring a property together, whether in person or by live virtual tour.1National Association of REALTORS®. Written Buyer Agreements 101 No statute forces your signature. But refusing means most agents cannot work with you, and you would be shopping without representation.
When a Signature Is Actually Required
The trigger is the tour. Before an MLS-participating agent shows you a home, they must have a written buyer agreement in place.2National Association of REALTORS®. Summary of 2024 MLS Changes Open houses hosted by the listing agent are a different situation, and casual conversations with an agent don’t require paperwork either. It’s the act of an agent taking you through a property as your representative that pulls in the requirement.
Some states had already required these agreements by statute for years, including Minnesota and Connecticut.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements What changed in August 2024 is that the practice is now nationwide for MLS-participating agents, and offers of buyer-agent compensation can no longer appear on the MLS.4National Association of REALTORS®. National Association of Realtors Provides Final Reminder of NAR Practice Change Implementation on August 17, 2024 Compensation is now something you and your agent agree to upfront, in writing.
What Signing Changes for You
Without a signed agreement, an agent can show you a property and answer basic questions, but they don’t owe you representation. You’re a customer, not a client. Once you sign, the agent and their brokerage take on fiduciary duties.
Those duties are the real point of the document. Your agent owes you loyalty, meaning they put your interests ahead of their own or anyone else’s. They owe you confidentiality, so your budget, your motivation, and your negotiating limits stay protected. They have to disclose material facts about properties you’re considering, follow your lawful instructions, and account for any money you entrust to them. Skip the agreement and none of those obligations exist in a legally enforceable form.
What You’re Agreeing To
Buyer agent agreements come in three main forms, and the difference is exclusivity.
- Exclusive right-to-represent is the most common. You commit to one agent and one brokerage. Even if you find a home through a yard sign or a friend, your agent earns the agreed compensation.
- Exclusive agency also commits you to one agent, but you keep the right to find a property yourself without owing compensation. If the agent introduces you to the home, they get paid; if you find it on your own, they don’t.
- Non-exclusive, sometimes called open, lets you work with multiple agents at once. Only the one who actually helps you close gets paid. More flexibility, less incentive for any single agent to invest time in your search.
Most brokerages present the exclusive right-to-represent version. Asking about the other two, or shortening the duration, is reasonable.
What the Agreement Must Include
The settlement dictates minimum content. Every agreement must state a specific compensation amount or rate in a way that’s objectively ascertainable, whether that’s a flat dollar amount, a percentage of the purchase price, or an hourly fee. It cannot be open-ended or a vague range. The agreement must cap what the agent can receive, so they cannot collect more than what’s written even if a seller offers a higher amount. And it must state conspicuously that broker fees and commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.2National Association of REALTORS®. Summary of 2024 MLS Changes
If a document handed to you is missing any of these, raise it before you sign.
What to Negotiate Before You Sign
Every term is negotiable. NAR’s own consumer guidance says so directly.5National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Negotiating Written Buyer Agreements A few terms deserve close attention.
Duration. Agreements can run from a few weeks to a year. For a first-time working relationship, a shorter term gives both sides an exit if things aren’t clicking. Thirty or 60 days is not unreasonable, with the option to extend.
Compensation. Pay can be a percentage of the purchase price, typically in the range of 2% to 3%, a flat dollar amount, or an hourly rate. Since the settlement, “whatever the seller is offering” is no longer a valid answer.5National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Negotiating Written Buyer Agreements A flat fee can be attractive on a higher-priced home where a percentage would balloon the payment for essentially the same work.
Compensation itself can come from more than one place. A seller may offer concessions toward your closing costs, and those concessions can be applied to your agent’s fee. Concessions can still be communicated on the MLS, but they cannot be conditioned on payment to a buyer’s agent.6National Association of REALTORS®. Compensation, Commission and Concessions If the seller offers nothing, you’re paying the fee out of pocket. That’s why the number in the agreement matters before you start touring.
Scope of services. The document should spell out what the agent actually does: finding homes matching your criteria, scheduling showings, analyzing comparable sales, negotiating offers, coordinating through closing. If you need help with only part of that, a narrower scope can justify lower compensation.
Termination provisions. Look at how you can end the agreement, how much notice you owe, and whether there’s a fee for early termination. An agreement with no reasonable exit is a red flag.
Protection period. Most agreements include a tail clause. If you terminate the agreement and then buy a property the agent previously showed you, you may still owe compensation for a set number of days after the agreement ends.1National Association of REALTORS®. Written Buyer Agreements 101 The clause is reasonable in principle. Know the length before signing, negotiate it down if it’s too long, and check that it covers specific homes the agent actually showed you rather than every listing you glanced at.
What Happens if You Refuse to Sign
You can buy a home without ever signing a buyer agent agreement. What you give up is representation.
As an unrepresented buyer, no agent at the table owes you fiduciary duties. The listing agent works for the seller and is obligated to share anything you disclose, including your maximum budget, your urgency, and your willingness to waive contingencies. Some listing agents will act as a transaction broker or facilitator, handling paperwork for both sides without advocating for either. That gets you to closing, but it doesn’t include pricing guidance, inspection red flags, negotiation strategy, or someone double-checking that contract terms protect you.
Going unrepresented doesn’t guarantee a lower purchase price either. Under the old system, when no buyer agent was involved, the listing agent often collected the full commission the seller had already agreed to pay. The seller’s price didn’t drop to reflect any “savings.” The new rules make compensation more transparent, but the calculus hasn’t fundamentally changed: skipping representation means navigating a complex transaction alone, not paying less for the house.
Getting Out of One You Already Signed
If you’ve signed and the relationship isn’t working, start with the termination clause. It will tell you what to do, and it almost always requires written notice. A verbal conversation doesn’t legally end the agreement.
The cleanest path is a mutual release. Ask the agent or their managing broker for a release form. Both parties sign, and the agreement is dissolved. Most agents will grant one rather than force a bad fit to continue.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements
You have stronger footing if the agent has breached their duties: not showing you properties matching your criteria, ignoring calls and messages for extended periods, refusing to schedule showings without a good reason, or steering you toward properties that benefit them financially rather than serving your needs. Any of these can amount to a breach of the good-faith obligation.
If the agent or broker refuses to release you, your options narrow. You can wait for the agreement to expire on its own, which is why a short initial duration is worth negotiating hard. You can escalate to the brokerage’s managing broker, who often has more authority and more incentive to resolve disputes than the individual agent. If neither works and you believe the agent has breached their obligations, a real estate attorney is worth the consultation. Remember the protection period keeps running after termination, so hold off on buying any property the agent showed you until that window closes or the release addresses it.