The rule was supposed to protect buyers. Two years in, the way agents present buyer agency agreements is still the problem.
Today marks two years since the NAR settlement practice changes took effect. August 17, 2024 is the date agents working with buyers were first required to have a signed written agreement in place before touring a home, and the date compensation offers disappeared from the MLS.
The direct answer to the question in the headline is simple. Buyers are still getting trapped by these agreements not because the rule is bad, but because too many agents are still presenting it like paperwork instead of like a relationship. A signature at a doorway, thirty seconds before a showing, is not the same thing as a client who understands and trusts what they are agreeing to. Two years later, that gap is still showing up in the news, and it is still costing agents business they never should have lost.
This is not a legal problem. It is a positioning problem. And it is one every agent reading this can fix without an attorney’s help.
Key Takeaways
- The buyer agreement requirement has been law for two years. The friction consumers report is not about the rule itself, it’s about when and how agents introduce it.
- A recent Business Insider investigation documented a Pennsylvania couple who signed a one-year exclusive agreement at their first showing and later felt they could not leave it.
- Buyer agreement terms are negotiable. Compensation is negotiable. Most attorneys recommend a 30 to 90 day term, not a year.
- Agents who explain the agreement before the showing, not at the door, are the ones who keep buyers instead of losing them to a bad headline.
- This is a recognition problem, not a paperwork problem. Trust has to exist before representation is asked for.
Table of Contents
The Problem: A Rule Built for Trust Is Being Delivered Without It
I have watched this industry go through more forced change in the last two years than in the two decades before it. Commission disclosure, written agreements, MLS restrictions. None of it happened because agents asked for it. It happened because a jury and a settlement made it happen.
Most agents did what they always do. They adapted the paperwork and kept selling the same way. They added the buyer agreement to the file, had it ready on a clipboard or an app, and asked for the signature on the driveway before walking in the front door.
That is the mistake. Not the agreement itself. The moment it gets introduced.
A buyer standing in front of a house they are excited to see is in no position to read a compensation structure, an exclusivity clause, and a termination policy and make an informed decision. They sign because the agent is standing there and the house is waiting. That is not consent built on trust. That is consent built on momentum. And momentum-based signatures are exactly what turn into a Business Insider story eighteen months later.
This Is Not One Bad Agent, It Is a Pattern
The story getting attention right now involves a Pennsylvania couple, Kirsten Ganas and Austin McCarley, who signed an exclusive buyer agreement at their very first home tour. When they later wanted to work with a different agent, they found out they were bound to a one year exclusive term. The brokerage offered them a reassignment, a referral arrangement, or an early termination payment. The agent and brokerage disputed the couple’s characterization and said the terms had been explained. The buyers ultimately paused their search.
I am not going to pretend I know exactly what was said in that living room. What I do know is that this is not an isolated incident. A separate Pennsylvania dispute this year involved a buyer agreement with a 4 percent commission plus a $995 flat fee that also applied to a rental during the contract term. Doug Miller, a real estate attorney interviewed by Business Insider, said the requirement to sign before touring is a good idea in principle, but that springing it on a consumer at the doorway is where it goes wrong.
Here is what most buyers and, frankly, most agents still do not fully understand. None of these terms are fixed by law or by NAR.
According to legal guidance published by The Close, buyer agreement terms typically run 30 to 90 days, and anything significantly longer should be treated as a red flag by the buyer’s own advisors. Compensation itself averaged around 2.7 percent of the home’s price in 2025, and every agreement is required to state clearly that commission is negotiable, not set by any rule or association. When a year-long exclusive term shows up at someone’s first showing, that is not the standard. That is a choice the agent made, and it is a choice a buyer signed without understanding they had other options.
The buyer’s agent role has more value in the post-settlement world, not less, because the disclosure requirements are more complex now, not less. That only holds up if the buyer actually understands what they signed.
This Was Never a Paperwork Problem
Here is where most of the coverage on this topic gets it wrong. The headlines frame this as a contract dispute. It is not. It is a recognition problem wearing a contract’s clothes.
Every buyer who feels trapped by an agreement they do not remember agreeing to was asked for representation before they had any reason to trust the person asking. They had not seen this agent’s work. They had not watched them explain a market, walk through a comparison, or answer a hard question honestly. They had a name from a Zillow listing and a house they wanted to see inside.
Representation without recognition is where every one of these stories starts. The agent asked the buyer to commit to a year before the buyer had any evidence the commitment was worth making. That is not a legal failure. That is a sequencing failure. Recognition has to come before representation, or the representation itself becomes the thing the client resents.
The agents who are not showing up in these stories are not doing anything mysterious. They built enough familiarity, on video, in a first conversation, in how they explain the process, that by the time the agreement comes out, the buyer already knows who they are dealing with. The signature becomes a formality instead of a leap of faith.
Build the Trust Before You Ask for the Signature
The fix is not a better contract. Contracts do not build trust. They document it, after it already exists.
The agents I watch succeed through this kind of industry disruption are the ones who treat the buyer agreement as the second conversation, not the first. They explain what it is, why it exists, and what the buyer is agreeing to before anyone is standing in a driveway with a house on the other side of the door. They walk buyers through the term length, the compensation structure, and the exit terms in plain language, in a setting where the buyer has time to actually think.
That single change does two things. It protects the buyer, which is the entire point of the rule in the first place. And it protects the agent, because a client who understood what they signed does not become a headline eighteen months later when they want to switch agents.
This is the same principle behind everything I teach agents about market recognition. Buyers and sellers are verifying agents before they ever call. The buyer agreement conversation is simply that same principle showing up at the closing table instead of on a phone screen. If the trust was never built, the paperwork cannot manufacture it.
Five Ways to Fix How Your Buyer Agreement Actually Lands
- Explain the agreement before the showing, not at it. Send it, walk through it on a call, or review it in your office. The buyer’s first look at this document should never happen with a house waiting on the other side of a door.
- Default to a short term, not a long one. Thirty to sixty days is standard for a reason. A first-time buyer relationship has no business starting with a twelve month commitment before either side knows if the fit is right.
- Say the word “negotiable” out loud. Compensation is negotiable by rule. If you never say that sentence, your buyer will assume it was not, and they will find out the truth from someone else, at the worst possible time.
- Put the exit terms in the first conversation, not the fine print. Tell buyers exactly how and when they can end the agreement before they ever sign it. An agent who is confident in their own value has no reason to hide the exit.
- Separate every fee, every time. If your agreement includes a flat fee on top of commission, name it, explain what triggers it, and show it as its own line. Buried fees are what turn a fair agreement into a headline.
Frequently Asked Questions About Buyer Agency Agreements
Do buyers have to sign an agreement before touring a home?
In most cases, yes. Since August 17, 2024, MLS participants working with buyers generally must have a signed written agreement in place before touring a home. There are narrow exceptions, including some listing broker scenarios, so agents should confirm the specifics with their broker or state association rather than assume one rule fits every situation.
Is buyer agent compensation actually negotiable?
Yes. Every compliant buyer agreement is required to state clearly that broker fees and commissions are negotiable and not set by law or by any association. The 2024 settlement did not set a rate. It removed compensation information from the MLS and required the conversation to happen directly between agent and buyer instead.
How long should a buyer agreement last?
Most legal guidance points to 30 to 90 days as standard. A term significantly longer than that, especially a full year offered at a first showing, is worth extra scrutiny from the buyer and extra caution from the agent presenting it, since it invites exactly the kind of dispute making headlines right now.
Can a buyer get out of an exclusive agreement early?
It depends on what the agreement says and how the brokerage chooses to handle it. Some brokerages offer reassignment to another agent, a referral arrangement, or an early termination fee. This should be explained to the buyer before they sign, not discovered by the buyer after they try to leave.
Does this affect how I should market myself as an agent?
Yes. Buyers are already primed to distrust this process because of stories like the one making headlines this month. The agents who explain the agreement clearly and early, and who have already built recognition through consistent content before the buyer ever calls, are the ones who do not get caught in that suspicion.
Final Thought
Two years ago today, the rules changed because an industry got told, by a jury and by a federal court, that the way it had always done business no longer held up. That should have been the end of the story. Instead, agents kept the old habit and just added new paperwork to it.
The buyers in these stories were not confused about real estate. They were asked to trust someone before that someone had earned it. That is not a contract failure. That is a sequencing failure, and it is one every agent has the power to fix tomorrow morning.
You do not need a better form. You need a client who already knows who you are before you ever hand them one.
If you want a second set of eyes on how your buyer presentation actually lands with someone who has never met you, that is a conversation worth having. The door is open.
Keep Learning
- Why Real Estate Agent Market Recognition Determines Who Gets Called First: the recognition-before-representation problem, from the marketing side.
- Real Estate Agent Authority Positioning: how producing agents build the kind of trust that makes contracts a formality, not a leap.
- Why Competent Agents Lose Clients to People With Half Their Experience: what happens when skill isn’t matched by visibility.
- Why Are Real Estate Agents Posting on Social Media and Still Not Getting Clients?: the difference between posting and positioning.
Annett T. Block helps real estate agents stop chasing leads that die on the vine and start attracting business from people who already know them, through video-first visibility built in one market at a time. One agent. One market. Zero competition.
Last Updated: August 2026
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Author Annett T. Block
Annett T. Block is a real estate marketing strategist and licensed Florida broker. She works with real estate agents who want to stop chasing leads that die on the vine and start attracting business from people who already know them through video-first warm audience building, retargeting, and consistent market presence. She is the founder of The Digital Adopters.
Her thesis is simple: The lead isn’t dead. You asked for the conversation before they knew you.
One agent. One market. ZERO COMPETITION.
In real estate since 2008. Licensed Florida Broker since 2011. More than 2,000 agents, teams, and brokerages served. Featured in Inman News. She is the author of From Listings to Legends.