The new buyer agreement, explained.
We made a short video explaining the new buyer agreement rules — what changed, why it changed, and what it actually means when you call a Realtor today. This post is the written version, with a little more Illinois-specific context layered in. If you’re a buyer in Jacksonville, Springfield, Petersburg, Beardstown, Carlinville, or anywhere else in our 41-mile service radius, this is what you need to know before your first showing.
The short version: a class-action lawsuit in Kansas City reshaped how real estate commissions work nationwide. The result is a seven-page legal document you’ll be asked to sign before any agent — Apex or otherwise — can unlock a door for you. Most people don’t know about it yet. Most agents are still learning it. Most attorneys haven’t read it. That’s fine — that’s our job. Here’s the plain-English walkthrough.
A Kansas City lawsuit — and the NAR settlement.
Back in August of 2024, a class-action lawsuit out of Kansas City, Missouri, against the National Association of Realtors (and several large brokerages) reached a settlement. The plaintiffs argued buyers were effectively paying inflated commissions baked into sale prices, without enough transparency about who was paying whom.
The settlement changed two things nationwide, effective August 17, 2024:
- Sellers are no longer required to offer compensation to the buyer’s agent on the MLS. It became a separately negotiated item on the listing agreement.
- Before a Realtor can show a buyer a home, the buyer and agent must sign a written representation agreement spelling out compensation and the scope of the relationship.
That second rule is what most buyers run into first. You call about a listing, you want to see it tomorrow, and the agent says “I need you to sign something before I can unlock the door.” That’s not a sales tactic — it’s a federal-settlement requirement, and it applies to every agent affiliated with a Realtor-member MLS in the country.
A seven-page legal document — here’s what’s inside.
The buyer’s representation agreement is a real legal contract. It runs about seven pages in the Illinois Realtors form set, and it covers more than just commission. The major sections include:
Your rights as a buyer
Confidentiality, loyalty, disclosure, accounting, reasonable care — the fiduciary duties your agent owes you under Illinois license law.
Non-discrimination policies
Federal Fair Housing and Illinois Human Rights Act language affirming that the agent will not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, military status, or any other protected class.
Commission structure
How your agent gets paid. The amount (a percentage, a flat fee, or a combination). Who pays it (seller, buyer, or split). And what happens if those sources don’t fully fund it.
Geographic scope
What area the agreement covers — could be a single property, a city, a county, or our full 41-mile Apex service radius. Outside that area, the agreement doesn’t apply.
Time period
How long the agreement is in effect. Could be one showing, one day, 30 days, 90 days, or longer. Apex usually starts short and renews if the working relationship is a good fit.
We’ll send you a sample copy ahead of time so you can read it before you sign anything. If you want to run it past an attorney first, that’s encouraged — Illinois is an attorney-review state, and we work with attorneys on every transaction anyway.
Two main flavors — and what they mean for you.
There are roughly 11 variations of the buyer agreement floating around Illinois right now. Realistically, you’ll be choosing between two main ones:
Non-exclusive agreement
You can have 20 agents showing you 20 different houses. The agreement just gives one specific agent permission to show you one specific property (or set of properties) within a specific area for a specific time. It’s the lowest-commitment option, and it’s where Apex usually starts with first-time buyers who haven’t worked with an agent before. The trade-off: an agent with a non-exclusive deal is less inclined to invest hours pulling off-market leads for you, because they could lose the sale to a competitor at any moment.
Exclusive agreement
You work with one agent (or one team) for the term of the agreement. They’re your representative for everything in the defined geography and timeframe. In return, you get full effort — off-market intel, calls to other agents about pocket listings, deep prep work on offer strategy. This is what most serious buyers eventually move to.
The other nine variations
The remaining contracts cover edge cases — single-showing agreements, single-property agreements (great if you saw one specific house and want to see only that one), open-house specific waivers, builder-direct waivers, and several different commission-structure variants. Your Apex agent will recommend the right form based on where you’re at in the process.
Sellers aren’t required to pay buyer-side — here’s how it actually works now.
This is the part that confuses everyone, including most agents and attorneys. Here’s the honest version.
Before August 2024
When a seller listed a home, they signed a listing agreement that said something like “I’ll pay 6% commission total — 3% to my listing agent, 3% to whoever brings the buyer.” That buyer-side 3% was advertised in the MLS, and buyer’s agents knew there’d be a check waiting at the closing table. Buyers rarely thought about commission because it never came out of their pocket.
After August 2024
The listing agreement now has two separate lines. One for the listing agent’s commission (still negotiated between seller and listing agent). And one — separately — for whether the seller will offer anything to the buyer’s agent, and if so, how much. The seller may offer nothing. They may offer 1%, 2%, 3%, a flat dollar amount, or anything in between. And it’s no longer advertised on the public MLS.
So now, when an Apex agent finds you a home you love, we have to ask. We can’t assume. If the seller has set aside buyer-side compensation, great — that funds our work. If they haven’t, we either negotiate it into the offer as a seller concession, or the buyer-side fee comes from somewhere else. (See our guide on what seller concessions are and how they work in Illinois — they’re more relevant now than ever.)
The cost of buying a house didn’t actually come down. The structure just got more convoluted, and a lot more conversation happens before an offer goes out. For the step-by-step of where the buyer agreement fits in the broader purchase timeline, see our step-by-step home buying process in Illinois.
Before every showing — three things we want to know.
When you find a home you like and we’re about to write an offer (or even just go look at it), there are three questions an Apex agent runs through every single time:
1. Is it still available?
In the current Central Illinois market, well-presented homes in the $150K–$275K band routinely go under contract in 14–30 days. Half the time we call to confirm a showing, it’s already sold before we get there. So step one is always: is this still on the market?
2. Are we in a bidding war?
Multiple offers change everything — your offer price, your contingency strategy, your timing, whether escalation clauses make sense. Our guide on making an offer on a house in Illinois walks through how we structure offers in competitive vs non-competitive situations. Before we draft anything, we ask the listing agent: how many offers are in?
3. Is there money set aside for the buyer side?
This is the new question. Has the seller funded any buyer-side compensation on their listing agreement, and if so, how much? The answer dictates how we structure the offer. Which brings us to the next section.
Two identical houses — same end result, different math.
Here’s the analogy we walk every buyer through, because it’s the cleanest way to show how the new rules actually play out.
Imagine two perfectly identical homes sitting side by side. Three-bed, two-bath ranches. Both listed at $100,000. You love them both equally and you’d be happy with either one. We ask our three questions. Both are still available. Neither has competing offers. The only difference shows up on question three:
- House A: The seller has set aside 3% for the buyer’s agent. On a $100K home, that’s $3,000 toward our compensation.
- House B: The seller hasn’t set aside anything. The full buyer-side fee is going to come out somewhere.
Effectively, House B costs you $3,000 more to buy than House A — because someone has to fund the buyer-side compensation, and it’s not the seller.
So what do we do? We offer House B $3,000 less. We factor the missing compensation into the negotiation. The seller can either accept the lower price, counter, or ask us to revise the structure into a concession at closing. Either way, the math gets you to the same place. You end up paying the same effective amount for either house, and our compensation gets covered.
It’s more work, more conversation, more paperwork. But the end result for you — the buyer — is essentially the same as it was before August 2024. (For the full breakdown of what comes out of your pocket on closing day, see our Illinois buyer closing costs guide.)
We get you to the same place. Our goal is to get you the property for as cheaply as we can. That hasn’t changed.
The Apex Realty Team
The honest bottom line.
The cost of houses didn’t come down. Commission rates didn’t really change. The structure just got more convoluted, with more explaining and more paperwork on the front end of every transaction. Most people aren’t aware of it yet. Most agents are still figuring it out. Most attorneys haven’t read the new contracts.
That’s where we come in. The Apex job — find you the right property, in the right neighborhood, at the lowest price the market will allow — hasn’t changed at all. The mechanics behind the scenes are different. We do a little more upfront work explaining the agreement, asking the three questions, and structuring offers around buyer-side compensation. You get the same outcome. We also stay current on the Illinois Multi-Board 7.0 contract (the standard purchase contract used across most of our market) so we can plug the new buyer-agreement language into a real offer without leaving holes for the listing side to exploit.
If you’ve read this far, you understand more about the new rules than 95% of buyers walking into the market right now. The remaining 5% is best handled in a conversation.
Want a sample copy of the buyer agreement?
We’re happy to send the seven-page sample over so you can read it before any showing. Or call us at 217-960-8474 and we’ll walk through it on the phone. Apex HQ is at 1515 W. Walnut, Jacksonville IL 62650.
The new buyer agreement in Illinois.
What is a buyer’s representation agreement?+
A buyer’s representation agreement is a written contract between you and a real estate agent that gives the agent permission to show you properties and represent your interests. It outlines your rights, non-discrimination policies, how commissions are handled, the geographic area the agent will work in, and how long the agreement is in effect.
As of August 17, 2024, this document is required nationwide before an agent can show you a home — not just in Illinois.
When did the new buyer agreement rules start in Illinois?+
The new requirement took effect August 17, 2024, following the NAR settlement of a class-action lawsuit originally filed in Kansas City, Missouri. It applies in Illinois and nationwide — no agent on an MLS-affiliated brokerage may show you a home without a signed buyer agreement in place.
Do I have to sign an exclusive buyer’s agreement?+
No. There are around 11 different variations of the buyer agreement in Illinois, but the two most common are exclusive and non-exclusive. An exclusive agreement means you work only with that agent for the agreement’s term. A non-exclusive agreement lets you work with multiple agents simultaneously.
You can also limit the agreement to a single showing or a single property if that’s all you’re comfortable with right now.
Does the buyer pay the agent commission now?+
Not necessarily. The seller’s listing agreement now contains a separate line item for buyer-side compensation that the seller may or may not fund. If the seller offers buyer-side compensation, it’s paid from the sale proceeds the same way it always was.
If they don’t, the buyer may owe their agent the difference — but in practice, Apex factors that cost into the offer price (or negotiates it as a seller concession) so the math works out the same for you.
Can I see homes without signing a buyer agreement?+
Not with a licensed Realtor. The rule is nationwide — no agreement, no showing. The only exceptions are open houses (where the listing agent is hosting and represents the seller) and new construction visits with on-site sales reps employed by the builder.
How long does a buyer agreement last?+
It’s negotiable. Buyer agreements in Illinois can be written for a single showing, a single day, 30 days, 90 days, or longer. At Apex we typically start with a short-term, limited-geography agreement so buyers can get comfortable working with us before signing anything longer.
What if I sign a buyer agreement and don’t end up buying?+
If the agreement simply expires without a purchase, you typically owe nothing — the compensation is contingent on closing a property. Read the specific agreement carefully though, because some versions include a retainer fee or protection period (where you’d owe a commission if you buy a home the agent showed you within X days after the agreement ends). Ask before you sign.