NORWICH — The National Association of Realtors (NAR), America’s largest trade association that represents over a million residential and commercial real estate members, recently announced a settlement with groups of home sellers.

The NAR agreed to end the landmark antitrust lawsuits by paying millions in damages and making mandatory changes of a few rules. The significance of the decision has real estate professionals and the public seeking information about its impact on them.

Howard Hanna Licensed Real Estate Agent Deborah Sutton said misleading information being shared online has added to the confusion. She said many incorrectly claimed the six percent commission fee is gone, but a commission percentage has never been set for the industry as a whole.

Sutton shared insight into the misleading information and some of the NAR proposed rule changes. She said the changes are scheduled to be approved through the court system in mid-July.

She said, "First of all, the National Association of Realtors or organizations of that type do not set commissions and all commissions are negotiable. There is no set in stone six percent commission, ever.”

"It might be a number that people have used through the years and have become accustomed to,” she added. “But I'm well familiar with local agents that charge seven percent in this area, and others that charge four percent.”

“The commissions appointed and agreed upon vary, depending on the type of work involved, the relationship you have with the seller and other factors,” said Sutton. “But the commission is always negotiable, it's not ever a set six percent and no one dictates that. The listing agent negotiates the commission directly with the seller.”

She said there are some proposed rules that are scheduled to be implemented in mid-July, and according to a statement from the local board, she said the rulings are always subject to the approval of the court and officials before being implemented.

Sutton said if rule changes are approved in court, there will be some adjustments to the way realtors and brokers do business. But, she stated again, that will be in July.

“This is loose because it hasn't been hashed out yet, but one new ruling will be we can no longer communicate our offer of compensations to buyers via the Multiple Listings Service (MLS),” said Sutton.

“So typically what would happen is, if I were to charge six percent to the seller, the listing agent, I would communicate through the MLS that I was offering a three percent commission to a buyer's agent. We won't be able to do that any longer,” she said.

“It is proposed that we will not be able to communicate that through the MLS. It will have to be negotiated separately through contract, agreements with the buyer, the seller, and/or other parties,” she added.

Sutton said she wasn't sure why NAR changed that rule, but said she thinks there might be a misunderstanding or a misconception that agents are trying to force sellers to pay for the buyer's representation, and they're trying to prevent that.

She said, "The NAR is trying to protect our ability to offer compensation, but they basically settled to say they won't put in on the MLS."

“It's very complicated,” said Sutton.

Sutton said part of the settlement also requires negotiations to be in writing between a buyer and a buyer's agent.

"It will probably be a separate agreement like when you list a house, you're going to have an agreement with the seller and when you start working with the buyer, you're going to have an agreement, specifically with the buyer and about payment and services offered," said Sutton.

“Right now though, officially, nothing has changed,” she continued. “There definitely are going to be changes, no question, with everything going on and some of this stuff is being miscommunicated and creating confusion. But as of right now, everything is happening the way it has been happening.”

For more information, go to www.nar.realtor/newsroom.