My Commissions Dropped and My Broker Blames the Market. What Did NAR Change? (2026)
The short answer
Your broker is half right.
Home sales are stuck at a 30-year low. That half really is the market.
The other half is a rule you never voted on. For 28 years it decided how a buyer's agent got paid, and NAR wrote it. The appeals court put it plainly: "NAR first adopted this rule in 1996."
NAR gave the rule up to settle a lawsuit, and it denies any wrongdoing. On August 19, 2026, a federal appeals court upheld that deal.
Markets turn. That rule is gone. The average fee held, but now you ask for yours.
What this guide answers
Is your broker right that it is just the market?
Quick answer: half right. 2025 had the fewest home sales since 1995. That is the half you were told about.
You kick your heels off under the stool at nine at night. The bowl on the island is full of keys to other people's houses. Two buyers signed with you. Neither one has closed.
The gas for the showings. The open house nobody came to. The buyer who went quiet after six tours. The check that came in smaller than last spring's. And that feeling that the business is running you, instead of the other way around.
And so you asked your broker what happened. Your broker said it is the market.
Your broker is not making it up. In 2025, 4.06 million existing homes sold. The Associated Press called it a 30-year low.
That half is the market. It is real, and it has nothing to do with how hard you work.
Twenty minutes, and you decide nothing on the call
Tired of hearing "it's the market"? It is a video call about my own business, Switch to America. You ask, I answer, and you sign nothing.
You can always say no.
The other half is a rule, written by the group you pay dues to.
What did NAR's rule have to do with your paycheck?
Quick answer: it put your fee in the MLS before any buyer showed up. Then a jury found NAR liable over it.
You remember how it worked. The listing went live, and the buyer's side fee sat right there in the MLS.
That was not a habit. It was a rule. The court says every NAR MLS had to enforce it. The seller's side had to offer the buyer's agent a fee, or it could not use the MLS.
In April 2019, a group of Missouri home sellers sued NAR and four big brokerage brands. They alleged the rule was part of a price-fixing conspiracy.
In October 2023, a jury in Kansas City found NAR liable. It awarded $1.785 billion, and the law allows that to be tripled.
NAR settled before its challenges to that verdict were decided. It agreed to pay $418 million over about four years, and to end the rule. Its own press release says NAR "continues to deny any wrongdoing."
It is still paying. In April 2026, NAR agreed to pay another $52.25 million, this time to settle claims from home buyers.
You were not in that courtroom. Your fee was.
What changed in how you get paid?
Quick answer: since August 17, 2024, you settle your fee in writing, with each buyer, before the first tour.
Your fee left the MLS
No fee for you can be offered in the MLS now. NAR set August 17, 2024 as the day that changed. A seller can still offer one outside it. The court says the seller has to okay that offer in advance.
The paper comes before the showing
You sign a written agreement with your buyer before you tour a single house. It has to spell out your fee and who pays it. And your fee can't go over the sum your buyer agreed to.
The word negotiable, said out loud
You have to say it to every client, too. In the court's words, "brokers must tell clients that commissions are negotiable."
And so the fee you used to see in the MLS is now a talk at somebody's kitchen table. Here is the whole change, side by side.
| Under NAR's rule, 1996 to 2024 | Since August 17, 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Your fee in the MLS | Offered up front by the seller's side | Not allowed at all |
| A signed buyer agreement | Not required by NAR before a tour | Required in writing before the first tour |
| Who you ask to pay you | Nobody, the offer was already posted | Your buyer, or a seller who okays it outside the MLS |
| Who wrote the rule | NAR, in 1996 | NAR's settlement, in 2024 |
Every row on that table was decided by NAR or by a court. Not one of them was decided by you.
Isn't this just another pitch?
Quick answer: partly, and here is the part I will not dress up.
NAR is not the whole story, and it fought the jury's verdict.
The deal also protected you. It released more than one million members from these home sellers' claims. That most likely includes you.
And the fee did not fall off a cliff. In December 2025, Redfin said the average buyer's agent fee was at "roughly the same level" as early 2024. So if your checks shrank, count your closings and look hard at your split.
Now me. Switch to America is the manufacturer of the laundry soap and shampoo you run out of. No middlemen and no markup.
You pay what a brand new shopper pays. Not a penny less.
I will not hand you a number to expect. Nobody honest can.
What would I do first on Monday?
Quick answer: count your closings, then write down the people.
Count closings, not showings
Pull last year's closing papers and this year's. Count the closings in each. Put both numbers on the fridge. It stops living in your stomach once it lives on paper.
Ask your broker two questions
What did my split do this year? What came out of my check before it reached me? If both answers are "the market," that is your answer.
Write down the people, not the listings
Every past client who still sends you a Christmas card. The couple whose first house you found. The neighbor who asks what the place down the street sold for. The friend who keeps asking about downsizing.
No rule change can take those names off you. They were never in the MLS.
Then ask five questions of whatever comes next, me included. What does it cost to start? Is there a monthly requirement? What happens to my customers if I stop? Where is the income disclosure? Who gets paid when I start?
Shannon's Advice
Straight talk from ShannonI do not call them grocery stores. They are poison centers meant to do you and your family harm. It is not just the brands who are doing the harm, it is the stores themselves. They allow these toxic products on their shelves. People are sick and dying. This is a very serious matter. How can we ever trust them again?
We can't trust them. That is where Switch to America comes in. We are a new supply chain, built on family values, trust and affordability.
You do not have to take my word for it. The proof is in my blog posts, the recalls, the lawsuits and the fines. Also, inside my Switch Circle private community, we talk about real solutions.
Women come to me exhausted, in pain, stressed out, and on a list of prescriptions they never wanted. I have spent over 20 years helping women get off prescription medications. I help families reclaim their health.
We cannot stop them. I have stopped expecting to. However, we can stop walking into their stores. We are linking arms and together taking our control back. Control of our health and our finances.
Start by clicking the link below and booking the twenty minutes.
Where to check me
- The Eighth Circuit's opinion in Burnett v. National Association of Realtors, August 19, 2026. The 1996 rule, the $1.785 billion verdict, the $418 million and the new rules, in the court's words. The rules you work under now were upheld on appeal.
- NAR's own press release, March 15, 2024. The $418 million, the more than one million members released, and NAR's line that it "continues to deny any wrongdoing." Read their side too.
- NAR's press release, April 10, 2026. Another $52.25 million, this time for home buyers' claims. The same fight over agent fees, still costing the group you pay dues to.
- NAR's dues page. $156 in dues for 2027, plus a $45 fee for its ad campaign. On June 18, 2026, its board voted to move $35 of that $45 into NAR's general account. So most of that ad fee will not go to ads.
- The Associated Press, January 14, 2026. 4.06 million existing homes sold in 2025, a 30-year low. Your broker's half of the story, and it is true.
- Redfin, December 8, 2025. The average buyer's agent fee is back near where it was in early 2024. The receipt against my own argument.
The jury's finding is a verdict NAR fought and then settled. NAR denies any wrongdoing.
Who do you become?
Here is what I want for you, whether or not we ever speak.
It is a Sunday afternoon in October. Your phone is face down on the kitchen counter. You are out on your bike on a lane with hedges on both sides, and you are laughing at nothing much.
The list of names is on the fridge. You know which half was the market and which half was NAR. You stopped waiting on somebody else's rule.
You become the one who keeps her people, whatever the rules say next.
Twenty minutes, on video, no slides
Your broker gave you one sentence about the market. Give me twenty minutes and ask me anything about my business. If it is not for you, I would rather find out on the call.
You can always say no, and there is no follow up if you do.What else are women asking me about this?
Did the NAR settlement cut my commission?
Not on paper. No rule set a lower fee. Redfin says the average buyer's agent fee is back near where it was in early 2024. What changed is that you now agree on it in writing, with each buyer, before the first tour.
Can a seller still pay the buyer's agent?
Yes. A seller can still agree to pay you. The offer just cannot go in the MLS, and your written buyer agreement caps what you can take.
Do I have to give up real estate to do this?
No. Nobody is asking you to hang up your license. Keep your clients and keep showing houses. This sits beside that work, not on top of it.
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