A realtor can absolutely earn a commission on a for-sale-by-owner home, and in most FSBO deals where the buyer has an agent, one does. Selling without a listing agent saves you that side of the fee. It does not usually remove the buyer’s agent, who typically expects 2 to 3 percent of the sale price. That money comes from somewhere: either you agree to pay it out of the sale proceeds, or the buyer pays it under their own representation agreement.
Why the Buyer’s Agent Still Expects a Fee
Selling on your own removes one professional from the transaction, not both. The vast majority of buyers work with their own agent, and that agent is not volunteering their time because the home happens to be owner-listed. They’re pulling comparable sales, scheduling showings, drafting the offer, coordinating inspections, and moving the deal through closing. None of that work disappears because the other side of the table is unrepresented.
FSBO transactions account for only about 5 percent of all home sales, an all-time low in the National Association of Realtors’ 2025 survey data.1National Association of REALTORS®. FSBOs Reach All-Time Low, More Sellers Rely on Agents When one of those sales does happen, and a licensed agent brings a qualified buyer, you’ll face a conversation about that agent’s fee before any offer lands on your kitchen table.
What Changed in August 2024
The commission landscape shifted in August 2024, after the National Association of Realtors settled a major lawsuit over how broker fees were structured. Two pieces of that settlement matter for FSBO sellers.
First, the MLS can no longer display offers of compensation to buyer’s agents. Before the settlement, a listing would typically advertise something like “2.5% to buyer’s agent,” which effectively baked that cost into the price. That practice is gone. Compensation can still be negotiated, but it happens off the MLS.2National Association of REALTORS®. NAR Reaches Agreement to Resolve Nationwide Claims Brought by Home Sellers
Second, buyers must now sign a written agreement with their agent before that agent can show them any property, including a FSBO home. The requirement took effect August 17, 2024, and applies to all Realtors nationwide.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements The agreement spells out exactly what that agent will be paid before the buyer walks through your door.
For you, that changes the shape of the negotiation. The buyer’s agent is arriving with a signed contract guaranteeing them a specific fee. If you won’t pay it, their client has to.
Who Actually Writes the Check
The written buyer agreement is where commission obligations get concrete. It states the agent’s compensation as a flat dollar amount, a percentage, or an hourly rate, and it cannot be left open-ended or written as a range.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements If the agreement says 2.5 percent at closing, that number is locked in before the buyer makes an offer on your home.
Here is the part FSBO sellers need to understand. The buyer can ask you to cover their agent’s fee as part of the purchase negotiations. If you agree, the commission comes out of the sale proceeds at closing, just as it would in a traditional sale. If you refuse, the buyer is personally responsible for paying their agent the agreed amount.3National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements
This matters because buyer’s agent commissions generally cannot be financed into the mortgage loan. That’s true across conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA loans. A buyer forced to pay their agent out of pocket, on top of down payment and closing costs, may simply look at agent-listed homes instead, where the seller has already agreed to cover that cost.
The practical effect: most FSBO sellers who want to reach the full pool of buyers, especially first-time buyers with tight cash reserves, end up offering to pay the buyer’s agent anyway. Refusing doesn’t violate any law. It just shrinks your market.
Negotiating the Buyer’s Agent Fee
When a buyer’s agent contacts you about showing your home, they’ll typically want a written compensation agreement in place before bringing their client through. This is sometimes called a one-time showing agreement or a seller-to-buyer’s-broker compensation agreement. Its purpose is simple: it guarantees the agent gets paid if their buyer closes on your property.
The agreement is between you and the buyer’s brokerage, separate from any contract you’d sign with the buyer. It typically includes the property address, the parties, and the specific compensation, either a flat dollar amount or a percentage of the sale price. These forms are usually produced by regional real estate associations and take effect when both sides sign.
This is where you have real leverage. Nothing requires you to offer the same percentage a traditional listing would. You might offer a flat fee of $5,000 instead of 2.5 percent. You might counter with a lower percentage. The agent can accept, counter, or walk away. Because their buyer already has a signed agreement guaranteeing a certain fee, the agent may accept a lower amount from you if the buyer is willing to make up the difference. Every deal is different, and this is genuinely negotiable ground.
Check for a Prior Listing’s Protection Period
If your home was previously listed with an agent before you went FSBO, you may still owe that agent a commission even after the listing expired. Standard listing contracts include what’s called a protection period or holdover clause, and it exists to prevent exactly this scenario: a seller letting the listing lapse and then selling directly to a buyer the agent already introduced to the home.
The protection period typically begins the day the listing agreement ends and can last anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on the contract you signed. During that window, the former agent must provide you with a written list of specific buyers they showed the home to or marketed the property to during the active listing. If you sell to anyone on that list during the protection period, you owe the full commission from the original agreement.
This catches more FSBO sellers than you’d expect. A buyer tours your home at an open house three weeks before the listing expires, waits, then contacts you directly once you switch to FSBO. If that buyer is on the agent’s protected list, you’re on the hook. Ignoring the clause doesn’t make it disappear. It’s a breach of contract that can result in a lawsuit for the unpaid commission plus the agent’s legal costs. Before selling on your own after a listing ends, pull out the old agreement and read the holdover dates and protected buyer list carefully.
Tax Treatment of a Commission You Pay
If you do end up paying a buyer’s agent, that payment has a tax silver lining. The IRS treats real estate commissions as selling expenses, which reduce the “amount realized” from your sale. In plain terms, the commission shrinks the profit the IRS considers taxable.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 523, Selling Your Home
The math: take the sale price, subtract selling expenses (including any commission you paid), and you get your amount realized. Subtract your adjusted basis, essentially what you paid for the home plus qualifying improvements, and you get your gain. If you owned and lived in the home for at least two of the five years before the sale, you can exclude up to $250,000 of that gain from federal income tax, or $500,000 if you’re married filing jointly.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 523, Selling Your Home
For most FSBO sellers, the exclusion alone wipes out any taxable gain. But if you’re selling a higher-value property or haven’t lived there long enough to qualify, paying a buyer’s agent directly reduces your taxable profit. A $10,000 commission on a $400,000 sale means the IRS sees $390,000 as your amount realized instead of the full price. That’s a real tax benefit worth factoring in when you decide whether to offer buyer’s agent compensation.