A listing broker can change an offer of compensation to a cooperating buyer’s agent at any time before that agent submits a purchase offer on the property. Once an offer comes in, the compensation terms in effect at that moment lock in, and any later adjustment requires a written agreement signed by both brokerages. The 2024 National Association of REALTORS® settlement moved these offers off the MLS, so the mechanics of how changes get communicated have shifted, but the timing rule itself has not.
Before a Buyer’s Agent Submits an Offer
Up until the moment a cooperating agent submits a purchase offer, the listing broker’s compensation offer is unilateral. It is a promise that only becomes binding when someone acts on it. The listing broker can raise the amount, lower it, or withdraw it entirely. An agent who learns of a 3% offer on Monday and sees it drop to 2% on Wednesday is working under 2% if the offer is written on Thursday.
Because compensation offers can no longer appear in the MLS as of August 17, 2024, changes travel through direct channels: brokerage websites, emails and flyers to cooperating agents, and phone or text conversations with agents who ask. A seller may still offer buyer concessions on the MLS, such as a credit toward closing costs, but a concession cannot be conditioned on the buyer using or paying a particular broker.1National Association of REALTORS®. Communicating Offers of Compensation “Up to $10,000 toward closing costs” is fine; “3% to the buyer’s agent” is not.
Ethically, changes have to be communicated promptly so cooperating agents are working with current information rather than stale numbers. A broker who quietly reduces an offer while agents continue to rely on the old figure is inviting a procuring-cause fight.
Changes also need the seller’s authorization. The compensation offered to a cooperating broker comes out of the seller’s proceeds, so adjusting it generally requires a signed amendment to the listing agreement. If the broker changes the number without that written authorization, the gap between what the listing agreement says and what the broker is offering falls on the broker personally.
When Compensation Locks In
Submission of a purchase offer closes the window for unilateral changes. Standard of Practice 3-2 of the REALTORS® Code of Ethics states that after a REALTOR® has submitted an offer to purchase, the listing broker may not unilaterally modify the offered compensation.2National Association of REALTORS®. 2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice The buyer’s agent acted in reliance on specific terms; those terms govern.
This rule works alongside the concept of procuring cause, meaning the unbroken chain of a buyer’s agent’s actions that leads to a completed sale. Under the MLS rules local REALTOR® associations are required to adopt, a listing broker’s compensation offer is unconditional except that entitlement depends on the cooperating broker being the procuring cause. When the procuring-cause agent brings the transaction to closing, performance operates as acceptance of the offer and creates a binding obligation to pay the amount that was in effect when the offer was submitted.
What matters in a dispute is what the compensation terms actually were at the moment of submission, not what the listing broker later wishes they had been. If a broker changed the advertised rate but did not document when, the dispute becomes a credibility contest. Dated screenshots, email timestamps, and website revision records are what settle these questions.
After a Purchase Agreement Is Signed
Once buyer and seller sign a purchase agreement, the compensation owed to the cooperating broker becomes a fixed obligation. The signed contract cements the buyer’s agent’s role as procuring cause and converts the offer into a debt that will be paid at closing. A listing broker cannot shave the amount because the seller later decides the fee feels too high.
Any change at this stage requires a separate written agreement between the two brokerages. Price reductions, repair credits, and other negotiations between buyer and seller do not automatically flow through to the commission. The compensation arrangement is a distinct contract between the brokerage firms, independent of the purchase agreement. Both brokers have to sign an amendment or commission modification form for an adjustment to be enforceable.
If a listing broker tries to short the payment at closing without signed consent, the settlement agent will generally follow the original disbursement instructions. Verbal promises about commission adjustments rarely hold up later. A broker who unilaterally cuts the payment faces a potential breach of contract claim, an ethics complaint, and arbitration through the local REALTOR® association.
How a Late Change Can Reach the Buyer
Since August 17, 2024, an MLS participant working with a buyer must have a written buyer-broker agreement in place before touring a home, and that agreement must state the agent’s compensation as a specific, objectively ascertainable amount, such as a flat fee or a set percentage. Open-ended terms like “whatever the seller offers” are prohibited. The agreement also caps what the agent can receive from any source at the agreed amount.3National Association of REALTORS®. Written Buyer Agreements 101
That changes the stakes when a listing broker reduces the offered compensation before an offer is submitted. Under the old system, a late reduction mostly hit the buyer’s agent. Now it can hit the buyer directly: if the seller offers less than the rate in the buyer-broker agreement, the buyer may owe the difference.4National Association of REALTORS®. Consumer Guide to Written Buyer Agreements A buyer whose agreement specifies 2.5% but whose seller only contributes 1.5% is looking at a 1% gap to resolve.
Before an offer goes in, a buyer should know what their agreement commits them to and talk through the options if there is a shortfall. Those options generally come down to negotiating a larger seller contribution, asking the listing broker to reconsider, absorbing the cost at closing, or walking away from the property.
When Both Brokers Disagree About What Is Owed
When a listing broker and cooperating broker disagree about the compensation in effect at a given moment, the REALTORS® Code of Ethics requires arbitration rather than litigation. Under Article 17, contractual disputes between REALTORS® at different firms arising from their professional relationship go to arbitration through the local board if mediation fails or is not required.2National Association of REALTORS®. 2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice Filing a lawsuit and refusing to withdraw it in an arbitrable matter is treated as a refusal to arbitrate and carries its own discipline.
Procuring-cause fights have their own rule. Under Standard of Practice 17-4, when a listing broker has already paid one cooperating broker and a second broker claims to be the actual procuring cause, a hearing panel can arbitrate the dispute and issue a binding award.2National Association of REALTORS®. 2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice That decision is conclusive for current or later claims between those parties over the same transaction.
Brokers who are not REALTORS® are not bound by the Code of Ethics, and their disputes follow standard contract law in civil court. When disputed commissions sit in escrow, the settlement agent typically holds the funds until the parties agree or a court or arbitration panel decides. The practical lesson across every scenario is the same: a compensation offer, every change to it, and every later amendment should be in writing with a clear date, because the question of what the terms were when the offer was submitted decides who gets paid.