As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And that appears to be the case with buyer agent commissions in New Hampshire and across the region following last year’s much-ballyhooed nationwide changes to the agent compensation process.

Nearly a year ago, the real estate industry was bracing for a possible dramatic reduction in buyer-agent commissions as a result of the recently signed National Association of Realtors settlement and a later separate settlement that barred sellers from offering compensation terms in MLS listings.

But it appears just the opposite has happened: Buyer-agent commissions appear to have gone up a bit, not down.

According to a Redfin analysis, the average U.S. buyer’s agent commission stood at 2.43 percent for homes sold in the second quarter, up from 2.38 percent during the same period in 2024.

The slight increase marked the third straight quarter that commissions pushed upwards after new NAR settlement rules – which, among other things, require the signing of separate seller and buyer agreements — took effect in August 2024.

‘What the Heck Was the Point?’

New Hampshire real estate agents say they’re seeing the same commission trends at the local level that Redfin has identified on the national level.

“Commissions haven’t changed,” said Adam Dow, owner of Dow Realty Group- Keller Williams Coastal and Lakes & Mountains, which has multiple offices and agents across the state, including in Wolfeboro, Meredith, Portsmouth and North Conway. “Nothing much has changed in terms of commission prices.”

Anthony Lamacchia, owner of Lamacchia Realty, a brokerage with more than 100 agents in New Hampshire and 500 in Massachusetts, agreed that buyer-agent commissions haven’t changed much over the past year or so.

“If anything, it appears commissions have actually gone up,” he said. “What the heck was the point of the [settlements]? Sellers are still mostly paying for the buyer agents’ compensation.”

Indeed, Lamacchia – an outspoken critic of the U.S. Department of Justice’s push to change the industry’s compensation system over multiple presidents – estimated that about 95 percent of sellers who his firm has dealt with over the past year have ended up agreeing to pay buyer-agent commissions.

The reason: Buyer agents bring potential buyers to the sales process.

“That’s what’s going on every day, every week, every month across the country,” Lamacchia said of most sellers opting to pay buyer-commission agents.

And for those buyers who have refused to directly pay their agents when sellers decline to do so, they simply end up paying more for a home during sometimes tense and complicated sale negotiations.

“Sellers benefit when buyers go it alone,” Lamacchia said. “Sellers have the advantage of having an agent representing them. They have the advantage [in negotiations].”

NH Already Had Some Commission Rules

Not all real estate industry officials are blasting away at recent changes to the compensation system.

Susan Cole, president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors and owner of the Susan Cole Realty Group in Lebanon, agreed that, from what she’s observed anecdotally, not much has changed on the agent-pay front.

“I have not heard anything about big changes,” she said.

But she noted that major changes weren’t really in the offing anyway because New Hampshire, prior to the NAR settlement, already had guidelines calling for full commission disclosures and separate signed buyer agreements.

“Commissions were always negotiable,” she said.

What the NAR and MLS settlement ultimately did was force agents to better explain to sellers and buyers their commission-payment options, she said.

In the case of sellers, they have the option to pay or not pay buyer agents. In the case of buyers, they have the option of paying or not paying agents if sellers refuse to do so.

“The obligation was always there before the settlement to negotiate commission terms,” Cole said. “The settlement just made us more communicative with our clients.”

Consequently, Cole said, she views the recent changes as a net plus for everyone.

More Hoops to Jump THrough

Colleen Barry, CEO of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, said agents have adapted well to the new rules.

“There was a lot of fear in the early days, and that’s not uncommon when any kind of change occurs,” said Barry, whose Boston-based firm’s agents handle sales transactions in New Hampshire, particularly in the coastal areas.

“But ultimately, since we had known that this was coming for a while, we had already been prepared to address the change, to get out ahead of it, and to educate all of our agents so that they could easily work with and educate the consumers they were working with. For us, it was more of we had already anticipated it, so it was no big shock.”

Yet Adams said the settlement rules have merely forced agents to jump through additional hoops in order to arrive at commission deals that don’t differ much from what existed before the settlements.

If anything, he said the new rules merely make negotiations more convoluted.

“They just lead to awkward conversations,” he said. “It hurts the sales process. People can get confused and a deal can go sideways.”

Sam Lattof, a reporter at The Registry Review’s sister publication Banker & Tradesman, contributed to this report.