How to Present Commission Options to a Seller in 2026

By Misty Darling

Licensed to sell real estate since 1999, I have been a Broker/Owner since 2007. I enjoy the challenge and the honor of helping buyers and sellers achieve their real estate goals.

The commission conversation used to be the easy part of a listing appointment. You’d state your number, the buyer’s-agent side was baked in, and you moved on. That conversation doesn’t exist anymore, and I’ve watched good agents lose listings they should have won because they walked in with the old script. It isn’t a knowledge problem. It’s a presentation problem, and it’s completely fixable.

Here’s what actually changed. Two things, and you have to understand both to present cleanly. First, offers of compensation to a buyer’s agent can no longer be advertised on the MLS. They still happen, they’re just negotiated off the MLS now, deal by deal. Second,an agent has to have a signed written agreement with a buyer before touring a home, and that agreement has to spell out how the agent is paid. For a seller, that means the old bundled number is gone. The listing-side fee and whether they offer anything toward the buyer’s agent are now two separate decisions. If you can’t walk them through that split clearly, you look like you don’t know the rules. If you can, you look like the expert in the room.

Present it as two questions, in order. One: what’s your listing-side fee, and what does it cover? Two: do you want to offer a concession toward the buyer’s agent, and what does that do for you? That second question is where you earn your value. Offering a buyer-agent concession can widen the pool of buyers who can afford the home, which often means more traffic and stronger offers. Choosing not to keeps more in the seller’s pocket up front, but it may narrow the buyer pool. There’s no universally right answer. It’s a strategy call based on their home, their price point, and their local market, and your job is to lay out the trade-off clearly and let them decide with real information.

Be ready for the myths and the pushback. The big myth is that commissions went away or collapsed. They didn’t. Most sellers still choose to offer buyer-agent compensation, and total commissions haven’t cratered. They’ve simply become more transparent and more openly negotiated. The other question you’ll hear is “why would I pay the buyer’s agent at all?” That’s your opening to explain the traffic-and-offers trade-off calmly, without pressure. And through the whole conversation, there’s one thing you’re required to make clear, and it happens to protect you: commission is fully negotiable and not set by law. Say it plainly. It’s true, it’s required, and that kind of confident transparency is exactly what earns a seller’s trust.

None of this is talent. It’s a script, a structure, and reps. The agents who present commissions with confidence weren’t born knowing how. They were trained, and they practiced until it felt natural. That’s most of what I do for the agents on my team. I give them the framework, we role-play the hard questions, and I make sure nobody walks into a listing appointment guessing.

If you’re an agent who’s tired of winging the hard conversations and wants a team that actually trains you for them, let’s talk. I’d love to show you how we do it and what it could mean for your business. Call or text 515-346-6803, email Misty@BHGInnovations.com., or visit bebetterdsm.com. Let’s figure out whether this is the right fit for you.