The short answer
Whatever the agreement that created it says, because there is no standard rate and never legally was one; historically the two sides together ran around five to six percent of the price in public figures, and of the half that reaches one agent's brokerage, the agent keeps a share after the brokerage split, their own costs and self-employment tax.
Two different numbers get called the commission and they are far apart. One is what leaves the settlement statement, which is the figure sellers see and resent. The other is what lands in an agent's account months later, which is the figure agents see and defend. Both are real. The distance between them is the brokerage split, the dues and the tax, and it is worth walking because the negotiation only makes sense once you know which number you are pushing on.
There is no standard rate, and saying one is part of what changed
No law, in any state, sets a real estate commission. It has always been a term of a private contract, and quoting a customary figure to a seller is close to the conduct the 2024 settlement was about. In public figures the historical pattern was a total of roughly five to six percent of the price, agreed by the seller with the listing brokerage and then split between the two sides, and that pattern is worth knowing as history rather than as a quote.
Since August 2024 the two sides are negotiated separately, in two documents, by two different people. What is in the market now is a spread rather than a rate: percentage fees on each side, flat fees that do not move with the price, tiered rates that fall above a threshold, and limited-service listings that put the home on the MLS and leave the rest to the seller.
Why $27,000 is not a $27,000 paycheck
Take a $450,000 sale where the seller agreed three percent to their brokerage and contributed three percent toward the buyer's side: $27,000 in total, $13,500 to each brokerage. Nothing in that sentence is a rate, only an example.
Of one side's $13,500, the brokerage takes its split. Splits run anywhere from about half for a new agent to a large majority for a productive one on a desk-fee arrangement, so call it $8,100 at a 60/40 split. Off that comes the agent's own cost of doing business: association and MLS dues, errors and omissions insurance, the photographs, the sign, the mileage, the lockbox, the marketing. Then self-employment tax at 15.3 percent on the net, because almost every agent is an independent contractor with no employer paying half of it and no benefits attached, and then income tax.
What actually clears is commonly under half of the $13,500 and well under a fifth of the $27,000 that left the settlement statement. Set against that, the agent was paid nothing for the listings that did not sell, the buyers who toured for eight months and stopped, or the deal that collapsed in escrow. This is not an argument for any particular fee. It is the reason a seller's number and an agent's number do not sound like the same transaction.
What each side's fee is buying
On the listing side: a price supported by comparable sales rather than by hope, photographs and MLS exposure that reach the agents holding buyers, the negotiation, and the escrow calendar with its inspection, appraisal, loan and closing dates. Pricing is the expensive one to get wrong, which is why national surveys keep finding unrepresented sellers netting less on average.
On the buyer side: knowing what has actually sold and for what, writing an offer whose terms hold up, and running the contingency deadlines, where a missed date can quietly convert a refundable deposit into a lost one. In both cases what is being bought is judgement and project management, neither of which is naturally a percentage of the price, which is exactly why a fee that is a percentage of the price is worth talking about.
Where the negotiation actually happens
It happens in the listing agreement, before it is signed, and four terms in it matter as much as the rate.
- The rate or fee, and whether it is a percentage, a flat amount or a tier that changes above a price.
- The term: how many months the brokerage has the exclusive right to sell, and what the renewal does.
- Cancellation: whether the seller may end it early, on what notice, and whether any costs already spent are owed back.
- The protection period, which obliges the seller to pay the fee if the home sells after expiry to somebody the brokerage introduced, and for how long after.
Questions people ask
What is a typical real estate commission today?
There is no typical rate to quote, and each side is now set in its own agreement. Historical public figures put the two sides together at roughly five to six percent of the price, and what is being signed today ranges from flat fees to tiered percentages.
Do real estate agents get paid a salary?
Very few. Most are independent contractors paid only when a transaction closes, out of the commission their brokerage receives and after the split, with no employer covering half of the self-employment tax and no benefits attached to the work.
How is the commission split between agents?
Two splits happen. The total is divided between the listing side and the buyer side, and each side's share is then split between the brokerage and the individual agent under whatever their arrangement says, which varies widely by experience and by the desk fee they pay.