Each side pays its own agent under its own written agreement: the seller pays the listing agent whatever the listing agreement says, the buyer pays their agent whatever the buyer agreement says, and how much of the buyer's side the seller covers is a concession negotiated in the offer rather than something attached to the listing.
For decades the answer was one sentence long and slightly untrue: the seller pays both sides. What happened was that the seller agreed one total with the listing brokerage, which advertised a share of it to whichever buyer's agent brought a buyer. The buyer paid it too, in the price, but never saw it and never negotiated it. Since August 2024 that plumbing is gone, and the honest answer takes two documents and a line in the contract to give.
Two agreements, and each one names its own payer
The listing agreement is between the seller and the listing brokerage. It sets what the seller owes that brokerage, when it is earned, and for how long, and the seller signs it before the home goes on the market. Nothing about the 2024 changes touched it.
The buyer agreement is the newer half. Since 17 August 2024 an agent working with a buyer must have a signed written agreement in place before touring a home, and that agreement has to state the amount or rate the agent will be paid, or exactly how it will be worked out. What the buyer's agent is owed is now set there, by the buyer, and it is owed by the buyer.
The third document is the purchase contract, and it is where the two meet. A buyer whose agreement says one and a half percent may ask, in the offer, that the seller pay it. The seller may agree, may counter at less, or may refuse. That is a negotiated term of the deal, like any other credit, and it is why the answer differs on two houses in the same street.
What is no longer on the listing
A multiple listing service may no longer carry an offer of compensation to a buyer's agent. Not in a field, not in the agent remarks, not anywhere. A seller who intends to contribute can say so off the MLS, in marketing or in response to an offer, but the listing itself no longer advertises a number that a buyer's agent can count on before writing.
The practical effect is that the fee is now a cash question for the buyer rather than an invisible one. Covered by the seller, it comes out of the proceeds and never touches the buyer's cash to close. Not covered, it is owed under the buyer's own agreement at closing, and generally cannot go into the loan amount, which is capped by the price and the appraisal.
How it reads on the settlement statement
Both commissions appear on the settlement statement, on named lines, as debits against the side that owes them, and a seller-paid buyer-agent contribution shows as a seller debit and a credit on the buyer's side. On the buyer's closing disclosure, agent compensation sits in section H rather than being folded in with loan or title costs, which is why a lender quoting closing costs is quoting a smaller list than the one the seller is looking at.
Nevada: the Duties Owed form, and the buyer with no agent
Every licensee in a Nevada transaction gives every party the Duties Owed by a Nevada Real Estate Licensee form, required by NRS 645.252, and it says in writing who that licensee represents and what they owe them. Read the top of it. A listing agent being helpful at an open house is still the seller's agent, and the form says so.
A buyer who wants no agent of their own has two routes. They can ask the listing agent to act for both sides, which Nevada permits only with the written consent of each party under NRS 645.253, and which means the agent may not advocate one party's interests to the other's detriment: convenience gained, advocate lost. Or they stay unrepresented and hire a lawyer to review the contract for a fraction of a commission. Neither route automatically lowers the price, because the seller's obligation under the listing agreement does not shrink because the buyer turned up alone.
Kouzr is a research and marketing platform, not a brokerage, and takes no referral fee and no part in any transaction. What is here is the sold prices, the medians and the parcel record you would use to judge a fee.
Questions people ask
Do buyers pay realtor fees now?
Buyers owe their own agent whatever their written buyer agreement says, and then ask the seller in the offer to cover some or all of it. Where the seller agrees, the buyer pays nothing out of pocket for it; where the seller refuses, it is cash at closing.
Can a seller refuse to pay the buyer's agent?
Yes. Nothing obliges a seller to contribute to the other side's agent, and since the MLS no longer carries an offer of compensation, nothing has been promised in advance. A refusal narrows the pool of buyers who can afford the house, which is the trade the seller is making.
Are realtor fees negotiable?
Every part of them, on both sides. The rate, whether it is a percentage or a flat fee, the length of the agreement and what happens if the home does not sell are all terms in a document you read before signing rather than rules set by anyone.