What is a selling agent? The agent who brings the buyer, confusingly named: the selling agent represents the buyer, and the listing agent represents the seller.
The name is backwards to almost everyone who hears it. The selling agent is the agent on the buyer's side, so called because they are the one who sells the house to their client, while the agent hired by the owner is the listing agent or seller's agent. The MLS still labels the two sides this way on a closed sale, which is why the word turns up in paperwork and in older writing about the business. Cooperating agent means the same thing and is the clearer term.
What each is paid changed in August 2024. The listing agent's fee is set in the listing agreement with the seller. The selling agent's fee is set in a written buyer representation agreement, which an agent must have signed before showing a home, and the seller may agree to cover some or all of it as a concession negotiated in the purchase contract rather than advertised on the MLS. On a $450,000 sale a fee stated as 2.5 percent in a buyer agreement is $11,250, and whether that comes from the seller's proceeds or the buyer's own funds is a term of the deal, not a rule.
The duties are separate from the money. In Nevada each licensee gives every party the Duties Owed by a Nevada Real Estate Licensee form under NRS 645.252, and the loyalty runs to the client: the selling agent owes the buyer confidentiality and advocacy, the listing agent owes the seller the same. One licensee may act for both sides only with the written consent of each, under NRS 645.253, at which point the duty to advocate for either against the other falls away. A buyer who calls the number on the sign is talking to the seller's advocate until they have their own.
A worked example
A home lists at $450,000 and closes there. The listing agreement pays the seller's brokerage a negotiated 2.5 percent, $11,250. The buyer's own agreement with their agent states 2.5 percent, another $11,250, and the purchase contract has the seller covering $8,000 of it as a concession, leaving the buyer to pay $3,250 at closing. On the MLS record of the sale, that buyer's agent is listed as the selling agent.
Las Vegas agents and the sales behind them
Questions people ask
Is the selling agent the same as the seller's agent?
No, and the names are why everyone gets this wrong. The seller's agent is the listing agent, hired by the owner. The selling agent is on the buyer's side and is the one who found the buyer. Cooperating agent and buyer's agent both mean the selling agent and are less confusing.
Can one agent represent both the buyer and the seller?
In Nevada, only with the written consent of each party under NRS 645.253. The licensee then cannot advocate for either side against the other, so the negotiation help both parties were paying for is what gets given up. Some brokerages decline the arrangement entirely.