If you've bought or sold a home in Texas before 2024, you probably assumed the seller paid both real estate agents' fees. That's not automatic anymore, and if you're in the middle of a transaction right now, you may be hearing conflicting things about who owes what and why.

Here's the short version: sellers can still agree to pay some or all of the buyer's agent's fee. What changed is how that gets documented and disclosed — and there's a right way and a wrong way to handle it. I'm seeing agents in East Texas take a shortcut that can genuinely put your deal, and your money, at risk. Let's walk through it.

Key Takeaways

• Sellers can still contribute to the buyer's agent's fee — that option hasn't disappeared; it's just handled differently now.
• Buyer's agent compensation can no longer be advertised or guaranteed through the MLS or written directly into a listing agreement.
• Texas contracts now have a formal spot (Paragraph 12) for negotiating this per transaction, on a deal-by-deal basis.
• Some agents are writing custom compensation terms into the Special Provisions section instead of using an attorney — this is the unauthorized practice of law.
• You can protect yourself by simply asking your agent how compensation is being documented in your specific contract.

For decades, the standard practice in Texas — and most of the country — was straightforward. The seller paid their own listing agent and offered to pay the buyer's agent too, usually a set percentage advertised right in the MLS listing. Buyers rarely paid their own agent directly, which kept their closing costs lower.

That system came under legal scrutiny nationally. In October 2023, a federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors' policy of requiring blanket offers of compensation to buyer's agents on the MLS violated antitrust law. NAR reached a settlement that took effect in August 2024, and Texas contract forms have been evolving ever since to reflect it.

What Actually Changed — and What Didn't

Here's where a lot of confusion comes in. People hear "commissions changed" and assume sellers can no longer help cover a buyer's agent's fee at all. That's not true.

What changed is where that offer can be made and how it gets documented:

• Offers of compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS. Any mention of buyer's agent compensation in listing remarks — including workaround language meant to signal a number — can result in an automatic fine and removal from the listing.
• Buyer's agents now need a signed representation agreement with their own client before showing homes, spelling out how that agent gets paid.
• Sellers can still choose to contribute to the buyer's side of the deal — it just gets negotiated and documented contract-by-contract instead of blasted out as a standing MLS offer.

TREC has been actively revising its promulgated forms to reflect this. The Broker-Lawyer Committee has reorganized Paragraph 12 of the standard contract and added a new Paragraph 12B specifically to handle brokerage compensation. Under the current revisions, the seller has the option to contribute to the buyer's broker compensation in 12B(1), and — new this round — the buyer now has a corresponding option to contribute to the seller's broker compensation in 12B(2). These changes carry a mandatory-use date of July 1, 2026, so your contract should already reflect the updated language.

In plain terms: the flexibility is still there. It's just been moved into an explicit, negotiated part of the contract instead of an automatic assumption baked into the listing.

Most of the time, the standard forms handle this fine. The buyer signs a representation agreement with their agent. The seller and buyer negotiate contribution toward that fee through Paragraph 12. Done.

But sometimes a transaction calls for something more specific — a custom split, an unusual contingency tied to compensation, or terms that don't fit neatly into the standard blanks. When that happens, the correct move is to bring in a real estate attorney to draft a separate addendum covering that arrangement.

This matters because Texas law draws a hard line around what a real estate agent is legally allowed to write into a contract, and what only a licensed attorney can draft.

This is the part that doesn't get talked about enough, and it's something I see happening locally.

Rather than paying for an attorney to draft a proper addendum, some agents are simply typing custom compensation terms directly into the contract's Special Provisions section (Paragraph 11 in the TREC 1-4 Family Residential Contract).

The problem is that Special Provisions was never meant for this. Under Texas law, licensees are only permitted to use that section to fill in factual details, disclose facts, or provide instructions when a form doesn't have room. According to guidance from Texas REALTORS, if a form or addendum has already been created for a mandatory purpose, you're required to use that form — not improvise your own language in Special Provisions.

Writing custom compensation terms that affect the legal rights and obligations of the parties goes well beyond "filling in a blank." Texas Occupations Code and TREC Rule 537.11 are clear that license holders may not draft language defining or affecting the rights, obligations, or remedies of the parties in a real estate transaction. Legal analysis from real estate attorneys reinforces this directly: adding custom provisions is the practice of law, and an attorney-drafted addendum is the appropriate tool when a deal needs something the standard forms don't cover.

When a non-attorney agent writes that language instead, it's considered the unauthorized practice of law — and the consequences aren't hypothetical. They can include:

• Fines and disciplinary action from TREC or the agent's local Realtor association
• Complaints or civil liability tied to unauthorized practice of law
• Contract terms that may not hold up the way the parties intended, because they weren't properly drafted

That last point is the one that should worry you most as a buyer or seller. If the compensation language in your contract wasn't properly drafted, you could find yourself in a dispute over money you thought was settled — right in the middle of, or after, your closing.

To be clear, this isn't about avoiding Special Provisions altogether. It has a legitimate, limited purpose. The issue is specifically when it's used as a free substitute for legal drafting that should go through an attorney.

You don't need to become a contracts expert to protect yourself here. A few direct questions will tell you a lot about how your agent is handling compensation:

1. Ask exactly how any non-standard compensation arrangement is being documented. If the answer involves an attorney-drafted addendum, that's the compliant path. If the answer is "we just put it in Special Provisions," that's worth a second look.
2. Make sure the number is specific. Under current guidance, compensation terms should state a clear dollar amount or percentage — not vague language like "market rate" or "to be determined."
3. Ask your own agent directly how their fee is being paid, whether that's through your buyer representation agreement, a seller contribution negotiated in Paragraph 12, or some combination of the two. A good agent should be able to explain this clearly, without hesitation.

None of this requires confrontation. Most agents handling it correctly will be glad to walk you through it, because it's part of doing the deal right.

The bottom line: the rules didn't take away flexibility around who pays what. They moved that flexibility into a more transparent, negotiated part of the contract — and how it gets documented matters just as much as the number itself. Before you sign anything, ask your agent to walk you through exactly how compensation is being handled in your specific contract. If something doesn't add up, that's a good moment to ask more questions before you're locked into a deal.

I spent years as a loan officer before becoming an agent, and I've built my business around understanding these contracts inside and out — not just enough to get through a closing, but enough to catch the details that put my clients at risk if they're missed. I set my own compensation rather than following a fixed brokerage rate, and I structure it around what's fair for the specific deal in front of me, not a one-size-fits-all number.

I take the compliance side of this seriously because I've seen what happens when it's treated as a formality. A contract with the right protections in the right places is the difference between a deal that closes cleanly and one that turns into a dispute six months later.

If you're a buyer or seller anywhere in East Texas and you want a second set of eyes on your contract — whether it's one I'm involved in or one you're reviewing with another agent — I'm happy to walk through it with you line by line. No pressure, no obligation. I'd rather you understand exactly what you're signing than find out later that something wasn't handled the way it should have been.