Do Sellers Pay the Buyer’s Agent Commission in Scottsdale?

Do sellers in Scottsdale still have to pay the buyer’s agent commission?

No law in Arizona requires you to pay a buyer’s agent. Since the 2024 NAR settlement took effect, buyer-broker compensation is no longer mandated through the MLS. It is a negotiated, contractual decision made in your listing agreement and, ultimately, in the purchase contract you sign with a buyer. Many Scottsdale sellers still choose to offer it, but the amount and structure are up to you and your agent to decide together.

What the 2024 NAR Settlement Actually Changed

Before August 2024, most MLSs across the country, including the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) that covers Scottsdale, required listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyer brokers as a condition of listing on the MLS. That rule is gone.

Under the NAR settlement implementation guidelines, MLSs must eliminate any rule that mandates sellers offer compensation to buyer brokers through the MLS. The settlement does not ban the practice. Sellers can still choose to offer buyer-agent compensation. They just aren’t forced to do so as a condition of getting on the MLS, and those offers can no longer appear in MLS consumer-facing fields.

What that means practically: compensation is now communicated broker-to-broker, negotiated directly, or written into the purchase contract. It has become a more explicit, visible business decision rather than an assumed default.

What Arizona law does (and doesn’t) say

Arizona Revised Statutes Title 32, Chapter 20, which governs real estate licensees, sets out licensing requirements and fiduciary duties. It does not establish any fixed commission rate or require sellers to pay buyer-agent compensation. The Arizona Department of Real Estate is equally clear that commissions are negotiable and not set by the state.

In short: what you pay, who you pay, and whether you fund a buyer’s agent at all is determined by negotiation and the contracts you sign, not by any statute.

How Buyer-Agent Compensation Is Negotiated in Scottsdale

There are two documents where this gets decided. Understanding both will help you go into the listing process with your eyes open.

1. Your listing agreement

When you hire a Scottsdale listing agent, you sign an Arizona Association of REALTORS® Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement. That agreement has fill-in fields for the total compensation owed to your listing brokerage and any offer of cooperative compensation to a buyer’s broker. These are not pre-filled statutory amounts. They are negotiated terms between you and your listing agent before the home ever hits the market.

Your listing agent should walk you through the options: you can offer buyer-agent compensation, decline to offer it, or leave it open to be addressed offer by offer. Each choice has trade-offs, and we walk our clients through exactly that conversation before anything is signed.

2. The purchase contract

Even if your listing agreement is silent on buyer-agent compensation, a buyer can propose it in their offer. The Arizona REALTORS® Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract treats commissions and concessions as negotiable fields. A buyer’s agent may request that the seller fund their compensation at closing, or the buyer may agree to pay their agent separately, or the parties may structure it as a seller concession that the buyer applies toward their agent’s fee.

In higher-priced Scottsdale neighborhoods like DC Ranch, Silverleaf, or North Scottsdale, we’ve seen more creative structures emerge since the settlement: fee-for-service buyer’s agents, flat-fee arrangements, and buyer-funded representation. Sellers in those markets need to understand how each structure will appear on the closing statement, because it affects your net proceeds directly.

3. How it flows through escrow

Arizona is an escrow state. Scottsdale closings run through a title company that opens escrow once your purchase contract is signed, orders a title search, and prepares the settlement statement. According to the Arizona Association of REALTORS® Home Seller’s Guide, any broker compensation the seller agrees to pay, including buyer-agent compensation, appears as a line item on that settlement statement and reduces your gross proceeds before the remainder is wired to you.

That is why this question matters so much at the decision stage. Whatever you agree to in the listing agreement and purchase contract will be right there on the closing statement, reducing the check you walk away with. There’s no surprise at the end if you understand the structure going in.

Should You Still Offer Buyer-Agent Compensation in Scottsdale?

This is where we have a real opinion, because we’ve watched this play out since the settlement took effect.

Nationally, post-settlement analyses tracked by NAR show that the majority of active MLS listings have continued to offer some form of cooperative compensation to buyer brokers. The practice hasn’t disappeared. It has become more varied and more explicitly negotiated.

In Scottsdale specifically, the residential resale market remains heavily agent-driven. The large majority of closed sales in 2025 and into 2026 involved licensed agents on at least one side of the transaction, according to aggregated market data from portals and local brokerage reports. That means buyer-agent compensation still affects how most sellers’ deals come together.

A good agent listens to your concerns first, then builds the strategy around them. If your concern is maximizing net proceeds, we look at whether offering buyer-agent compensation helps you attract more competitive offers, or whether the market conditions in your specific neighborhood support a different approach. Those can be two different conversations depending on whether you’re in Troon North, Grayhawk, the Shea corridor, or Old Town Scottsdale.

What we tell our clients: pricing right the first week, true to market conditions, is almost always more powerful than trying to save money by structuring compensation in a way that reduces buyer-agent interest. But every situation is different, and the only way to know what makes sense for your home is to run the numbers with someone who knows this market. For a current read on how Scottsdale’s resale market is moving, see our July 2026 Scottsdale single-family home sales report.

Broker fees and commissions are fully negotiable. There is no standard, typical, or customary rate set by law or by any association. What you pay your listing agent and whether you fund a buyer’s agent are separate decisions, and both are set in the contracts you sign, not on any published schedule.

For broader context on what’s driving buyer behavior in the Scottsdale market right now, our post on what’s happening in Scottsdale real estate is worth a read before you decide on your listing strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

In Scottsdale, do I still have to pay the buyer’s agent after the NAR commission changes, or can the buyer pay their own agent?

You are not required to pay a buyer’s agent. Since the 2024 NAR settlement, that compensation is no longer mandated through the MLS. A buyer can agree to pay their own agent directly, or you can negotiate it as part of the purchase contract. What you offer, if anything, is a business decision made in your listing agreement and confirmed in the offer you accept.

How is the buyer’s agent commission written into the Arizona listing agreement, and can I change who pays it?

The Arizona REALTORS® Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement includes fill-in fields for your listing brokerage’s compensation and any cooperative compensation offered to a buyer’s broker. These are negotiated terms, not statutory amounts. You can structure them however you and your listing agent agree, and a buyer can also propose a different structure in their offer.

If I don’t offer compensation to a buyer’s agent in Scottsdale, will that hurt my chances of selling?

It depends on your price point, the current market conditions in your neighborhood, and how buyers and their agents are responding to listings structured that way. In some segments of the Scottsdale market, buyers may factor the cost of their own agent representation into their offer price. This is exactly the kind of strategic question to work through with a local agent before you list, not after.

Can a buyer in Scottsdale ask me to cover their agent’s fee as part of the offer, even if it’s not in my listing agreement?

Yes. The Arizona REALTORS® Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract treats compensation and concessions as negotiable fields. A buyer can propose that you fund their agent’s compensation at closing, and you can accept, counter, or decline that term just like any other part of the offer. If you accept it, it will appear as a line item on your settlement statement and reduce your net proceeds.

Is there any Arizona law that says sellers must pay the buyer’s agent, or is it just local custom?

There is no Arizona statute that requires sellers to pay buyer-agent compensation. Arizona Department of Real Estate guidance and Arizona Revised Statutes Title 32, Chapter 20 govern licensing and fiduciary duties but set no fixed commission rules. The practice of sellers funding buyer-agent compensation has been local custom, not law, and that custom is now more explicitly negotiated than it was before the 2024 NAR settlement.

How does paying or not paying a buyer’s agent show up on my closing statement in Scottsdale?

Any broker compensation you agree to pay, including buyer-agent compensation, appears as a line item on the settlement statement prepared by the title/escrow company handling your closing. It is deducted from your gross sale proceeds before the remaining balance is disbursed to you. Your listing agent should prepare a net sheet estimate before you go under contract so you understand how each compensation structure affects your actual take-home amount. Confirm the final figures with your escrow officer once the settlement statement is prepared.

The bottom line: buyer-agent compensation in Scottsdale is negotiable, not automatic, and every decision you make about it shows up directly in your net proceeds. Before you list, you deserve a clear-eyed conversation about your options, your market, and what a realistic net looks like for your specific home.

If you’re ready to work through those numbers, schedule a consultation with the Live Better in Scottsdale team and we’ll walk through your situation together.

Equal Housing Opportunity. Joyce Tawes and the Live Better in Scottsdale team are licensed with eXp Realty, regulated by the Arizona Department of Real Estate. This article is general information only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Commission structures, closing costs, and net proceeds vary by transaction. Confirm your specific numbers with your attorney, tax advisor, lender, or escrow officer.