Editor’s note: The information contained in this article is incorrect. Veterans who obtain VA home loans now have the option to pay broker commission fees.
Some commission fees for real estate agents will soon be covered under the Department of Veterans Affairs’ home loan program, according to a new VA policy announced Tuesday.
Veterans Affairs-backed home loans will now include commission fees for buyer-brokers who represent home purchasers amid ongoing changes nationwide to real estate transaction fees and commissions.
Previously, active-duty service members, veterans or eligible spouses who applied for a VA loan could not use the benefit to pay fees to real estate agents they hired exclusively to represent them. In most traditional real estate arrangements, buyers signed a contract with an agent to show them houses and negotiate a deal, but the seller was responsible for covering the commissions of the selling and buying agent, usually between 5% or 6% of the purchasing price split evenly between the two.
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As a result of a class-action settlement involving the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, earlier this year, however, that math may be changing.
Sellers in Illinois and Missouri sued the NAR, charging that the association’s practice of requiring agents to list agent compensation on the nationwide real estate database, known as…
