WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced a temporary policy on Tuesday allowing buyers using VA-guaranteed home loans to compensate their buyer brokers directly.
The VA said the new rule comes as the proposed $418 million settlement agreement to the Sitzer-Burnett verdict may have put veterans at a disadvantage in the evolving homebuying market. The VA released the update to make sure that veterans remain competitive buyers. Before this move, veterans could not pay buyer-broker fees when purchasing a home with VA loans.
“The full impact of the settlement is not yet certain because the real estate market is still adjusting, but there may be an increased expectation that home buyers will pay for their own buyer-broker fees. In VA’s program, it has been common practice for sellers to pay for the Veteran’s buyer-broker fees,” VA officials said.
The National Association of Realtors® applauded the VA for revising its policy and allowing veterans and active-duty service members the same advantages as other buyers in a competitive real estate market.
“NAR launched an all-hands advocacy effort on this issue, including working with Congress and the relevant VA committees, meeting with the VA, collaborating with industry partners and holding hundreds of meetings on Capitol Hill during the Realtors Legislative Meetings in May,” NAR said in a written statement.
“We look forward to continuing this conversation, and our 1.5 million members stand ready to support the VA in whatever way possible to protect the brave men and women who serve this country and ensure they are given the equal opportunity to achieve the American dream of homeownership.”
The settlement agreement resolves claims against NAR, more than one million NAR members, state/territorial and local Realtor® associations, all association-owned MLSs and all brokerages with an NAR member as principal that had a residential transaction volume in 2022 of $2 billion or below. However, agents affiliated with HomeServices of America and its related companies – the last corporate defendant still litigating the case – are not released under the settlement, nor are employees of the remaining corporate defendants named in the cases covered by this settlement.
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