How will new real estate rules work? Your questions answered

Starting on Aug. 13, most Southern California home shoppers will need to sign contracts with agents to view properties for sale, binding them to paying their own commissions if they can’t get a seller to cover it.

And home sellers will be banned from advertising how much they’re willing to pay buyers’ agents in a multiple listing service, or MLS.

Those are the two most clear-cut changes happening under a nationwide real estate settlement.

Agents and consumers say, however, there still are many questions about how the nitty-gritty details of the settlement will apply in the future.

How will buyer’s agents get paid? Will the cost of buying a home — already devastatingly unaffordable — go up even more? Do you have to sign something to see an open house? What’s in the new agreement home shoppers must sign?

Here are some questions and answers about the settlement and what’s changing.

Q: What is the NAR settlement?

A: A proposed deal will resolve a $1.8 billion class-action verdict against the National Association of Realtors.

The terms of the deal apply nationwide and affect every homebuyer and seller who works with a licensed real estate broker who is a “participant” in an MLS that’s part of the settlement.

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