The pre-tour representation agreement: consumer protection or a lock-in device

Two agents in the same market described the same rule to me in opposite terms this week. One called the written agreement before touring the best thing that happened to buyers, because the fee is now on paper at the start instead of surfacing at closing. The other called it the strongest lock-in a brokerage has ever had, because the buyer signs a term and a fee before seeing a single house and before knowing whether that agent is any good.

Both readings fit what the August 2024 NAR rules actually require. Compensation can no longer be published on the MLS, and the buyer has to agree in writing to how their agent gets paid before a tour. The exact form, duration limits and what counts as a tour vary by state and by brokerage, so the terms in front of you are not the terms in front of me, and anything about enforceability of a specific clause is a question for an attorney licensed where you buy.

What I want to know is the net effect on buyers so far. Fee transparency arrived. So did signed commitments to agents buyers had known for forty minutes. Redfin's numbers say the average buyer-side fee barely moved from about 2.4 percent, which cuts against the protection story and against the collapse story at the same time.

Where do you land after a year and a half of it.