How Do I Price My Services as a Buyer's Agent in Arizona?

You price your buyer representation as a number you can defend, write it into the Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement as either a percentage of the full purchase price or a flat dollar amount, and explain before the first showing what happens if the seller offers less than that number. The Arizona Association of REALTORS® Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement, dated August 2024, instructs the parties to check only one box in the Broker Compensation section, percentage or dollar amount, and the form states that broker compensation is not set by law, nor by any board, association of REALTORS®, or multiple listing service. Since August 17, 2024, offers of compensation to buyer brokers are prohibited on an MLS, so the number in your agreement is the only number that governs what you are paid.

Pricing buyer-side services means two separate decisions. First, what you charge, expressed as a percentage of the purchase price or a flat fee. Second, where that money comes from, which in Arizona is typically a request to the seller through the Seller Compensation Addendum, with the buyer responsible for any shortfall. The two decisions are documented in different forms and negotiated at different moments in the transaction.

The settlement moved compensation out of the MLS and into your agreement

NAR agreed to pay $418 million over approximately four years as part of the settlement, and agreed to put in place a rule prohibiting offers of compensation on an MLS. That change took effect August 17, 2024. Effective that date, MLS policy prohibits MLS Participants, Subscribers, and sellers from making any offers of compensation on an MLS to buyer brokers, including in notes, remarks, or any other MLS field. New MLS Policy Statement 8.11 carries that prohibition.

NAR also agreed to require MLS Participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers before touring a home, effective August 17, 2024.

Two things did not change. Offers of compensation remain an option consumers can pursue off-MLS through negotiation and consultation with real estate professionals. And sellers can still offer buyer concessions on an MLS, for example concessions for buyer closing costs. The practice changes apply only to residential transactions and do not apply to commercial or land transactions.

Arizona requires your compensation terms in writing before you can collect

The Arizona Department of Real Estate regulates the real estate profession in Arizona. A real estate employment agreement is a written agreement by which a real estate broker is authorized to purchase or sell real property for compensation or commission. All Arizona real estate employment agreements must be written in clear and unambiguous language, must fully set forth all material terms including the terms of broker compensation, must have a definite duration or expiration date showing dates of inception and expiration, and must be signed by all parties.

Arizona law defines a real estate employment agreement by reference to A.R.S. § 44-101, paragraph 7, the statute of frauds provision covering an agreement authorizing or employing an agent or broker to purchase or sell real property for compensation or a commission. Under that statute of frauds, a broker cannot sue to collect a commission for a real estate sale without a written employment agreement. Absent a signed agreement, an agent has no legal entitlement to compensation.

Under A.R.S. § 32-2151.02(D), a real estate employment agreement is not required for a licensee to represent a party. It is the required means by which a broker is entitled to compensation for its services. ADRE has taken a consumer-education stance, advising buyers that they may be asked to sign an agreement, emphasizing it is not a legal requirement under Arizona law, and cautioning them to read and understand what they sign. That posture is worth knowing before you sit down with a buyer, because your value conversation has to stand on its own merits rather than on a claim that the law forces the signature.

The written buyer representation agreement must specify the buyer's agent's compensation, the term of the agreement, and the geographic area or specific property the agreement covers. The Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement contains a Term section with a commencement date and an expiration at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on a stated Expiration Date. The agreement is governed by Arizona law and jurisdiction is exclusively conferred on the State of Arizona.

Percentage or flat fee is a single checkbox on the Arizona form

On the Arizona Association of REALTORS® Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement, the Broker Compensation section instructs the parties to check only one box and fill in the compensation: a percentage of the full purchase price or exchange value, or a dollar amount. You pick one structure per buyer, per agreement.

The buyer-broker agreement must clearly specify the agent's compensation in a definite amount, percentage, or other formula, and compensation cannot be open-ended or exceed what the buyer agreed to. Commission rates are not set by law and are fully negotiable.

The structural difference is where the risk sits. A percentage of the full purchase price moves with the price of the home the buyer ends up buying. A dollar amount does not move. In Phoenix, Redfin reported a median sale price of $454,699 as of August 2026, up 1.0% year over year, meaning compared with the same period a year earlier. Within the city, Redfin reported a median sale price in Downtown Phoenix of $412,301 as of August 2026, down 4.1% year over year, a median sale price in North Phoenix of $527,320 as of July 2026, up 1.4% year over year, and a median sale price in Desert Ridge of $660,000 as of March 2026, down 3.7% year over year. A buyer who tours Downtown Phoenix and Desert Ridge in the same week is shopping across those price points, and a percentage produces a different dollar outcome at each one while a flat fee produces the same outcome at all of them. Decide which of those two behaviors you want before you fill in the box.

The Arizona form also provides for a separate fee payable within a stated number of days of execution of the agreement, earned when paid, for initial consultation, research and other services, with a box indicating whether that fee shall or shall not be credited against the Broker Compensation.

Arizona also offers a non-exclusive path for early contact. The Buyer-Broker Agreement to Show Property is a one-page, non-exclusive agreement allowing an agent to open a property to a prospective buyer and enabling buyers to work with multiple agents. The Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement is the exclusive agreement establishing a formal relationship between a buyer and a single broker, and it is required when submitting an offer. Open house conversations and general questions about services do not require a written agreement.

Present the fee alongside the market numbers the buyer is about to compete in

The consultation is where the compensation number stops being abstract. Put it next to the conditions the buyer is actually buying in. Redfin reported that homes in Phoenix sold after 57 days on the market, the median time from listing to going under contract, compared with 60 days a year earlier, and that 4,178 homes sold in August 2026, up from 4,020 the prior year, as of August 2026. The median sale price per square foot in Phoenix, the sale price divided by the home's finished square footage, is $273, down 0.73% since last year. Redfin scores the Phoenix, AZ housing market as somewhat competitive at 51 out of 100 as of August 2026.

Those are the figures a buyer can check themselves, which is exactly why they belong in the fee conversation. A buyer who understands that the typical Phoenix home takes 57 days to go under contract and that the market scores 51 out of 100 on Redfin's competitive scale is evaluating your fee against a real timeline rather than against a vague sense of how hard the job is.

Three disclosures belong in the same conversation, because they are printed on the form and the buyer will find them. Broker compensation is not set by law, nor by any board, association of REALTORS®, multiple listing service. Commission rates are fully negotiable. And at a new home or other property shown by a builder, seller or other broker, the builder, seller or seller's broker may refuse to compensate the buyer's broker, which eliminates any credit against the agreed-upon Broker Compensation. Say that before the buyer tours a builder community, not after.

The form also includes buyer acknowledgement that the buyer will review the Arizona Department of Real Estate Buyer Advisory to assist in the buyer's inspections and investigations. Hand it over at the consultation.

The Seller Compensation Addendum is how the request reaches the seller

The Arizona REALTORS® created and revised eighteen forms to prepare members for the practice changes implemented in mid-August 2024. The Seller Compensation Addendum is an addendum to a purchase contract or lease agreement by which the buyer or tenant can request the seller or landlord to directly compensate the buyer's or tenant's broker. It is used in a majority of Arizona transactions in which the seller chooses to compensate the buyer's broker.

On the addendum, compensation for a sale is entered as either a percentage of the full purchase price or a dollar amount payable at Close of Escrow. Line 13 states that the compensation is in addition to any seller concessions credited to the buyer in the contract. The addendum provides the undersigned's written consent for the Buyer Broker to receive compensation from more than one party to the transaction, and states that Seller and Buyer explicitly intend Brokers to be direct third-party beneficiaries of the Contract pursuant to Section 8f or Section 9g of the Contract.

The February 2025 version states that the seller shall pay the broker representing the buyer compensation, which may be credited to the buyer in whole or in part. In practical terms it is a request for the seller to pay the buyer's broker through escrow as part of the transaction, so the compensation is paid from the seller's proceeds rather than by the buyer out of pocket at closing.

Seller-paid buyer broker compensation is negotiable and not required. Like price, closing costs, inspection requests, or repair concessions, it is one term within the overall offer that can be accepted, rejected, or negotiated. Section 8f of the Arizona purchase contract makes payment to the buyer's agent, from the seller, the buyer, or a combination of both, a condition of closing.

The Compensation Agreement Between Brokers form was used less frequently over time and was removed in the February 2025 forms release, with the related section stricken from the Seller Compensation Addendum.

When the seller offers less than your agreed fee, the buyer covers the difference

This is the conversation to have at the consultation, not at the offer. If the total compensation offered to the buyer's agent, negotiated with the seller, or a combination of both is lower than the amount specified in the Buyer-Broker Employment Agreement, the buyer is responsible for the difference. If the amount offered by the seller is higher than the amount specified in the employment agreement, the buyer is entitled to the difference.

The ceiling runs in one direction only. A broker cannot receive any amount, from any source, for services provided for in the agreement that exceeds the agreed-upon Broker Compensation. In the Arizona REALTORS® illustration, if a buyer and broker agree on compensation of 100 units and cooperative compensation of 150 units is offered, the broker may not accept the 150, and with the lender's permission the additional 50 must be credited to the buyer to reduce closing costs. If the cooperative compensation received equals the amount agreed upon in the agreement, the buyer is not required to compensate the buyer broker.

So the number you write in the Broker Compensation box is a cap on what you can earn and a floor on what the buyer may owe. Write a number you would be comfortable asking a buyer to pay out of pocket, because on any transaction where the seller contributes less, that is exactly the question in front of you. Under Arizona's statute of frauds a broker cannot sue to collect a commission without a written employment agreement, which makes the clarity of that single line the whole of your position.

Sellers are no longer required to offer buyer's-agent compensation through the MLS since the settlement took effect on August 17, 2024, but most still do.

The Bottom Line

Price buyer-side representation as a specific percentage of the full purchase price or a specific dollar amount, check one box on the Arizona Association of REALTORS® Buyer-Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement, and set a definite commencement date and Expiration Date, because Arizona requires all material terms including the terms of broker compensation in clear and unambiguous language signed by all parties. Explain in the consultation that broker compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable, that a request to the seller goes out on the Seller Compensation Addendum, and that the buyer owes the difference if the seller offers less than the agreed amount. In a Phoenix market Redfin scores as somewhat competitive at 51 out of 100 with homes selling after 57 days on market as of August 2026, a buyer who has heard all of that at the consultation is not surprised at the closing table.

If you lead a team or a market center and want your buyer agreements, Seller Compensation Addendum workflow and compensation disclosures reviewed as one system, reach out to our team and we will walk through your files with you.

Written by Laurie Johnson, part of the Kristan Cole Network team.

Sources

Pages read on October 5, 2026.

• National Association of Realtors: 1 NAR SETTLEMENT FAQS Last Updated: August 8, 2024 TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Redfin: 2026 Phoenix Housing Market: House Prices & Trends as of September
• Redfin: 2026 North Phoenix, Phoenix Housing Market: House Prices & Trends as of August
• Redfin: 2026 Downtown Phoenix, Phoenix Housing Market: House Prices & Trends as of August
• Redfin: 2026 Desert Ridge, Phoenix Housing Market: House Prices & Trends as of August