An hour before the open house on Saturday afternoon, a real estate agent paced across the dark bamboo floors, straightening the throw blanket, fluffing the pillows and lighting a scented candle.
The last-minute sprucing at the $1.2 million condo in Jersey City, N.J., was exactly what agents have done at open houses for decades before this weekend.
The difference now is the information they are required to disclose and where they can disclose it when it comes to real estate commissions — a charge that had hovered between 5 to 6 percent of the sales price, and until now was typically paid by the seller and split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent.
The changes that went into effect this weekend decouple the two commissions: Sellers are no longer expected to pay buyers’ commissions, though they can still choose to do so, and the proposed commission split can no longer be advertised on the online database commonly used to sell homes, the M.L.S.
The new rules went into effect across the United States as part of a $418 million settlement agreement with the National Association of Realtors, a powerful real estate trade group that was successfully sued by a group of homeowners in Missouri who argued that the longtime practice requiring them to pay agents’ commissions led to inflated fees. Brokerages have spent months trying to educate agents and consumers on the looming changes.
But when they were implemented nationwide this Saturday, buyers remained befuddled.
The first potential buyers through the door of the three-bedroom condo in Jersey City — a commuter suburb of Manhattan where three-bedrooms are hard to come by — were a couple in their 30s. They admired the floor-to-ceiling windows and asked about the building’s warranty, the common areas and the types of mortgage they should apply for.
But a new question the potential buyers brought with them was: Would they be on the hook to pay the sales commission?
“Definitely confused,” said Sarthak Jain, 33. “I’m trying to understand it better, but basically I am piecing together that this will cost us more.”
In fact, nobody seems to know for sure who stands to win and who stands to lose under the new rules about how real estate commissions are paid.
“The challenge is that state by state, broker by broker, and agent by agent, interpretation is very different,” said Tristan Ahumada, a California-based broker and real estate influencer who runs a Facebook group for Realtors with over 165,000 members.
Buyers are now expected to sign an agreement with their agent before they come to a showing — the exception being open houses, where people can still walk in off the street.
Aditi Maheshwari, Mr. Jain’s wife, held a packet of papers — her unsigned buyer’s agreement.
“But I think we can still negotiate,” she said to her husband, questioning his assertion that the new changes would cause them to pay a higher price.
Jill Biggs, who leads the Jill Biggs Group, a Coldwell Banker team with over 60 agents, and is representing the seller of the Jersey City condo, has advised her agents to continue to offer compensation of 2.5 percent of the seller’s final sales price to the buyer’s agent in order to get more foot traffic. The agent for the buyer’s side now needs to email or text her office to get the information; before, it would have been listed on the M.L.S.
In the condo’s kitchen, a new sign was prominently displayed: “Attention prospective buyers: Please read this sign carefully.” Below, it outlined some of the changes.
The signage is one of the many variations in how the rule change is playing out across the country: In New Jersey, a law that went into effect this month requires signs at open houses that make clear that the agent who is hosting the open house represents the seller of the home.
The New Jersey Realtors trade group also created a hotline in an effort to educate brokers.
“To be honest with you, many agents have not really paid attention, or are really not aware, so it’s kind of like ripping off the Band-Aid,” Ms. Biggs said.
At open houses elsewhere, agents and potential buyers struggled to make sense of the changes.
At a Tudor-inspired home in the Weequahic neighborhood of Newark, N.J., visitors walked through a stately, ornate wooden door and were guided to a piano in the living room, where they were instructed to look over and sign the newly required buyer’s agreement.
The listing agent, Debra Marshall, with Keller Williams Elite Realtors, predicted that some buyers would have trouble paying a cost that was previously footed by the seller. But, she said, her recent clients who are sellers have opted to cover the buyer’s agent commission.
In the Washington, D.C., area, Joe Okon of Century 21 New Millennium has five active listings, and four have decided to offer to pay the commission on the buyer’s side. But one of the sellers decided not to pay the commission, so the agent for a potential buyer decided not to show the property, Mr. Okon said.
It’s an unintended side effect of the rule change that some experts have warned could especially harm first-time buyers.
“I am guessing that there is a large percentage of buyers who are oblivious to what’s going on,” Mr. Okon said at the open house he was hosting for a three-bedroom duplex that featured Carrara marble.
And a few miles away, in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, Errick Harrell, a Redfin agent, explained the new rules at an open house for a two-bedroom condo adorned with pop art.
Among the visitors to the open house were Angela and Mike Mucha, who said they had heard about the settlement but didn’t know too much about it.
The couple listened carefully before concluding: “I’d definitely have to learn more,” said Ms. Mucha, 55.