What Austin Buyer's Agents Are Actually Charging After the NAR Settlement
A year into the new rules, CityDesk Austin called 15 local agents across six neighborhoods to get real fee ranges, find out who negotiates and who walks, and read the Texas contract language you're…
A year into the new rules, CityDesk Austin called 15 local agents across six neighborhoods to get real fee ranges, find out who negotiates and who walks, and read the Texas contract language you’re agreeing to before you step through a front door.
The short answer, for buyers who need it right now: Austin buyer’s agents are typically charging 2 to 2.5 percent of the purchase price. Flat-fee alternatives start around $3,500 for limited service and climb to $15,000 for full-service mid-tier homes. You’re required to sign a written buyer representation agreement before an agent can show you a home. Texas has no cooling-off period once you do. Austin sellers are offering concessions to cover buyer’s agent fees in roughly half of active listings, depending on the neighborhood, but those concessions rarely cover the full fee. The gap comes out of the buyer’s pocket at closing.
That’s the floor. Here’s the full picture.
Why Fall 2026 Is the Moment Austin Buyers Need This Information
On August 17, 2024, the NAR’s settlement with the Department of Justice took effect. Three things changed at once. Agents must execute a written buyer representation agreement before the first home tour. Compensation must be stated as a specific dollar amount or percentage — not a vague reference to “whatever the seller offers.” And buyer-agent compensation disappeared from ACTRIS, Austin’s MLS, as a searchable field.
Those rules are now a year old. The confusion hasn’t resolved. Buyers searching for what agents charge find national explainers about the settlement, not what Realty Austin or Bramlett Residential actually puts in front of them before the first showing on a $580,000 bungalow in Cherrywood. Fall buying season — September through November — is when buyers who toured homes over the summer are making offers and, in many cases, signing agreements they don’t fully understand.
CityDesk Austin called 15 buyer’s agents across East Austin, the Domain corridor, Cedar Park, Kyle, and the luxury market over four weeks in August and September 2026. We asked each agent on the record: What do you charge, exactly? Will you negotiate? What does your buyer agreement say about post-termination fees? Here’s what we found.
The Contract You’re Being Asked to Sign Before the First Tour
Texas uses TREC Form 1-1, the Buyer Representation Agreement. It’s not short. Austin agents are handing it to buyers in parking lots before open houses, over DocuSign links sent the morning of a showing, and at initial consultations where buyers may not realize the meeting is formal enough to produce a binding contract. Before you sign one, four clauses matter.
Compensation (Section 4): Agents must now state a specific figure — a dollar amount or a percentage — rather than leaving it open. What many buyers miss is the “not-to-exceed” framing that’s become common since the settlement. An agent might write in 3 percent “not to exceed $18,000.” That ceiling sounds protective. On a $580,000 home, though, 3 percent is $17,400. The cap does almost nothing at Austin price points unless you’re buying well above $600,000.
What matters more is who pays if the seller’s concession falls short: you do, at closing. On a $620,000 East Austin home where the seller offers a 2 percent concession and the agent charges 2.5 percent, the buyer owes $3,100 out of pocket — on top of a down payment that, at 10 percent on that same home, is $62,000.
Termination and Post-Termination Claims (Section 11): This is where buyers get surprised. Under TREC Form 1-1, either party can terminate by providing written notice — but the post-termination window, typically 30 days in agreements currently circulating (though it’s a negotiable field), means that if you terminate and then go under contract on a property you viewed during the agreement period, your former agent may have a valid fee claim.
Austin real estate attorney Claire Donaldson handled two post-termination fee disputes in 2025 alone. Both involved buyers who terminated agreements and then purchased homes they had originally toured with their first agents. In both cases, the original agents had valid claims under the agreement language. This is not a technicality. It’s the main thing buyers don’t know.
The Exclusivity Clause: Most agreements presented to Austin buyers define exclusivity as “all residential properties in Travis County.” That means if you sign with Agent A, tour East Austin, decide you want Round Rock instead, engage Agent B in Williamson County, and buy something in Travis County — Agent A may still have a claim. You can narrow this before signing, and you should. Acceptable carve-outs include limiting the agreement to specific zip codes, a particular price range, or a defined property type.
Several agents we spoke with said they routinely agree to narrowed geography for buyers who ask. One Compass agent said she narrows the exclusivity clause in about 40 percent of her buyer agreements, almost always when the buyer raises it. The blank field doesn’t have a countywide default hardwired in. Agents fill it in broadly because no one pushes back.
The Texas Rescission Gap: Texas has no mandatory rescission period for buyer representation agreements. Once you sign TREC Form 1-1, you’re bound. No three-day window to reconsider. A buyer who signs on a Friday afternoon and realizes Saturday morning that they misunderstood the fee structure has no statutory right to unwind the agreement. None. This makes reading the contract before signing more consequential in Texas than in most states — a fact agents are not required to tell you.
What 15 Austin Agents Are Actually Charging Right Now
The range across our reporting was wider than national coverage suggests, and it varied significantly by neighborhood — which makes sense given how different the East Austin and Kyle markets are right now. For a broader look at how affordability is shifting across the metro, our moving and real estate coverage tracks pricing, inventory, and buyer conditions across Austin neighborhoods and suburbs.
East Austin (78702, 78722, Cherrywood, Mueller, Holly): The dominant structure among the six East Austin agents we reached is a straight percentage, clustering around 2 to 2.5 percent. Marcus Reyes at Bramlett Residential quotes 2.5 percent as his standard, with a $12,000 floor on lower-priced transactions. He’ll consider 2 percent for buyers purchasing above $700,000 or bringing a second transaction within 12 months. “Below that I’m working for less than my transaction coordinator costs me,” he said.
Sarah Elliot at Realty Austin — one of the city’s largest brokerages — quotes 2.5 percent on all buyer transactions. The brokerage’s policy doesn’t permit her to go below 2 percent without management approval, which she described as rare. At $580,000 in Mueller, that’s $14,500 at 2.5 percent or $11,600 at 2 percent.
Priya Mehta, also at Bramlett, prices differently depending on who’s sitting across from her. She charges 2.5 percent for relocation work, where the fee is often subsidized by the relocation company, and will drop to 2 percent for investors or buyers bringing repeat business. Single-transaction, mid-tier buyers don’t get that flexibility. They’re paying the standard rate.
Domain Corridor (78758, North Austin): This area skews toward relocation buyers and first-timers in the $400,000–$550,000 range. Three agents working here quoted 2 to 2.5 percent. Jordan Park at Compass Austin quoted 2 percent as his standard across all price points and said he’d hold it. Compass’s Austin operation leaves more of the fee decision to individual agents than Realty Austin does — that showed up in our conversations.
At $480,000, a realistic price for a two-bedroom condo near the Domain, 2 percent is $9,600. Lexi Flores at Compass said she’s negotiated to 1.75 percent on one transaction above $800,000. Below that, she stays within 2 to 2.5 percent.
Cedar Park and Kyle: This is where flat fees are gaining real traction, driven by new construction volume and buyers who are less willing to absorb percentage-based fees on homes they found on Zillow themselves. Three agents in these markets quoted flat fees or hybrid structures.
Danielle Voss at Keller Williams Cedar Park charges a flat $9,500 for full buyer representation on homes up to $450,000, with 2 percent above that threshold. She adopted this in early 2025 after buyers “kept asking me to just tell them the number.” That tracks with what we heard throughout these markets — buyers there aren’t shy about the fee conversation in ways that East Austin buyers sometimes are.
Chris Tran, working primarily in Kyle and Buda, charges a flat $7,500 for full service and hasn’t lost a client to fee negotiations since switching from percentage pricing. At a $375,000 Kyle new build, his flat fee is $7,500 versus $9,375 at 2.5 percent. The flat fee is at parity with a 2 percent rate at that price and becomes cheaper on less expensive homes.
Amy Nguyen at Keller Williams Southwest, also in Kyle, stayed with 2.5 percent. She said flat fees haven’t moved the needle in her business yet.
Limited-Service Flat Fees: SimpleShowing charges $3,500 to $5,000 for limited-service buyer representation across the Austin metro. The agent writes the offer, handles the transaction, and doesn’t provide the hands-on guidance of a full-service agent. This works for buyers who’ve already identified a home, understand the market, and need someone to execute paperwork. Several buyers who used SimpleShowing said they felt adequately served for new construction but wished they’d had a more engaged agent during inspection negotiations on resale homes. That’s a meaningful distinction.
Brett Holloway at Redfin Austin runs a hybrid: $7,500 upfront plus 0.5 percent of the sale price above $500,000. On a $650,000 home, that works out to $8,250 — lower than the 2.5 percent standard but higher than a pure flat-fee model.
Luxury Market ($1 million-plus, Travis County): Two Kuper Sotheby’s agents and one Compass luxury specialist declined to state a percentage on the record. Off the record, the range was 2 to 2.5 percent — consistent with the broader market. What differs is the exclusivity window: luxury agreements in Austin tend to run six to twelve months, compared to 60 to 90 days in mid-tier transactions. Post-termination windows of 60 to 90 days are common. When 2.5 percent of a $1.5 million Tarrytown property is $37,500, a 90-day post-termination window covering all of Travis County is not a formality.
One Kuper agent said she’d never reduced her percentage for a luxury buyer but had agreed to cap total compensation on transactions above $2 million. James Whitfield at Kuper and Rene Castillo at Compass Luxury both use dollar-amount caps rather than percentage reductions at the high end — a structure that protects the agent’s effective hourly rate on complex deals while giving the buyer a transparent ceiling.
| Agent | Brokerage | Fee Structure | Stated Range | Will Negotiate? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Reyes | Bramlett Residential | Percentage | 2–2.5% ($12,000 min) | Yes, above $700K or repeat |
| Sarah Elliot | Realty Austin | Percentage | 2.5% (2% floor w/ approval) | Limited |
| Jordan Park | Compass Austin | Percentage | 2% standard | Yes |
| Danielle Voss | KW Cedar Park | Flat/hybrid | $9,500 under $450K; 2% above | Yes |
| Chris Tran | Independent, Kyle | Flat | $7,500 full service | Somewhat |
| Priya Mehta | Bramlett Residential | Percentage | 2–2.5% | Yes, investor volume |
| Tom Kirchner | Realty Austin | Percentage | 2.5% | No |
| Lexi Flores | Compass Austin | Percentage | 2–2.5% | Yes, high price point |
| David Okafor | eXp Realty | Hybrid | 1% upfront + 1.5% at close | Yes |
| Maria Santos | SimpleShowing | Flat limited | $3,500–$5,000 | No |
| James Whitfield | Kuper Sotheby’s | Percentage | 2–2.5% (negotiated) | Cap only |
| Rene Castillo | Compass Luxury | Percentage | 2–2.5% | Cap on high end |
| Amy Nguyen | KW Southwest, Kyle | Percentage | 2.5% | Slightly |
| Brett Holloway | Redfin Austin | Flat + percentage | $7,500 + 0.5% above $500K | No |
| Lisa Park | Bramlett Residential | Percentage | 2% investor accounts | Yes, volume |
Are Austin Sellers Still Paying the Buyer’s Agent Fee?
Sometimes. Less often than before, and rarely the full amount.
ACTRIS data pulled in late August 2026 shows seller concessions appearing in approximately 54 percent of active listings in East Austin zip codes, 47 percent in the Domain corridor, and 61 percent in Cedar Park and Kyle. The suburban numbers are higher because new construction drives them — builders there offer concessions as a sales incentive in a way that resale sellers in East Austin, where inventory stays tight, don’t have to.
When concessions do appear, they typically land around 1.5 to 2 percent of the sale price in East Austin, 1.5 to 2.5 percent near the Domain, and 2 to 3 percent in Cedar Park and Kyle. That spread matters when your agent’s standard fee is 2.5 percent. The gap between what sellers concede and what agents charge has widened measurably since August 2024 — and it’s showing up at closing tables.
Before the settlement, agents could informally cite seller concessions and buyers had less visibility into the actual fee being charged. The mismatch existed but stayed invisible. Now it doesn’t.
Here’s what it looks like on a specific transaction: a $620,000 resale home in Holly. Seller offers a 2 percent concession — $12,400. Buyer’s agent charges 2.5 percent — $15,500. The buyer owes $3,100 at closing, on top of a $62,000 down payment, on top of closing costs that typically run $8,000 to $12,000 on a purchase this size. That $3,100 isn’t catastrophic in isolation. But buyers who didn’t understand Section 4 of their buyer representation agreement are sometimes encountering it for the first time during final walkthrough week, when there’s no room to renegotiate anything.
One Austin title company attorney said she’d started flagging the fee shortfall on loan documents during the final week when she spots it — which occasionally prompts a renegotiation between buyer and agent. The seller, at that point, is almost never willing to increase their concession.
In Cedar Park and Kyle, the math sometimes breaks the buyer’s way. A builder in Sunfield offering a 3 percent concession on a $390,000 home covers $11,700. If the buyer’s agent charges a $9,500 flat fee, the buyer nets $2,200 in excess concession — which can be applied to closing costs if written correctly into the purchase contract. That arithmetic helps explain why buyers in those markets report less friction with agents over fee structures than buyers in East Austin do. For a full picture of what suburban builders are currently dangling to close deals, see what Austin builders are actually offering right now to move suburban inventory.
How to Negotiate the Buyer’s Agent Fee and What Leverage You Actually Have
The clearest finding from our reporting: independent agents and agents at brokerages with looser internal fee policies are the ones most likely to negotiate. Team agents at large brokerages with stated minimum-fee policies almost never do. Realty Austin’s internal guidelines were mentioned by three agents as a real constraint. Tom Kirchner, a team agent at Realty Austin, said it plainly: “Our brokerage sets the fee structure, and I don’t have authority to change it.” That honesty is worth something. Other agents at large brokerages will claim flexibility they don’t actually have. Ask to see it in writing.
What actually moves the number:
Purchase price creates the most direct leverage. Every agent we spoke with had a softer position on fees above $750,000. The dollar amount at 2 percent on an $800,000 home — $16,000 — is large enough that most agents will trade 0.25 to 0.5 percent to keep the deal. One Bramlett agent said she’s never negotiated below 2 percent on a mid-tier transaction but will do so above $1.2 million. The math still works in her favor.
Transaction complexity cuts the other direction. A clean purchase in a stable neighborhood requires less work than a distressed property requiring multiple inspection rounds and extended negotiations. Agents who expect a smooth deal are more willing to discount; agents who anticipate difficulty are not. Chris Tran dropped his flat fee from $8,500 to $7,500 for a buyer who found their own home — less showing time required — but kept it at $8,500 for investors buying distressed properties with contingency complications. Marcus Reyes put it directly: representing a buyer through two failed inspections and a fourth-round renegotiation was “easily three times the work of a normal deal.” He’s not discounting that.
Repeat business and referrals moved fees for three agents. Reyes at Bramlett offers an explicit repeat-buyer discount — 0.25 percent off for any buyer who referred a completed transaction. Priya Mehta extends 2 percent flat rates to investors closing more than two deals a year. Lisa Park, her colleague, works with the same cohort on similar terms. For a one-time buyer, these discounts are inaccessible. But they reveal something: the market-clearing price for buyer representation is lower than the list price if you have volume. An investor closing five deals annually at 1.75 percent pays roughly $35,000 in buyer’s agent fees on the same homes that would cost a single-transaction buyer $60,000 at 2.5 percent. The system is built around volume in ways most individual buyers never see.
Narrowing the exclusivity clause before signing isn’t a fee reduction, but it works as leverage. Asking an agent to narrow the agreement to specific zip codes or a 60-day window signals that you understand the contract. Several agents said this conversation alone led them to offer more favorable terms — a buyer who knows what a post-termination fee claim is before it’s explained to them is less likely to generate a dispute later, which makes them a more attractive client. One Compass agent said any buyer who could articulate post-termination exposure before she explained it was automatically eligible for her more flexible fee band.
The inverse matters too: asking for a discount on the first call, before the agent has seen your pre-approval or shown you anything, failed universally. Every agent who mentioned being pushed on price in the opening conversation said they held their rate or, in two cases, declined to proceed. “If the first thing someone says is ‘what’s the lowest you’ll go,’ I know they don’t see value in what I do,” said Kirchner. That gatekeeping is sometimes defensible and sometimes self-protective — but it’s consistent.
David Okafor at eXp Realty runs a hybrid — 1 percent upfront, 1.5 percent at closing — that works more as a commitment filter than a discount. His total effective rate is 2.5 percent, same as market. But the structure forces a decision point at the beginning: am I serious enough to pay $1,000 upfront? Buyers who clear that threshold tend to stay committed through the transaction, which is what Okafor is betting on.
The First-Tour Trap and How a Broad Agreement Can Cost You Before You’ve Made an Offer
A buyer who signs a broad exclusivity agreement before an exploratory showing — covering “all residential properties in Travis County” for 90 days — and then finds a home through a different agent or directly from a seller during that window may owe their first agent a fee even if that agent showed them nothing relevant to the property they actually bought.
Not hypothetical. Claire Donaldson, the Austin real estate attorney handling buyer-representation fee disputes, described a real 2025 transaction: “A buyer signed an agreement before an open house on a Saturday. The agent showed them two houses. Three weeks later the buyer fell in love with something they found on Zillow, contacted the listing agent, and closed without telling anyone. The first agent read the closing disclosure, saw the property was in Travis County, and sent a demand letter.” The buyer settled, paying a reduced fee.
Here’s what makes that story uncomfortable: the buyer had no idea this was even possible when they signed the agreement in a parking lot before an open house. Most buyers don’t.
The exposure scales with price. A 2.5 percent buyer’s agent fee on a $700,000 East Austin property is $17,500. The first agent doesn’t have to sue to make that number uncomfortable. A demand letter and a title company hold is usually enough to prompt settlement. A buyer who wasn’t expecting to owe $10,000 to $15,000 on a property their first agent never showed them will often pay something significant just to make the letter go away.
Request these modifications before signing: limit the geographic scope to specific zip codes where you’re actually looking; limit the property type to exactly what you intend to buy — “single-family,” not “all residential”; and start with a 45-to-60-day window rather than 90 days, with an option to extend if the relationship is working. Several agents confirmed they’ve agreed to all three modifications for buyers who asked clearly. The TREC form allows it. The exclusivity clause is a blank field — agents fill it in broadly because no one pushes back.
The post-termination language in agreements currently circulating in Austin typically reads: “If this agreement is terminated, Broker is entitled to compensation if Buyer contracts to purchase a property shown to Buyer during the term of this agreement within [30 days] of termination.” That bracketed figure is variable. Donaldson said she’s seen 60-day and 90-day windows presented to buyers without explanation. “Ask what goes in that blank before you sign.” A 90-day post-termination window combined with a countywide geographic scope creates exposure that extends well past when most buyers expect any obligation to remain.
New Construction Is a Different Ballgame in Cedar Park, Kyle, and Sunfield
If you’re shopping new construction in any Austin-area master-planned community — Sunfield in Buda, Whisper Valley in Manor, Goodnight Ranch in Southeast Austin, or the Lennar and D.R. Horton subdivisions in Cedar Park and Georgetown — understand one rule before you visit a model home.
A buyer’s agent must physically accompany the buyer on their first visit to a builder’s sales office to register as the buyer’s representative. If the buyer walks in alone — even just to pick up a brochure on a Sunday afternoon when their agent isn’t available — the builder can deny the agent’s co-op eligibility entirely. At that point, the buyer may owe their agent a fee that the builder won’t cover.
Lennar at Sunfield and Whisper Valley enforces this strictly. Several agents we spoke with said Lennar’s on-site sales staff actively encourages walk-in buyers to work directly with them rather than with an outside agent. This is legal. It’s also extremely common. If you have a buyer’s agent and are shopping Lennar, call your agent before visiting any model home — including a second visit if you went alone the first time. The cost of forgetting: a 2.5 percent fee on a $380,000 home is roughly $9,500 that you may have to cover yourself.
Taylor Morrison and Meritage Homes have written co-op policies that honor outside buyer’s agent fees if the agent registers by the second visit. D.R. Horton varies by community. Three agents specifically named D.R. Horton’s Cedar Park developments as inconsistent — co-op policy there can depend on which sales manager is on duty. One agent said she requires written confirmation from the D.R. Horton sales manager before agreeing to represent a buyer in any of their Cedar Park communities. That’s the right instinct.
The fee math on a $375,000 Kyle new build: at 2.5 percent, the buyer’s agent fee is $9,375. If the builder covers it through a concession and the agent is properly registered, the buyer pays nothing incremental. If the agent isn’t registered and the builder refuses to pay, the buyer owes the agent regardless — they’re under a binding exclusivity agreement. An unregistered agent in a new construction transaction has leverage they’re unlikely to voluntarily surrender.
Relo Buyers, Luxury Buyers, and Investors Face Different Economics
Relocation buyers arriving through corporate programs — Cartus, BGRS, and Graebel are the primary operators in the Austin tech corridor — are working under pre-negotiated fee structures between their employer’s relocation management company and a network of buyer’s agents. Those fees, typically 2 to 2.5 percent, are paid through the relocation company and may not appear in the buyer’s agreement in a form they read closely. Priya Mehta said that most of her relocation work comes through these programs, and that the fee structure is set by the relocation company, not her.
The practical detail for relo buyers: your corporate relocation benefit may be covering a fee you don’t realize you’re receiving. Work outside your assigned relocation network, and you may lose that benefit and need to cover the agent fee yourself. One Cartus-assisted buyer we spoke with discovered at closing that she owed a $4,200 shortfall because she’d chosen to work with an agent outside the Cartus network after touring homes with the network agent for two weeks. Nobody told her this was going to happen.
Luxury buyers working with Kuper Sotheby’s and Compass above $1 million encounter less percentage variability — 2 to 2.5 percent holds — but substantially longer exclusivity windows and much larger post-termination exposure in raw dollars. A 2.5 percent fee on a $1.5 million Tarrytown property is $37,500. A 60-day post-termination window covering all Travis County residential property in that price range is not a formality to skim past. Luxury buyers should have a real estate attorney review the buyer representation agreement before signing. This isn’t standard practice, but it should be. James Whitfield at Kuper said he doesn’t discourage attorney review; he sees it as normal at that transaction size.
Investors and high-volume buyers have the most bargaining power of any buyer category. Lisa Park at Bramlett works with investor clients at 2 percent flat regardless of price point and said she’d consider a tiered structure — 1.75 percent on the third and subsequent transactions in a calendar year — for buyers closing more than four deals annually. Priya Mehta confirmed similar terms.
Single-transaction buyers can’t access those rates. But knowing they exist calibrates expectations. The list price for buyer representation is not the clearing price if you have volume.
What to Ask Before You Sign the Buyer Representation Agreement
The questions below come from specific problems agents, attorneys, and buyers described during our reporting. These are not generic consumer tips. They’re the questions that would have prevented the disputes we documented.
What is your fee as a specific dollar amount on my expected purchase price? Don’t accept “it depends” or “we’ll see what the seller offers.” TREC Form 1-1 requires a specific figure. Marcus Reyes can tell you on the spot: “On a $580,000 home in Mueller, I charge $14,500.” Sarah Elliot at Realty Austin will say the same: “My rate is 2.5 percent — same home, same number.” Agents who hedge on this question are avoiding accountability, not managing complexity.
What does the exclusivity clause cover geographically, and will you narrow it to the zip codes I’m actually shopping? If you’re looking at Mueller and Cherrywood, your agreement doesn’t need to cover all of Travis County. Most agents will narrow it for a buyer who asks. One Compass agent said narrowing countywide exclusivity to three specific zip codes took her fewer than 30 seconds and came up in roughly 40 percent of her buyer agreements.
What is the post-termination claim window in your agreement, and what number will you put in that blank? Thirty days is reasonable. Ninety days is long. If the window extends past when you realistically expect to close, negotiate it down. Donaldson said buyers who locked in 30-day or shorter post-termination windows generated no disputes in her caseload. Buyers with 60- and 90-day windows were the ones who ended up in conflict.
If the seller’s concession falls short of your fee, exactly how is the gap handled at closing? Get this in writing. A $3,000 shortfall at closing on top of a down payment and standard closing costs is a real cash-flow problem for most buyers. One East Austin buyer discovered a $2,800 fee gap during final walkthrough when her lender’s closing coordinator flagged it. She asked the agent for a reduction. The agent declined. She paid.
If I’m shopping new construction in Cedar Park, Kyle, or Buda, do you know this specific builder’s co-op registration policy? An agent who can’t answer that hasn’t worked those submarkets recently. An agent who says “you can go look on your own, I’ll come to the second visit” doesn’t understand the registration rule. One Sunfield buyer ignored her agent’s warning and walked through a Lennar model home alone to grab a floorplan brochure. The on-site agent registered her directly with Lennar. Her outside agent’s claim was denied, and she spent the remainder of her purchase either paying an $8,750 fee out of pocket or negotiating down to Lennar’s in-house agent, which she hadn’t wanted.
What happens to my obligation under this agreement if I decide to buy in a different county? If you start in Travis County and end up in Williamson County, you want clarity on paper — not “it probably won’t matter.” Chris Tran in Kyle explicitly carves out Williamson County from his agreements because he works both counties and doesn’t want the entanglement. Ask for the same.
Austin’s fall 2026 buying season is running under genuinely different conditions than fall 2023. Inventory has risen modestly in suburban markets while staying constrained in the urban core. Sellers in Cedar Park and Kyle are more likely to offer meaningful concessions — which is good news for buyers there. Sellers in East Austin don’t have to, and most aren’t. The gap between what agents charge and what sellers cover is real, it’s documented, and it’s landing on buyers who didn’t know to look for it. The questions above won’t get you a better agent. They’ll get you a clearer picture of what you’re agreeing to before you’re legally bound to it.
