NAR Settlement Created a Compliance Burden. Most Brokerages Are Not Equipped.
NAR Settlement appears in the 2024 survey data. But compliance tools rank low in adoption. That gap is a liability.
The NAR Settlement took effect on August 17, 2024. Right around that same time, we were fielding the 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey with T3 Sixty, collecting responses from more than 100 brokerage leaders across the country.
One of the most telling results came from a single word cloud. When we asked respondents about the biggest opportunities ahead, "NAR Settlement" showed up prominently – right alongside agents, buyers, sellers, properties, market share, and value.
Brokerage leaders see the settlement as a chance to differentiate. That part makes sense. When the rules change, the brokerages that adapt fastest win. But the rest of the survey data tells a much less encouraging story about whether most brokerages have the infrastructure to actually capitalize on that opportunity.
The opportunity is real
The settlement reshaped how buyer agent compensation works. Written buyer agreements are now required before showings. Commission structures are negotiated per transaction instead of published through the MLS. Every deal potentially carries a unique compensation arrangement that must be documented, disclosed, and tracked. For a full breakdown of these requirements, see NAR Settlement Compliance: What Brokerages Need to Track Now.
Brokerage leaders recognize this. The word cloud from our 2024 survey shows that settlement-related changes are top of mind when they think about where to gain ground. The logic is straightforward: if your brokerage can handle the new compliance requirements cleanly while competitors fumble through them, you have a recruiting advantage and a client-facing advantage at the same time.
But recognizing an opportunity and being equipped to act on it are very different things.
Compliance ranks in the bottom half of tech concerns
We asked respondents to rank their technology-related concerns. Transaction management came in at number one with a score of approximately 7. Compliance and regulatory ranked approximately 4, landing in the bottom half.
That gap should concern you. The NAR Settlement is, at its core, a compliance event. It created new documentation requirements, new disclosure obligations, and new per-transaction tracking needs. But when brokerage leaders think about where their technology falls short, compliance is not at the top of the list.
This does not mean compliance is unimportant to them. It means they are not connecting their technology infrastructure to their compliance exposure. They see the settlement as an opportunity. They just do not see their current systems as a compliance liability.
Transaction management adoption is too low for this moment
The same survey revealed how deeply transaction management technology has actually penetrated brokerage operations. The numbers are not encouraging.
Approximately 30% of respondents said fewer than 20% of their agents use the brokerage's transaction management system. Only about 28% reported adoption rates greater than 80%.
| Transaction management adoption | Approximate % of respondents |
|---|---|
| Below 20% of agents | ~30% |
| 20-49% of agents | ~5% |
| About 50% of agents | ~10% |
| 51-80% of agents | ~22% |
| Greater than 80% of agents | ~28% |
In a world before the NAR Settlement, low transaction management adoption was an efficiency problem. It meant duplicated data entry, scattered documents, and slow closings. Those are operational headaches, but they are survivable.
After August 17, 2024, low adoption became a compliance problem. If your agents are not working inside a transaction management system, you have no reliable way to track whether written buyer agreements were signed before showings. You have no consistent record of how commission was negotiated and disclosed on each deal. You have no audit trail that proves your brokerage followed the new rules.
Every transaction that happens outside your system is a transaction you cannot verify.
Agents are disconnected from back-office tools
The adoption problem gets worse when you look at how agents actually interact with back-office systems. In the 2024 survey, approximately 30% of respondents said their agents have no interaction with back-office tools at all. Another approximately 30% said interaction is limited. Only about 28% said many of their agents actively engage with these systems.
| Agent interaction with back office | Approximate % of respondents |
|---|---|
| Yes, many agents interact | ~28% |
| Via admins only | ~5% |
| Limited interaction | ~30% |
| No interaction | ~30% |
We saw a similar pattern in the 2023 survey, where over 70% of brokerages reported that agents barely touched back-office tools. A year later, with the NAR Settlement now in effect, the numbers have not meaningfully improved. The disconnect persists.
This is the structural problem underneath the compliance gap. You can buy compliance software. You can write new policies. You can hold training sessions. But if approximately 60% of your agents either do not interact with your back-office systems or only do so on a limited basis, none of that matters. Compliance documentation depends on agents actually using the system where compliance gets tracked.
When agents are disconnected from the tools, compliance falls to your operations team. Manually. For every transaction. That is the same cycle we described in 2023, but now the stakes are higher because the regulatory requirements are more specific and the documentation burden is heavier.
The gap between perception and infrastructure
Here is what the 2024 data actually shows when you put it together:
- Brokerage leaders see the NAR Settlement as an opportunity to differentiate
- But compliance and regulatory technology ranks in the bottom half of their concerns
- Transaction management adoption is below 50% at roughly 45% of brokerages surveyed
- Approximately 60% of agents have limited or no interaction with back-office tools
- The number one area where leaders want to improve is enhancing customer experience, cited by approximately 28% of respondents
The priorities do not line up. Leaders want to differentiate through the settlement and improve the customer experience, but they are not investing in the compliance infrastructure that makes both possible. You cannot deliver a better customer experience if your team is spending hours chasing missing buyer agreements and commission disclosures. And you cannot differentiate on settlement compliance if most of your agents are not even inside your transaction management system.
For brokerages trying to figure out where to start, Compliance for Real Estate Brokerages covers the fundamentals, and How to Stay Audit-Ready gets into the operational details.
What the 2023 data already warned us about
This is not a new problem. The 2023 survey showed that back-office technology received only 20% of the average brokerage's tech budget. Over 70% of agents barely interacted with back-office tools. 16% of brokerage leaders said their technology simply checks a box.
In 2024, the "checks a box" number climbed to approximately 30%. Agent interaction with back-office tools stayed flat. And now there is a major compliance event layered on top of infrastructure that was already stretched thin.
The brokerages that took the 2023 data seriously and invested in their operational systems are in a fundamentally different position than those that did not. They have agents working inside a transaction management system. They have compliance workflows built into the process. They have the data to prove they are following the new rules.
Everyone else is retrofitting. And retrofitting compliance on top of fragmented systems is expensive, slow, and unreliable.
What needs to happen
The path forward is not complicated, but it requires honesty about where things stand.
First, treat compliance infrastructure as urgent, not secondary. The survey data shows that leaders rank transaction management as their top tech concern but rank compliance near the bottom. Those two things are connected. If your transaction management adoption is low, your compliance posture is weak. Fix them together.
Second, stop treating agent adoption as a training problem. If approximately 60% of your agents have limited or no interaction with back-office systems, the issue is not that they need more training. The issue is that your systems sit outside their workflow. Compliance has to be embedded in the transaction process itself, not bolted on as a separate step.
Third, get honest about your audit trail. Can you produce a complete compliance record for every transaction closed since August 17, 2024? If the answer is no, or if the answer requires someone to pull files from three different systems and a shared drive, you have a gap that grows with every deal.
TotalBrokerage was built for exactly this situation. It is a single system of record where transactions, compliance, commissions, and reporting all live in one place. Compliance requirements are built into the transaction workflow. Agents complete them as part of closing deals because the system requires it. The broker gets real-time visibility into every file across every office without asking anyone.
If you want to see what that looks like in practice, book a demo.
About this survey
The 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey was conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty. More than 100 brokerage leaders from top brokerages across the United States participated. The survey was fielded around the same time the NAR Settlement took effect in August 2024, making it one of the first datasets to capture industry sentiment during this transition.
For the full 2024 results, see State of Brokerage Technology 2024: What Changed in One Year.
FAQ
What is the NAR Settlement and when did it take effect?
The NAR Settlement resolved antitrust lawsuits against the National Association of REALTORS for $418 million. It took effect on August 17, 2024, and changed how buyer agent compensation is communicated and agreed upon. Key changes include the elimination of MLS-based compensation offers, mandatory written buyer agreements before property tours, and per-transaction commission disclosure requirements. Every brokerage in the country is now expected to comply with these rules. For the full list of what to track, see NAR Settlement Compliance: What Brokerages Need to Track Now.
How does the NAR Settlement affect brokerage compliance requirements?
The settlement significantly increased the documentation burden on brokerages. Every buyer-side transaction now requires a signed written agreement dated before property tours began. Commission structures must be individually negotiated and disclosed rather than standardized through the MLS. Brokerages need to maintain records proving consistent compliance across every agent and every deal. This means tracking agreement timing, commission disclosures, updated listing agreements, and agent training records for each transaction.
Why do most brokerages lack the technology for NAR Settlement compliance?
The 2024 survey data from TotalBrokerage and T3 Sixty shows the gap clearly. Approximately 30% of brokerages report that fewer than 20% of their agents use the transaction management system. About 60% of agents have limited or no interaction with back-office tools. Compliance and regulatory technology ranks in the bottom half of brokerage tech concerns. Most brokerages were already running on fragmented systems before the settlement added new requirements on top.
What is the connection between transaction management adoption and compliance?
Transaction management systems are where compliance documentation lives. Written buyer agreements, commission disclosures, and audit trails all depend on transactions being tracked inside a system. When approximately 30% of brokerages have fewer than 20% of agents using their transaction management tools, that means a significant portion of transactions lack any systematic compliance tracking. Every deal that happens outside the system is a deal you cannot verify during an audit.
How can brokerages improve their NAR Settlement compliance posture?
The most effective approach is to consolidate compliance into the transaction workflow rather than treating it as a separate process. When compliance requirements are built into the path agents already walk, adoption happens naturally. Agents complete required documentation because the system will not let a file move forward with gaps. This eliminates the manual chasing of documents and gives brokers real-time visibility into which transactions are compliant and which are not. For more on building this into your operations, see How to Stay Audit-Ready.
Did the 2023 survey predict this compliance gap?
The warning signs were there. The 2023 survey showed that over 70% of agents barely interacted with back-office tools, only 20% of the tech budget went to back-office operations, and 16% of leaders said their technology simply checks a box. By 2024, the "checks a box" number had climbed to approximately 30% while agent interaction with back-office tools stayed flat. The NAR Settlement did not create the infrastructure gap. It made the existing gap dangerous.
Does TotalBrokerage replace a brokerage's CRM or marketing tools?
No. TotalBrokerage is the back-office operating system for brokerages. It handles transactions, compliance, commissions, and reporting as a single system of record. It works alongside whatever CRM, marketing, or lead generation tools your brokerage already uses. There is no rip-and-replace required.
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