A buyer broker (also called a buyer’s agent) is the licensed real-estate professional who represents the buyer’s interests in a residential purchase. On a typical resale, the buyer broker helps the buyer search for homes, negotiate the offer, and guide them through due diligence and closing. The buyer broker is compensated by a commission split from the sale price, paid by the seller’s agent out of the listing commission.
For spec builds and pre-sale custom homes, the buyer broker becomes relevant to the builder’s closing math. If a spec home is sold through the MLS, the builder typically budgets a buyer-broker commission (typically 2.5 to 3 percent of the sale price) as a marketing cost. The builder’s net proceeds are the sale price minus buyer-broker commission, seller closing costs, and any builder discounts or sales incentives. On new construction, some builders offer incentives directly to buyer brokers or pay higher commissions to encourage deals; others may exclude buyer brokers or require buyers to work with in-house sales agents. Understanding how buyer-broker compensation flows and what it costs is important for pricing and profit forecasting on spec builds.