PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — New rules go into effect Saturday surrounding the sale of homes, the result of lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and large brokerages, claiming unfairly high agent commissions.

In many home sales, the buyer has an agent, just like the seller, and until now, the commission paid by the seller covered both sides.

“[Those two types of commissions] are gonna be decoupled, and there’s gonna be a negotiation with the seller on the list side, and then it’s up to the seller if they want to offer buyer representation compensation,” said Susan Jenkins in a Friday afternoon interview. She and her husband Barry own and run Better Homes and Gardens Native American Group, a Virginia Beach real estate brokerage.

They say with the new rules taking effect Saturday, sellers can choose not to pay the buyer’s agent. But for the seller, that could backfire, especially if the buyer’s on a tight budget.

“The buyer may or may not be able to qualify for the loan, because if they have to take, maybe their down payment money and pay their agent, they’re not gonna qualify,” Barry said.

Now that the compensation for the buyer’s agent will be independent of what the seller is willing to pay, the Jenkinses see it leading to more effective representation for people buying homes.

“Now, buyers are gonna have their own agent not depend upon cooperating with the listing agent,” Barry said. “I think the end result will be buyers’ agents will become a little more adversarial, a little more aggressive.”

Their advice to sellers is to at least consider paying the buyer’s agent compensation in order to case the widest-possible net of prospective buyers. They agree with predictions that the new rules will weed out the agents who aren’t completely dedicated to real estate — as many as 40 to 50% of them over the next couple years.