Systematic National Evidence of Steering by Real Estate Agents

Policymakers have long worried that real estate agents steer their buyer clients away from properties that pay buyer agents low commissions. They consider commission-based steering a key reason why U.S. real estate commissions have remained high despite low barriers to entry. We used a new dataset to provide the first systematic, nationwide evidence that buyer agents do in fact steer clients away from properties that offer low buyer agent commissions. All else being equal, we found that low-comm