A recent survey of home listings on MLS-PIN reveals that some listing real estate agents offer buyer’s brokers as little as 0 percent of a home sale price as their share of the total commission, while a subagent would receive a larger share.

Despite their growing popularity and acceptance within the real estate industry, buyer’s agents – those real estate professionals who bill themselves as true advocates for homebuyers – still face resistance.

Nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than in the unequal commission splits used by real estate agencies throughout the Bay State.

A recent sampling of homes featured on the Multiple Listing Service-Property Information Network, the largest multiple listing service in New England that is used by more than 16,000 real estate agents, shows that some agencies offer lower commission rates to buyer’s agents.

Some agencies offer anywhere from zero to 1.5 percent commission rates to buyer’s agents while so-called subagents – who along with a listing agent work exclusively for the home seller – are being offered 2 or 3 percent commission rates.

Reasons for the different commissions vary, according to seller’s and buyer’s agents interviewed by Banker & Tradesman. Some blamed the unequal commission splits on confusion about “double-dipping” – the belief that buyer’s agents were collecting fees from homebuyers and then seeking the commission, usually deducted from the seller’s proceeds, on top of that.

Others said listing agents often lack the proper training to know how to work with buyer’s agents. One listing agent said lower commission rates are offered because a buyer’s agent’s involvement in a real estate transaction creates more work for the seller’s agent – requiring more hours spent on home inspections and financial details.

Whatever the reason, the lower commission rates cause friction within the industry – although, according to Realtors, less so than when buyer’s agents first came on the scene about a decade ago.

“You automatically create an adversarial relationship, which is a detriment to the industry,” said Michael L. Durkin, a Realtor and certified residential specialist and buyer representative with Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Marlborough, of uneven commission splits.

Bob Hudson, an exclusive buyer’s agent, explains it more directly.

“It’s discrimination against a buyer agent,” said Hudson, president of Homebuyer Realty Inc. in Stoneham. “It shouldn’t be like that. We’re all Realtors.”

The debate over buyer agency and commission splits goes to the heart of efforts to create more specific laws that govern buyer’s and seller’s agents’ responsibilities and duties.

Unlike other states, Massachusetts lacks so-called agency laws. Efforts to pass such laws in Massachusetts failed about five years ago. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors has revived the issue by creating an agency task force that is examining whether to pursue legislation.

Paul J. Harrington, president of Lexington-based The DeWolfe Cos., said a lot of the confusion would be cleared up if specific laws are passed to define agent responsibilities and duties. Harrington was a member of the MAR task force that proposed specific agency laws several years ago.

Unequal commission splits are the primary way listing agents discourage buyer’s agents from showing a property, Harrington said.

Others discourage buyer’s agents in more subtle ways, like not being very flexible with house showings or “delaying communication,” Harrington said.

Harrington, whose company was one of the first major firms to allow its employees to act as buyer agents in 1993, said the resistance to buyer agency is rooted in lack of proper training and education about how to work and communicate with buyer’s agents.

Many agents are confused about how much they should divulge to buyer’s agents, real estate professionals said.

“In some cases, it’s not necessarily intentional,” Harrington said. “It’s more confusion and fear of change than it is any kind of intentional thought process to exclude buyer agency from the marketplace.”

An ‘Injustice’

Even as the debate rages, exclusive buyer agents and other real estate professionals maintain that acceptance of buyer agency is growing. About half of all homebuyers are using buyer’s agents to help them in their housing search, said Ronnald Huth, an exclusive buyer’s agent and president of Hamilton-based Buyer’s Choice Realty.

Huth said fewer listing agents are offering lower commission rates and embracing buyer’s agents because they realize they would be shutting out a good portion of the homebuyer market if they didn’t.

“The ones that are offering less are a small number because major firms already see the value in this [buyer agency], since most buyers who purchase a home now are represented,” Huth said.

Offering lower commission rates to buyer’s agents is harmful to the seller because it limits their property exposure to qualified buyers, Huth said.

The other result, or “injustice” as Huth calls it, of uneven commission splits is that the buyer’s agent becomes a seller’s subagent to sell the property.

But Huth and other exclusive buyer’s agents, like Laurie A. Wilkey, said true buyer’s agents decline the commission fee and the offer to act as subagents of the seller.

Years ago, when buyer’s agents started emerging, listing agents felt that they could control commission splits, but slowly exclusive buyer’s agents have overcome that control, according to some real estate professionals.

Exclusive buyer’s agents work out contracts that include a built-in fee – either a flat fee, a percentage of the purchase price or a “fee for service,” said Wilkey.

Wilkey said the lower commission offering won’t keep an exclusive buyer’s agent from showing a property because of those types of contracts, but it will discourage agents who work as both buyer’s and seller’s agents and don’t really understand how to get paid.

“When I look at the MLS book and I see 2.5 percent being offered to a subagent and 1 percent to a buyer agent, I ignore it,” said Wilkey, president of the Massachusetts Association of Buyer Agents and regional manager for Southeastern Massachusetts at Buyer’s Network-Rustlewood Co.

“With exclusive buyer agents, the buyer knows what our fee is. We will get paid,” said Wilkey, who is a certified exclusive buyer agent, accredited buyer representative and manager. “It doesn’t make a big difference for us.”

Some Realtors, however, believe that buyer’s agents are not truly advocating for the homebuyer as they should be.

Richard Cahill, president of Norwell-based Jack Conway & Co., said exclusive buyer’s agents should examine every aspect of a property – doing everything from a title search to a thorough inspection. But in today’s real estate market – where multiple offers come flowing in for one house, sometimes within a matter of days – it is difficult for a buyer’s agent to take time to do this.

“In the market that exists, that’s [true homebuyer advocacy] an impossibility,” Cahill said.

Conway & Co. refuses to represent buyers and acts only as a sellers’ agency because its leaders believe there is a conflict in representing both. All agents ultimately work for Jack Conway, Cahill said, and as such can’t represent two different parties in the same negotiation. Cahill posed the question: How can agents working for the same company but for different client interest (sellers and buyers) guarantee that sensitive financial information will not be shared? Conway agents assisting buyers act as subagents to listing, or seller’s, agent.

“We felt that under the law of agency we could not act as the seller and buyers’ agents,” Cahill said. “We feel that we owe total loyalty to one or the other under the present law.”

At least three homes listed by Jack Conway agents in MLS-PIN in July included lower commisisons for buyer’s agents. A $209,900 Lakeville home accompanied a 2 percent commission for buyer’s agents, while a $389,000 home in the same town offered 1 percent. In contrast, subagents were promised a 2.5 percent sales commission.

Cahill refused to discuss why agencies offer unequal commission splits, saying that every property and contract has different “circumstances.”

He did offer an example of why a seller’s agent may offer less to a buyer’s agent. He said if an agent spends thousands of dollars on advertising a new subdivision, the seller’s agent may not be as willing to split a commission evenly.

As for Conway & Co., Cahill said the company tries to work with buyer’s agents fairly.

“The main purpose is to sell the house,” he said.

While Realtors contend that is their primary goal – to bring a willing and capable buyer and seller together – some acknowledge that they work mostly with subagents and seller’s agents and do not practice as buyer’s agents themselves.

“We work with them but we don’t do a lot of it,” said Wayne Oliver, broker owner of Re/Max Advance Realtors in West Bridgewater. “My philosophy is, I don’t care where my buyer is coming from.”

At least two agents within Oliver’s office listed homes this month with 1 and 2 percent commissions for buyer’s agents, while offering 2.5 percent for subagents. Oliver said the agents are independent contractors of Re/Max and are able to set different commissions. However, Oliver said he offers equal “or very close” commission splits.

When asked to explain why agents offer different commissions for buyer’s agents, Oliver said “the listing broker ends up doing a lot more work” when a buyer’s agent is involved.

Oliver elaborated by saying that in an agent-and-subagent relationship, there is a division of responsibilities. One agent will help with the home inspection, for example, while the other will check on financing. That cooperation doesn’t exist with buyer’s agents, he said.

Oliver said he sees agents as “facilitators” in the transaction and that buyer’s agents are not “as advantageous to the buyer as they’re [buyer’s agents] portraying.” As professionals, real estate agents are obligated to disclose certain property conditions, and buyer’s agents aren’t performing any unique tasks, he said.

“My experience is that the majority that specialize in buyer agency are just looking for a niche,” said Oliver. “They don’t do the work that they claim … A buyer is going to spend what they want to spend and a seller is going to take what they’re going to take.”

Lower commissions were also offered for at least two homes listed by J.L. Pratt Realtors in Canton. In those cases, the listing agents offered zero percent and 0.01 percent to buyer’s agents and 2.5 percent commission for subagents.

Janet Pratt, owner of the company, refused to comment on the unequal splits.

Another company, Century 21 GR Assoc. in Stoneham, listed at least five homes in June and July with zero and 1 percent commission splits for buyer’s agents and 2 percent commission shares for subagents.

George Riccardelli, broker owner of the agency, did not return a call seeking comment.

According to Durkin, the Marlborough Realtor, the unequal commissions put sellers at a disadvantage because it narrows the market of prospective homebuyers.

“Why would you put your sellers in that position?” Durkin said. “That’s like shooting yourself in the foot … If the seller understood the significance of that, they would object to it.”

Durkin said about 80 to 90 percent of his homes sales come from buyer’s agents. “Buyer’s agents are welcome and in some cases more knowledgeable than traditional subagents,” he said.

Hudson, the Stoneham exclusive buyer’s agent, said the relationship between seller’s and buyer’s agents has improved over the last several years and resistance to buyer’s agents has slowly diminished.

Two or three years ago, listing agents would tell sellers they did not want to deal with buyer’s agents, Hudson said. They would tell sellers that buyer’s agents would reduce the home price and “nitpick” about the home inspection.

“They [buyer’s agents] were terrifying them,” he said.

Despite such examples, Marlene Mallory, owner of Buyer One in Westford, said she does not feel that an “adversarial relationship” exists between buyer’s and seller’s agents.

However, Mallory said the lower commission rates “don’t make sense.” In a seller and subagent deal, the seller and his or her agent are responsible for any information that a subagent provides to a prospective homebuyer, she said.

“You think they [seller’s agents] would want to work with a buyer agent rather than a subagent because it would release the seller and the listing agency from liability,” she said.

Mallory acknowledges that some seller’s agents have old views of how buyer’s agents work and how they get paid. Recently, Mallory dealt with a seller’s agent who thought she was collecting both a commission and a fee from the buyer. She had to sign a statement saying that the commission was her only fee.

“I don’t think it has been discouraged,” Mallory said of buyer agency. “I do believe that it hasn’t been publicized that a buyer has the right to be exclusively represented.”