Our mission is to help people make better decisions. Real estate agent commissions or realtor commissions are fees paid to the agents listing a house for sale as well as the agent representing the buyer of the house. This is usually done at the close of a real estate sales transaction. These fees can vary greatly regionally, within a agency, and even for a single realtor. Experts say that realtor commissions are usually determined by the real estate office, agency, or market region. A portion of these fees usually also go to the real estate office with which the agents work.