EDINA, Minnesota — The experience of buying or selling a home is changing. A recent settlement by the National Association of Realtors now requires buyers and sellers to negotiate commissions on the home sale, including who pays and how much.

A recent reform has changed the way realtors are paid to help people buy and sell their homes. It is part of a $418 million settlement announced in March between a nationwide group of homeowners and the National Association of Realtors.

“It’s going to be more transparent for consumers and it should really be a frictionless process,” said Jamar Hardy, president of Minneapolis Area Realtors. “Previously, the seller’s agent would charge home sellers a fee, usually 5 or 6 percent, which would then be split with the buyer’s agent. On a $500,000 home, that would be $30,000 in commission.”

Lawsuits have alleged that this common practice violates antitrust law, although the association has long argued that the commissions have always been negotiable.

Buyers who previously did not have to pay a commission to the agent who helped them buy a home will now have to pay for the service. Sellers will have to pay for their agent, not the buyer’s agent.

Brokers and sellers will be prohibited from making compensation offers to buyer brokers on the Multiple Listing Services (better known as MLS).

“If sellers don’t offer payouts up front, those negotiations will take place at the time of the offer. So there will be small changes here, because this compensation offer will also no longer be visible to us,” said Hardy.

Real estate commissions in Minneapolis have fallen marginally since March, after the agreement was announced, falling from 2.6 percent in March to 2.56 percent in mid-July.

Analysts at TD Cowen expect the agreement to reduce brokerage commissions by 25 to 50 percent. Another change requires buyers’ brokers to discuss their compensation in advance.

“I think that’s going to be the biggest change for clients and agents. We’re not just letting people walk through the house because we have a showing, we’re letting them walk through quickly to look at everything,” Hardy said.

There are 22,000 real estate agents in Minnesota, and Hardy said some may go out of business because of the changes, but others will thrive.

“I think that in the end, competition will prevail and people will really know what we do for a living and what they are paying for,” Hardy said.

The new rule changes, which the National Association of Realtors agreed to as part of the settlement, will take effect on Saturday.