What No One Tells Buyers About New Construction and NAR Changes in St. Johns County — A Straight-Talk Guide from a 20-Year Agent

Northwest St. Johns County is one of the most active new construction markets in northeast Florida. Massive planned communities like Rivertown and Silver Leaf are adding thousands of homes to an area already defined by well-established neighborhoods, top-ranked schools, and a quality of life that draws families from across the country.

That growth has created a specific kind of buyer: one who walks into a builder's sales office without a real estate agent, signs paperwork they do not fully understand, and assumes the site agent sitting across the table is looking out for them.

They are not.

Windy Keene, a 20-year real estate veteran who has been selling homes in this market since 2005 and now leads her business under Round Table Realty in St. Johns, has watched this scenario play out many times. In a recent episode of the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, she offered one of the most candid breakdowns available on what unrepresented buyers actually risk — and what they stand to gain when they have someone genuinely in their corner.

The Site Agent Works for the Builder. Full Stop.

Builder sales offices are professionally designed to feel helpful. The site agents are often friendly, knowledgeable, and genuinely enthusiastic about the product they are selling. None of that changes the fundamental dynamic.

“The site agents don't represent them,” Windy said flatly. “They represent the builder. So it's really, really important for buyers to have somebody that represents them.”

This distinction matters most when something goes wrong — when construction timelines shift, when contract language needs to be interpreted, when a buyer discovers that the lender the builder is pushing may not be offering the most competitive terms.

Windy described a recent transaction that illustrates this precisely. Her buyer discovered, with Windy's help, that a private lender was offering better terms than the builder's in-house financing. The builder had agreed to work with the outside lender — but then failed to communicate with them or provide the documentation needed to keep the transaction moving.

“It really took me getting in there to get the lender what they needed from the builder and title just to make it work,” Windy said. “They would've never known that they would've gotten a better deal with another lender. And then it would've been a really hard thing if they would've been trying to negotiate those things themselves.”

Her buyer's gratitude was direct. The client called to tell the builder's sales manager that Windy deserved full credit — that she was the only reason they were still purchasing there after what had been, in the buyer's words, a disaster.

The Builder's Lender vs. Outside Financing: Why It Matters More Than Ever

Builder incentives tied to in-house lenders have long been a source of confusion for buyers. The rate buydowns and closing cost credits that builders advertise can look compelling — and sometimes they are. But Windy's advice to every new construction buyer is to compare.

“I encourage them to speak to the builder's lender, but also to speak to outside lenders,” she said. “You need to check and make sure they're giving you the best deal.”

In the current interest rate environment, where a fraction of a percentage point can translate into hundreds of dollars per month in payment difference, this comparison is not optional — it is essential. And it is the kind of analysis a buyer representing themselves, navigating an unfamiliar contract process while also choosing finishes and managing move timelines, is poorly positioned to conduct objectively.

An experienced agent who knows both the builder's product and the local lending landscape provides a perspective the site office cannot.

The NAR Settlement Did Not Kill Buyer Commissions. It Changed Who Pays Them — And How.

The National Association of Realtors settlement that took effect in 2024 was widely reported as a move that would drive buyer's agent commissions down significantly. The theory was that by removing commission information from MLS listings and requiring buyers to sign representation agreements upfront, market pressure would push agent compensation lower.

Windy has watched the opposite happen.

“They expected our commissions to go down,” she said. “And they have gone up based on this.”

The mechanism is straightforward. Before the settlement, buyer's agent compensation was posted on the MLS and was visible to everyone — buyers, sellers, and agents alike. If a listing showed 2.5%, that was what the buyer's agent accepted. No one negotiated upward. No one asked for more.

Now, buyer broker agreements establish compensation in writing before a single showing is scheduled. Those agreements typically reflect the full value of the service being provided — often 3%. When buyers make offers, they can ask sellers to cover that compensation as part of the transaction. And sellers, for the most part, are agreeing.

“Before, like when they were just marketed online, whatever the seller was offering, we all knew it. So it was like you went in knowing it. You didn't ask for more. You certainly wouldn't have asked your buyer for more. Now you've created all this documentation that says we're getting paid this — and so we're getting paid that. It definitely had the complete opposite effect of what I think the intention was.”

What Sellers Need to Understand About Buyer's Agent Compensation Today

The new framework also has direct implications for sellers — and Windy makes sure her listing clients understand them clearly before making any decisions about whether to offer buyer's agent compensation.

Her explanation is practical and unambiguous. When a buyer's agent sits down with a client to begin a home search, they sign a buyer broker agreement specifying their compensation. If a seller's listing does not offer to cover that fee, the buyer is technically responsible for paying it — in cash, at closing, on top of their down payment and closing costs.

“Your house is automatically 3% more for that buyer than the other four homes on that agent's showing list,” Windy said. “And it's not even just 3% more — it's 3% more in cash, because it's a closing cost issue. So you're, I mean, they might not even look at your house.”

In a market where buyers already have more choices than they did two years ago, being the listing that imposes an extra cash burden on a buyer is not a negotiating strategy. It is a way to reduce your buyer pool before the first showing is ever scheduled.

“Right now we want to make your house more marketable to that buyer,” Windy said. “And right now, I haven't really come across any seller that has said I'm not paying. So it would be kind of a standout — and it would affect their buyer pool.”

VA Loan Assumptions: A Benefit Hidden in Plain Sight

One of the more specialized topics Windy addressed on the podcast reflects both her depth of experience and her willingness to go the extra distance for clients who need it. Several months ago, she successfully navigated a VA loan assumption — representing both sides — that required her to spend several hours each week on the phone with the loan servicer, tracking progress, escalating cases, and keeping both parties informed and motivated through a process that can easily stretch past 90 days.

VA loan assumptions allow a qualified buyer to take over an existing VA mortgage at its original interest rate — potentially locking in a 3% rate in a market where new loans are originating at significantly higher levels. For veterans who qualify, the savings can be substantial over the life of the loan.

The challenge is the timeline and the process. Unlike a traditional mortgage, where a loan officer has every incentive to move quickly, VA assumptions are handled by the servicer's loss mitigation or assumption department — a team with no relationship-driven urgency and limited accountability to external timelines.

“They are completely unreachable,” Windy said of the servicer staff. “Not at all” incentivized the way a loan officer would be.

Her advice for buyers and sellers considering a VA assumption: verify that all parties have the patience the process demands, confirm the buyer has the cash — or a secondary financing solution — to cover the equity gap between the assumable loan balance and the purchase price, and make sure you have an agent experienced enough to manage the follow-up the servicer will not.

The Collaborative Agent Mindset That Makes Transactions Actually Work

Running through all of these specific topics — new construction, commission structures, VA assumptions, insurance navigation — is a consistent philosophy that Windy returns to repeatedly: real estate transactions require agents on both sides to function as collaborators, not adversaries.

“We still have to work together,” she said. “And we do. That's kind of the beauty of our job — that we can work together. We are better together when we're both being rational and trying to think through a problem and not trying to one-up each other.”

That orientation, she acknowledges, requires emotional discipline — especially in negotiations where the stakes are high, language gets pointed, and ego is tempted to take over. Her practice when something makes her feel reactive: shelf it, sleep on it, look at it fresh in the morning.

“Usually when I look at it the next morning, it doesn't make me mad at all,” Windy said. “I'm able to actually process it differently and respond better.”

For buyers navigating a new construction purchase, the message is clear: bring someone to the table who will do that work on your behalf — who will read the contract, compare the lenders, escalate when the builder goes quiet, and stay rational when the process gets complicated.

For sellers trying to understand the post-NAR commission landscape, the takeaway is equally direct: the rules changed, but the math still favors making your home accessible to the widest possible pool of qualified buyers. Restricting that pool to save a few percentage points is a false economy in any market — and especially in this one.

Twenty years of experience navigating every version of the northeast Florida market has given Windy a perspective that no single cycle can provide. The specific tools and forms change. The regulations evolve. The buyers and sellers who walk through the door carry different needs each season.

What does not change, she believes, is the fundamental value of having someone genuinely knowledgeable — and genuinely honest — sitting across the table from you when the stakes are high.