How to Compare Real Estate Brokerages: Beyond Commission Splits
Every agent has had this conversation. Someone at a closing, or in a Facebook group, or over coffee, mentions their split. 90/10. 100% with a cap. And every time, it sounds like the whole story.
It isn’t.
The split is the number brokerages lead with because it’s the easiest one to make look good. What it doesn’t show you is everything sitting underneath it — the cap, the transaction fees, the monthly fees, the tech fees, E&O, CRM costs, compliance fees. Add those up over a year, and two brokerages with the exact same “headline split” can leave you with very different numbers in your account.
“When you’re comparing brokerages, are you looking at the commission splits, or are you looking at what you actually pay them all year?
That’s where a lot of agents can miss a lot. You’ve got to look at the cap, transaction fees, monthly fees, technology fees, E&O, CRM costs, and any other compliance fees.
Some brokerages can advertise a great split, but if you look at all the extra fees that stack up, your true cost may actually be a lot higher than you expected.
At Fiv Realty, we want to keep the model simple and transparent, with a clear cap option and structures designed to help you actually make money and keep more money.” — Nazar Kalayji, Fiv Realty
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The Split Is the Trailer, Not the Movie
A split is marketing shorthand. It’s designed to be compared at a glance, which is exactly why it can mislead you. Brokerage A advertises 90/10. Brokerage B advertises 85/15. On paper, A wins. But if B has no monthly fees and A charges $85 a month for tech plus a $40 transaction fee on every deal, the agent doing 24 deals a year at Brokerage A just paid over $3,000 more than the split alone suggested.
That’s the gap most agents never check — because nobody hands you that math up front. You have to go looking for it.
The Line Items Nobody Asks About in the Interview
When an agent is deciding where to hang their license, the conversation almost always stays on the split. Here’s what usually gets left out of it:
- Cap structure — how much you pay in before you’re capped, and whether that cap resets monthly, annually, or not at all
- Transaction fees — charged per closing, on top of your split, whether you’re capped or not
- Monthly fees — recurring, whether you close a deal that month or not
- Technology fees — for a stack you may or may not actually use
- E&O insurance — sometimes bundled into your fees, sometimes a separate bill you don’t see coming
- CRM costs — a system fee layered on top of tools you already pay for elsewhere
- Compliance fees — small individually, but recurring, and easy to forget you’re paying
None of these show up in a headline split. All of them show up in your bank account.
Do the Math Before You Sign, Not After
Here’s the exercise worth running before you commit to any brokerage: take your last twelve months of production, and price out what each brokerage would have actually cost you — split, cap, and every fee on the list above. Not the pitch. The invoice.
Most agents are shocked by how close two “very different” splits end up once the fees are factored in. Some are shocked the other direction — a lower advertised split turns out to be the cheaper option once the extras are stripped away. Either way, you don’t know until you run it.
Where Fiv Realty Lands on That Math
At Fiv Realty, the model is built to hold up under that kind of scrutiny. A clear cap option. No maze of stacked fees designed to claw back what the split gave you. The goal isn’t to win the headline number — it’s to win the invoice.
Ready to Run Your Own Numbers?
If you want an honest breakdown of what your business would actually cost — and actually earn — at Fiv, set up an exploratory call. We’ll go through the full fee structure with you, line by line.
Phone: 435-212-4233 | Email: join@fivrealty.com
About Fiv Realty: Fiv Realty is a high-split, low-cap, cloud-based brokerage built for agents who want to keep more of their commission, build passive income through revenue share, and collaborate with a nationwide network of growth-minded professionals. Learn more at fivrealty.com.
