I am a new broker and I want to work for myself. I would like to start my own company. I want o start small from my home office and later decide if I want to expand or not. What I can’t decide on is do I want to start a new company or buy into a franchise. I have made contact with a national company and there will be some cost involved but also many rewards that could help me sell/list more properties.

Thanks for the help

Andrew M.

Hi Andrew,

I don't know of many franchises that will allow you to work out of a home office. When I was looking into purchasing a franchise I did not find a single one that allowed it. (I didn't research every single franchise either - so it doesn't mean it isn't possible).

Sign up for as many franchise offering circulars as you can and see what makes sense.

My franchise fee was worth every penny I paid. Be sure you choose one with a lot of resources available to you (great things are access to free graphic design, attorney services, etc).

Good luck!

I left a large (61 office) independent company to go on my own and work out of my home office as a one person agency. The large company operated a lot like a franchise with corporate fees out of commissions to pay for serv1ces shared by the many offices however the company owns the offices unlike a franchise where the local broker owns the office. I don't expect to ever go back to the big company environment.

Someone i know owns a franchise in a city about 100 miles away from me.I can be a sub-office under his company and use my home office. I would be paying no franchise start up fee but he would get a % of my money and all fee's that the franchise gets.so i am looking at paying about 20% of the income. would having the large franchise name give me that much extra business?

Thanks for the input, here is what i didnt say in the first post.


Someone i know owns a franchise in a city about 100 miles away from me.I can be a sub-office under his company and use my home office. I would be paying no franchise start up fee but he would get a % of my money and all fee's that the franchise gets.so i am looking at paying about 20% of the income. would having the large franchise name give me that much extra business?