Hi I am a somewhat new agent, i've only been in the business about five months. Here's the thing though I already have almost $5 million in deals in escrow and I have about another $5 million to $7 million in potential deals that I am working on. I get my own leads and I also don't depend on my broker's brand for business so if I leave it doesn't really matter where I go - my leads and business go with me. Right now my commission split is 66%/34% (I get 66%), which I guess is better than 50/50, but I still feel like I am getting the shaft.

One of the reasons I am at this firm is even though it appears I know how to bring business in and close deals, I am still learning the ropes and all the paperwork, laws, escrow process, etc., so I still need some training and handholding. Which is why I am at this broker, they do give newbie agents a lot of support.

On the other hand - today at the office I got yelled at by my managing broker because I sent a black and white document to a color printer and was accused of wasting the firm's money because color ink is expensive. I was actually so dumbfounded I didn't know what to say. Then later the more I thought about it the madder I got. I am trying my best to focus on closing deals, yet I have to worry about what printer I use because I might get bitched at for wasting .08 cents worth of ink? Is this normal??

I was so mad later I felt like quitting. I decided that if I could find a broker with a better commission split that would still give me handholding and support until I get more experience I would leave. But am I dreaming until I get more experience? I don't know if I should stick it out for another year and then look, or what I should do. Any advice?

Do you have listings you would lose?

Frankly, I think you need a thicker skin. Yes, the broker was a jerk for yelling at you over that paper/ink issue but is it worth quitting over? The split is decent for now - when you become more experienced and no longer need the hand holding look for a better split with a less involved broker.

In our office we have a copier that is set up to do both bw and color. in order to do a color print we have to enter in an access code, which then registers the print to our account. Our broker does not charge us for bw copies but charges us the actual cost for color. So if we print on the machine we only get charged if it's color...and they don't care what we print as long as we pay our bill.

My broker did comment to me to make sure I had my print settings on bw so that I wouldn't get charged for a color copy (that happened a few times - I had it set up to print color but it was a bw document! LOL) but he didn't yell at me, just didn't want me to get charged when I didn't need to be charged...

Sounds to me like your broker was having a bad day and obviously is worried about money. You're doing good for a newbie! Good for you!

First off congrats on your current deals. May they close in a timely manner so that you can get paid. As far as your current Broker is concerned there are many factors that you would have to consider before deciding on whether to leave or not. Like how much support is your broker giving you? Do they provide free use of an office/desk? Do they charge you for Internet? Faxing? Printing? etc..... How well is there training? As you stated you said you need hand holding while you learn the ropes. Is this a high end real estate office that you work for? What is their typical price range of sales? If you are one of the few that are dealing with high end sales in that office then it might benefit your to negotiate a separate spit between you and your Broker. Surely the Broker would be smart to consider the split and not lose the extra revenue that you are or will be bringing in. Sounds like so far you are doing well in the office and are learning the ropes. I would give it at least a year or until you close your current deals and see how you feel. There are a lot of online brokers that offer their brand and only charge you a per transaction fee. They also offer telephone/Internet support. So, if you need that face to face interaction to learn that may not be for you.

As far as the Managing broker yelling at you I would either have a conversation with him/her discussing how you do not think it was very professional how things were handled. You could say that if there is any issue with that then you would have no problems paying for any overage you might use. I know my office use to have a card we would put into the office printer in order to use it. This could would charge us for volume used. Maybe your broker can or has something like that in play. I am sure you will get many more ideas from members later one. I am sitting here late at my computer reading the forum and thought I would just take a few minutes to comment on your post. Again you are a professional and should be treated like one. This is not high school where we are still learning how to deal with one another. If you feel like you cannot confront your managing broker you might want to bring it to your Principal Broker's attention.

You don't ever leave that split? With that kind of volume at my company you would be at 95% already.

12 million in business 6 months into your career? You would be in the top 5% of ALL Realtors here, not to mention soundly kicking my butt. Way to go!!

I agree.

And don't even think about leaving until something actually "closes".

Deals in Escrow and Potential Deals won't count for much with anyone else until they actually generate some income . . . . and the horizon is littered with the bodies of "dead deals" that no one else will remember except you.

Future Brokers will only want to know about your portfolio of Closed Transactions.

Good Luck.

Wow, you are tearing it up!! Hopefully the deals you have will close soon. As far as a broker or any person in your office yelling at you, I wouldn't put up with it. Sure, everyone has bad days and might be a bit on edge, but we are professionals, so act like one.

I'd have a chat with your broker to let them know you won't stand for that type of disrespect; if they apologize and say they were out of line, then you're good. If they get more upset, you know you have an emotional wreck on your hands that can't handle pressure and you might want to consider moving on.

Also consider what your broker is providing you; are you getting training that will help you master the market of the moment or is it something copyrighted 1995? The market is completely different now, so you must be getting up-to-date training on foreclosures, investors, and especially, short sales (with this foreclosure freeze nightmare we're currently going through, these are going to be the main source of business for a lot of agents).

Regarding your split, it's not bad, but when you keep closing all those deals, you will always be paying your broker...at $10M, $20M, $30M, etc. At my company, we have a capping system; you're on a 70/30 split until you reach a certain level of production, then you are at 100% for the remainder of your fiscal year. You would be at 100% at an estimated $2-4M in sales; something to think about. Keep doing what you're doing and you can be successful anywhere you want!

Thanks everyone for the good replies.

As for some of the feedback, my skin is actually pretty thick so it's not so much that I can't handle being yelled at, it's being yelled at for something so petty and stupid. Why put up with that if you can go somehwere else and not have to listen to it? I think he might have just been having a bad day so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt, so for now maybe it's best to stick it out until I have more experience then I can go. I do get charged a tech fee and some other misc fees, but no desk fee.

My firm isn't necessarily high end although we are affiliated with another firm that is. I just decided that I wanted to work in high end so that's what I went for, and so far it seems to be working. The one thing I am pretty good at is online marketing, so I almost constantly have a fresh stream of new leads coming in. And I can quickly qualify leads and weed out the junk from the good prospects, so I have a pretty efficient system. I am definitely a firm believer in "work smarter not harder" so I don't kill myself unless there's a good reason to.

Anyhoo..

As for the deals I have in escrow, I am definitely not one to count my chickens before they hatch. But all of them are are regular sales (no short sales, REO's, etc), they are all past contingencies and all are cash deals so I don't have any loans to worry about. I think the odds are better that they'll close vs fall out. My clients would lose too much in deposits if they cancelled at this point, so my confidence is pretty high.

Most of my deals at this point are buyers (which is fine with me, I love working with buyers), although next week I think i'll be listing a property for one of my existing buyer clients so that will be my first listing.

Anyway I decided today I am going to work at Starbucks more and if I need to print i'll just do it at home. The only time I really need to be in the office is because I like the interaction with other realtors, but most things I can do from home so if they want to [censored] at me i'll stay away, lol.

Where are you finding all these wonderful cash buyers that want regular sales? I need to get me some of those. Maybe it's a los angeles thing?

I had a cash buyer this spring. Of course it was a 15k piece of land. And here's the kicker...a 2% commission!!!

More than half of my current clients are international buyers who are acquiring real estate in the US due to the favorable exchange rate, either as investments or to move here. The lower the dollar goes, the more money I think will come to the US, so I only see my international business increasing. And it's easy to steer these clients away from short sales and REO's because they want a quick close without a lot of headaches and red tape. Of course they want a good deal too, but there's actually some pretty good deals out there that are regular sales and if your buyers are paying cash you can negotiate the price down even more.

You're throwing away money on this broker. You should hook up with a 100% broker who will charge you a small transaction fee per deal, or a monthly fee. These brokers are still available to answer questions, and you won't be paying through the nose for using the office equipment. You could easily hire a personal coach with the money you will save.

Contrary to what vermont says, you won't have any trouble finding another broker. You obviously have a good sphere of influence, and you will continue to do business. If I was you, I wouldn't take the listing next week until you find another broker.

I really don't think you need any hand holding. My goodness, you have a good pipeline there.

Do you speak other languages?

I know one of the agents in my office is fluent in Russian, Polish, Slavic, Italian, and "so so" with English - but she has million dollar buyers and is always closing these big deals (mini malls, buying entire developments, etc...). It's amazing!

Meanwhile some of my buyers are not even willing to pay $80,000 for a house - they want a habitable house for less than $60,000. What the heck? LOL

Okay agent 90210. The fine folks on this thread (myself included) have demonostrated that you deserve a higher spilt. Feel free to print this thread for your broker.

At your pace this should earn you an extra 40-50 grand a year at least. I think some Outback gift cards are in order!

It's been two days since the yelling. Have you seen the broker since then? Have they had an opportunity to appologize? Don't stop going there- give them every chance to make this right. We all learn something every day, including brokers. Once you get some of those deals closed it will be time to adjust your spit.

And that's precisely why I decided to go zero-overhead in my business approach. I don't even have an office, let alone a shared printer. Fewer opportunities for me to micro-manage my agents (plus less that I need to take out of their commissions). Everyone's got a printer at home anyway.

Anyway, I would take such petty things into account carefully; that will speak to the culture of the entire office as a whole. Anyone bringing in the kind of sales you're pulling, especially this early in the game, deserves to be treated with much more respect.

If you feel you need more training, definitely stick around until you're comfortable...but once you are, jump ship to someone who can give you a much higher split. Heck, with those numbers I'd probably hire you sight unseen (and on a flat-fee basis), and you can bet plenty of other brokers would as well.

So what happened with this? did you broker apologize?

I don't know about you all but I consider 5 months into the career to be a newbie. Consider yourself truly experienced if you've got at least 5 years experience, numerous & various transactions under your belt, and that you are CONSTANTLY educating yourself. A perfect example is financing - it seems to change every week if not every day along with disclosures and everything else.

If you're enjoying and believe the education from your broker is benefitting you, by all means STAY. You can further add to your education by attending classes and seminars - not just those that keep your licensing up to date but all kinds of real estate classes. One can never have enough education.

In my own case, when I wasn't getting answers to questions or feeling I was getting what I needed, I attended other classes and I also transferred my license to another agency. Unfortunately, I had 5 years under my belt, the education given was great for a newbie, but I was already seasoned. When you feel you can and are learning more obtaining it on your own AND you feel comfortable and confident about your education and experience, then maybe go to an agency that gives you a higher split. And, I would certainly DIG very deeply into an agency that only has an on-line presence. A broker should, and is, at least in Virginia, ALWAYS required to be available to their agents.

I agree with the other replies here - don't count your chickens before your eggs are hatched. No potential deal is a done-deal until the check (commission) is in your hand.

I need to move to a higher priced market...

Seriously...the average closed sale price in my county is $173,000 for the past year...and many of mine have hovered a right around 100,000 - 123,000. Had a few higher priced ones go under contract...but sheesh...I've never come close to $1,000,000 in one deal. I think the highest price I ever closed was $525,000.

In our area, anything that doesn't have tires and axles qualifies for luxury properties!

ROFLMAO!

Agent90210

I think that is the Beverly hills zip code, is that where your office is located?

Anyway I think your broker revealed his true character and if I were in your shoes I would renegotiate my contract and the first thing I would put in is a commission cap.

Your post reminded me of a friend of mines wife. She was a waitress and wanted out of the hours and the job. She got her license and joined a firm near their home. Within a year she was providing all the income for the office overhead and the major source of the brokers personal income. After a few years she asked her broker to change her split from 50/50 to 55/45 and he had a total fit and she backed off.

Her husband was totally ticked off, and when she wouldn't change offices he got even madder. By chance the space next to her office became available and the husband leased it and asked me to start a real estate company their using their last name and he would cover all the expenses.

I did and the people in town would just see the name and go into our office. He got his license and I would just introduce him as so and so's husband. After about six months she finally moved her license over, and when she got her brokers license I signed the company over to her.

Meanwhile mister greedy hothead couldn't stop his agents from jumping ship, and we watched his company sink slowly into a death spiral. She would have stayed with this jerk forever based on a lot of misconceptions, so when it is time for you to improve your position act fast, delay is always regretted.

Paperwork advice is available everywhere, escrow people, other agents, a better rate can pay for an experienced assistant, just reviewing closed files, no big thing, just get the info directly from the horses mouth. A producing agent is gold, and have you seen the price of gold lately?

It's been a long time since I did any business in that area but the brokers I knew back then would have sent a limo over to pick up an agent like you to add to the team.