How Real Estate Agents Get Paid
If you’d like to understand how real estate agents earn a seller or buyer’s commission, you need to look at how agents get paid and how they share commissions. First of all, real estate agents work under a real estate broker. All fees that the real estate agent gets has to go through the broker. Only a broker can give a real estate commission and sign the listing agreement with the seller. New real estate agents usually receive only 30% or 40% of the total commission the broker gets. Other fees might be deducted like sign rentals, office expense, or advertising. Top agents might get 100% commission and only pay a desk fee to the broker.