Today we are going to be talking about the pros and cons of Real Broker. Is it a good brokerage or is it absolutely bad?

Let’s jump into it with our first pro and that is caps and fees.

Caps and fees

The first pro of working at real broker is there is only a $12,000 cap after which you keep a 100% of your commission, and the split on that is 85/15 meaning you keep 85% and Real Broker will keep 15%.

That doesn’t mean much to most people because, if you’re like most agents, you’ll probably hit your cap. But if you’re a Realtor that only sells a few houses a year, it would be pretty nice to keep more of your commission.

In addition to that, there are zero monthly fees, in fact, there are zero fees that you pay out of pocket with the exception of one, and this is our first con, and that is a $149 sign-up fee.

It’s the only time you’re ever going to be spending money to work at real. I don’t really understand why these new brokerages are now charging sign up fees to work for them but, honestly, it’s really not that big of a deal and the benefits far outweigh that con.

Some other cons are, yes you could keep 100% of your commission once you reach that $12,000 cap, but there is a $225 transaction fee for every house sale after your cap. But if you hit $6,000 in transaction fees you do get that back. But we’ll talk more about that later.

The last con here is there is a $500 annual fee, which is pretty standard for most brokerages, however, the pro is you pay that out of your first two transactions of the year. So your first transaction is going to be a $250 annual fee, your second transaction is going to be a $250 annual fee.

So, again, it’s great because no money is actually coming out of your pocket. But it is annoying, however, every brokerage I’ve ever worked at charges an annual franchise fee.

Free Stocks (h2 header)

Our second pro to working at Real broker are the free stocks.

First up, you get a pretty big stock bonus when you refer realtors to join Real. You also get 25% to 50% free stock when you contribute up to 5% or 10% of your commission towards their stock program.

Now this number is going to be reduced once they hit 5,000 total agents but, for now, I’m going to take advantage of 50% free stock. It’s basically free money.

You also get free stock when you hit certain cultural and training awards or hitting $6,000 in your

post cap transaction fees like I was mentioning earlier. You can actually get that back in free stock, which is pretty cool.

Stock award for capping

They’ve also got a stock award for capping. So when you hit your cap of $12,000 you get an additional 750 shares of free stock.

So just for reference at the time of writing this post, looking at Real broker stock price right now, it’s about $1.87 a share now. Granted the whole stock market is totally in the gutter right now. If you’re paying attention to the stock market or just the economy in general, all stocks are doing horribly right now. But with that said, I think there’s a lot of upside and a lot of really great potential with Real broker, and I can see this stock being worth significantly more in the future.

So 750 shares of free stock about $1.87 a share, almost 2 bucks a stock, you’re about $1300-$1400 in free stock just for hitting your cap, plus all the other stock bonuses that you get on top of that as well.

Stock cons

Now like I said, not everyone cares about free stock so if you’re like me when I first joined real, you might not be interested in taking advantage of it.

Also, all the free stock you get does have a vesting period for one to three years, meaning you need to be at Real at the time of getting that free stock for one to three years depending on how you received that stock, whether it was a culture award or something you contributed.

Which basically means you have golden handcuffs and you have to be with Real in good standing order for a while.

It’s kind of annoying but, honestly, I don’t mind too much because I don’t plan on leaving Real.

So far I’m really impressed with them and I see myself staying here probably forever.

Technology

Pro number three is the technology. Now first up, Real has a really cool app for tracking your business.  Again, like the free stock thing, I thought it was kind of silly when I first saw it, but it’s actually really cool to be able to see all your broker information.

They also have a FAQ and a support line you can call in case you need help and they also give you access to the Chime CRM which, if you watch any videos on my channel, you know is my absolute favorite CRM.

It is so powerful, it automates so much of my business and I cannot speak highly enough of the Chime CRM. And it’s normally a pretty expensive CRM, if you were to buy it outside of Real broker it’s anywhere between two $500-$700 a month. Honestly, it’s worth paying for, I was paying $500 a month for the Chime CRM before I joined Real and it was worth every penny.

Now I only get it for $25 a month, which is awesome.

Technology cons

So, cons when it comes to technology…there are none.

Unlike these big box brokerages like Keller Williams and ReMax who waste tons of your commission money on building technology, Real just gives you the best technology that someone else already created and it’s awesome.

 Broker support and training

Now Real broker is really good for well established brokers.

Something that’s really important to me is having a broker on call that I can go to when I need help. Since I’m a managing broker, I know contract law really well and if I run into a problem, it’s probably a pretty advanced problem and I’m going to need support.

To be honest, this was one of my biggest fears when joining Real broker, was I going get the proper support that I need? I can honestly say, yes I do.

Training

The training at Real is also really good. Real tracks a lot of YouTubers and social media influencers like those on Instagram and TikTok like Myself, Karin Carr, Malcolm Lawson, and Brad McCallum. So, if you want really good high quality free training on how to market and build your business, Real has an amazing community that’s got a really great support system.

Training and support cons

With that said, there are some cons to Real brokers training and support, and the main one is that it’s not the best place for newer agents.

So if you’re a brand new agent and you’ve never sold a house before, you don’t know what a purchase and sale agreement is or a listing agreement, you’re going to have a bad time. The reason for that is Real broker is not going to hold your hand and make you do anything.

Unlike a lot of these brokerages like Keller Williams and EXP where they charge you monthly fees to work for those companies, and pretty much just try to get as many realtors as they possibly can, regardless of whether or not you know anything because they want you to pay those monthly and annual fees. Real broker, like we talked about earlier, doesn’t charge any of those fees, so they don’t want agents that don’t know what they’re doing.

Now that said, you don’t have to be some real estate expert selling 50 houses or even a dozen houses every single year. I’d say if you feel moderately comfortable and have a basic understanding of sales contracts, Real brokers should be able to give you the support that you need if you ask.

If you’re a brand new agent and you want to work at Real, you should probably consider either joining another brokerage that’s going to give you the support you need or finding someone at Real broker in your state who is willing to help you navigate the complexities of contract law, writing up contracts, filling out forms negotiations, and all that other complicated stuff. Because, as it currently stands, Real will not provide that training and support to you if you are a new agent.

Now I’ve been told this will change in the future. Real is a relatively new and young company so, at this current time, they don’t have that in place but they should have it in the future.

Cloud Brokerage

The next pro of Real broker is that it is a cloud-based brokerage, and what this means is that you have access to thousands of realtors.

Now if you were to work in a normal brick and mortar office like a RE/MAX or Keller Williams or Century 21, you’d have an office with maybe 100 realtors in there, and you can collaborate and you can talk to realtors about the local market. The thing about Real is we have almost 5,000 agents currently across the United States and Canada and you can message, talk to and ask any one of them for help and they’ll help you.

The con to this is that, if you’re extroverted like me, and you like going to the office, you’re going to have a rough time because Real does not have any brick and mortar offices, we all just work from home. Some realtors choose to get their own office space but, for the most part, Real isn’t going to give you an office. If you like going to the office you’re going to be on your own or you need to figure out some other accommodations.

Now, personally, I just go to a coffee shop and I’ve gotten more buyers from that than sitting in my office when I was at ReMax but to each their own.

Revenue Share

The last pro to working at Real broker is the revenue share.

Now I know all the cool kids and brokerages are doing revenue share but, to be frank, none are nearly as good as Real brokers. If you refer someone to Real broker and they sign up, they are now under you and you are their sponsor and now you can get up to $4,000 of their $12,000 cap. Meaning, if they hit their cap of $12,000, you get $4,000 and Real keeps the other $8,000.

Now, where this gets really cool is if the agent you brought on brings on other agents. Up to 5 different tiers, you can get some of that agent’s commission as well. This is honestly a great way to make some extra money on the side, which is obviously what I’m doing with making this article.

I’m trying to share the gospel of that which is Real broker. I swear it’s not a cult, it’s definitely not a cult. Okay, maybe it’s a little culty. But it’s not as culty as EXP or Keller Williams. Keller Williams, man that place is cult and I could say that because I used to work there.

Cons of revenue share

Now if you want to unlock additional tiers because, like I said, you can go five tiers deep, you need a certain amount of agents to unlock each tier.

So if you’re in tier one, you need five tier one agents before you can unlock tier two agents. So if you bring on an agent and that agent brings on another agent and you want to collect some of that agent’s revenue share, you need to have five other agents that you referred in your downline in order to collect that lower level tiers revenue.

Another con to revenue share is, a lot of the time, people think you’re just telling them to work at Real broker because you want to get a piece of the pie, and to take their money.

It kind of reminds me of all those EXP and Keller Williams memes where the really annoying agent was always trying to recruit you to join their brokerage.

It’s kind of annoying sometimes when I talk about Real broker, people look at me like I’m trying to sell them essential oils or something. But that’s okay because, honestly, I love real broker. I think it’s an amazing company and I think they have a really bright future ahead of them and they offer and give me so much value in return that I, personally, think it’s just an incredible brokerage to work at.

Questions about Real broker?

if you have any questions or want to personally talk to me about Real broker, you can send me an email at tommy@lazyagent.com. I’m happy to meet with you for a zoom meeting to answer any questions you might have about Real and whether or not it is a good fit for you.

To be honest, while I’d love to have you sign up and work underneath me and get your revenue share, I don’t want you to join Real broker and have a bad experience.

In fact, I just met with two different realtors, one in Florida and one in California, who I told “You know what? Based on your unique situation, I don’t think Real broker is a good fit for you. ”

But if you are curious about learning more about Real broker, I would love to talk to you more about it.

With that said my name is Tommy Mutchler, your lazy agent I I’ll see you, k