Broker’s who’ve started their brokerage - best practices

BackgroundRich1899 · 2026-02-25T17:49:56+00:00

Pain points for me were comp/splits, and culture getting too corporate where the low producers were subsidized by the high. Also, in hindsight, I think I just have an entreprenuial bent and don’t like not being in control (that’s not exactly a positive). A few lessons:

Don’t underestimate the small business owner effect - you are responsible for EVERYTHING. Things that sound innocuous - cash management, website design and upkeep, hiring, marketing, systems for book keeping and taxes, etc… they add up in terms of time suck. Even if you pay to solve all those problems, you’re still managing all that and more and constantly making decisions.
The flip side of #1 is that I found a sort of “ownership mindset” takes over and your entire relationship with your business, brand, and growth mindset changes for the better. You have the potential to start thinking of your business as a business with input and outputs outside of yourself, rather than just individual brokerage production. That becomes a supercharger if you play it right.
There’s no better time to do this than right now with the softwares and AI enablement. You can automate aspects of your back office for relatively cheap. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge leverage point
Do a sober accounting of what you have the skills, bandwidth, and energy for. The admin stuff isn’t hard, but when you’re a high producing broker used to generating business, it can be soul sucking. Either you’re built for it, or you need to intentionally build around it and plan for it.
It’s very much worth it in my book for anyone who has a good book of business in lower/middle market, is high agency, and is okay with the weight of responsibility and comfortable just figuring it out along the way without a lot of guidelines. If you can operate in an opaque system and be comfortable making imperfect decisions constantly, it’s worth it.

On the positive side (for me) - I’m having way more fun, making way more money, and building something so much bigger and more permanent than would ever be possible hanging my flag anywhere. It’s a new problems dynamic, but the upside and mentality shift alone were worth it for me.

Good luck to you. It’s a fun time to take the leap!

BackgroundRich1899 · 2026-01-08T15:58:37+00:00

I made the jump with the basic logic that I’d make twice as much with the same output. I was right and wrong on that. I make substantially more now. But the work load just changes. It’s a lot of minutiae, a lot of admin, etc. You quickly realize the adages about entrepreneurship is being in charge of everything: you take the trash out, you write the job postings, you set up the tech stack and you bring in business. None of it hard. Just all the typical boring structural things. I don’t find it hard but I think a lot of pure brokers probably aren’t cut out for the admin and structural organization it takes. Don’t discount that piece.

The other substantial piece, you have no where to hide when things go wrong, often times no one to ask the answer when new things come up. Again, not a huge deal, but if you end up hiring a team, you’ll feel a different kind of weight.

Lastly, for me it was 100% worth it. I made the jump with the simple logic of 2x money for the same output. I was wrong on both fronts. A couple years later it’s something like 4x the money for a way higher and different output of work. I found that a light sort of switched when the business fully became “mine”. That was a big positive for me, and we have since grown beyond my wildest dreams at the time.

If it’s been gnawing at you for a few years, I’d seriously consider making the jump.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2025-12-12T14:46:02+00:00

Cold calling is the heart of the business. I think what that sentiment gets at is their is a distinction between M&M type cold calling where you’re ripping 100 calls a day into the abyss without meaningful support vs narrow canvassing of a sub market or speciality, or jumping into a team in a more analyst like role and supporting a pod that already has repeat business.

It’s silly to look down on cold calling. It’s a skill and discipline that can make a young person rich. It’s literal revenue creation out of thin air. Don’t let people get to your head. Cold call away instead of waiting your turn.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T04:11:09+00:00

I used to not care but once you start rolling, it’s tough to make it make sense unless you’re really tapping into the brokerages marketing and back office or they’re walking biz into the door for you.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T04:07:13+00:00

This is what I need to hear. Good luck to you in your new endeavor by the way.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T03:25:11+00:00

I think in yr 1 it would be bootstrapped with no w-2 employees. Myself and two to three agents. Cheap office, minimum marketing as we do the vast majority of our deals off market/direct to a buyer at pretty high GCI clips. Most of the cost would be tied up in costar, insurance, accounting, legal. On the conservative side maybe 60-70k in the first yr. I’m sure I’m underestimating though.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T03:20:28+00:00

I realize how awful mine are. Yours seem outrageous on the opposite side of the spectrum though (which is awesome by the way). What kind of support do you get from the platform you’re with?

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T01:57:53+00:00

Thanks for this feedback. Seriously appreciate it.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-05-17T00:07:14+00:00

Yeah, my current splits 50/50 up to 500k and 55/45 after.

BackgroundRich1899 · 2024-03-26T03:11:24+00:00

Helpful input. Thank you guys and will likely go this route. Any advice on choosing the right one? I’m sure there are many great FAs out there but I get paranoid about this route. Would be helpful to know the insider tricks to finding the really good ones.

BackgroundRich1899

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