Unfortunately, also in a good market I meet too many agents who struggle to make a living. A big percentage (more than 70%) of agents make less then $20k a year (after splitting with their brokerage its much less) and can not survive on real estate alone. Some have a second job or a full time job and do real estate part time, wishing that "one day" they will make enough money to be able to "hopefully" do it full time.
When I ask these agents:
"why do you stay with your current broker if you're not making any/enough money?"...
they often answer:
"I like my broker, he/she is a good person, they really care about me..."
or they say:
"I like being with a brand name company".
To me, both these answers are absurd. If an agent is not making enough money, although they have the "brand name" umbrella, or the "lovely broker", that should open their eyes to realize that: Making money has nothing to do with LIKING YOUR BROKER/AGE or the brand.
One of the greatest benefits we have as real estate professionals is being an independent contractor and having the ability to change brokerages whenever we feel like it. As a matter of fact, brokers are legally obligated to release a licensee immediately upon licensees request to have their license released. But I know many brokerages who hold their agents "hostage". They do it by writing inside the independent contract some words to demotivate the agents from leaving to another brokerage. For example, some brokers include a clause that reduces the split in case an agent who has a pending (under contract) deal decides to leave before the deal closes. This way, many agents stay with them until the deal closes while not being able to work with new clients since that will keep them in the same loop. It's an ugly situation that is hurting the licensees and paralyzing the weak.
This is why I decided that in Circle100 we will keep an open door policy. That means that ANY of our agents who wish to leave the company can do so at anytime without being penalized. They simply keep the same exact split they had before leaving (100% split). In addition, we understand that a company doesn't sell a house! It's the individual agents who sell homes. So, we empower our agents and focus all our training and coaching on making sure our agents are independent and developing their own brand. We strive to provide agents with real freedom and minimize dependency.
We believe all brokers should strive for that and provide the platform to actual use it. Luckily, most brokers don't. That's why Circle100 is Circle100.
Have a great day 😃