S
Starter Story
Business Idea
Become A Real Estate Broker
About
Becoming a real estate broker requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell brokerage services, or selling brokerage services online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key stats
market size
$164B
starting costs
$26.5K
gross margin
90%
time to build
9 months
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Employee & Freelancer Expenses | $0 | $5,000 |
| Equipment & Supply Expenses | $500 | $5,000 |
| Website Costs | $232 | $6,425 |
| Business Formation Fees | $600 | $4,700 |
| Vehicle Expenses | $0 | $10,000 |
| Retail Business Expenses | $0 | $11,150 |
| Advertising & Marketing Costs | $75 | $3,986 |
| Software Expenses | $150 | $2,670 |
| Other Expenses | $0 | $800 |
| Office Space Expenses | $35 | $1,100 |
| Specific Industry Expenses | $0 | $500 |
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Zillow | zillow.com | #123 |
|
Realtor.com | realtor.com | #320 |
|
unknown | loopnet.com | #6,179 |
|
StreetEasy | streeteasy.com | #7,149 |
|
Commonwealth of Kentucky | ky.gov | #13,505 |
|
Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Home Values, Agents and Advice | remax.com | #14,824 |
|
eXp Realty | exprealty.com | #18,926 |
|
|
State of Wyoming | wyo.gov | #35,244 |
|
Douglas Elliman | elliman.com | #37,713 |
|
Local Real Estate Expertise with a Global Reach: Engel & Völkers | evrealestate.com | #79,808 |
|
AceableAgent | aceableagent.com | #95,980 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
| Little startup costs required | The cost to start a real estate broker costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 1,592 to 51,331. |
| Rewarding work | Starting a real estate broker can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about. |
| High customer retention rates | Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer. |
| Pick & choose the clients you work with | Real Estate Brokeres have the ability to choose the clients they work with. You have the freedom to work with only a few loyal clients or with hundreds of clients! |
| Control of workload | With becoming a real estate broker, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you. |
| Gain exposure and experience | This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you! |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
| Motivation of employees | If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees. |
| Longer Sales Process | A real estate broker can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers. |
| Work can be inconsistent | As a real estate broker, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have. |
| Lack of benefits | With a real estate broker, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming. |
| Taxes | As a real estate broker, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it. |
| No safety net | Typically, as a real estate broker, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times. |
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