Between what your side of the deal collects and what lands in your account there is a split, and that split decides more about your year than almost any other choice you make. What is strange is how little you can read about it: I looked for the terms of six brands recruiting in Florida and found exact figures only in documents filed by the two that are publicly traded.
So this guide does two things. It explains the four models you will meet and runs the arithmetic of each one on the same amount, so you can check it on a calculator. And it quotes only figures published somewhere you can go and read yourself.
The four models
- Capped split. The brokerage keeps a percentage until it has collected a set amount, then stops. That ceiling is the cap, and it runs in twelve-month periods.
- Uncapped split. The same percentage all year, however much you produce. The classic traditional brokerage arrangement.
- 100% with fees. You keep the whole commission and pay a fixed fee, monthly or per transaction, or both.
- Graduated split. You start at a lower percentage and it improves as you cross production thresholds. The tier resets each year.
Revenue share is not a fifth model. It sits on top of any of the four and is paid out of the brokerage share, on the agents you bring in. I cover it separately below, because it gets confused with the split constantly.
A cap turns the percentage into a moving number
This is the part almost nobody works out before signing. A capped split does not leave you the percentage it advertises. It leaves you that percentage until the brokerage has collected its cap, and everything after that whole. The more you produce, the better it gets, and your effective percentage climbs on its own.
With an 80/20 and a $16,000 cap, the brokerage stops collecting once it reaches that $16,000, which is 20% of $80,000. Here is what you keep, by what you produce:
- $40,000 of gross commission generated: you keep $32,000. That is 80%.
- $80,000: you keep $64,000. Still 80%, and this is the exact point the cap is reached.
- $100,000: you keep $84,000. Now it is 84%.
- $200,000: you keep $184,000. That is 92%.
Same contract, same signature, and the real percentage runs from 80% to 92% depending on your year. Which is why comparing an 80/20 against an 85/15 by looking at the numbers alone is the wrong calculation.
Where the two cross
Put an uncapped 85/15 beside it. At low production the 85/15 wins, because a cap you never reach does not exist. At high production the capped one wins, and by a good margin. The crossing point solves in one line: if 85% of what you generate equals what you generate minus $16,000, then 15% of your production is $16,000, and your production is $106,667.
- $60,000 generated: $51,000 on the 85/15, $48,000 on the capped one. The 85/15 wins.
- $106,667: $90,667 either way. An exact tie.
- $150,000: $127,500 on the 85/15, $134,000 on the capped one. The cap wins.
Change the cap and the crossing point moves, so run the arithmetic with the figures you are actually offered. What does not change is the shape: there is a production level below which the higher percentage wins and above which the cap does.
That level is what turns an offer into a decision. If you produce half of it, you are being sold an advantage you will not use. For scale: at the Florida median of five transactions a year, gross commission generated lands well below the $80,000 needed to reach a $16,000 cap. The state figures are in what realtors actually earn in Florida.
What is actually on file
eXp Realty files its agent agreement with the SEC, because it is publicly traded. Exhibit 10.11 to its 2024 annual report, in the form version dated November 4, 2024, states in section 4 that gross commission is split 80% to the agent and 20% to the company, and that once the company share reaches $16,000 within a consecutive twelve-month period it stops being collected until that period ends.
What the agreement does not state is which fixed dues and per-transaction fees are charged separately: it refers those to internal policies that are not filed. That omission matters and is worth flagging, because the fees are half the calculation.
The Real Brokerage is also publicly traded, and its Annual Information Form dated March 14, 2024 describes revenue share: agents licensed with Real can earn a share of Real's portion of commission revenue for agents they refer. That document publishes neither the split percentage nor the cap amount, and I looked through its quarterly filings without finding them.
For the other brands recruiting in Florida on the strength of their split, I found no figure in a first-party source anyone can check. Numbers circulate on recruiting blogs and individual agent pages, but those are not the contract, and a recruiting number nobody signs is no basis for a decision.
Revenue share does not come out of your production
This is the point most often misread in a recruiting conversation. Revenue share is paid from the brokerage share on what the agents you brought in produce, not from your own commissions. It does not improve your split by a single point.
That makes it a different thing from your pay for selling houses: it is income from recruiting, and from the people you recruited continuing to produce. It can be good or bad depending on what you want to do with your time, but it is not an answer to "how much of my closing do I keep?"
The questions to ask before signing
- What is the percentage, what is the cap, and at what amount of gross commission generated is that cap reached?
- Does the twelve-month period start in January or on the date I join?
- What fixed dues are there, monthly or annual, and what is charged per transaction before and after the cap?
- What happens to a deal signed in December that closes in January, with the period already reset?
- Is all of this in the contract, or does part of it live in a policy manual that can be changed?
- What does the brokerage keep if I leave mid-period with files still open?
The last one tells you the most about who you are talking to, and the answer belongs in the same document as the split.
The mistake of comparing two offers by percentage
Two offers with the same split can leave you with very different numbers, and the difference is rarely in the percentage. It is in the monthly fee, the per-transaction charge, errors and omissions coverage if that is billed separately, and whether the cap counts from January or from your start date.
The way to compare them is to build the full year of each one with your own transactions and subtract everything. That is half an hour of spreadsheet work, and it is the best-paid half hour in the whole decision.
Once the split is settled, what remains is the counting taking care of itself. Galilei Hub's Sales Book works out the split, the cap and the overrides at the moment of closing and exports them to accounting. But the decision above gets made beforehand, with a calculator, which is exactly what this guide is trying to let you do without us.