I started out at Metro Brokers then went to Solid Source.Have had my own brokerage since 2007.
Originally when I saw Michelle's success from 45 agents to thousands I thought I could do the same thing but doing a virtual brokerage to keep costs low and not have brick and mortar costs (leasing or owning a building) for agents to use.
I spent about 5 months recruiting and was up to about 50 agents charging a 300 per transaction fee with no dues and FMLS only access. GAMLS you have to pay an ongoing fee for instead of when a sale occurs like FMLS.
With FMLS you still have to hit yearly minimum brokerage sales numbers or get hit with a big fee.
What I learned from that experience is that many agents have a sense of entitlement.I would find that maybe only 20% to 30% of the agents would have a closing that month.
So to scale this if I had 100 agents you might have 6,000 to 9,000 a month gross coming in.
For that though it is a major headache.Many agents are part-time and rusty or an investor wants to run a hair brained scheme.My favorite is a new agent that just left a 50/50 brokerage that has almost zero training and wants to join my firm.
They would want you to train them and spend hours and hours for a 300 trans fee.I am not even mentioning the amount of paperwork you have.
Agents not keeping up with education requirements,not paying license fees and getting a lapsed license,getting a suspended license for child support, government loans,etc.
Getting IRS orders to take any commission your agent gets and pay to them etc.
I now have about 18 agents and haven't taken anymore for over a year.I do way better and make more working my own deals.Paperwork and headaches are less and I don't babysit have to constantly watch agents anymore.
I would say it's good to have the brokerage license just don't add any agents unless you keep it small and they agree to a fat commission split for your time invested.
If they him and haw kick them to the curb!!
The 100% model everyone and their brother is doing it today in Atlanta.I see stuff for 150.00 a transaction now.It's saturated and there just isn't the money in it now that used to be.
Hope it helps.