The split gets all the attention. These are the line items that quietly decide whether you keep 80% of your GCI — or 55%.
Franchise royalties (5–8% at RE/MAX, Century 21, Coldwell Banker) apply to every deal, all year — often even after you "cap." At $250K GCI, an uncapped 8% royalty is $20,000/yr on its own. KW's 6% royalty caps around $3,000; that difference alone can exceed most brokerages' entire cap.
Monthly fees and desk fees are owed whether or not you close. eXp's $85/mo is $1,020/yr; a $1,500/mo RE/MAX desk fee is $18,000/yr before your first commission. If your production is uneven or you're ramping up, fixed overhead is the most dangerous cost category. Models with no monthly fee (Real, most flat-fee plans) shift that risk back to the brokerage.
"100% after cap" rarely means 100%. Post-cap transaction fees ($75–$415 depending on brokerage and country), broker review fees, risk management/E&O fees ($25–$50 per closing) keep accruing. A capped agent doing 40 post-cap deals at $285 each pays another $11,400.
This is the biggest invisible line item. A working solo stack bought separately — CRM (~$840/yr), IDX website (~$2,400/yr), lead gen (~$3,600/yr), transaction management (~$480/yr), e-signature (~$240/yr) — runs $7,500+/yr. A brokerage that includes most of it can cost more in fees and still leave you ahead. That's the whole point of value-offset math.
Sign-up fees ($99–$300), annual brokerage fees ($750–$1,200 at some virtuals), tech onboarding, and — read your ICA — file-transfer or pending-deal fees if you leave. Ask what happens to your pipeline the day you switch.
New agents often owe mentor-program splits (e.g. an extra 10–20% on first deals). Team members pay team splits on top of brokerage economics. Some offices charge per-file compliance or TC fees ($100–$500/deal). None of these appear on the recruiting slide.
The subtlest one: a brokerage that saves you $5,000 but provides no leads, weak training, or a brand that costs you one listing a year has negative ROI. Cost is only half the equation — that's why we score included value and fit, not just fees.
Every cost on this page is modeled in the calculator and compare tool.