Roles
What is brokerage?
A brokerage is the licensed firm under which individual agents operate. It carries legal responsibility for their transactions and provides the supervision, compliance and infrastructure they work within.
In most jurisdictions an agent cannot practise independently — their licence is held under a broker who is accountable for their conduct. That accountability is the core of the relationship, whatever else the brokerage provides.
Beyond compliance, brokerages differ enormously in what they offer: training, lead generation, marketing support, technology, office space, and the commission split that pays for it all.
Choosing between models is essentially a question of what you can supply yourself. An agent who generates their own leads is paying for less than one who relies on the brokerage for pipeline.
Related terms
A commission split is how the fee from a transaction is divided — between the brokerages on each side, and then between each brokerage and its individual agent.
A listing agent represents the seller, taking responsibility for pricing, preparing and marketing the property, managing enquiries and viewings, and negotiating offers on the seller's behalf.
A real estate team is a group of agents and support staff operating under one brand within a brokerage, sharing leads, systems and administrative capacity, usually led by a senior producing agent.
Gross commission income is the total commission an agent or brokerage earns before any splits, fees or expenses are deducted. It is the standard headline measure of production volume.