Should Your Team Get a Better Split?

The Power of Numbers... "Do real estate teams -- like an 'industrial team' or an 'office team' -- increase the bargaining clout of producers?" Wow, that's a hot potato. It's a question recently sent to me by a PikeNet Dispatch reader.

He continues. "How can teams and their support staffs drive the most advantageous economic deal [read commission split] with the 'house'? It's kind of like a mini unionization of a small group of producers. Have you written about this before?"

Nope. I haven't written about this issue, although I have written about several other commission issues -- like lease renewals (Jan 27), co-brokerage (Apr 7), and commission rebates (Aug 16).

It's like sports talk radio. There is rarely a single "right" answer. The definition of "fairness" rests in the eye of the beholder. Each market has its own definition of "fairness," steeped in its own local culture.

That's why commission rates can vary widely around the country. And company splits can vary within a local market. Even within a single company, commissions can sometimes vary. Hey, everything is negotiable!

Yet "teamwork" and "transparency" are the mantras of business gurus. So wouldn't you think that commissions for leasing, say, 10,000 square feet of office space would be similar in New York, Atlanta or Seattle?

Likewise, wouldn't you think that house splits would tend to equalize within local markets? Otherwise, wouldn't one house attract all the top producers? Finally, should teams receive higher splits than individual brokers? ... What do you think?

-- Peter Pike