Compensation models

Compensation is a key issue for agents working on a team, and there are many permutations for agent income. For many agents, especially those new to the industry, joining forces with a real estate team is a fast-track to sales and earnings they could not achieve on their own.

Within teams, scaling based on each agent’s level of experience is common, as the majority of agents in the field remain independent contractors. Productivity is the other cornerstone on which team compensation systems are built. If an agent is not creating sales opportunities and generating leads, they are not adequately serving the business.

On Straub’s team, leads often come to him, and he confers with his client manager to delegate them based on such factors as location, price point, agent availability, and recent performance. “There are only five of us, so it just depends,” he says. “If someone’s in the office hustling and closing deals, they’re going to get the deal.”

For Passaro, compensating agents on the team involves giving credit where it’s due, an approach that, he notes, has competitive advantages outside of simply paying his agents for their work.

“If the agent does the transaction, the agent should get credit for the sale,” Passaro says. “That helps from a competitive standpoint. We want to make sure that they have sales under their belt to show the clients that they have done work.”

Some team leaders continue to list all of their team’s transactions under their own MLS number to bolster their own brand. Others choose to forgo inflating their own numbers in favor of giving their agents the credit they deserve for the work they have done in making sure the transaction goes through.

Passaro and Straub let the members of their respective teams put each transaction under their own MLS number.

“I used to [put their sales under my number], but I changed it about two years ago,” Straub says. “Some people are really big sticklers on the numbers, but I realized my clients really do not care if you are closing $20 million or $50 million. They just want to be serviced properly.”

Passaro puts it in terms of giving credit where it’s due and proving that agents have experience.

“If the agent does the transaction, the agent should get credit for the sale,” Passaro says. “That helps from a competitive standpoint. We want to make sure they have sales under their belt, to show clients they have done work.”