Your home search
Save homes, share collections, and keep conversations together.
Secure email or text links expire in five minutes. This is your home-search account, not the agent website editor.
A 90/10 split is better than 100% commission whenever the 100% plan's fees, plus the tools you would otherwise pay for yourself, cost more than 10% of your gross commission income (GCI). That is true for a lot of working Austin agents, and it is not true for everyone.
"100% commission" almost never means you keep every dollar. The model usually swaps a percentage split for fixed charges: a monthly fee, a fee on every closed transaction, and a technology and marketing stack you assemble and pay for on your own.
So the honest comparison uses four inputs from your last 12 months:
Here is how the broker's share is calculated under each structure:
The 100% figures are illustrative, not any specific company's pricing. Swap in the numbers from any agreement you are weighing. The structure of the math is what matters.
Take an agent with 8 sales averaging $9,000 in gross commission (for example, a $450,000 sale at 2%; commission rates are negotiable in Texas) and 6 leases paying $1,200 each.
The 90/10 agent comes out $180 ahead. The leases explain most of it. On a $1,200 lease, a $450 per-deal fee takes 37.5% of the check. Under a 90/10 split, the same lease costs $120.
Fixed fees favor volume. Consider an agent closing 20 sales a year at $12,000 each, with no leases, for $240,000 in GCI.
Here the 100% plan keeps the agent $13,200 more. If you work at that level and already run your own systems, compare carefully, and ask us on a call how our numbers look against your real book.
At the other end, a lighter year also tilts toward 90/10. With 3 sales at $9,000 ($27,000 GCI), the 90/10 cost is $5,700 and the 100% plan costs $1,800 + $1,350 + $3,000 = $6,150.
The split is not just a fee line. At Vince Young Realty it covers tools most 100% agents buy separately:
For more on the fee side, read Austin brokerages with no transaction fees or see how the split compares on a single deal in 90/10 vs 70/30 on a $500K sale.
Pull your closings from the last 12 months, separate sales from leases, and total what you spend on marketing tools. Plug those into both formulas above. If the 100% plan wins by a wide margin, that is useful to know. If it is close, the included tools usually decide it.
Want a second set of eyes on the math? Send us your numbers or call (512) 785-7489, and ask us for the complete fee schedule.
It means the brokerage does not take a percentage of your commission. Instead, it charges fixed amounts, usually a monthly fee and a fee on each closed transaction, and sometimes other charges listed in the independent contractor agreement. You keep the rest of the check. Because those fixed charges do not shrink when a deal is small, the true cost depends on how many transactions you close and how large each check is. Always read the full fee schedule, not just the headline number, before you compare it with a percentage split.
The brokerage keeps 10% of your gross commission, and you pay a flat $250 a month, or $3,000 a year. There are no transaction fees on sales or on leases. On $100,000 of GCI, that works out to $10,000 plus $3,000, or $13,000 total, leaving you $87,000 before your own business expenses and taxes. Those are the published terms. For anything else, such as E&O or association dues, ask us for the complete fee schedule so you are comparing full costs.
Usually when your deal mix changes. If you are adding more leases, smaller sales, or spending more each year on your own website, CRM and signs, a percentage split starts to look better. A good checkpoint is year end, when you have 12 months of closings to plug into both formulas. Before moving, remember that pending deals belong to your current sponsoring broker under the listing and buyer agreements, so plan the timing with your current broker and review your independent contractor agreement.
On the split alone, yes, by 20 points of GCI. The question is whether the extra fixed fee offsets it. At Vince Young Realty the $3,000 yearly fee equals 20% of $15,000, so any agent grossing more than $15,000 a year keeps more under 90/10 than under a 70/30 split with no other fees. At $60,000 of GCI, 70/30 costs $18,000 while 90/10 plus fees costs $9,000. See our full breakdown on a $500,000 sale for the per-deal view.
Start with your trailing 12 months. List every closing with its gross commission and mark which were leases. Add up what you paid for websites, CRM, IDX, signs and print. Then apply each model's formula: percentage split plus fixed fees for one, fixed fees times transactions plus tool costs for the other. Subtract each total from your GCI. Finally, check what each option includes, because a tool you would have to buy is a real cost. Keep the spreadsheet; it makes negotiating easier.
Leaving out the costs that are not on the brokerage's rate sheet. Under a 100% model you often pay separately for a website, IDX feed, CRM, signs and marketing print, and those can run a few thousand dollars a year. The second mistake is ignoring leases. A fixed per-deal fee of $450 takes 37.5% of a $1,200 lease commission, which quietly drags down your effective rate. Compare total annual cost against total annual GCI, not one deal at a time.
They can change it a lot. Austin has an active rental market, and many agents in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties close lease deals through ACTRIS, the MLS of the Austin Board of REALTORS. Lease commissions are small relative to sales, often around a month's rent or a share of it, so any flat per-transaction fee eats a large percentage. Vince Young Realty charges no transaction fees on leases, so a lease simply follows the 90/10 split.
Assume four sales at $8,000 gross each, for $32,000 of GCI; rates are negotiable, so this is only an illustration. Under 90/10 at Vince Young Realty, the cost is $3,200 plus $3,000, or $6,200, leaving $25,800. Under a hypothetical 100% plan at $150 a month and $450 per deal, plus $3,000 of self-bought tools, the cost is $1,800 plus $1,800 plus $3,000, or $6,600, leaving $25,400. The 90/10 agent keeps $400 more and gets the tools included.
Because the published terms are simple and the tools come with them. You keep 90%, pay $250 a month, and pay no transaction fees on sales or leases. You get your own custom website on Savvy Studio, an AI CRM with the Grant assistant and Follow Up Boss integration, a mobile app for you and your buyers, free yard signs and listing print, plus access to health and private club benefits. Contact us for details on those benefits.
Gather last year's closings and your tool receipts, then fill out the form at vinceyoungrealty.com/join-us and mention you want a 90/10 versus 100% comparison. You can also call (512) 785-7489. We will walk through your GCI, deal count and lease share, and give you the complete fee schedule so nothing is left out. If the numbers favor staying where you are, you will still leave with a clearer picture of your costs.
90/10 split, $250 a month, no transaction fees on sales or leases. Nothing goes to your current brokerage.