From Attorney to Agent: Why I Chose an eXp Realty Career

Let’s cut the fluff—starting a real estate career isn’t all sold signs and sunset selfies. Most new agents wash out before their business cards are even scuffed. I knew that. I’m a UC Berkeley Law grad, a former California attorney, and now a lawyer turned real estate agent. Translation: I don’t jump into risky ventures without some serious digging.

So when it came time to choose my brokerage, I put on my lawyer hat and did the deep dive. Calls. Interviews. More Google tabs than anyone should admit. And what do I find? Most brokerages are stuck in the past, nickel-and-diming agents while offering very little in return. Then I found eXp Realty, and my entire view of what a real estate career could be shifted.

If you’re trying to build a lasting eXp Realty career instead of becoming just another statistic in the 87% failure rate, this story’s for you.

Here’s your handy-dandy index:

Real Estate Agent Failure Rate

How did I know choosing the right brokerage would be super important? Well, as a lawyer and real estate agent, I understood the risks involved. The National Association of Realtors reported that 75% of realtors fail within the first year, and 87% fail within five years. There are lots of reasons for the agent failure rate.

That’s right! Only 13% of agents make it past a 5-year career! Oh my, better do some research to increase those odds.

Realtors as Entrepreneurs

Before I jump into what I learned about different brokerages, the first key thing I learned in my quest to find a great brokerage was that agents operate as sole business owners. I hadn’t thought about that before.

As a buyer and seller of my personal homes, I’ve worked with many agents over the decades and I always thought an agent’s brokerage was paying for something. I didn’t know what. Maybe the agent’s time? Maybe advertising costs for listings?

Costs of listing a home – Agents also pay for the costs of listing a home for sale – the professional photographers, the drones, the floor plans, the 3d home walk-throughs, the flyers, and other print marketing materials, all the advertising, and even the expense of the signs in front of the homes and the lockboxes that other agents will use to open the homes with their electronic app.

Association Fees – like fees to be members of professional associations like the National Association of Realtors, your state’s Association of Realtors, and your local agent association, and fees from your MLS (which stands for multiple listing service).

Key fees – you know, those little electronic apps that agents use to open houses with their phones. Well, agents pay for that key access to their local MLS every month. And, if an agent does business outside their main MLS? Well, they will have to pay key fees for that too, and maybe the association fees of the area as well.

General Business Expenses – Agents also pay for the cost of E&O insurance, which stands for Errors & Omissions, and all agents must have it. Agents also usually pay for their business cards, computers, phones, and cars, including all costs associated with using that car for business.

Lead Generation Costs – if you send postcards to a neighborhood to try to dig up some prospects, you’ll cover the costs of the design, printing, and postage for those. If you make phone calls, you’ll pay for a service to provide the phone numbers.

Bottom line: If you think a real estate agent just cashes big checks, think again. In this eXp Realty career (or any real estate path), agents front the costs—marketing, tools, time, gas, sanity. It’s all on us until (and unless) a deal closes—no salary, no safety net, just pure hustle.

Real Estate is Risky Business

Let’s be real: if the deal doesn’t close, the agent doesn’t get paid. That means hours (or months) of work can go straight to the unpaid labor hall of fame. As both a lawyer and a real estate agent, I don’t take lightly how unpredictable this career can be.

You can’t control clients, the market, or whether that dream house suddenly sprouts mold in the attic. What can you control? Your brokerage. Choose wisely—your odds of success depend on it.

My Traditional Brokerages vs eXp Realty Research

I started my search for a brokerage online. I narrowed down my choices first based mostly on the size and “success” of the brokerage. Small firms didn’t interest me as I knew that those would never have enough big profits to provide great support, tools, resources, and innovation to meet changing needs over time.

Here are the brokerages I chose to dive in further with: I researched traditional brokerages – Compass, Vanguard, Sotheby’s, Coldwell Banker, and Remax – because they are big names with a local presence.

And, I also researched eXp Realty because it’s the fastest-growing brokerage in U.S. history and on the planet. That must mean something, and eXp also has listed stock and is part of the S&P 600.

My research strategy included looking up online information, talking with agents and managers at the various firms, and also meeting in person with some brokerage managers.

Here are the highlights:

Commission Split Pay Out

What did I care about the most? Of course, how much would I get paid?

Traditional Brokerage Commission Split

My split offer? At Sotheby’s and Compass, I was told I’d get a 70/30 split – that’s 70% to me and 30% to them. That seemed pretty good, as those of you watching some of those reality programs about selling real estate have probably heard that most of those agents get a 50% commission split, with the brokerage keeping 50% of their commission checks.

So 70/30 seemed good. But, then I found out that there’s a huge “transaction fee” aka “franchise fee” of 6% per deal. Wait. What? Doesn’t that make my split 64/36?

Anyway, the other large brokerages had various payouts, all about the same as Sotheby’s and Compass. All these traditional brokerages are clearly impacted by the high costs of their structures – physical offices and layers of franchise middlemen.

The bottom line, traditional brokerages have high expenses and those must all be paid by the agents. Their commission splits need to benefit the brokerage to stay in business. Want to compare these yourself? Check out our real estate brokerage comparisons.

eXp Realty Commission Split

With that knowledge, I researched eXp Realty. Much easier to research because agent pay is totally transparent. Every agent gets paid the same and that is an 80/20 split to start with – so this eXp commission split is already better than the traditional brokerage’s commission split that I was offered.

But it gets better! Once an eXp agent has paid eXp Realty just $16,000 from the 20% that eXp earns per deal, that agent then “caps” and eXp pays that agent 100% of their commission for the rest of the agent’s calendar year.

Are you wondering how eXp Realty can afford to do this? I was. The answer? eXp can do it because they don’t have the huge expenses of the traditional brokerage model.

They don’t have the expense of physical offices (think Netflix instead of Blockbuster), and they don’t have multi-layers of franchise middlemen (usually 3 or 4 layers deep) who all need their cut of an agent’s commission. At eXp there are 2 layers of payment – eXp and the agents.

Oh, and before you think, but I need an office space, let me clarify. eXp’s full staff works on the cloud in our eXp World which is easy and fun to access for all agent needs. However, because eXp is a large profitable company, it wields a lot of negotiating power.

Therefore, they have worked out a deal with Regus shared offices which are located all over the world. eXp agents can use Regus lounge spaces for free! There are 2 Regus offices by me, so I can go there, if I choose, to meet clients or just hang out if I don’t want to work from home.

Fees Charged to Real Estate Agents

What was the next most important thing to me in deciding which brokerage to join? Fees, of course! How much would I have to pay the brokerage in fees?

All the brokerages, eXp included, have small fees, like $100, $200, or $300 for various things ranging from monthly fees to having a desk in an office, to a broker reviewing agent transactions.

But I got hung up on this huge difference:

Both Sotheby’s and Compass said there was a $2200 upfront fee that I would need to pay as soon as I joined their brokerage. I’d owe that amount every year before I did any deals at all.

What is the charge for? E&O insurance coverage. That’s errors and omissions insurance, and all agents must have it.

eXp charges agents for E&O insurance too, but it’s much less than what traditional brokerages charge and, most importantly, it’s not paid upfront before an agent makes a single dime.

Instead, eXp agents pay just $60 per deal that they close to cover E&O charges. And that caps too. I know another cap! Don’t you love it! E&O insurance caps at $750 for the year, so eXp agents will never pay the $2200 that the traditional brokerages charge.

The last thing about fees that I want to mention is that eXp has much lower “smaller” fees across the board, and also, agents get a lot more value from the brokerage for those small fees than what was available from the large traditional brokerages.

Training for New Real Estate Agents

On top of that, the quality of the training is top-notch as it’s much of it is taught by currently producing top agents. It’s easy to access any training I want to attend, as they are all video calls. So, no trip to an office.

Also, eXp publishes a list of what training is available in the upcoming week. That allows me to choose to attend meetings with topics that challenge me and skip ones I am confident about.

All the traditional brokerages had a much less organized way of agent training, or they just told me to go to a seminar, one that would cost me over $2000 to learn. I preferred the free, cool online access that eXp offers.

And, There’s More…

So yes—after all my legal sleuthing and brokerage deep dives, I landed at eXp Realty. As a lawyer and real estate agent, I knew I wasn’t signing up for just any brokerage. I wanted one that could actually back me up with the tools, training, and support to make this whole real estate gig work. But what didn’t I expect? How much more there was to the story after I joined, especially when it came to eXp Realty’s sponsor program.

Now, I’ll admit it: I got lucky. Like four times over.

First lucky break? I even found out about eXp Realty’s sponsor structure. This isn’t some tired “team lead gets a cut” model like you see at traditional brokerages. Nope. eXp has a seven-layer sponsor support system. (Yes, seven. Like real estate inception.) It was built to reward agents for helping others grow, not just for recruiting’s sake.

Second win? I learned early on that choosing your eXp sponsor is a one-shot deal. Once you name someone on your eXp application, that’s your person. No take-backs unless you leave the company for a year and come back. Yikes. So yeah, I took that part very seriously.

Third stroke of genius (or maybe obsessive research)? I chose the Wolf Pack. Based on reviews, calls, and actual conversations with agents—not just shiny promo videos—I could tell they were different. They offer video courses, weekly live coaching, and most importantly, real community. This wasn’t just a team—it became my people.

And finally, let’s talk about the fourth jackpot: revenue share. I didn’t even dig into that too deeply before I joined, but it turns out eXp Realty isn’t just the best when it comes to passive income—it’s the only brokerage that lets agents get creative about it. You can build your own brand within the model, bring agents into your group, and provide them with your own custom value stack.

Which is exactly what my partner Doug Smart and I did. We launched Smart Agent Alliance, our own sponsor group within eXp Realty. Agents who name us as their sponsor don’t just get our full arsenal of passive income support, lead generation tools, templates, and training—they also get everything the Wolf Pack offers. That’s right: two powerhouse teams for the price of… free. Literally. It’s all included.

Bottom line: I chose eXp Realty, I chose the Wolf Pack, and I built Smart Agent Alliance—and the value we offer is more than anyone else. It’s no wonder eXp keeps topping Glassdoor’s best places to work, anonymous agent reviews, and smashing growth records. As someone who left law to build something bigger, I’ve found the kind of career support most agents only dream of. And now, I get to offer that same support to others. That’s what I call a solid return on research.

Why My eXp Realty Career Was the Best Business Decision I’ve Made

Looking back, choosing an eXp Realty career wasn’t just a smart move—it was the game-changer. Traditional brokerages made me feel like I’d be running a marathon in flip-flops: high risk, low support, and paying for the privilege. eXp, on the other hand, offered real structure, real value, and real opportunity. The transparent commission splits, capped fees, stock awards, and training that actually teaches you how to succeed? Total no-brainer. Unlike every other brokerage still clinging to outdated models, eXp Realty is the only publicly traded brokerage to stay profitable over the last five years. That tells you everything you need to know about which ship is staying afloat.

But the real secret weapon? Team support. By joining with the Wolf Pack and starting Smart Agent Alliance, I didn’t just get a brokerage—I got a powerhouse team that offers so much!  Smart Agent Alliance runs meetings so you can gain passive income. How awesome is that? It’s like free money.  Smart Agent Alliance also gives agents access to:

All free for agents who join through the Smart Agent Alliance sponsor line. Learn more about how eXp Realty and Smart Agent Alliance can help you scale your career. Not sure if eXp is the right fit for you? Take this quick quiz to find out if eXp is a good match, especially if support and systems matter to you.

Not sure how passive income grows?  You can play with the numbers using our exp realty revenue share calculator to see how much you could earn. Not sure how to become a real estate agent? We’ve got loads of helpful info on that too.

Frequently Asked Questions