Cloud brokerages are quickly becoming the norm in the real estate industry! With the lower fees, better technology, and additional streams of income into our businesses, it’s no wonder why they are becoming so popular. As of today, the three biggest cloud brokerages at eXp Realty, REAL Broker, and LPT Realty.
In this article, I am going to be doing a side-by-side-by-side comparison of all the costs and fees associated with each of these cloud brokerages and running through several different production scenarios to give you an idea of which brokerage is the most expensive vs the most affordable depending on your production level
REAL Broker Cost & Fees
- $249 one-time signup fee
- 85/15 split with $12,000 annual cap
- $50 CBR fee on every transaction
- $900 annual fee (Taken $300, $300 & $300 out of your first three transactions of the year)
- After you cap, you keep 100% of your commission minus a $285 transaction fee
- After you hit Elite Agent, the transaction fee drops to $100 per transaction
- Receive $20,000 in free stock for hitting Elite Agent.
- Note: At REAL Broker, their Elite Agent Award is broken up into 2 separate awards. First is a production award of $12,000 just for hitting specific production numbers. The second is a cultural award of $8,000 for providing training to other real agents or giving back to your community.
- Source
Exp Realty Cost & Fees
- 80/20 split with a $16,000 year cap
- $149 one-time start-up fee
- $250 transaction fee after you cap
- The transaction fee drops to $75 after you’ve paid $5,000 in post-cap fees
- $85 a month cloud brokerage fee
- $25 transaction review fee per transaction
- $60 risk management fee per deal, capped at $750 a year
- Earn up to $16,000 in free stock in the company by hitting their Icon Agent Award
- Note: eXp’s ICON Agent Award is broken up into 3 separate awards with separate criteria for each. You have your production award, your cultural award, and an event attendance award.
- Source
LPT Realty Cost & Fees
- 80/20 split with $15,000 cap
- $195 transaction fee on every transaction
- $500 annual fee taken out of the first deal every year
- Earn 1,400 shares of their stock for hitting their “Gold Badge”
- Can Earn 3,150 shares of stock for hitting “Black Badge”
Note: LPT Realty offers two different paths for real estate agents with different fees and benefits. They have their discount “Business Builder” plan which is actually $500 per transaction with a $5,000 cap but this plan does not give agents access to revenue share, most of the stock awards, the ability to have a team, and other resources. What we are going to be comparing today is their “Rev Share Partner” plan which has the 80/20 split with a $15,000 cap because this model is most similar to REAL Broker and eXp Realty.
Another thing to note is that currently LPT is not listed on any stock exchange so we do not know how much the stock is going to be worth when they are finally eligible to be listed on the NASDAQ.
Currently, to hit their Gold Badge you need to sell 15 homes a year and 35 homes a year to get their Black Badge award. They say these numbers will adjust over time and they want their Gold Badge award to go to the top 10% of the company and their Black Badge award to go to the top 1% of the company.
Because LPT Realty’s stock currently does not have a value, I am going to assign it’ REAL Broker’s current stock price for these comparisons of $1.42. REAL Broker is also a cloud brokerage, in all 50 states, is profitable, has $0 debt, and won multiple awards in the recent year. So I think that is LPT’s best-case scenario when they do go public in a few years. However, I will admit this is an X factor. We don’t know what the stock price is going to be worth and by all means you can assign it a higher value or lower value compared to REAL when calculating cost yourself.
Differences in Fees & Stock Awards
There are some obvious differences we can already notice from comparing the three cloud brokerage fees. First, eXp Realty is the only one that charges a monthly fee with their $85/mo technology fee.
LPT Realty is the only one that charges a transaction fee while also taking their 20% split. Both REAL and eXp only charge transaction fees AFTER you have fully capped.
Out of the three, LPT Realty does have the simplest fee structure, however, that does not mean it’s the cheapest.
At all three companies, you actually are going to cap at the same number of transactions. Assuming your average price point is $450,000 and your average commission is 2.5%, then you will fully pay your $16k cap at eXp, $15k cap at LPT, and $12k at REAL Broker at the exact same time.
At eXp Realty you will hit their Icon Agent award of up to $16k in stock at 27 transactions a year. At REAL Broker, you will earn $20,000 in free stock for hitting Elite Agent at 30 transactions a year. At LPT Realty, you will get their Black Badge award at 35 transactions a year.
Scenario One: 7 Transactions A Year
Let’s say you are a newer agent and you close enough transactions to fully cap at three brokerages which is 7 transactions a year.
It will cost you a total of $17,615 at eXp Realty
It will cost you $16,467 at LPT Realty
and only $13,250 at REAL Broker.
So in this scenario, REAL Broker is going to be $4,365 cheaper than Exp Realty and $3,217 cheaper than LPT Realty.
Cost Of Selling 7 Homes A Year
Scenario Two: 15 Transactions A Year
Let’s say you’re about to double this production and you close 15 transactions a year. At this number you have capped at all three companies and now start keeping 100% of your commission at REAL and eXp but pay a transaction fee.
At 15 transactions a year, you also earn your Gold Award stock bonus at LPT. You will earn 1,400 shares of the stock, with an estimated price of $1.42, that’s $1,988 worth of stock which we are going to count as “cash equivalent” in these calculations.
With 15 transactions a year, it would cost you $20,145 a year at eXp Realty
It would cost you $16,039 at LPT Realty (this includes the stock award)
and $15,645 at REAL Broker.
So once again, REAL Broker is still the most affordable brokerage for an agent selling 15 deals a year.
Cost Of Selling 15 Homes A Year
Scenario Three: 30 Transactions A Year
Let’s double the production again and say you are closing 30 transactions a year. At 30, you will have also hit the Icon Agent stock award at eXp Realty of up to $16,000, and $20,000 in free stock for hitting Elite Agent at REAL Broker, and the Gold Badge at LPT of 1400 shares (Estimated value = $1,988.00)
With 30 transactions a year, it would cost you $7,745 a year at eXp Realty
It would cost you 18,964 at LPT Realty (this includes the stock award)
and cost you only $670 at REAL Broker, because the stock awards cover almost all of your yearly cost.
That is right, if you count the $20,000 in free stock for hitting Elite Agent as “cash equivalent” then the stock awards cover almost all of your yearly cost at high production. At 30 homes a year, they cover $20,000 of your $20,670 in REAL Broker fees, which leaves you paying just $670 for the year.
In this scenario, REAL Broker is $7,075 a year cheaper than eXp Realty and $18,294 cheaper than LPT Realty.
Cost To Sell 30 Homes A Year
Scenario Four: 40 Transactions A Year
Let’s do one more scenario at 40 deals a year. This is going to unlock the Black Badge award at LPT Realty which is 3,150 shares. If we give it the same price evaluation of REAL Broker’s stock, then this is equivalent to $4,473.
At eXp Realty, it will cost you $8,745 to sell 40 homes a year.
At LPT Realty, even with the Black Award & Gold Award, it will cost you $16,441 to sell 40 homes.
And at REAL Broker, it will cost you only $2,170, because the stock awards still cover almost all of your yearly cost.
Cost To Sell 40 Homes A Year
REAL vs eXp Realty vs LPT Realty Conclusion
When comparing the cost and fees of REAL Broker vs eXp Realty vs LPT Realty, it is important not to just look at the vanity numbers like their caps or transaction fees. You need to factor in all fees, stock awards, and caps for your specific production scenario.
As you can see from this article, in almost all production scenarios LPT Realty’s RevShare Partner plan is going to be the most expensive cloud brokerage to work out. REAL Broker is going to be the most affordable cloud brokerage in almost every scenario and is the ONLY Brokerage where the stock awards cover almost all of your yearly cost at high production, thanks to their $20,000 in free stock for hitting Elite Agent.
To be fair, a higher cost can be worth it IF you are getting more value for that cost. If you are selling 30 homes a year, it will be up to you if you think it’s worth an additional $7,075 a year to be at eXp Realty VS REAL Broker or worth it to spend an additional $18,294 to be at LPT Realty vs REAL Broker.
—–
For me personally, when choosing what cloud brokerage to join, I decided to join REAL Broker. Not just because I would save tens of thousands of dollars a year but because of the culture, the community, the technology, and the core values of the company which aligned with my own.
If you would like to learn more about REAL Broker, I’d love to hop on a 1-on-1 video call with you to talk about your business and see if REAL is a good fit for you personally. Below is my calendar, just select a date and time that works for you and we can schedule a video call.
