Free Tool
Real Estate Commission Split Calculator
See what a closing actually puts in your pocket once the referral, franchise fee, brokerage split, annual cap, transaction and E&O fees and any team split have all taken their cut — plus how much of your cap is left afterwards.
| Where the commission goes | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross commission income (your side) | $0.00 |
| Referral fee (off the top) | $0.00 |
| Franchise fee | $0.00 |
| Amount split with the brokerage | $0.00 |
| Brokerage split (pre-cap and post-cap combined) | $0.00 |
| Transaction / E&O fee | $0.00 |
| Team lead split | $0.00 |
| Net commission before tax | $0.00 |
| Business expenses | $0.00 |
| Tax set-aside | $0.00 |
| Net after expenses & tax set-aside | $0.00 |
Assumptions. Deductions are applied in the order most brokerages use: referral fee off the gross first, then the franchise fee on what remains, then the brokerage split, then flat transaction/E&O fees, then any team split. Only the pre-cap portion of the brokerage split is counted toward your cap — franchise, transaction and E&O fees are assumed not to count, which is the common arrangement but not universal. If your brokerage counts them, add them to the "already paid" figure. When a deal crosses the cap, the commission is treated as splitting at the pre-cap rate up to the exact dollar that fills the cap and at the post-cap rate beyond it. Cap years reset on your anniversary date at some brokerages and on 1 January at others, so "already paid" should only cover the current cap year. Setting the cap to 0 is read as "my brokerage has no cap", so every deal splits at the pre-cap rate. Commission rates, caps and fees are set by your brokerage and vary by company, market and country — every one of them is an input here rather than a hardcoded figure. Amounts are shown with a "$" but the arithmetic works in whatever currency you enter. Tax is a simple set-aside percentage you choose, not a tax calculation: it ignores deductions, brackets, filing status and local rules.
What do you actually take home from a real estate commission?
The number on the listing agreement is not your money. On a $450,000 sale at a 5% total commission, the contract shows $22,500 — but that is for both sides of the deal. Your side is typically half, so $11,250 before anyone at your brokerage has taken anything. Most commission calculators stop right there, which is why the answer they give never matches the cheque.
The deductions come in a specific order, and the order matters. A referral fee — if another agent sent you the client — is paid broker to broker off the gross, before your office split, so your brokerage shares the pain. Next, a franchise fee at branded brokerages is skimmed off the top, commonly a percentage of the adjusted gross. What is left is the amount your office actually splits with you.
That split is where the annual cap comes in, and it is the piece agents most often model wrong. A cap is the ceiling on what your brokerage collects from you in one cap year. Until you have paid it, deals split at your normal rate — 70/30, 80/20, whatever you negotiated. The moment your payments reach the cap, the split flips to your post-cap rate for the rest of the year, often 100% to you with a small per-deal company fee continuing. A deal that straddles the cap is split at both rates: the pre-cap rate on the slice that fills the cap, and the post-cap rate on everything after it. That is why your February closing and your October closing can pay wildly different amounts on identical sale prices.
After the split come the flat charges — a transaction fee and an errors-and-omissions premium per deal, which do not scale with price and so bite hardest on small closings. If you are on a team, the team lead's share comes off what is left. Only now do you have net commission, and you are still not done: as an independent contractor you carry your own marketing, dues, mileage, photography and CRM costs, and you owe your own tax on what remains.
The useful output is the effective split — net commission before tax as a percentage of the gross you started with. On the figures loaded into the calculator above, a "70/30" plan comes out at an effective 62.3% before the cap is met, and 85.8% on the same deal once it has been met — same split on paper, very different cheque. Knowing which side of the cap you are on before you negotiate a referral, or take a small listing with a fixed transaction fee attached, is the difference between a deal being worth doing and barely covering its own costs. The cap figure in the results tells you how much further you have to go and roughly how many more deals of the same size it will take.
Frequently asked questions
How does a real estate commission cap work?
A cap is the maximum the brokerage will take from your commissions in one anniversary year. Until you have paid that amount, every deal is split at your normal rate. Once your payments to the brokerage reach the cap, the split changes to your post-cap rate for the rest of the year — often 100/0 or something close, sometimes with a small company fee still taken. Caps reset on your anniversary date or on 1 January depending on the brokerage, so check which applies to you before relying on a projection.
Is the franchise fee taken before or after the brokerage split?
At most franchised brokerages the franchise fee comes off the top, before the office split, and it usually does not count toward your cap. This calculator follows that order: referral fee first, then franchise fee, then the brokerage split on what is left. If your brokerage does it differently, set the franchise fee to 0 and fold it into the split percentage instead.
Does a referral fee come out before or after my split?
Referral fees are normally paid broker to broker off the gross commission, before your office split, so both you and your brokerage feel the reduction. That is how this calculator treats it. Referral percentages are negotiated per deal and commonly sit around 25% of the receiving side's commission, but your own referral agreement is the only figure that matters, so enter that.
Why is my take-home so much lower than the commission on the contract?
The commission written on the contract is for the whole transaction, both sides. Your side is typically about half of it, and then the referral, franchise fee, brokerage split, transaction and E&O fees and any team split all come out before you see anything. Business expenses and whatever tax you owe on self-employed income come out after that. The effective split percentage in the results shows how much of the original gross commission actually survives to you before tax.
Track every deal, not just the one closing this week
This page prices a single transaction. The Real Estate Agent Commission Tracker is a spreadsheet that keeps the whole year in one place: a pipeline of pending and closed deals, each one broken down the same way as above, a running cap balance that updates itself as deals close, year-to-date GCI and net income, and an expense log ready for tax time.
One-time purchase. No subscription. Works in Excel or Google Sheets.