Real estate brokerages for new agents: how to choose one in Miami.
A newly licensed agent in Florida has to pick a brokerage before the license does anything — it stays inactive until a broker registers it. The choice decides your first-year economics, who teaches you, and whether anyone follows up with your leads while you learn. This is the comparison we would want a new agent to run on us, with the first-ninety-days checklist and the questions that separate recruiting from developing.
Updated October 2026
What does a new agent actually need in year one?
Four things, in this order: a lead-follow-up system that works before you know how to follow up; a person who reviews your pipeline and answers the phone when an offer is due; training on the Florida contract, disclosures and financing periods, not on mindset; and terms that are written down — split, cap, monthly fee, transaction fee, E&O, and what happens to your deals if you leave. Office space, a logo and a "culture" are nice; they are not on the list because they do not close a transaction.
Most new-agent regret comes from the fees, not the split. A 100% commission model with a monthly fee is built for an agent closing every month; at two closings in year one it can cost more than a traditional split with no fixed fees. Run the arithmetic on the commission page before you compare percentages.
“The commission may prescribe a postlicensure education requirement in order for a person to maintain a valid sales associate’s license, which shall not exceed 45 classroom hours of 50 minutes each”
How do you compare real estate brokerages for new agents?
Ask the same eight questions of every brokerage and write the answers down. A recruiter who cannot answer one of them on the call is telling you what month six looks like. The table is the list; ClearPath’s column is filled in only where the broker has confirmed the answer in writing.
| Ask | Why it matters | ClearPath |
|---|---|---|
| Who follows up with my leads while I learn? | Unanswered leads are the first-year killer | A built CRM with automated text and email follow-up |
| Who mentors me and how often do we review my pipeline? | A name and a cadence, or it is not mentorship | discussed in your first call |
| What does training cover? | Florida contracts and disclosures, or motivation | AS IS contract, disclosures, financing periods, buyer representation |
| What is the split, and does it tier? | The headline number, and the thresholds behind it | discussed in your first call |
| What fixed fees do I pay whether I close or not? | Monthly, desk, technology — the slow-year cost | discussed in your first call |
| What is the transaction fee and the E&O charge? | Per-closing costs that come off the top | discussed in your first call |
| Do I get a website and a CRM, or do I buy them? | A monthly add-on elsewhere | Included: agent page on this site plus the CRM |
| What happens to my deals and listings if I leave? | The exit clause decides your last month | discussed in your first call |
Cells marked "discussed in your first call" are confirmed in writing by the broker before you sign; no figure is published here before that.
The new real estate agent checklist: from passing the exam to your first thirty days
Florida hands you a license and a list of things nobody explained. In order:
- Choose the brokerage and let the broker register your license with the DBPR — it is inactive until then (F.S. 475.42(1)(b)).
- Join the local association and the MLS. In Miami-Dade that is MIAMI REALTORS® and its MLS; dues are paid to them, not to the brokerage.
- Confirm your errors-and-omissions coverage: who carries the policy, the deductible, and whether it is per deal or per year.
- Get into the CRM on day one. At ClearPath the pipelines and follow-up sequences are already built; your job is to load your sphere — every person who knows your name — into it.
- Get your agent page on the brokerage site live, with the areas and languages you serve, so the leads you generate land in your own pipeline.
- Learn the Florida AS IS contract, the buyer-representation agreement and the seller’s disclosure duty before your first showing, not after your first offer.
- Book your 45-hour post-license course early: Florida requires it before your first renewal, and the license expires if it is not done.
- Tell forty people you are licensed, in writing, in the first thirty days. Your first closings come from your sphere; the CRM keeps them warm.
Where do new agents get leads?
From four places, and the order matters. Your sphere — family, former colleagues, your church, your kids’ school — produces the first closings for almost every new agent. Open houses and showings for other agents produce buyers who have not chosen an agent. A brokerage website that ranks for the neighborhoods you work produces strangers who already trust the name — this site has 28 neighborhood guides and 20 community pages built for that. And paid leads, which are the fastest and the most expensive way to learn to convert.
What turns any of those into a closing is follow-up. A lead that gets a text in the first minutes and a call the same day converts; a lead that waits two days is someone else’s. That is the reason the CRM is built before you join rather than handed to you as a login.
How much do new real estate agents make?
Less than the median in year one, because the median includes agents in their twentieth year. There is no salary; income is closings times commission times split, minus fees. The income guide uses public data with its source and a worked illustration so you can see the arithmetic for the price band you will actually work — which in Miami-Dade runs from $300,000 condos in Kendall to $1 million houses in Coral Gables.
Switching brokerages as a new agent
It happens, and it is not a mark against you. If the first brokerage promised training that turned out to be a webinar, or a CRM nobody set up, the move is simple: the new broker files the change with the DBPR and your license follows. What you should read first is your current agreement’s exit clause — pending deals and active listings usually stay with the brokerage you leave. Bring us the agreement and the broker will tell you what it means before you decide.
Everything on this side of the site
The rest of what we publish for agents — terms, training, the licence route, and the guides we wrote because people kept asking.
- Best brokerage for new agents in Miami
- How real estate agents get paid: splits, caps and fees
- Real estate brokerages for new agents You are here
- Real estate CRM, website and follow-up tools
- Real estate coaching and mentorship
- Part-time real estate agent in Florida
- Real estate referral agent in Florida
Questions new agents ask
How to choose a broker?
Ask the eight questions in the table — follow-up system, mentor and cadence, contract training, split and tiers, fixed fees, per-closing fees, tools included, exit terms — and get the answers in writing. Then run the annual cost at the closings you expect in year one. The brokerage whose answers are shortest is usually the one to pick.
How to get leads as a new real estate agent?
Sphere first: tell everyone who knows your name, in writing, in the first thirty days, and load them into the CRM. Then open houses and showings for busy agents, then the brokerage website’s neighborhood pages, then paid leads once you can convert. Follow-up inside the first minutes is what turns any of them into a closing.
How much do new real estate agents make?
There is no salary and no reliable first-year median; income is closings × commission × split − fees. Our income guide uses public wage data with its source and a worked illustration so you can run the arithmetic for the price band you will work in Miami-Dade.
How to join a real estate team?
A team is a group inside a brokerage with its own split and lead arrangement. Ask what the team takes on top of the brokerage split, who owns the leads you work, and whether you can leave the team without leaving the brokerage. At ClearPath you start with the broker directly; teams are discussed on your first call.
How long is real estate school?
In Florida the sales associate pre-license course is capped at 63 classroom hours of 50 minutes each, exam included (F.S. 475.17(2)(a)1). After you are licensed, a post-license course of up to 45 hours is required before your first renewal (F.S. 475.17(3)(a)).
How to build a real estate team?
Later. In year one the goal is a pipeline you run yourself, a mentor who reviews it, and closings from your sphere. Teams make sense once you have more leads than hours; the brokerage’s CRM and agent pages are built so a team can be added on top of them when that day comes.
Run the eight questions on us
Thirty minutes with Armando Perez. Bring the table; leave with every answer in writing and nothing signed.
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