Articles · The numbers
What Real Broker costs in 2026: every fee, and the math at three volumes
The 85/15 split, the $12,000 cap, the CBR fee, the brokerage fee and the post-cap fee, then what an agent at 8, 20 and 40 sales a year actually pays.
Disclosure. I'm an agent at Real. If you join and name me as your sponsor, I get paid. Weigh what follows with that in mind.
Real publishes its fee schedule. That’s the good news. The less good news is that it’s spread over four help-center pages, two of the numbers changed on September 1, 2026, and almost every page that collects them for you is written by somebody who gets paid when you join.
So is this one. I run a team at Real and I pay all of these. Here they are in one place, with what they add up to at three different volumes, and the lines I’d want explained before I signed.
The standard plan in one table
This is the US plan for an individual agent or a team leader. Team members on a reduced cap are covered further down.
| Line | Amount | When it’s charged |
|---|---|---|
| Commission split | 85/15 | On every sale until you’ve paid $12,000 to Real in your anniversary year |
| Annual cap | $12,000 | Then 100% to you for the rest of that year |
| CBR fee | $50 | Every transaction, before and after the cap |
| Annual brokerage fee | $900 | $300 off each of your first three closings of the year |
| Post-cap transaction fee | $285 per sale, $125 per lease | Every closing after you cap |
| Elite post-cap fee | $100 per sale | Replaces the $285 once you reach Elite |
| Sign-up fee | $249 | Once, when you join |
| Personal transactions | $250 each, up to 3 a year | Your own purchases and sales |
| Monthly fee | None |
Two of those moved on September 1, 2026. The brokerage fee was $750 and is now $900. The CBR fee was $40 and is now $50. The split and the cap didn’t change.
How the cap works
The cap is the number everything else hangs off, so it’s worth being precise.
You pay 15% of every commission to Real until those 15% payments add up to $12,000 inside your anniversary year. At that point you’ve “capped” and you keep 100% of each commission for the rest of the year, less the per-transaction fees. On the anniversary of your start date the counter resets to zero.
$12,000 at 15% means you cap at $80,000 of gross commission. At an $8,000 average commission that’s your tenth sale. At $5,000 it’s your sixteenth. The cap is the same dollar figure for everybody on the standard plan, so the more you sell, the smaller it is as a share of what you make.
Real’s own page is clear about one thing that trips people up: the cap is on the split only. The CBR fee and the brokerage fee sit outside it and get charged whether or not you’ve capped.
The brokerage fee is front-loaded
The $900 isn’t billed monthly and it isn’t billed on day one. Real’s page says:
The Brokerage Fee is collected from the first three transactions each anniversary year. This breaks down to $300 per transaction in the U.S.
And, usefully:
If an agent does not close any transactions within an anniversary year, the Brokerage Fee will not be charged.
So a slow start costs you nothing in brokerage fees, and a year with two closings costs you $600, not $900. I’d rather have it this way than a monthly charge that bleeds whether I close or not. The flip side is that your first three commission checks of every year are each $300 lighter than you’d otherwise expect, which surprises people in January.
The CBR fee is on every single deal
CBR stands for commission and broker review. It’s $50, it’s on every transaction, and the cap doesn’t stop it. If you’re the only Real agent on the deal, you pay all of it. If two Real agents split a commission, the fee is split in the same proportion. If you represent both sides, you pay it on each side.
It’s a small number that scales with your volume. At eight sales it’s $400 a year. At forty it’s $2,000.
After the cap: $285, then $100
Once you’ve capped, each sale carries a $285 transaction fee (or 15% of the commission, if that’s less). Leases are $125.
If you keep going, that $285 eventually drops. Real’s Elite Agent program kicks in when, in a single anniversary year, you’ve paid your full $12,000 cap and another $6,000 in post-cap transaction fees. $6,000 divided by $285 is 21.05, so in practice it’s your 22nd post-cap sale. From there your post-cap fee is $100 per sale for the rest of the year, and you receive a stock award, which I’ve covered separately.
There’s a second route to Elite for high-end agents: $500,000 in gross commission and ten closed transactions at $1 million or more. Either route resets each anniversary year.
What three agents actually pay
Here is the whole schedule applied to three volumes, all at an $8,000 average commission. The $249 sign-up fee is left out because it’s a one-time cost; add it to your first year. Personal transactions are left out too.
| 8 sales | 20 sales | 40 sales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross commission | $64,000 | $160,000 | $320,000 |
| Split paid (15%, capped at $12,000) | $9,600 | $12,000 | $12,000 |
| CBR fee ($50 each) | $400 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| Annual brokerage fee | $900 | $900 | $900 |
| Post-cap fees | $0 | $2,850 | $7,070 |
| Paid to Real | $10,900 | $16,750 | $21,970 |
| Share of gross commission | 17.0% | 10.5% | 6.9% |
The 20-sale agent caps on sale ten and pays $285 on each of the next ten. The 40-sale agent caps on sale ten, pays $285 on 22 more sales (reaching Elite on the 22nd, at $6,270 in post-cap fees), then $100 on the final eight.
Where the money goes at 8, 20 and 40 sales
$8,000 average commission. The split stops at $12,000; the per-sale fees keep going.
- Split (15%, capped)
- CBR fee
- Brokerage fee
- Post-cap fees
Show the numbers
| Sales | Split (15%, capped) | CBR fee | Brokerage fee | Post-cap fees | Total | Share of commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | $9,600 | $400 | $900 | $0 | $10,900 | 17.0% |
| 20 | $12,000 | $1,000 | $900 | $2,850 | $16,750 | 10.5% |
| 40 | $12,000 | $2,000 | $900 | $7,070 | $21,970 | 6.9% |
Notice the shape. The agent doing eight deals pays 17% of what they make. The agent doing forty pays under 7%. That’s not a trick, it’s just what a flat dollar cap does. It’s also why the cheapest-sounding plan for a newer agent isn’t always Real. If you do five deals a year at $6,000 each, you’ll pay 15% of $30,000 plus $250 in CBR plus $900, which is $5,650, or just under 19%. A brokerage with a higher split and no annual fee could come in under that. Run your own number before you believe anyone’s headline.
What Real costs as a share of your commission, by volume
Every sale at $8,000 gross commission. Sign-up fee and personal deals excluded.
Sales closed in the anniversary year
Show the numbers
| Sales a year | Paid to Real | Share of commission |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | $5,900 | 18.4% |
| 8 | $10,900 | 17.0% |
| 12 | $14,070 | 14.7% |
| 16 | $15,410 | 12.0% |
| 20 | $16,750 | 10.5% |
| 30 | $20,100 | 8.4% |
| 40 | $21,970 | 6.9% |
| 50 | $23,470 | 5.9% |
| 60 | $24,970 | 5.2% |
If you want this done for your own volume and commission, the calculator on the home page does exactly this math and lets you put your current brokerage next to it.
Team members pay less to cap
If you join Real as a member of a team, your cap is lower. Real’s income page lists a $6,000 cap for a standard team member and a $4,000 cap for what it calls a platinum team member. The split is still 85/15 on the way to the cap, and the per-transaction fees are the same, but your team leader will almost certainly also take a split on top of all of this. Real’s fee schedule and your team’s agreement are two different documents. Read both.
The lines I’d ask about before signing
“Created on or after.” When the CBR fee went from $40 to $50, Real applied the new rate to transactions created on or after September 1, not closed after it. If a fee changes mid-year, ask which date governs. It affects your statement, and it’s not obvious.
“Or 15%, whichever is less.” The $285 post-cap fee is capped at 15% of the commission. That only matters on a commission under $1,900, which for most people means a referral or a rental. Worth knowing it’s there.
The Elite award has already changed once this year. The post-cap fee for Elite agents and the Elite stock award both moved for agents who reach Elite on or after September 1, 2026. Real says the program “is reviewed annually and is subject to change.” Treat the $100 and the stock award as this year’s terms, not a promise.
What a team costs on top. Nothing in the schedule above includes a team leader’s split, a team’s own fees, or any coaching or lead program you sign up for. Those aren’t Real’s fees, but they’re your costs.
Questions people ask me
Is there a monthly fee at Real? No. There’s no desk fee, office fee or technology fee. The recurring costs are the brokerage fee (three installments a year) and the per-transaction fees.
Does the cap reset on January 1? No, on your anniversary date, which is the date you joined.
Do I pay the CBR fee after I cap? Yes. The cap only stops the 15% split.
Does the $285 drop automatically? Yes, once you’ve paid $6,000 in post-cap fees in a single anniversary year, Real applies the $100 Elite fee going forward in that year.
Where do these numbers come from? Real’s help center, with the page and its last-updated date listed under Sources below. If you find something there that disagrees with this page, the help center wins and I’d like to know.
Sources
- Real help center, "8 Ways to Earn Income at Real (US Agents)", updated 31 August 2026
- Real help center, "What is the Brokerage Fee?", updated 31 August 2026
- Real help center, "What is the CBR Fee?", updated 30 October 2026
- Real help center, "Elite Agent Program", updated 4 November 2026
- Real help center, "How much does it cost to hang my license with Real (US)?"
Figures checked 7 November 2026. Real changes its fees and programs, so check the current pages before you rely on any of this. Nothing here describes or promises what anyone earns.