Why I Stopped Competing With My Own Agents

There is a tension in traditional real estate that almost nobody talks about openly, but every experienced agent and brokerage owner I know has felt it. When you run a brokerage and also produce your own transactions, you are in an awkward position: you are supposed to be building up your agents, but your income depends on competing with them for the same business.

I spent seventeen years running my own boutique brokerage after fifteen years in my family's real estate business. For more than three decades, I lived inside that tension every single day. And it was not until I stepped away from that model entirely that I realized how much it was holding back not just my agents, but my own ability to serve clients the way I wanted to.

This is the part of the story I do not often hear other brokers talk about. So let me be the one to say it plainly.

The Conflict Nobody Wants to Name

When you own a traditional brokerage, your revenue comes from two places: your own transactions and your agents' splits. The better your agents do, the more the brokerage earns from them. But here is the problem no one admits: every time a new buyer calls the office, the broker faces a quiet internal question. Does that lead go to one of the agents or land on my own desk?

I watched this play out in my own business and in brokerages across Pennsylvania. I saw owners who claimed to be building teams but kept the best leads for themselves. I saw agents who felt like they were feeding a machine that was designed to extract their production rather than amplify it. And I saw talented agents leave good brokerages not because of commission splits, but because they did not trust the person at the top.

The most honest thing I can tell you is this: I do not think most brokerage owners are bad people. I think they are stuck in a system that creates misaligned incentives by design. Your split goes to the owner no matter what. The owner's production competes with yours for the same pool of buyers and sellers in the same market. Everyone smiles at the office meeting, but underneath, the structure works against real partnership.

What Changed When I Joined eXp

When I moved to eXp Realty, the first thing I noticed was that the conflict disappeared overnight. I was no longer taking a split from anyone's commission. The revenue share I earn when I sponsor an agent comes entirely from eXp's company dollar, not from the agent's pocket. If I bring an agent into the model and they cap at $16,000, eXp keeps the $16,000 and I earn a portion of that as revenue share. The agent keeps 100 percent of their commission after cap. My success and their success are no longer at odds.

That structural change matters more than most agents realize when they are evaluating a move. It is not just about the percentage. It is about the relationship. When I talk to an agent about joining me at eXp, I have no financial incentive to hold back leads, steer them toward certain clients, or protect my own pipeline. The better they do, the better I do, and there is zero competition between us for the same transaction.

Over the past several years at eXp, I have watched agents I sponsored grow their businesses, build their own teams, and earn revenue share on top of their own production. I have never once felt like their success came at my expense. That feeling alone is worth more than any split percentage I gave up when I closed my own brokerage.

The Hidden Cost of Running a Physical Office

Beyond the conflict of interest, there was another cost I did not fully account for until I was free of it: the operational drag of running a physical brokerage. Leasing a commercial space. Managing staff. Paying utilities, insurance, and maintenance. Handling IT, phone systems, and parking. Coordinating office schedules. Dealing with the landlord. Every hour I spent on those tasks was an hour I could not spend with clients, and every dollar that went to overhead was a dollar that could have gone toward service, marketing, or technology.

The cloud-based model eliminates virtually all of that. For a monthly fee of roughly $85, I have access to a fully integrated brokerage platform with transaction management, training, collaboration tools, and support. I serve clients across Montgomery County, Bucks County, Philadelphia, and Southeastern Pennsylvania without a single desk rental, and I can mentor agents across the country from wherever I am.

When I run the numbers against what it cost me to operate my own brick-and-mortar brokerage, the difference is substantial. But the real savings is not financial. It is the mental bandwidth I get back. I wake up every day thinking about clients, strategy, and helping agents grow. I do not wake up thinking about whether the copier is working or whether the lease renewal is coming due.

What This Means for Experienced Agents

If you are an experienced agent in Pennsylvania who has ever felt like your brokerage is competing with you instead of supporting you, that feeling is not in your head. The traditional model creates that dynamic. And the reason so many agents have been moving to cloud-based and tech-enabled brokerages is not just about higher splits. It is about operating in a structure where the person who brought you in genuinely wants you to succeed.

In 2025, roughly 230,000 agents across the country changed brokerages. That is 16 percent of the active agent population. Virtual and tech-enabled brokerages averaged nearly 12 percent net volume growth last year, more than four times the rate of traditional firms. The number of traditional commission-split brokerages in the top 100 dropped from 72 in 2018 to 53 in 2025. The industry is moving, and the agents who are moving with it are not doing so because of flashy recruiting campaigns. They are moving because the math and the relationships align better in a model that does not pit broker against agent.

The Bottom Line

I did not leave my brokerage because I was unhappy with my business. I left because I realized that the traditional model was making me compete with the very people I wanted to help. My mission has always been about changing lives, helping people build wealth, and having fun doing it. I could not fully live that mission while running a system that asked me to choose between my own production and my agents' success.

Today, when I sponsor an agent at eXp, I feel nothing but excitement for their growth. Their wins are my wins. Their clients are their clients. And every deal they close builds a stream of residual income for me without costing them a single dollar of their commission. That is not a recruiting pitch. That is the structural reality of a model that aligns incentives instead of dividing them.

If you have been in this business long enough to feel that tension I described, you already know exactly what I am talking about. The question is whether you are willing to make a change or keep operating inside a system that was never designed to put you first.

Let's Go!

"Just worked with Craig Lerch and his team again and the results were again amazing! He sold my first home in 12 hours, my mother's home also in record time, and my last home in 72 hours during a snowstorm. He is the best and his team is an absolute dream to work with. If you are looking for 'THE BEST,' call Craig. He and his team will get it done!"

— Donna Gormley