Real Estate Brokers

Real Estate Brokers: Who Are They?

Marissa Mundy

Real Estate Law

PL 211-V1

When people hear about real estate their immediate thought probably goes to a real estate agent. A real estate agent is only part of the equation. What about the broker? What do they do? What does it take to become one? What’s their involvement in the process? The job of the broker is very different from the real estate agent. This paper will address what exactly a real estate broker does, how to become one and what happens when two brokers are involved in the same deal. As previously mentioned there is a big difference between a real estate broker and a real estate agent. So what is a real estate broker? Simply put the broker is someone who

When the brokers work together on a sale it becomes necessary to split up the profits. How does this work exactly? A pretty successful real estate company in New York State Keller Williams Realty ( as well as according to their site most traditional realty companies follow the same structure) has a commission cap which means whatever is left after hitting the predetermined amount the agent gets to keep. The commission is on a sixty four/ thirty/ six percent split. Sixty four percent of the money goes to the agent, thirty percent of the money goes to the market and six percent goes to Keller Williams and is capped off at three thousand dollars ("Keller Williams Realty: The Commission Structure - Real Estate Careers at Keller Williams

Real estate agents and brokers have certain duties that they are required to uphold and certain laws and codes that they need to follow. According to New York State Department of State Division of Licensing Services a major part of being a broker has to deal with disclosure. Some pieces of information that must be disclosed by the agent or broker is whether or not the person who lived in the home or on the property prior to the new renter or buyer had a disease in which it was medically documented that it could be passed on to the new person who lives in the dwelling. Basically the broker needs to let the purchaser know that by moving into the property that there is a real risk of them contracting something harmful to their health. A broker or agent must also disclose to the purchaser whether or not crimes that were considered felonies happened on the property or if any deaths happened. It is important for the broker or agent to disclose whether or not there are any utilities included on or in the property and if there is failure to do so the purchaser can recover damages. This means that if a broker fails to tell a buyer who expects a house to come with certain things like say a washer or dryer and the broker or agent fails to disclose otherwise the purchaser of the property can take them to court and sue them for the expense of