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What does the agent actually keep?
The headline commission percentage is never what lands in your account. This calculator runs the real waterfall: gross commission, your side of it, the franchise fee off the top, your split with the broker, and flat transaction fees — ending at your true net per deal and the effective percentage of the sale price you actually keep.
Agents use it before listing appointments and when comparing brokerages: the headline split means nothing until the franchise fee and transaction costs come out. New agents use it to find out why the 5.5% they quoted is really 1.7% to them.
Because several layers come out first. On a $400,000 sale at 5.5% total, your half is $11,000 — then a 6% franchise fee ($660), then a 70/30 broker split leaves $7,238, and a $395 transaction fee leaves $6,843. That is 1.71% of the sale price, not 5.5%.
New agents often start at 50/50 to 70/30; experienced agents negotiate 80/20 or 90/10, sometimes with a yearly cap after which they keep 100%. Flat-fee and 100%-commission brokerages trade the split for monthly desk fees instead — run both structures through this calculator to compare.
Agents at franchise brokerages (the big national brands) typically pay 5–8% of gross commission off the top, before the broker split is applied. It funds the national brand and marketing. Independent brokerages usually do not charge one.