How much does it cost to start a real estate company?
A real estate business (or real estate brokerage) is not a business where you need hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment to start operations. It can be a very low cost business, especially if you approach it in a methodical and structured way.
1. You will need a licensed real estate broker in the business.
We strongly recommend that you get your own real estate license. Hiring an outside broker can cost you a set fee per transaction, or a percentage of ongoing fees for his/her compensation.
2. You need an office
I would recommend to start with smaller office and grow once you have enough agents. Most of the agents are not sitting in the office whole day (at least they shouldn’t). You can easily have shared desks and common areas (conference rooms) used by many agents. I once remember being in the office (roughly 5,000 sq. feet) which was shared by 600 agents! We had three conference rooms, 10 computer workstations, but most of the time there was plenty of room? Why? That’s the fact how real estate business works. Most of the agents are rarely spending a lot of time in the office.
I have started my first real estate office in 400 sq. feet office, later I grew it to 800 sq. feet and then purchased my own office building. I paid rent about $450 per month when I started for the smallest office. Think about it. The expenses are really small if you start small and grow as you make more money.
