Essential Real Estate in Madison, Alabama: Where Agents Keep Their Commission

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September 23, 2021

If you’re a local real estate agent and you’re routinely frustrated with handing over a chunk of your commission check after closing, it may be time to consider making the transition to a new broker.

Essential Real Estate was founded in late 2020 by successful real estate agents and property managers Beau and Amy Miles. The Miles family has been residents in Madison for nearly a decade and created Essential after realizing that they weren’t seeing a proper return on investment that they were owing their broker after each home sale.

“Many people don’t realize that most real estate agents don’t keep the entire commission they’ve made from helping someone buy or sell a home,” explained Beau. “Once an agent receives his or her commission, they generally then have to go and pay their broker a percentage of that.”

Essential Real Estate in Madison, Alabama

Beau continued to explain that some brokers have a cap on how much an agent owes throughout the year, while other brokers don’t.

“If your broker doesn’t have a cap, you’ll always pay your broker a portion of that percentage.”

Beau shared that after several years of building their real estate business, he and Amy took a step back and asked what they were actually getting in return for that hefty percentage they were routinely handing over.

“We were working our real estate business so much that we barely had time for any of the classic advantages many brokers offer (such as continued education), but we were still paying for them anyway. They also weren’t generating us any leads. We were generating our own.”

He continued to share that they began asking themselves what it would look like if a broker charged significantly less and didn’t base it on how much an agent did or did not sell. After a substantial amount of research, Beau and Amy decided to create this concept themselves as an avenue to not only hold onto more of their commission from selling homes but also as a means of offering this unique model to other local agents who were tired of not keeping what they’d earned.

Essential Real Estate’s Business Model

And Essential Real Estate was born, and Beau and Amy both chuckle when they think back to what a wild, full, incredible year of business it has been.

Their team has grown to nine agents in just a few short months, and Beau is ready to sit down with agents across the Tennessee Valley to share about the opportunity he is offering others in this profession through Essential.

Beau explains that the concept is easy. Realtors on the Essential Real Estate team decide whether they’d like to pay a $300 monthly fee or a $3,000 annual fee.

Besides those monthly or annual fees, Beau says that the only money an agent will ever owe Essential is a $50 per closing fee to cover check writers and other small closing fees. That’s it!

“Agents on our team will have more money in their pockets to run their business like it is truly their business. If they want to advertise, great! If not, great! This model allows agents to hold onto their full commission and then put their money towards whatever they want to buy.”

Beau and Amy strongly believe that the business of real estate should be all about the agent’s personal business rather than knowing who one works for.

“People always tell us who their agent is but often have no clue what broker they actually work for. This tells us that buyers and sellers are way more concerned with the agent themselves than who they actually work for. Agents should be able to fully market themselves and then keep their hard-earned money.”

Beau says that running a small business has been the thrill of his life and that he will always strive to maintain a “small business” feel regardless of how many agents come on board with Essential.

“I talk to every single one of my agents every single week,” he shared. “We have a business model that allows for tremendous growth but that will still maintain the effectiveness of a small business.”

Beau shared that he has a wealth of experience in this industry as a property manager, real estate agent, and now a broker, and that he absolutely loves encouraging and helping his agents to build their business organically.

“We have every resource to help you build your business in a way that is completely natural to you, whether that’s word of mouth or otherwise.”

Beau shared that he completely understands why many brokers take a good chunk of an agent’s commission and that that business model may continue to be a great fit for certain agents.

“Just because our business model is different than a traditional broker, we understand that that’s just the way they do business. But for us, we were ready to evolve.”

He continued to share that when you look at real estate trends over the last couple of decades, so much has changed on the consumer side but very little has changed on the broker side. Essential Real Estate and their business model for agents was a necessary addition for this area, says Beau.

“We were so ready to bring things up to date. We want to allow our agents to do what they want when they want. Period.”

Beau and Amy like to think of Essential Real Estate as paying nothing more than a monthly subscription fee.

“If you are an established agent, you’re really going to like the way we do things.”

When asked why he believes some agents would want to continue paying a broker a percentage of each commission instead of transitioning to Essential, Beau says that he believes some agents may just be fearful because they think there is a catch, or they’re just flat-out nervous because they’re not used to a process like this.

“I promise you there’s no catch though,” he laughs. “You’ll see that first-hand when I hand you your full commission check for the work that you did.”

He also says that he believes some agents want a big name behind them.

“They don’t even realize those that the only name they need to build is their own.”

“I’m not saying we are better than anyone else,” remarks Beau. “But if you want what we offer and you like this model, we think you’re going to be really happy.”

If you’re a real estate agent or have an interest in becoming a real estate agent, Beau and Amy would love to talk with you! He invites those interested in Essential Real Estate to call or text him at (256)-653-9414.