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Real Brokerage vs Coldwell Banker: Who Sets What an Agent Pays
Updated
Bottom line: Real publishes one split, cap and fee schedule for every agent. Coldwell Banker, owned by Compass since January 2026, is company-owned offices plus independent franchises, and neither kind publishes an agent's split, cap or fees.
Alexis Ruiz-Ney, Partner, Jumpstart Partners · Concierge Director, Houston Properties TeamOr call (713) 425-4194.
Who sets what a Coldwell Banker agent pays?
It depends on the office. Coldwell Banker's own careers page says the system is company-owned offices plus franchised offices that are independently owned and operated. At the company-owned offices, Anywhere Real Estate's last annual report said the commission is divided between the brokerage and each agent under that agent's own independent contractor agreement. At a franchised office, Compass, which now owns the brand, says it does not control its franchisees day to day and that they manage their own relationships with their agents.
Neither kind of office has a published national split, cap or fee, and the table below says so wherever a figure would go.
| What is compared | Real | Coldwell Banker |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the split | Real, the same for every agent: 85/15. | At a company-owned office, each agent's own contract. At a franchised office, the franchisee. |
| Yearly cap | $12,000 in the US and $15,000 in Canada. | None published. |
| Monthly fee | None. | None published. |
| Fees on each transaction | $50 in the US and $40 in Canada, for compliance and broker review. | None published. |
| What the office pays the brand | Not applicable: Real is itself the brokerage. | A franchised office pays a royalty on its commission income. Since 2021 Coldwell Banker has offered a tiered royalty that starts at 5.5% and falls in steps to 3% during the year. |
| Revenue share | Five tiers, 5% down to 1% of a sponsored agent's gross commission, paid out of Real's 15%. | None described in Compass's filings or Anywhere's last annual report. |
| Technology | reZEN, Real's own. | Coldwell Banker Realty, the company-owned brokerage, describes Compass's Home Platform on its careers site. Compass plans to bring Home Platform to its franchise network in 2027. |
| Canada | Real runs its own brokerage in six provinces. | A master franchisee, Coldwell Banker Canada, owned since 2021 by Steve Houle and Karim Kennedy, with its own CB Ignite platform. |
| Agents | 35,348 at the end of June 2026. | A network of more than 96,000, on its careers page in May 2026. |
Who owns Coldwell Banker now, and what does a franchise pay?
Compass does. It completed its merger with Anywhere Real Estate on 9 January 2026, owns the Coldwell Banker trademark, and runs Coldwell Banker both as owned offices and as a franchise brand.
A franchised office pays Compass a royalty on its commission income. Compass's filings describe a flat percentage, a model capped per agent per year and a tiered model across its franchise brands, and Anywhere's last annual report said Coldwell Banker began offering its tiered model in 2021, starting at 5.5% and falling in steps to 3% as the office's commission income grows. Across all of Compass's franchise brands, the average net royalty was $505 per US transaction side in the quarter to June 2026.
That royalty is the office's cost rather than the agent's. Anywhere's report said its franchisees run their own pricing, so what a franchised office charges its agents is in the agreement between them.
What changes for a Coldwell Banker agent who moves to Real?
Every figure becomes a published one. Real's split is 85/15 for every agent in a country, with a $12,000 cap in the US, and every fee is in its US fee schedule. Real also pays revenue share out of its own 15% split to the agent who sponsored you, which neither Compass's filings nor Anywhere's last annual report describe for Coldwell Banker agents.
In Canada, a Coldwell Banker agent works with an office in Coldwell Banker Canada's network, which runs its own CB Ignite platform. Real runs its own brokerage in six provinces, with a cap of $15,000 in Canadian dollars under its Canadian fee schedule.
Questions & answers
What else do agents in the US and Canada ask?
Who sets the commission split at a Coldwell Banker office?
It depends on the office. At a company-owned Coldwell Banker office, each agent's share of the commission is set in that agent's own independent contractor agreement. At a franchised office, the independently owned franchisee sets its own terms, and Compass, which owns the brand, says it does not control its franchisees day to day. No national split is published for either.
Real publishes one split for every agent, 85/15, with a $12,000 cap in the US and $15,000 in Canadian dollars in Canada. Coldwell Banker sits beside ten other brokerages on the page setting out what each brokerage publishes about splits, caps and fees.
What does a Coldwell Banker franchise pay the brand?
A royalty on its commission income. Anywhere Real Estate's annual report for 2024 said Coldwell Banker began offering franchisees a tiered royalty in 2021, starting at 5.5% and falling in steps to 3% during the year as the office's commission income grows. Across all of Compass's franchise brands, the average net royalty was $505 per US transaction side in the quarter to June 2026.
That is the office's cost rather than the agent's, and what the office charges its agents is in its own agreement with them. Real is itself the brokerage, and every fee it charges an agent is in one dated table on the page about the money at Real.
This page sets Real's published terms beside what Coldwell Banker and Compass publish, as each read in the month shown, and it is not legal or tax advice. At a Coldwell Banker office, your agreement with that office sets your split and fees.