All real estate agents (including you, the apartment locator) have to join a real estate brokerage in order to operate. Picking a broker is one of the most important decisions you'll make early on in your real estate career. The right one can set you up for success. The wrong one will waste your time and lead you towards a dead end. 

Unfortunately, this is one of those decisions people don't take seriously enough when getting started. 

Picking a broker could be an online course on it's own! But I'll make it brief. 

I've researched and interviewed with many brokerages. I've joined a few. I've known people in countless others, I don't know everything, but I'll take you through what I've learned. I'll take you through what I've learned so you can better decide what is right for you. 

First, let's get to types of real estate broker. 

Traditional Broker

The traditional real estate broker is the one that specializes in home buying/sales. They're the ones with the names you'll definitely recognize. 

This is the kind of broker you'll sign up with if you want to get into home buying/selling. They'll train you (in theory), offer back office support and regulatory compliance. 
Many charge monthly fees, and take a big chunk of your commission.

However most traditional brokerages don't know shit about apartment locating. You won't get the support or training you need here for this niche. 

Pyramid Scheme Brokers

Some brokerages (many of which whose names you'll recognize) function like pyramid schemes. Basically you sign up and pay high fees and commissions to the agency. You can make some money by closing deals, but you make most of your money by recruiting other people onto your team and taking chunks of their deals. These are pyramid schemes masked as real estate companies.

Avoid these like the plague. 

Commercial Broker

Commercial brokers are like apartment locators, but for spaces like offices and shops and restaurants. Not much more to explain here. 

Apartment Locating Broker

These are brokers that specialize in apartment locating. They (might) give you the training and support necessary to help you succeed. 

Some, especially the big ones, operate like boiler-room type sales companies. You get a bunch of leads and strict quotas to meet. 

Basically, you're treated like an employee without salary or benefits. 

This could be the right kind of brokerage to join when starting off. However you may not get the flexibility you want in this kind of environment. 

I started off at one of these brokerages. It was great for a while. I met bunch of great people, learned the ropes, but eventually saw the dark side. 

The agency trained me (a little bit) and gave me good leads. I quickly started making money. But then I got good at generating my own leads and built my own systems/processes. Eventually most of my money was coming from leads I was personally generating. 

Then I ran some numbers.

I made $12,000 from leads the agency sent my way. 

But I paid the agency $27,000 from leads I generated and closed on my own, without their help 

This means I paid the agency over double what they gave in value to me. 

That's when I left and went off on my own. 

Zero Commission Brokerage 

I call these Bring Your Own Shit agencies. 

This is one of the newest type of brokerages. Unlike most brokers who take a split of the money you make, these take zero.

Instead you pay a flat monthly fee. 

In return you get basic office administrative support, compliance with the local real estate board, and maybe some community bonuses. 

However they offer little to no training or support. It's up to you to bring in your own systems, technology, knowledge and whatnot to do your own thing.

This could be a disaster if you have no idea what you're doing in the business. You'll sign up and then be like uh.....what the hell am I doing here. 

But this could be an amazing option if do you know what you're doing. If, for example, you had across to an online course specifically designed to train you how to build your own apartment locating business *cough cough* *hint hint* *wink wink* 

Basically, you get to function like a broker, but without all of the bureaucratic nonsense. 

Most importantly - you get to keep 100% of your commission. 

This is what I eventually did, and still do. 

After I figured out how to be self sufficient I didn't want to give big chunks of my commission to somebody else. I wanted it all. 

I joined a zero-commission brokerage that already had apartment locators on the team. This signaled that they weren't blind to that niche. They had the back office support needed to process invoices and the paperwork needed to register with apartment complexes.

I got to make my own website, do my own branding, use my technology, systems, operations, everything. 

I keep 100% of my commissions, and only pay a small $150 monthly fee. 

I love it. 

A simple google search will show you most of the big brokers in your area. 

Don't just rely on google though. Look at review websites like Glassdoor where former and current agents review the company from the inside. This will tell you far more about what it's like to work for the company than their external facing reviews. 

I know many apartment locating brokerages with hundreds of 5 star reviews from clients, but terrible internal reviews from their agents. Spend some time researching and you'll know which ones I'm taking about. 

Training new agents is a huge challenge for brokers. Training takes a lot of time and energy. The people who would train you generally have their own businesses to worry about. Training you means they have to stop what they're doing to show you how to do things. 

In my experience, training is a few phone calls and a pat on the back good luck. This is why most agents 1) don't know what they fuck they're doing and 2) fail out of the business. 

At the end of the day it's up to you to figure things out. 

Broker interviews should go both ways. You need to interview them as much as they interview you. 

Some will interview you to see if you are a good fit for their team. Some don't give a fuck and just want to grow their team as big as possible so they can make money charging you fees and taking commission from your deals. 

Question: What is your training process?

Don't expect training from a zero-commission brokerage. 

Do expect a thorough training process from a traditional or apartment locating agency.  

Questions: How do commission splits work? 

Red Flag: Here's a general rule of thumb for business and life. The more complicated something is, the more likely you're getting fucked. 

Story Time! I remember interviewing at Big Mega Super Real Estate Brokerage (the big one you're thinking of) It took the interviewer filling out two blank pages, and 30 minutes to explain how the commission structure worked. There were caps, splits, quotas, limits, complex equations, and a whole bunch of shit that didn't make sense. 

I realized this wasn't an accident. They lure people in with their big fancy everybody-knows-us name, and then fuck you with complicated commission structures that confuse your hard earned money into their pockets. 

Question: Do you already have apartment locators on the team?

A brokerage with apartment locators will likely have better support for you than one that doesn't. They will have more back office resources and infrastructure you'll need to operate. 

Question: What support will I get? 

You will give you broker money in the form of flat fees and/or commission. You need to know what you're getting in return. 

Invoicing Support: Do you have somebody that helps follow up on invoicing or is that on me? Invoicing in apartment locating is a pain in the ass. Having support will help you out a lot. However I will show you in my advanced course how to build your own streamlined invoicing process. 

Compliance: Do you have somebody on staff who makes sure we're all in compliance with the local real estate board?

There is no "best broker". There is only "best broker for you". Take the time to research brokers in your region. An apartment locating broker can be a good choice to start off in order to get training, leads, and support. 

However I'll tell you my bias. Don't hope somebody is going to take their time to train you. Instead - own your training and choose a broker who will give you the support you need without a taking big chunks of your money. This is also the only way you will truly control your time. This is why I go with a zero-commission broker.