CBRE Just Opened an Office In My City. Should I Switch Over to it?
I have been considering leaving my firm for some time and I am looking to make a change. A well respected broker in town just left his firm and opened a CBRE office (the first time they have ever been in our market). It will be a team structure with 3 guys there total and everybody gets a small piece of everyones deal. Splits would be 50/50 with corporate. Then 10% goes to your team members. 

My other option is to build up the commercial division of the largest residential firm in town. They cap the commissions they take from you at $13K per year. Will get leads from the company but they will be small ones. 

My question is, are the bad splits worth it to be at CBRE?
[{"id": "i00pu06", "text": "Get cbre on your resume", "replies": [{"id": "i02jpf8", "text": "Absolutely agree.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i00rvr3", "text": "50% splits in $10M deals are nice. They\u2019re even better in $30M deals.", "replies": [{"id": "i01tyy8", "text": "Man, how is a 50% split ever nice?", "replies": [{"id": "i02a5o8", "text": "OP is at a residential brokerage where he\u2019s likely doing deals under $1M. He gets a great split.\n\nBut he could move to a place where he\u2019d be regularly doing deals over $10M, and possibly significantly over. I\u2019m not going to explain to you how a 50% split on a $10M deal is nicer than taking 100% of a $350k house.", "replies": [{"id": "i167zat", "text": "...Right, sorry but the 50% split on the 10m deal is way worse.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "i02jk83", "text": "Tell me you\u2019ve never worked for a big shop without telling me\u2026\n\nOnce you start pulling in over 500k gross, the splits start to adjust in your favor.  It\u2019s also very hard to break into deal making at that level without cutting your teeth at said big shops.  YMMV.", "replies": [{"id": "i168og9", "text": "Nice assumption.  Wrong though.  Had my taste of the big shops and the cost/benefit/opportunity equation you've been sold is a load of crap.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "i05ath7", "text": "To add some clarity. Im currently at a boutique commercial firm and have done a handful of $1M deals. The reason Im wanting to leave though is because it is a 50/50 split with no real justification for it. It is the worst split in town essentially. With the market I'm in, I am not convinced there will be a ton larger size deals coming in from CBRE. Does corporate always bring deals?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i0280hq", "text": "Do it. Get it on your resume with the big-name training/experience that comes with it. From there, you can look at your options.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i02fz9d", "text": "How much is the split at the other brokerage you mentioned?", "replies": [{"id": "i058s7z", "text": "The other brokerage is an 80/20 split with the firm maxing out at $13K per year. Or you can just pay $900 per month.", "replies": [{"id": "i05cu9n", "text": "Perhaps this was not asked, but I recently switched commercial brokerages and what I really had to ask myself is, \"what am I looking for in a commercial brokerage?\" Granted, I was leaving the TOP boutique commercial brokerage in my area. As I looked around, I spoke to several other very successful boutique brokers. I personally was not interested in the CBRE's and JLL's, because I've always been an independent type and this is too corporate for me. Anyhow, none of them were an exact fit. The splits were still high and there was a lot of taking on their part, but when I asked for something they hemmed and hawed. I continued to search for several months, until I found a good match which happened to be eXp Commercial, an international brokerage firm, but with a newer business model. It left behind the old legacy and went to cloud based, work from home, independent agency. This works for me, because I have enough experience to work alone and I like the $18k cap. The boutique shops were all tiered with the first tier at $100k! \n\nYou may want to continue looking around, but if not, I suggest looking more into the CBRE position. You can also look into eXp Commercial. DM me if you're interested.", "replies": [{"id": "i6mwpf2", "text": "I looked at eXp commercial also. I really like their model but it's so new still, that the California broker of record told me they do not have any commercial teams in my market (San Diego) yet. Since I'm new to CRE, I opted to pay more for the training and brand recognition of a local mid sized brokerage with a tiered commission structure, no cap. But I feel the backing of that team will result in my ability to land more deals than trying eXp Comm. on my own. I would certainly look into it again several years down the line once I have more experience. I like all the software they include!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "i6mwcyp", "text": "13k cap pet year?! That's lower than even the online brokerages with $16k caps, which is really really good. How'd you find that?! Most others I've seen, if they offer a cap at all, are around $27-35k annually.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i068bb8", "text": "Definitely do it!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]