“Commission is always 5%” is folklore, not law — no statute anywhere in Canada sets a rate. Because nothing is standardized, two brokerages' plans can sound completely different and produce almost the same take-home, or sound almost the same and produce very different ones. The headline number is the least useful thing to compare.
Key takeaways
RECO's own consumer guidance is explicit about how little is standardized in a representation agreement: it must state “what the client will pay,” and payment terms are “not regulated by RECO or government.” That statement is about the client-facing side of the relationship — what a buyer or seller pays for representation — but the same underlying fact runs through the agent-brokerage side too: nothing in provincial real estate regulation sets a commission split, a desk fee, or a cap threshold. Both relationships are freely negotiated contracts, and “commission is always 5%” describes neither one — no legislated rate exists anywhere in Canada.
Structurally, most plans fall into one of three shapes, described here as mechanisms rather than with any specific published rate. A cap plan: the brokerage takes a percentage of each commission until the agent's contributions for the year reach a stated cap, after which the agent keeps the full commission for the rest of the period. A graduated or tiered split: the agent's percentage rises as their production for the period increases, resetting at the start of the next period. A fixed split plus desk fee: the agent keeps a higher, often fixed, percentage of each commission but pays a recurring monthly or per-transaction fee regardless of production. None of these is inherently better — each shifts the brokerage's revenue timing and the agent's monthly cash flow differently, which is exactly why planning your cash flow around whichever one you pick matters before signing any of them.
Desk fees, transaction fees, and errors-and-omissions costs are frequently where two plans that look similar on paper diverge in practice. Insurance structure alone varies by province in ways that change what a plan is actually bundling: RECA's own brokerage-licensing page states that in Alberta, real estate licensees are “automatically enrolled in REIX” — the Real Estate Insurance Exchange — upon licence issuance, so E&O cost is built into the licensing structure itself rather than negotiated brokerage by brokerage. Where a brand affiliation is part of the plan, a franchise fee is layered on top again — see independent or franchise for a new agent for how that specific cost fits in, and why no regulator publishes a typical franchise fee percentage either.
None of the figures below are published rates — they're declared parameters, chosen only to show how the shapes behave differently as production changes, not a benchmark for what any real plan actually charges:
| Plan shape (illustrative only) | Slow year | Strong year |
|---|---|---|
| Cap plan (brokerage keeps a share until a stated cap, then agent keeps the rest) | Brokerage share applies to most or all of the year’s income | Agent clears the cap partway through the year and keeps the remainder in full |
| Graduated split (agent’s share rises with production, resets each period) | Agent stays at the entry-level percentage all year | Agent climbs to a higher tier partway through, but resets at the next period |
| Fixed split plus desk fee (higher fixed percentage, recurring fee regardless of volume) | The fixed fee is a larger share of a smaller income — the costliest shape in a slow year | The fixed fee becomes a small fraction of a larger income — often the cheapest shape in a strong one |
The pattern the table is built to show: each shape's relative cost flips depending on where your actual production lands, which is exactly why a single-number comparison — “this brokerage takes 20%, this one takes 15%” — tells you almost nothing on its own.
Some brokerages bundle a lead-generation system into the plan itself, taking a larger cut in exchange for supplying inbound leads rather than requiring the agent to generate their own. No Canadian source publishes a standard real-estate lead-conversion rate, so there's no published figure to check a brokerage's own claims against — treat any specific conversion percentage a brokerage quotes you as their own internal number, not an industry benchmark, and ask what it's actually measured against before weighing it into the comparison.
Build the comparison from your own numbers, not the plans' own marketing. Take your realistic annual gross commission income at two different levels — a conservative year and a strong one — and run each plan's actual math against both. A cap plan that looks expensive in a slow year can become the cheaper option once production clears the cap; a desk-fee plan that looks cheap in a strong year can be the most expensive option in a slow one, because the fee doesn't move with production. The plan that “wins” on a single headline number can lose at the production level you'll actually be at — which is a further reason the comparison has to be run twice, at two different volumes, before it means anything. And whichever plan you land on, read the agreement itself the same way you would any other independent-contractor contract (the same test applies whether you're comparing an independent shop or a franchise) — the split is one clause among several, and the termination and notice terms around it matter just as much as the percentage.
Not automatically — a 100% plan almost always carries a higher fixed desk fee, which can cost more than a graduated split at lower production levels. Compare both at your own realistic volume, not on the headline number alone.
That depends entirely on what your own agreement says about it, since no regulator standardizes commission terms. Check your agreement's own amendment and notice provisions rather than assuming either way.
No published source compares the two directly. A franchise typically adds a fee layer for the brand and system; whether that's worth it depends on what the brand's referral flow and training are actually worth to your specific business, not a fixed rule.
Ask what the number is actually measured against before weighing it — no Canadian body publishes a standard real-estate lead-conversion rate to check it against, so a brokerage's own figure is a claim about their own leads, not an industry benchmark.
It depends on the province and the brokerage. Alberta automatically enrolls licensees in REIX on licensing; elsewhere, confirm directly whether the cost sits inside the split, the desk fee, or as its own line item before comparing two plans' true cost.
A short call can help you build a realistic two-scenario comparison instead of comparing headline percentages.
