Glossary

Commission Split

Also known as: fee split

The division of a brokerage commission between multiple parties entitled to a share — commonly the listing side and cooperating buyer's side, and separately between an individual agent and their brokerage firm under the agent's internal split arrangement.

Commission splits operate at two distinct levels that brokers must not conflate: the external split between listing and cooperating brokerages, and the internal split within each brokerage between the individual producing agent and the firm, which is typically governed by the agent's employment or independent-contractor agreement and often scales with the agent's production tier or tenure. Co-brokerage splits are sometimes uneven by design — a listing agreement may specify a smaller share to a cooperating broker on a procedural rather than fifty-fifty basis, or a referring broker may take a smaller referral-fee-style cut rather than a full co-brokerage share. Because split disputes are a leading source of broker-to-broker litigation and arbitration, experienced brokers document split agreements in writing before a deal proceeds rather than relying on market custom.