PROS: You get to meet a lot of great people, see a lot of homes, control your own time (to a degree), and can make money.CONS: You get to meet a lot of not-so-great people (buyers who waste your time, sellers who are unreasonable), deals that fall through (especially when you are counting on the commission), working late hours, and finding prospects.The hardest part for me is finding good prospects.

So far I havePM fee (% of rent or flat fee)Lease upsMaintenance (upcharge)Vendor rebate program on items such as appliancesPet fee (not sure if this goes to the owner or PM)Lawn care (upcharge)CleaningRenters Insurance (commission?)

Commissions and management at 4.3%?

To me, this seems like a win/win-- the client saves money through a service that handles all of their legal needs (including a hopefully imminent closing) for $17/mo, and the agent makes commission from the sale of their client's membership.

At that point, it becomes pretty easy to add up all of your positive cashflow, subtract off all of the negative (including commissions and sales costs) and get a net number that you can use to calculate ROI/CoC.

I know there are some agency that charge a monthly fee to their agents instead of taking a commission cut.

None of the parties shall receive any proceeds from this transaction except the sales commission."

If you are hired in a company or made a working partner you may be fine, if you're just paid a commission on your own for a deal you may have problems.Folks wanting to get started in RE need to think down the road as to what they do to establish their reputation with other RE pros in the area, including Realtors and generally they don't look positively on birddogs. :)

No, it's not illegal.If it's on a MLS, it must cover the sales commission as well as the listing broker is responsible for settlements and the co-broke fee unless the other selling broker/agent has a buyer's agreement.

I don't see any advantage to not using an agent- the commission is paid by the seller.