Of the 100% of the commission, 90% goes to the agent, 6% goes to the franchise free and only 4% of the gross commission becomes money to the broker....to cover staff, office space, marketing, e&o, liability insurance, technology, and all the other costs.Many brokerages actually operate at a loss, and the brokerage becomes a loss leader to feed their other businesses such as title, lending and insurance where profit margins are not as thin.

In no ways am I bashing Huntsville because it is a nice place but it doesn't hold up to Birmingham for STEM jobs.UAB economic impact on the statehttps://www.uab.edu/impact/Birmingham fills engineer jobs faster than any city in the country https://medium.com/textio/whic...Technology?

In 5 years or so, I'd like to be able to see my income from real estate eclipse what I make in software development, so that I can either get further into real estate, or go back to software startups that I'm passionate about.At this moment, I've probably not got too much to offer in real estate knowledge, but I've been the CTO at a few of my startups, so if you have any questions on how technology could be brought to bear on a real estate problem, I'm your guy.

Also look at the technology that each provider offers.

I understand that today's technology makes it easy to do business with anyone almost anywhere. 

@Ahmad Hijazi You should look into technological alternatives for the rent collection piece.

Here is the Coliseum Specific Plan project description:The Coliseum Area Specific Plan ("Coliseum City") seeks to transform the underutilized land around the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Arena into a world-class sports, entertainment and science & technology district that boasts a dynamic and active urban setting with retail, entertainment, arts, culture, live and work uses.

As I am sure we have all been in board rooms where a strategy and plan was developed to penetrate a new market or utilize a new technology.  

However, all the perks are geared toward office supplies, technology, and travel, none of which would benefit a local house rehabbing business. 

Never,The risk comes in play when a platform alters technology before it is proven and interferes with host money.