7 Income Streams for Real Estate Agents

Do you want to know what the 7 Most Powerful Income Streams for Real Estate Agents are that can help realtors create residual income and passive income streams in more ways than one? Keep Reading!

Did you go into real estate to build income or build wealth? This is a question that is often not considered enough by real estate agents. As an agent, your only stream of income is through your own sales efforts. You are solely dependent on yourself to provide the only source of income in your life. You have the flexibility to work when you want, but you don’t have the freedom to not work at all.

Selling real estate is hard work and real estate agents are always looking for the next deal to add to their pipeline in order to increase their income. After all realtors are professional entrepreneurs and are always looking for ways to make money like any good entrepreneur would! 

Unfortunately for most real estate agents, they only have one source of income and one way to earn money through the commission they earn from real estate sales. Although it’s good that so many real estate agents are making a killing from selling real estate alone, it never hurts to add multiple streams of income so that you can leverage other aspects other than your own time to make money in your business. 

In this article we will explain why it is important for real estate agents to have multiple streams of income and also explain the 7 most powerful income streams for real estate agents that are available to agents at eXp Realty!

Why You Need Multiple Streams of Income

Why do you need multiple income streams as a real estate agent? In order to understand why these additional income streams for real estate agents are a necessity, we first have to understand how wealth is built in the first place and why having more than one income stream is one of the key pillars to building wealth and creating a lifestyle where you can have both time and money freedom as a realtor. 

Traditionally real estate agents have only one stream of income. Commissions from the sale of real estate. The problem with this business model is that it is a one income stream business that is solely relying upon a real estate agent trading their time directly for money. 

If you are not spending time showing houses and representing clients, you are not making money. Plain and simple. This is probably why so many realtors work even on vacations! 

There are two reasons why this is an issue:

1. Having one stream of income means that you only have one way to make money, and if for whatever reason this stream of income goes away or slows down (like in a down market), real estate agents will be left with no way of making money or making significantly less money than they are used to maintaining their current lifestyle

2. Sales is a time traded income stream. This means that you only make money when you trade your time directly for money. If you are unable to work (due to an emergency, health issue, lockdowns, etc.), you have no way of earning an income.

Having multiple streams of income may increase your income but it is not the reason why real estate agents should consider adding more than one income stream to their business. Having multiple income streams help insure your income so that if you lose one of your income streams, you will still have other means of making money. Multiple streams of income is an insurance policy for your income. 

A good rule of thumb to follow is to work towards building 3 streams of income to maintain your living expenses. This way, if one stream of income happens to go away, you will still have 2 income streams as backup. 

Also it would be wise to not just build up multiple income streams, but multiple streams of passive income. This way you will be building income streams that are either leveraging other people’s money or other people’s time rather than your own time and money and will allow you to “make money while you sleep” so that you can create that elusive financial independence you got into the real estate industry for in the first place. 

Check out our top passive income ideas for real estate agents 

7 Income Streams for Real Estate Agents

If you are a real estate agent at a “traditional” real estate brokerage, you are probably only able to earn one stream of income through your own sales. In recent years, some forward thinking brokerages have adopted more than one income stream for their agents and give agents the opportunity to earn 2-3 streams of income if they choose to. 

At eXp Realty, agents are able to earn up to 7 streams of income if they choose to, some of which require no more of the agent than to do what they already are doing which is sell houses (keep reading to find out what these are!). 

Here are the the 7 income streams for real estate agents at eXp Realty:

1. Sales
2. Stock Awards
3. Revenue Share
4. Investing
5. Team Building
6. Referrals
7. Ancillary Services for Clients

1) Sales

The first of the 7 income streams for real estate agents at eXp is simply commissions from selling real estate. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this obvious answer is on this list but we want to include it nonetheless because without the sale of real estate, realtors as a group will all go out of business!

Although it is good to have more than one income stream aside from JUST sales, selling real estate is the absolute backbone of the entire real estate brokerage industry and all other income streams are irrelevant if agents are not selling real estate and closing real estate transactions in the first place. 

At eXp Realty, agents get an extremely unique sales model that allows the real estate agent to keep most if not ALL of their commission (and even potentially more!). 

Agents at eXp are on a 80/20 split with a $16,000 cap. Once an agent caps at eXp they go on a $250 transaction fee basis for the remainder of the year. There are also no franchise fees, royalty fees, or any additional fees aside from a $25 broker review fee and a $40 Risk Management fee paid only after an agent closes each transaction or home sale. 

For more information on eXp’s sales model and commission plan click here to read our article over eXp Realty’s Commission Splits and Fees. 

2) Stock Awards

The second of the 7 most powerful income streams for real estate agents at eXp Realty is the ability to earn stock awards. 

eXp Realty is a publicly traded company under the stock ticket symbol EXPI on the NASDAQ and has created a revolutionary agent equity incentive program for real estate agents to actually be able to own a piece of the brokerage that they work at by simply selling a lot of real estate!

As far as we now know, eXp Realty is the FIRST brokerage in history that is offering their agents actual ownership in the company and allowing real estate agents to be shareholders of the brokerage that they work for rather than just independent contractors. 

At eXp Realty, agents can earn equity in the company in the form of stock awards given to the agent for completing certain sales milestones each year with the ability to earn the same stock awards every year! 

Here are just some of the ways eXp agents are earning EXPI stock at the company:

• Selling their First House of the Year EACH YEAR ($200 Stock Award)
• Capping by Hitting the $16,000 Annual Cap EACH YEAR ($400 Stock Award)
• Becoming a Top Producing Agent by Closing 20 Additional Transactions After Capping EACH YEAR ($16,000 Stock Award)
• Attracting an Agent to Join eXp With YOU As their Sponsor that Closes Their First Deal at the Company ($400 Each Time an Agent You Sponsor Closes Their First Deal at eXp)
• OPTIONAL Discounted Stock Purchase Program (Get 5% of your Commission Paid as EXPI Stock at 10% Discount from Current Traded Market Price)

Having the ability to earn stock in the company that you work for is a game changer in the real estate brokerage world. Agents are now able to create a retirement plan through owning assets that can go up in value over time rather than only earning money from their real estate sales. 

Click here to learn more about the eXp Stock Awards. 

3) Revenue Share

The last of the “Big 3” Income streams for real estate agents at eXp realty is the famous revenue share residual income team building model. 

The revenue share program is eXp’s way of incentivizing and rewarding agents for growing the company by sharing a piece of the revenue that the company generates back to the agents for attracting other agents to join the company. 

The revenue share model has helped many agents at eXp generate additional cash flow as supplemental income for those who treat the model as a side hustle and even enough passive income to make a full time living for any entrepreneurial real estate agent who is putting a lot of work into building their revenue share teams. 

As a licensed real estate agent at eXp, when you attract another agent to join the company they have the opportunity to name you as their sponsor on their joining application, when they do that, you would have “sponsored” that agent to the company and be eligible to earn revenue share from their production. 

When an agent you sponsor sells a house, you will receive 3.5% of the gross commission they generate before the split, paid to you as revenue share, from eXp Realty’s portion of the commission split.

For example:

If you sponsor an agent who sells a house that generated $10,000 in gross commission the revenue share breakdown would look like this:

• The agent received 80% or $8,000
• eXp Receives 20% or $2,000
• You Receive 3.5% of the total $10,000 or $350, paid to you out of eXp’s $2,000 so that the agent is not losing any of their hard earned commission check

The revenue share model is also tiered, which means you can earn revenue share from agents sponsored under the agents that you personally sponsored to the company for up to 7 levels deep. 

Revenue sharing is truly one of if not the most powerful of all the income streams for real estate agents and one of the best new opportunities for realtors because it is not only one of the only residual income streams for real estate agents, it is the only self-duplicating and self-growing revenue stream of all the income streams for real estate agents. 

To learn more about revenue share and why it is the most powerful of the most powerful of the 7 most powerful income streams for real estate agents check out our articles over revenue share below:

• eXp Revenue Share Breakdown
• eXp Revenue Share Ultimate Guide
• eXp Revenue Share: Expansion Share vs Exponential Share
• eXp Revenue Share vs KW Profit Share
• eXp Revenue Share Calculator

4) Investing

An extremely popular of the 7 income streams for real estate agents is real estate investing. After all, real estate agents should understand the power of owning real estate better than anyone else on the planet. 

Real estate investing is a powerful income stream because it is in itself more than just one income stream, investing in real estate can actually create multiple income streams for real estate agents. 

One of the most popular ways that agents are taking advantage of real estate investing is by owning rental properties and earning the rental income from the tenants that rent out the houses that they own. Owning rental property is a great way to create a long term residual income and equity plan because of the enormous benefits of investing in real estate. 

One way that investing can actually in itself create multiple income streams for real estate agents is the ability to earn both rental income and capital gains income from the appreciation of the buildings that you own. 

Owning real estate can also help you save money for tax purposes and actually allow you KEEP more of the money you did earn as an agent selling houses which in itself can be considered a way of creating new income streams for real estate agents. 

There are multiple ways that real estate agents can invest in real estate to create extra income or extra money without making investing into a full-time job such as investing in:

• Single-Family Home
• Real Estate Investment Trusts
• Real Estate Crowdfunding
• Short-Term Rentals like Airbnbs and VRBOS
• Office Buildings
• Retail Stores
• Apartment Buildings
• Commercial Real Estate
• Mobile Home Parks
• Equity REITs
• Mortgage Reits
• Real Estate Syndication
• Long-term Rentals
• Undeveloped Land
• Becoming Silent Partners in someone else’s real estate deals

As you can see there are more than enough different ways for real estate agents to invest in real estate. Something as simple as putting a part of your commission away each time you have a closing to save up towards a down payment to purchase residential properties is an easy way to start investing. 

Also, as a real estate agent you have an advantage when it comes to recognizing a good deal to purchase because you are constantly working with property owners in your day to day activities in your “day job”. Investing in real estate is truly one of the best additional income streams for real estate agents and an excellent way to generate extra cash with your real estate license. 

If you want to learn how to invest in real estate as a realtor make sure to click the button below to learn more about how our team at eXp Realty is leading the field in helping realtors build their net worth through investment coaching and mentorship FOR FREE teaching you the top strategies to analyze investment properties, do your due diligence, make your initial investment in real estate, analyze the real estate market, interest rate, purchase price, vacancy rate, lead generation, raising capital, and more to become a real estate investor!

5) Team Building

Another one of the best income streams for real estate agents is traditional team building. At eXp Realty, you will have the opportunity to build a traditional real estate team on top of your revenue share team and it is one of the absolute best income streams for real estate agents who generate a lot of leads. 

Building a traditional team simply means having more than enough leads that you can handle and giving them out to other agents in your local area for an additional split on their commission after they close the deal (usually 25-50%). 

At eXp Realty you have the option to run both a traditional team and a revenue share team at the same time. Plenty of top agents do both and actually use their local team structure as an agent attraction tool. 

As an eXp team leader you will also have the option to structure your team in 4 different ways. To learn more about the 4 types of teams at eXp click here on our Teams at eXp article. 

If you are an agent who is generating more leads than you can handle and have a good structure for your business then running a traditional team of anywhere from 5-20 agents is one of the best additional income streams for real estate agents that you can implement. 

Since you are already generating those leads, instead of throwing them away or wasting them, simply recruit a few agents to work with you and give the leads to them so that you can earn a portion of the commission when they close the deals. 

But there is more than one way to monetize those leads, and another way to do that is…

6) Referrals

Referrals are the most popular and well known of the 7 additional income streams for real estate agents. Referrals are simply when you have a client that is either looking to buy or sell a house that you refer to another agent and earn a referral fee in the process. 

This and team building are probably the two most similar income streams for real estate agents because team building is really just a structured referral agreement between you and multiple agents. 

The best way to leverage referrals to add towards your income is to look for opportunities to refer your current clients out to other agents before or after you help them with their transaction. 

If a client is either moving to or away from your city, it is more than likely that they either have another home to sell or buy in the old city that they used to live in or new city that they are moving to. This is the perfect opportunity to refer your client to a partner agent in that particular city for that transaction on the back end and earn a referral fee (typically 25% of the commission) from the agent you referred them to.

This is a way for you to essentially add an additional 25% increase to your income as a real estate agent. Referrals is one of the easiest to implement income streams for real estate agents to increase their income, especially at eXp Realty. 

With eXp’s internal Facebook interface system Workplace, agents are able to connect with other agents in other cities, states, and even countries from a group of close to 90,000 agents around the world. Think about that…a 90,000 agent referral network that you can monetize! 

And now with the addition of eXp’s Referral Division, referring real estate clients to other realtors has become one of the most popular income streams for real estate agents and some agents have even become so good at the referral game that they are referral agents full time!

Click here to learn more about the eXp Referral Division.

7) Ancillary Services For Clients

The last of the 7 income streams for real estate agents is to provide ancillary services to your existing clients or even for other agents. As a real estate agent you can use your real estate expertise for more than just selling houses to make money. 

One of the most popular ways that agents are earning additional income with their real estate skills is to help homeowners in your client base with their property tax appeals in their local market. This is when real estate agents can help homeowners in certain areas decrease their property taxes based on their expert opinion of the local property value by working directly with the local government. This is also a GREAT way to get in the good graces of potential clients. 

Another one of the income streams for real estate agents when it comes to ancillary services is by helping other agents host open houses for a fee or even help another buyer’s agent with a showing for a fee as well. 

As you can see there are plenty of ways to leverage more than just one of the ancillary service income streams for real estate agents and real estate professionals. Here are a few other ways agents are making money through ancillary client services:

• Junk Removal
• Mortgage
• Title Services
• BPO
• Moving Services
• House Sitting
• Property manager
• Etc. 

8) BONUS #1 – Coaching

BONUS INCOME STREAMS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS #1: Coaching other real estate agents as an experienced agent is one of the most popular additional income streams for real estate agents.

As an agent you have various skillsets that you can share with new and upcoming agents and charge a fee for your coaching services if they don’t want to join your team or revenue share organization. Multiple eXp Agents have adopted a coaching based approach when it comes to marketing themselves and their recruiting for both their revenue share and traditional teams. 

Make sure that you are positioning yourself as an expert who is willing and able to help other realtors on your social media and even youtube channel as those are both great ways to build an audience (which can create you yet another stream of income) and allow you to sell coaching services to agents both inside and outside of your brokerage. 

9) BONUS #2 – Courses

BONUS INCOME STREAMS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS #2: If you don’t want to spend the time to coach other realtors, you can leverage your experience by selling an online course for a fee. 

Creating and selling video courses is a good way to make supplemental income as a realtor and just like selling coaching services, many agents are taking advantage of eXp’s massive agent network to sell their own unique courses to other eXp agents to help them grow their business even if they are not in your direct eXp revenue share group. 

10) BONUS #3 – Social Media

BONUS INCOME STREAMS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS #3: Leveraging your social media audience (a key part of any real estate business) to make money from affiliate marketing is one of the more unique income streams for real estate agents. 

Many real estate agents have become “local celebrities” or even national celebrities on social media and are leveraging their influence and audience to make money by being a part of affiliate programs that pay them a commission every time someone purchases a product or service with their affiliate links. 

There are plenty of real estate related services that agents and clients will need or want to buy that offer affiliate commissions to “influencers” with big followings to help promote their products. Some examples are:

• Marketing Platforms
• CRMs
• Email marketing services
• Social Media Management
• Coaching Services
• Cold Call Services
• Auto Dialers
• Blog Post Generators
• ETC. 

Bottom Line

Now that you have a full understanding of why you need multiple income streams and what the 7 most powerful income streams for real estate agents are it is time to start implementing these streams of income in your business! 

As a real estate agent, you want to build at least 3 streams of income. eXp Realty offers 7 income streams for real estate agents that you can take advantage of! So what are you waiting for? Keep an open mind and start adding these income streams for real estate agents to your own business today!

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