Every question,
answered in public.

The whole schedule: $200 a month all-in with E&O insurance included. $149 per closing ($25 broker compliance review plus $124 risk management). Your split is 80/20 until Circle's share reaches $16,000 in your anniversary year, then $250 per transaction. One-time enrollment is $500 for new agents, $300 for experienced agents (5 or more closings in the last 12 months). Full detail on Why Circle.

A cap is the most a brokerage will take from your commissions in a year. Every deal, Circle keeps 20% of your commission until those pieces total $16,000 in your anniversary year. After that you keep 100% of every commission, minus a flat $250 per closing. Team members have a lower $8,000 cap.

Why it matters: a percentage split with no cap scales against you. The more you produce, the more you pay. A cap turns the brokerage into a fixed cost. See it on your own numbers.

You keep everything except a flat $250 per closing and the standard $149 transaction fee. There's no royalty that keeps running and no reset mid-year; the cap resets on your anniversary date.

No, no, and no. Circle is independent, so there's no franchise to feed. Desk fees (monthly rent for office access) don't exist here; the office, print, and coffee are covered by the $200. If you're comparing us to a franchise office, ask them two questions: what's the royalty percentage, and does it continue after you cap? Ours are zero and not applicable.

Really included. Errors and omissions coverage is built into the $200 monthly (about $50 of its value). No separate policy, no annual lump sum at renewal, no per-closing E&O surcharge. There's no catch; we just think insurance shouldn't be a surprise line item.

The split is real, but the model moves the cost somewhere else: per-transaction compliance fees, E&O charges, monthly dues, and paid add-ons for anything beyond a license to hang. One published franchise example works out to roughly $700 per deal in fees plus $200 a month. For an active agent that can exceed a capped split, with far less support behind it. Price the whole stack, not the headline. The calculator has a "100% shop" preset.

Yes. Nothing in the fee structure punishes part-time agents: no desk fee, and the $200 covers your E&O and tools whether you close two deals or twenty. Agents with fewer than 5 closings in the last 12 months are on 70/30 until they cap. The 8:30am sessions repeat three times a week, so a day job doesn't lock you out of the training.

Three DRE-approved courses (135 hours), an application with fingerprinting, and the state exam: 150 questions, 3 hours, 70% to pass. Most people finish in three to six months and spend roughly $600 to $1,000 all-in. The step-by-step version with costs is on the new agents page.

It's a memorization exam, not a genius test. People who grind practice exams for a few weeks pass; people who skim the courses usually don't. If you miss it, you can retake it. The exam is the easy part of this career; the first year of prospecting is the real test, which is why the brokerage you pick matters more than your exam score.

No salary. You earn a commission per closing, typically a percentage of the sale price, split between the buyer's and seller's sides. Your brokerage takes its share (that's the split), then fees. That's why cap, split, and fee structure decide so much of your income, and why we publish ours.

Honestly: anywhere from nothing to six figures. The variables are your effort, your market, and how much real support you get. The industry's dirty secret is that most new agents fail out inside two years, usually at brokerages that recruited them and then ignored them. Circle's answer is structural: a mentor on your first three deals, leads to work, live coaching, and a 30-60-90 plan someone actually reviews. A realistic first-year example is here.

Interview brokerages, and interview them hard. Ask for the fee schedule in writing, ask who personally trains you and when, ask where your first lead comes from, and ask what happens in your first 30 days. If an office answers all four without flinching, take them seriously. Ours are: the schedule, Scott, three mornings a week, the lead engine, and the 30-60-90.

Yes. A California salesperson license only operates under a licensed broker, so every new agent "hangs" their license with a brokerage. The sponsor takes legal responsibility for your transactions, which is what the split and fees pay for. Choosing that sponsor is the biggest business decision of your first year.

Yes. Circle is an invited Zillow Preferred partner office, and qualifying agents receive pre-qualified buyer leads with no upfront cost: you pay at closing only. This is provided lead flow, not a CRM you're expected to fill yourself. The full lead engine.

Agents who qualify at a 5% conversion rate receive 15 to 25 pre-qualified buyer leads a month across 54 Southern California zip codes. Volume is performance based and conversion targets are set by Zillow, so nobody here will promise you a fixed number. Top Preferred agents have closed 12 to 15 transactions in 12 months on Zillow leads alone; past performance doesn't guarantee yours.

You still get the floor: Willow answers every inquiry that comes to you directly (your IDX site, sign calls, open houses), your own database gets worked around the clock, and the weekly pipeline reviews train the exact conversion habits the program measures. Qualification is earned at a conversion standard set by Zillow; ask at the sit-down what the current path looks like and how long it typically takes. The lead engine, including the floor.

Every inquiry gets a first response in minutes: Willow AI answers around the clock and two inside sales agents work conversations through the day. Leads die in voicemail; ours don't sit in one.

Then the lead program is upside, not the pitch. Your case is the cap math (run it), the 12 support staff, Willow working your database, and E&O plus tools in one $200 line. Plenty of Circle agents run on their own sphere; the leads are there when you want to add a pipeline.

They're standard practice now: buyers sign a written representation agreement before touring, and every lead at Circle is worked under one. Willow fills and sends the agreement on command, and the buyer-consult conversation (what the agreement says, how you're paid, why it protects the client) is a core script-practice topic. If that conversation still feels awkward, it's one of the first things the coaching fixes.

Script practice with Scott on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:30am (office and Zoom). Weekly accountability coaching against your 30-60-90. Weekly 1:1 pipeline reviews for lead-program agents. Monthly guest speakers and masterminds, plus the Agent Leadership Council for the top 20%. The whole calendar.

New agents work their first three transactions 50/50 with a dedicated mentor who is physically with them for listing appointments, offers, and escrow, backed by a dedicated instructor. After deal three you move to 70/30 until you cap. Compare: eXp's published mentor program takes an extra 20% of your first three deals for remote guidance, and Real's recommended mentor fee is 25% to 50%, negotiated between agents.

Circle's broker and founder: 24+ years in real estate, top 1% producer, and a four-time company builder. He still sells, still runs script practice himself, and posts his systems publicly at @scottkato. Long-form interviews are on the stories page.

Yes, and you should. Ask for a guest seat at any 8:30am session and judge the coaching by the coaching. Request a guest seat.

Mechanically it's small: a DRE license transfer, MLS and lockbox updates, and new signage. It typically completes in days. The part that needs care is your book of business, which is governed by your current independent contractor agreement.

It depends on your current ICA: listings usually belong to the brokerage, and pendings often close under the old roof while new business starts under the new one. Bring your ICA to the sit-down and we'll map exactly what moves before you decide anything. Nothing here is legal advice; the document controls.

Not from us. Sit-downs are confidential, nobody calls your broker, and no announcement goes out until you say so. Recruiting conversations are normal in this business; discretion is part of doing them right.

Both. Team members run 80/20 with an $8,000 cap, which usually beats what team agents pay inside franchise structures. Team leads: bring your roster math to the sit-down and we'll model the whole team's take-home. The producer page covers the staffing you stop paying for.

190+ agents, over $520 million in sales volume and 680+ homes closed in the last 12 months, and the #1 independent brokerage in greater Long Beach. RealTrends ranked Circle a 2025 Top 100 brokerage in California. All of it runs from one 8,400 square foot floor at 3250 Airflite Way.

Where those numbers come from: trailing-12-month production from Southern California MLS data as reported at circlere.com (July 2026), and the RealTrends 2025 rankings. We source our own stats the same way we source competitors' numbers.

The office is in Long Beach and most agents work the greater Long Beach area: Lakewood, Signal Hill, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress, Cerritos, Carson, Whittier, and surrounding cities. The lead program spans 54 zip codes across Southern California, so you're not fenced to one town.

No. The 8:30am sessions run on Zoom too, and plenty of agents work mostly from the field. The office is a tool, not a requirement. It just happens to be a tool with panoramic runway views and an ice cream freezer, so attendance is not usually the problem.

Honestly: agents who need a national franchise name on the sign and its relocation referral network. Fully virtual agents optimizing for the absolute lowest fee line, since a cloud brokerage can beat us there and the calculator will tell you when it does. Anyone shopping for stock or revenue share instead of cash economics. And agents who hear "weekly accountability" as pressure rather than help. If that's you, we'd rather say it here than waste your sit-down.