How much is my brokerage worth?
Updated October 2026. Figures as of August 2026.
Your brokerage is worth what a buyer expects it to earn for them after you leave: the profit left once agents are paid and the office is run, from the agents likely to stay. We found no primary source that publishes a standard price or multiple. In two brokerage purchases described in one publicly traded brokerage company's annual report to the SEC, little of the price was cash at closing, and part depended on the brokerage's later net income (US, Form 10-K, March 2026).
With no standard multiple, your own numbers are the starting point.
Your own situation decides the value and the tax; a business appraiser, a CPA (US) or accountant (Canada) and a lawyer can confirm them before you sign.
What does a buyer pay for when buying a brokerage?
The IRS's list of what changes hands in a business sale works as a checklist. Apart from cash, receivables and equipment, a buyer can pay for a workforce in place, business books and records and operating systems, customer-based intangibles, licenses and permits, a covenant not to compete and trade names, with goodwill and going concern value counted last (IRS Instructions for Form 8594, November 2021).
One publicly traded brokerage company's annual report to the SEC says the intangible assets it valued in its acquisitions were mainly agent relationships, trade names, customer relationships and technology, and that it assumed some agent revenue would leave each year when it valued them (US, Form 10-K, March 2026). So the agents who stay are part of what you're selling.
Those agents hold the client relationships. In 2025 the typical REALTOR® got 28% of their business from repeat clients and 22% from past-client referrals (US, NAR, August 2026).
How do I work out a number for my brokerage?
Start with a full year of your own figures and adjust them the way a buyer will. The steps below take you from your books to the profit a buyer is buying, and then to a price.
- Company dollar, less overhead: start from what the brokerage keeps from gross commission income after agents' splits, then take off the cost of running the office.
- Your pay: replace what you pay yourself with what a hired manager would cost. The median annual wage for real estate brokers who are employees was US$73,220 (BLS, May 2025). In Canada, Job Bank reports wages by the hour: the median for insurance, real estate and financial brokerage managers was C$59.23 an hour (2023 to 2024 wages, updated November 2025).
- Your production: deals you close yourself leave with you unless you stay on, so take them out or price them on their own.
- One-off items: add back personal costs run through the business and an unusual legal bill, and take out a one-time windfall.
- Agents who stay: estimate how many agents, and how much of their business, would stay through a change of owner. A buyer will test this.
- From profit to price: what a buyer will pay depends on how sure they are that the profit will last. NAR suggests a qualified business appraiser for this step (NAR, June 2017).
How were two reported brokerage sales paid?
One publicly traded brokerage company's annual report to the SEC describes two brokerage purchases (US, Form 10-K, March 2026). In both, the cash paid at closing was a small part of the price. The rest was the buyer's own stock and later payments that depended on conditions, including the bought brokerage's net income in later years. In the first deal, US$1.0 million that was due within a year had not been paid by the time of the filing, because its conditions weren't met (US, Form 10-K, March 2026).
Both were sales to a public company, paid partly in its shares. Read them as examples of how terms can be built; they say nothing about what your brokerage would sell for.
| Term | Arizona brokerage, November 2024 | Colorado brokerage, October 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Total consideration | About US$4.2 million | About US$1.2 million |
| Cash at closing | About US$0.3 million | About US$0.2 million |
| Buyer's stock, valued on the purchase date | US$2.1 million (814,672 shares) | US$0.3 million (157,356 shares) |
| Due within one year, subject to conditions | US$1.0 million, not paid because the conditions were not met | None described |
| Paid only if the brokerage's net income beats set thresholds | US$0.7 million in total (initial estimated present value), measured against net income each year through 2027 | US$0.7 million in total (initial estimated present value), measured against net income each year through 2028 |
How does being paid over time change the tax?
In the US, if at least one payment comes after the year of sale, the installment method can let you report part of the gain as each payment arrives, though not on inventory, and depreciation recapture is reported in the year of sale. A sale whose price includes a share of future profits is a contingent payment sale, which has its own rules (IRS Publication 537, April 2026).
If the price changes after the year of sale, for example because a later payment depends on profit, the buyer or seller affected files a supplemental Form 8594 with the return for the year of the change (IRS Instructions for Form 8594, November 2021).
In Canada, a capital gains reserve can generally spread a capital gain over up to five years when you're paid over time (CRA guide T4037, January 2026).
Whether you sell the company or its assets also changes the tax; how selling a brokerage works covers both.
What makes a brokerage worth more or less?
Three things move the price, and you have some say over each of them before you sell.
- Agents who stay. The public company above assumed some agent revenue would leave each year when it valued the brokerages it bought (US, Form 10-K, March 2026). The more of your agents a buyer expects to keep, the more the business is worth to that buyer.
- Cash at closing. Money paid at closing is certain, and stock and profit-based payments carry risk, so compare offers on what you'd be sure to receive.
- What is included. Your trade name, your records and systems, and any noncompete you sign are assets a buyer can pay for (IRS Instructions for Form 8594, November 2021), and how the price is split among them sets the gain on each (IRS Publication 537, April 2026).
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Common questions
- Is there a standard multiple for valuing a real estate brokerage?
- We found no primary source that publishes one. NAR suggests using a qualified business appraiser (NAR, June 2017). Brokerage purchases that public companies report to the SEC show only the prices and terms of those particular deals.
- Do my agents come with the brokerage when I sell?
- Each agent decides whether to stay. One publicly traded brokerage company's annual report to the SEC says that when it valued the intangible assets of brokerages it bought, it assumed some agent revenue would leave each year, and part of what it paid depended on the bought brokerage's net income after the sale (US, Form 10-K, March 2026).
- What if I want to hand my brokerage to someone who already works for me?
- For one broker succeeding another inside the firm, NAR's 2017 guidance on brokerage succession suggests identifying who can lead, exposing them to all of the brokerage's operations and introducing them to the people who matter to the firm (NAR, August 2017). The same guidance says how listings transfer varies by state, so ask your state's real estate commission or, in Canada, your provincial regulator.
- How is the sale of a brokerage taxed in Canada?
- Half of a capital gain is taxable, and the proposed rise to two-thirds was canceled (CRA, January 2025 and June 2026). Qualified small business corporation shares can use the lifetime capital gains exemption, which was C$1,250,000 for 2025 under proposed changes (CRA guide T4037, January 2026). If you sell the business's assets as a whole and the buyer acquires at least 90% of the property needed to carry it on, you and the buyer may be able to jointly elect on Form GST44 that no GST/HST is payable (CRA, July 2026).
Sources
- Fathom Holdings Inc. (SEC Form 10-K), Form 10-K, Annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, March 2026
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8594 (11/2021), Asset Acquisition Statement Under Section 1060, November 2021
- IRS, Publication 537 (2025), Installment Sales, April 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents, Occupational Outlook Handbook, August 2026
- Government of Canada, Job Bank, Wages: Manager, Real Estate Office in Canada, November 2025
- National Association of REALTORS®, The Feature Sheet: 2026 Member Profile, August 2026
- National Association of REALTORS®, Appraisal of Real Estate Offices & Selling Your Book of Business, June 2017
- National Association of REALTORS®, Succession Planning for Real Estate Brokerages, August 2017
- Canada Revenue Agency, Capital Gains 2025 (Guide T4037), January 2026
- Canada Revenue Agency, Update on the Canada Revenue Agency's administration of the proposed capital gains taxation changes, January 2025
- Canada Revenue Agency, What's new for corporations, June 2026
- Canada Revenue Agency, Selling a business, July 2026