It is EXTREMELY profitable if the business intent/plan can be identified with a niche market. 

Example: Dunedin Realty is a very successful brokerage associated with niche market in a very small but uniquely significant town. It is easy to present the challenge, 'Who do you think knows the most about Dunedin?"

Example: Greater focus on investor/builder segment where too many cooks in the kitchen will ruin the soup.

If the business intent/plan is generally focused on ANY residential purchase and sale that can be drummed up, it is hard to beat the cost and benefit of hanging with REMAX.

That may depend on what you want your brokerage to do.  Do you want a brokerage just for yourself/team or do you want to recruit a bunch of agents?

Not for me.

Depends on how you run it.

As with any business it can be very profitable. You just have to do the right planning up front to figure out how much of a monthly fee to charge, how many agents you need to close x amount of deals at your share of commission and make sure that is higher then expenses. I think in todays world of changing business models, if you can built a brand that agents want to join you can have a gold mine.

I owned one for 10 years. I made money but not big money. The effort and time didn't match the risk and reward.

It better be!

Absolutely it can be profitable.  I love it.

Like any business, it can be profitable or a failure, depending on how you market your business and if you have agents that are serious about their roles in the business.

I have my own, but no agents, so I pay less.

It can be if you run it right and have the right agents.

If you are good at building and running the business, yes.

Yes, if you have good agents especially.

Rob,

It depends on how you run it.  A

Your own business can be very profitable if correctly managed. However, most of the people in the business do not enjoy great financial success.

It depends on what your ultimate goals are, Rob. Many franchises allow you to work in a team of your own under their name.

Of course financially it may benefit you if you own the brokerage which comes with additional expenses. Do the math and go for what works best for you. 

If structured properly and the volume exists. We have done both and the attrition rate was never a problem, but convincing qualified agents to join always was, becasue they were all planning to go off in their own companies in the future. I never wanted newbies as I don't have time to hand-hold and never wanted the liability.