Leaving a Real Estate Team in Houston? Know What Goes With You Before You Give Notice.

Usually not. A pending deal stays with the brokerage that holds it, and your agreement decides how you are paid when it closes. Read that section before you give notice, and bring it to the first call so the timing of your move protects the money you already earned.

Two documents govern it: the team agreement, and the independent contractor agreement you signed with the brokerage. Between them they say whose name is on the contract, what happens to a file if you leave before it funds, and what share you are paid when it does. Some agreements pay the full agreed split, some pay a reduced one, and some pay nothing after a notice date. That last case is why the date of your notice matters more than most agents expect. Read both before you tell anyone, and where a clause is ambiguous, have an attorney read it rather than a colleague.

Your personal relationships are yours, but leads the team generated may belong to the team under your agreement. Check the lead and non-solicitation sections first. Houston Properties Team will not ask you to take anything your agreement says is not yours.

The distinction most team agreements draw is between a relationship you arrived with and a lead the team paid for. Your own past clients, your family, the people who would call you at any brokerage: those are normally yours, and a non-solicitation clause is usually about the team's leads rather than about your own sphere. Leads the team generated, and the clients that came from them, are usually the team's. Read the two clauses together, because a broad non-solicitation and a broad lead-ownership clause can between them cover more than either does alone. Where it is unclear, an attorney reading it costs less than a dispute afterwards.

Ask any team for its numbers. Ours: members average $14M in volume against a $820K Houston average (team records and HAR, September 2026), from 525+ inbound leads a month (team records, August 2026), with a success team on six functions and a weekly squad led by a mentor who still sells.

The differences worth checking are the ones a team can show you on paper. Where the appointments come from, and how many arrived last month. What the success team does, function by function, rather than the word support. Who runs the coaching, and whether they still sell houses. What the split is, written down, with your own production in the arithmetic. Ask the team you are leaving the same four questions and compare the answers rather than the pitch. A team that cannot produce last month's lead count has already answered the first one.

We go through the numbers with your own production on the table, in writing, before anything moves. Bring your last twelve months; the first call shows you what the same year looks like with this team behind it. Nothing is signed on that call.

There is no joining fee and no desk fee. There is a split, and a split means nothing until it is applied to a real number. That is why the conversation starts with your last twelve months: volume, sides, average price, and what you actually kept after your current team's share and your own costs. The same twelve months are then run through this team's arrangement, including the appointments you would not have had to find. Real Brokerage's own caps and fees are published and are the same for everybody; the team side is the part specific to you, and it is written down before anything is signed.