I work in real estate. Only get paid by commission. I just recently got my license and an agent I already knew, asked me to join her team. (Basically, she works as the lead agent and has agents working under her. She gets a percentage of all their sales). I thought it would be a great way to get started. But here’s the thing… The contract with her states that if she gives me a sale that I work she gets 50% of the commission. If I bring in a sale she gets 49% of the commission. Which I feel is just a joke. She said she’s paying for marketing and helping me get through the process so that’s why she gets so much. So, I said well yes, right now you may be helping me, but down the road I would need less help. So, would you consider taking less commission in the future. She said no.
Anyone work in real estate know if this is correct? Do many real estate group leads take such a high percentage? I know she can set the terms to whatever she wants, but I’ve talked with two agents from different real estate firms and they have said this is crazy stupid. Would really like to hear from brokers and real estate agents and see what they think.

How long does the contract last?

I think as you get experience you will have better options, but as a novice, not so much. How long is your contract? Did you look around for better contracts before you took this one? That was an option also.

Yes, for sure, I could have looked around. I didn’t. My fault. I knew my team lead before hand and we liked the idea of working together. The contract is for a year, up in July 2019. So far, she has given me really crappy leads, stuff she never followed up on from six months ago. So, everyone that I call from that source has either already found a property or does not remember reaching out. When I said something about that she started handing me different leads, but they were people looking for rentals. Which pays like $100 for a lot of work and then the renters end up finding something on their own and not putting you down as the agent... So those all ended badly.
I'm going to talk with her about a better contract agreement, but wanted to get others option first.

Along the way ... What about writing a weekly or every-other-week column in your town's (weekly?) newspaper? Perhaps each column could feature house types: American Foursquare, Queen Anne, Bungalow, etc., etc., and add a line drawing or photo of each. Wikipedia has a long list of house styles. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_house_styles

Once you've exhausted that idea, swing into a column on something else in the real-estate mentality such as what to look for and what to ignore when walking through a house that is for sale. You could even turn that into a column you could call "Dear Harried House Hunter." And/Or create a Realtor Facebook page for this sort of thing. The main thing is to keep your name and credentials in front of people.

I hardly think there is an apprenticeship-mode in the realestate world. You already have your license but you do have to belong to a group to actually survive this tough house hunting world. She is out of line as far as I see it. Drop her. She wants you to work and is taking most of the gravy.