How to open a real estate brokerage in Florida

1. Hold the license the job requires

A sales associate cannot open a brokerage. Under Chapter 475 a broker is the licensee who may operate independently, open a brokerage, hold escrow, and register and supervise sales associates and broker associates; a sales associate must always work under a broker. That distinction is the whole point of the broker license.

Getting there means the experience requirement, the 72-hour broker pre-license course, and the state exam. Our step-by-step licensing guide covers that path.

2. Choose an entity Florida will actually register

This trips up people who form the company first and read the statute second. Florida permits only certain forms to be registered as a real estate broker, and expressly prohibits others.

Two brokers who verbally agree to share an office and split some fees, without forming anything, have created an ostensible partnership — which cannot be registered as a broker entity. Each of them has to be properly registered instead. It is a common informal arrangement and it is not a brokerage.

3. Register the entity and name a qualifying broker

Before a newly formed brokerage may transact any real estate business, the entity must be registered with the Department and must have an active qualifying broker. That broker — the broker of record — registers the entity and carries responsibility for its lawful operation and supervision. The same person may also serve as an officer, director or partner of the company.

The consequence of this is worth planning for in advance: if the only active broker in a registered brokerage dies or leaves, the entity's registration is canceled until a new qualifying broker registers. A brokerage without a qualifying broker cannot lawfully operate for a day.

A broker may, with proper approval, hold multiple licenses in order to act as the broker for more than one registered entity. That is distinct from a group license, which lets a sales or broker associate work for several entities under common ownership, such as an owner-developer's affiliated companies.

4. Register the office — and put up the sign

Under s. 475.22, F.S., every active broker must maintain at least one registered principal (main) office in Florida, and that is where the brokerage records are kept and business is conducted. A home can be the principal office, but only if it is registered as such and meets the sign requirement like any other office.

The entrance sign must be readable from the adjoining street or roadway and must show the broker's trade name if there is one, the name of the broker, and the words “Licensed Real Estate Broker” (or “Lic. Real Estate Broker”).

Open a second location where business is conducted and it must be registered as a branch office, display its own entrance sign, and be supervised by an active broker or broker associate responsible for that location. See the detail on office and sign requirements.

5. Register the trade name before you print anything

To operate the brokerage under a name other than your legal name, the fictitious (trade) name must be registered and noted on your broker license record before you use it in business. A registered DBA may then appear on the sign and in advertising — but it may not imply the firm is something it is not, or otherwise deceive the public.

6. Set up escrow before the first deposit

The moment your brokerage holds other people's money, the trust-account rules apply in full. Escrow funds go into a separate trust or escrow account in a Florida depository, kept apart from personal and operating money.

The full mechanics — conflicting demands, the 15- and 30-business-day clocks, the four settlement procedures — are on the escrow account rules page.

7. Build the supervision your license now requires

Registering associates makes you answerable for them. The employing broker is legally responsible for supervising associates' real estate activities, and failure to supervise is itself a disciplinary violation — the broker can be sanctioned even though the associate committed the underlying act. Under respondeat superior the broker may also be liable for associates' acts within the scope of their brokerage work.

What it costs

The honest answer is that the cost of opening a real estate brokerage in Florida is mostly ordinary business cost rather than a single licensing fee: forming and registering the entity, the DBPR registration, the office and its sign, the trust account, insurance, technology and marketing. State application and registration fee amounts change, so take them from the current DBPR fee schedule rather than from any article — including this one.

This page explains Chapter 475 and FREC rules in general terms for people studying for the broker exam. Statutes, rules and fees change and are applied by the Department to specific facts. Verify current requirements with the DBPR, and take legal or tax advice on entity choice.

Why this is on the exam, not just in the business plan

Brokerage Offices, Ownership & Entities is one of the twelve official content areas on the Florida Real Estate Broker Examination, sitting next to Florida License Law & FREC Rules and Escrow Management & Trust Accounts. That is not a coincidence: the state examines exactly the material you need on your first day of ownership, because a broker who gets it wrong is holding the public's money.

Frequently asked questions