Brokerage Offices, Advertising, Escrow & Commissions

Brokerage Activities and Procedures is tied for the largest area on the Florida exam. Most of it is operational. You need to know what an office needs, what an ad must say, how fast deposit money moves, and who may pay whom. The numbers here (end of the next business day, the third business day, $1,000 and $5,000, 15 and 30 business days) are prime exam material.

Brokerage offices

• Every active broker must maintain an office of at least one enclosed room in a building of stationary construction. It may be in a residence if local zoning allows.
• The entrance sign must show the broker's name, the trade name if any, and at minimum the words “licensed real estate broker” or “lic. real estate broker.”
• Sales associates must be registered from, and work out of, an office registered in the employer's name.
• Any additional office must be registered as a branch office. A temporary shelter on a subdivision being sold, where no deals close and no one is permanently assigned, is not a branch.

Advertising

• All advertising must let reasonable people know they are dealing with a real estate licensee, and every ad must include the licensed name of the brokerage firm.
• If a licensee's personal name appears, at least the last name must be used as registered with the Commission.
• Online, the firm name must sit adjacent to, or immediately above or below, the point of contact information.
• Teams may use “team” or “group,” but not words such as Realty, Real Estate, Brokerage, Inc. or LLC. The team name may not be printed larger than the brokerage name.

Escrow (trust) accounts

• A sales associate must deliver a deposit to the broker by the end of the next business day.
• The broker must deposit it immediately, which means by the end of the third business day after receipt. Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays don't count, and receipt by the sales associate counts as receipt by the broker.
• Accounts must be with a bank, credit union, savings and loan association, or title company having trust powers, within the State of Florida.
• Commingling is prohibited, with one exception. A broker may keep up to $1,000 of personal funds in a sales escrow account and up to $5,000 in a property management escrow account.
• Once a month the broker must reconcile trust liability against the bank balances in writing.
• If a title company or attorney holds the deposit, the broker must request written verification within 10 business days after the deposit is due.

Commissions

• Antitrust: under Florida's antitrust act, every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade is unlawful. The federal Sherman Act likewise bars competitors from agreeing to fix prices, so competing brokerages may not agree on commission rates.
• Who pays the sales associate: only the employing broker. A sales associate may sue for compensation only against the person registered as their employer when the work was done.
• Referral fees: paying anyone not licensed as a broker, broker associate or sales associate for a referral is a violation. A licensed Florida broker may, however, pay a broker licensed in another state.
• Kickbacks: under FREC's rule, a kickback or rebate is a violation unless all affected parties are fully told about it in advance. Disclosure does not satisfy federal law, though: RESPA Section 8 bars giving or accepting any fee, kickback or thing of value for referring settlement-service business on a federally related mortgage loan.
• Commercial lien: on commercial real estate, a broker has a lien on the owner's net proceeds. It is a lien on personal property and does not attach to the real estate.
• Changing employers: the license stops being in force on the change, and the sales associate must notify the commission within 10 days.

Commission math: a $400,000 sale at 6% produces $24,000. If the listing brokerage keeps half ($12,000) and pays its sales associate 60% of that, the associate earns $7,200.

Business entities and trade names

Corporations, partnerships, LLCs and LLPs that act as brokers must register with FREC. Each needs at least one active broker, and the registration is automatically canceled while no active broker's license is in force. In a limited partnership only the general partners must be brokers. A sales associate or broker associate may not be an officer or director of a brokerage corporation. Sales associates may, however, be licensed as a professional corporation or LLC. A trade name must appear on the license, may not duplicate another licensee's name, and each licensee may use only one.

Unlicensed personal assistants

An unlicensed assistant may not perform any act in the broker definition, and a single act is enough to count. A licensee who pays an unlicensed person for a referral or for those services commits a violation, and the unlicensed person may be prosecuted for practicing without a license.

Where this shows up on the exam

Real Estate Brokerage Activities and Procedures is 12% of the exam in the DBPR booklet (January 2025), about twelve questions. Expect deposit-timing scenarios, sign and ad requirements, the 15/30 business-day escrow dispute clock, and commission-splitting math.

Sources

North Carolina law as published by the General Assembly and the Office of Administrative Hearings, checked 2026-11-05:

• s. 475.01, F.S.
• s. 475.15, F.S.
• s. 475.161, F.S.
• s. 475.22, F.S.
• s. 475.23, F.S.
• s. 475.25, F.S.
• s. 475.42, F.S.
• s. 475.703, F.S.
• s. 542.18, F.S.
• Rules 61J2-5.016, 10.022, 10.023, 10.025, 10.026, 10.028, 10.034, F.A.C.
• Rule 61J2-10.032, F.A.C.
• Rules 61J2-14.008, 14.009, 14.012, F.A.C.
• DBPR Sales Associate Candidate Information Booklet (Jan 2025)