★ Founder Walkthrough · 30 Minutes
A peek under the hood at Momentum Realty.
Thirty minutes with Co-Founder Jon Brooks. The founding story, the producer path framework, the leverage stack, and the economics that put our 270 agents at an average $84,000 in annual GCI this year and $104,000 over their first five years — roughly five times the industry average.
Published on YouTube as "How A Real Estate Brokerage ACTUALLY Works" · January 15, 2026
What's inside
Watch the chapters that matter to you.
If you're short on time, jump straight to the section that answers what you're asking. Each chapter opens the video at that timestamp.
0:00
The founding story
From a mom's basement W2 job in DC to a locally-owned independent brokerage. The arc that built Momentum.
4:47
The growth numbers
270 agents, $84K average GCI, top 10 by office volume, why we cut our cap when most brokerages raise theirs.
6:17
The standard of expectations
Why we won't keep a high-earning agent who is hard to work with. The culture and personality fit we hire for.
8:54
Your first 30 days
Daily onboarding emails, custom marketing collateral, the swag box, and the trainings, masterminds, and Facebook + WhatsApp access.
12:26
The producer path framework
Three tiers (0-5, 5-20, 20+ units) and the specific support, tools, and leverage that move you up.
14:02
The leverage stack
Zillow Showcase, Lux VT, Boomtown, Opcity, in-house TCs, showing agents, marketing support, and the economics of the wholesale-rate access.
17:25
The investor angle
Private lending to our own agents. We underwrite your deals, fund acquisitions and renovations, and make cash offers on your listings.
23:02
Cap math and the E&O trap
0.002 × sale price, $350 transaction fee that drops to $100 post-cap, no monthly fees, and the E&O coverage gap most agents don't know about.
By the numbers
What the data actually shows.
Stats are easy to cite and hard to verify. Here's what's real, what's audited, and what we'll show you the math on if you ask. Ranked top 10 by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Number two brokerage office in Jacksonville by units and closed volume. Top 10 brokerages in Gainesville and St. Augustine. Top 10 luxury brokerage in Northeast Florida.
270+
Active agents
$3B+
Lifetime sales
8,500+
Transactions
$84K
Avg agent GCI this year
93
New agents joined in 2025
Word of mouth, no outbound recruiter until August. The organic growth signal is real.
$12K
Annual cap
Down from $18K when we started. Most brokerages raise caps as they grow. We've cut ours twice.
$104K
First-5-year avg GCI
Industry average agent earns $17-18K. Our agents averaged $104K over their first five years. That ratio is the whole thesis.
The thesis in one paragraph
Communal wisdom, locally led.
Most brokerages are franchises. The royalty goes up the chain, the leadership is two states away, and the playbook came from a vendor. Momentum is the opposite. Locally owned, locally led, locally accountable. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on coaches, systems, masterminds, and scripts on our way up. Now we hand that library to agents who join, at a fraction of what it cost us to acquire. The cap doesn't go up as the company grows. It goes down. That's not a marketing line. We've cut ours twice.
The other piece is the leverage stack. We negotiate Zillow Showcase, Lux VT, Boomtown, Opcity, transaction coordinators, and showing-agent labor at wholesale and pass the cost straight through. Often the value of the tools alone exceeds the cap. You're not paying a brokerage for access. You're paying for the volume discount on the tools you'd buy anyway.
Who this is for
The agent profile we look for.
Momentum is not for every agent and we don't try to be. We've built the company around a specific operating personality:
- → Open-minded to changing how you do things when the data says so.
- → Coachable. You take feedback as input, not as a personal slight.
- → Growth-oriented. You're building a business, not chasing the next deal.
- → Profit-focused, not ego-focused. We talk about the difference inside.
- → Professional. The customer experience is the standard you hold yourself to.
If reading that list bothered you, that's data. We're not the right fit and that's fine. If reading that list felt like home, the next step is a 15-minute call.
Ready to look closer at Momentum?
Apply for a 15-minute strategy call. No pressure, no pitch deck. You ask questions, we answer them, we figure out together whether the fit is real.
Full transcript
0:00
Thank you all for showing up for the peek under the hood for Momentum Realty. This is 2026. We just closed up our fifth year full in business. We launched in January of 2020 and we couldn't be more excited to share with you. We've sold more than $3 billion of real estate here in Florida and Georgia for over 8,500 transactions.
0:23
We are growing. We had 93 agents join us last year here locally. We are a locally-owned, independent-owned with local leadership company, which makes us very different from many of the other organizations out there. We treat our agents differently because we are different. We appreciate you betting on the underdogs, taking the leap of faith.
0:40
It's unbelievable that just 10 years ago, I was living in my mom's basement doing a W2 job in Washington DC. My life was miserable. I hated what I did. I wanted to get out of there. I moved to Jacksonville, Florida, with no network, no connections. I quit my W2 job after going through my first real estate transaction. It was a horrible experience, and I thought I could do it better.
1:06
I got my license and started hustling, doing open houses, door knocking, cold calling. By the end of my first year, I had sold 66 properties. My ego got massive. I started treating people poorly. I realized this pretty quickly. I was turning into somebody I didn't want to be. So I got coaches and mentors around me who helped me grow myself and grow my team.
1:31
All of the lessons that I learned along the way led us to this point where we opened up a company where we can give away everything that we learned along that journey. From being negative $80,000 in debt and being scared of what would happen with my next bill, to being able to lead an organization to help others go along the similar path. We became net worth millionaires within three and a half years.
1:57
We always say the purpose of real estate is to get out of real estate. Everybody has a different level of goal. Our goal at Momentum Realty is to help you get from wherever you are today to wherever you want to be next. There's no judgment on that goal, whether it's little or small. Our goal is to be the support platform for you to hit those goals.
2:15
You can adopt the same ideas we used along the way, the same methodologies, the same systems, the same attitude, the same scripts that we used and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get, basically handed over to you at a fraction of the cost. That's the idea behind Momentum. We call it communal wisdom. We all learn from each other. We're very collaborative.
2:44
We do things that are virtual but we also meet in person. We have an office in Mandarin, an office down in Ocala, Gainesville we're a top 10 brokerage, St. Augustine we're a top 10 brokerage. Jacksonville, we're the number two brokerage office by units and closed volume. We continue to grow.
3:12
Why are so many agents joining our organization? Why do you see agents come over as $3 million or $4 million producers and then be a $20 million producer within a year or two? It's not magic. It is hard work. But it's one thing that they implement every single week, every single month that stacks. Their business basically becomes unrecognizable.
3:42
It's not an event that happens in one moment by clicking a button. It's because they're adopting the systems, the mindset, the information, and they're implementing it in their business. Implementation is the one thing we can't do for you. But we can give you all the tools and resources and put you in a community of other people executing at the highest level.
3:53
One of our favorite things to do: this person sold $14 million from YouTube last year, let's talk to them. This person is calling expired and FSBOs, they did $5 million last year on that. This person did a bunch of flips. You can talk to specialists across the board within the organization. It just makes it a more enjoyable system.
4:47
We started in January 2020. We went virtual and agents are saving more and more money because we keep cutting our costs. Our original cap was 16-18,000. Then it was 16,000. Now it's 12,000. As we get bigger, we pass the cost savings on to our agents. It's usually the other side with private equity and public companies, they're trying to figure out how to charge agents more. We go the opposite way because we're a local organization.
5:13
We have 270 active real estate agents producing. Within the first 5 years, the average agent was producing $104,000 in GCI. That's the average. You have to understand those numbers are unheard of. Most other brokerages, their average is around $17-$18,000. One or two sales. Ours now is $84,000 this year. We're a top 10 brokerage with only two years. We're on pace for $600 million in sales.
6:17
What's different about it is we have standards of expectations for the agents. We want agents to give great experiences to the customer. If an agent makes us a lot of money but they're horrible to work with, they will not work at our company. That is completely different than the majority of other companies because it's all about making the next buck.
6:41
We care about the standard of service for the customer. They have to be a professional. We want to be around people who have a positive attitude, energy, who are enthusiastic about the future. That is really important in a market like today. We want them to be resourceful, looking to grow, focused on profit, not ego. There's a lot of ego and vanity metrics out there.
7:00
87% of agents fail within five years. 80% don't renew their license within two years. We're seeing a ton of people go get other jobs. This doesn't have to be this way. If you're willing to put in the work, the energy, you're willing to be coachable, open-minded to changing how you do things, you enjoy the process of feedback and your growth oriented, this is the place for you.
7:56
Why join? We work to solve problems so agents can get from point A to point B. Agents come to me and Brittany and say "I need leads, I need this CRM, I need this system, I need Zillow Showcase but it's so expensive, how do I get it for one-tenth of the cost?" We go out there, and now that we're at this massive size, you benefit from our economies of scale.
8:20
Whatever the cost is to us, we just pass it right back on to you. We can offer things at 80-90% discount of what other people are paying retail for. The cost of those things is often more than the cap you would pay into the company. Our goal is always how do we provide more value than what you pay in.
8:54
What are your first 30 days like? The onboarding is phenomenal. You get emails every single day for the first 30 days. You have to read your email. Agents who do this have a phenomenal onboarding experience. You get access to all the training and resources. You get custom marketing collateral from in-house marketing and a swag box when you join.
9:24
You will be invited to every training and event we have along with text reminders for the next 3 to 4 months. We match our training with what is happening in the market. Tomorrow we have Kevin Mills, the number one Century 21 agent in the country. We have Jana Thomas coming in. Last year we had Bo Hawkins teaching YouTube. We bring in the highest level players.
10:07
You get access to our Facebook page and our WhatsApp group. You can ask questions to each other, to leadership. This is where communal wisdom comes in. You learn by asking questions and everybody can see what the questions are and help crowdsource the answers. You can escalate to Michelle Weaver, Brittany Brooks, Hank Sorenson, or myself.
10:37
We have an incredible video library. You can go through all the trainings we've ever done. Insane amount of value. You just go through one or two per day while driving around and listen. You'll start to absorb different ways of thinking that cause business to accelerate. We use ThinkIfic and Google Drive for the course setting.
10:55
We use LoLo Gifts. We're really big on database touch programs because that's where profitability for being a real estate agent is, in your referral database. That's what makes real estate fun. You get those warm leads, those referrals where we see people get 20-30% referral rates from their database. Their business starts to compound over time.
11:24
We have Zillow Showcase where you can actually get leads on your own listings if you set it up the way we share inside. Luxury marketing through Lux VT. A focus program where we put an email drip for you. We have Boomtown lead programs and Opcity. All of these platforms at a fraction of the cost you would have to buy at retail.
12:02
Dotloop is what we use for transaction management. BrokerSumo for tracking how much we've paid you in 1099s. We have a support team, a ton of business planning opportunities. If you ever get stuck, reach out. We want to hear from you. The quicker you get out of being in a rut, the better. We know that across the board from being top real estate agents ourselves.
12:26
There's trends for real estate across the board. We have a system for each level. The zero-to-five-unit agents: proximity is power. The most powerful thing you can do is an apprenticeship and connect yourself to a top producer. You need to get in a room with top producers. Understand what they're doing, adopt their mindset, their habits, every activity, identify what works with your personality.
13:02
We created a mentorship program for agents producing more than $4 million a year. They can become a mentor and earn 20% of what the agent makes. There's an agreement with expectations and a whole process. Agents get to attend top agent and top speaker masterminds ongoing every single week. They get nuggets every single day.
13:46
Leverage is the force multiplier. Five-to-twenty-unit agents are the producer path. These agents are in production. They're starting to grow their business, maybe to have some profit, but don't know how much to reinvest or what to leverage first. We have systems that prove how much profit you can get at different levels of production.
14:25
We have in-house leverage. Showing agents within the company. Out of town, on vacation, we have showing agents. You can pay them $25, $50 a door. Open house support. Post in the page "need someone to do an open house." 90% of these get filled. You usually make a relationship by attending events and finding people you want to build connections with.
15:00
We have four transaction coordinators within the group. Team building opportunities. You need to add somebody to your team, our team leader can go find that person, make the introduction, give you the materials for how to hire and train them, what the expectations are, how to hold them accountable.
15:23
Daily marketing support. Agents said "we want marketing support." We hired a virtual assistant. You need marketing material made for you, we make it. We send it during business hours. When you have a new listing come on, we send you the listing flyer that day. You need a listing presentation, a buyer presentation, we make that for you.
16:09
The 20-unit-plus producers are the investor and influencer path. About 10% of real estate agents. 78% of agents fall in the lowest production bucket. About 12% in the middle bucket. About 10% at the top. Momentum is mid-top heavy. The majority of our agents are 8 to 12 units per year, and we have a bunch of outliers who produce a lot more.
16:38
This is a productivity culture. We expect people to produce. We expect people to grow. It's a really exciting environment. We just had our January get-together on January 1st. We had 27 agents come into an office on January 1st at 9:00 am to go over goal planning. Unheard of. The passion these people have for the industry and the level of goals they have is infectious.
17:08
When you're at the 20-plus unit level, we help you with recruiting, financials. This is our wheelhouse. We want to make sure our agents are profitable, their lifestyle is getting better, they're building leverage. We help you with structure, expectations, and accountability.
17:25
One thing we added in 2024: we're an investor-focused brokerage. A lot of our agents do fix and flips. They buy rentals. We give out loans. We use the money we make from the company and put it back into our agents by giving them private lending and underwriting their deals. If you come across an opportunity, we can help fund the loan and the renovation costs. We only do this for agents inside the company.
17:48
If you have a listing where you want me to make a cash offer on the house, I will make a legitimate cash offer. We keep you updated on what we're doing with our private investments. We're not shy to share what we're doing. This isn't financial advice. Everybody can decide what's best for them. We just share what we're doing and why.
18:18
We have influence and rewards across the board. You help us grow the organization and bring in more top producers, there's a disappearing cap. We can give you revenue share. There's the mentorship program. It's a 12K cap. If you bring a team member, it's a 6K cap added to the team cap. We make it super affordable for people to operate their business at our company at scale so it doesn't drain their pocketbook.
18:53
Here's what makes us different. Our business model is different. We're all valid leadership locally who are producers ourselves. We bring in the speakers. We have social events. We have parties every quarter. Small group meetups. Office meetups. Bigger events virtually with major speakers you would not get access to regularly. We've flown in speakers. You don't pay monthly. We're using the connections and relationships we have to bring in the best of the best.
19:41
Leadership team: Brittany Brooks is the broker. Her first year in real estate she sold something like 66 properties just as a buyer agent. She knows the rules. Michelle Weaver is the assistant broker and the first point of contact for additional questions. Hank Sorenson is our team leader. You need P&L coaching, coaching on building your real estate team, he's the go-to. Alicia helps us with financials and checks. Then we have our preferred vendor board.
20:48
Here's what it looks like when you come into the community. It's great for people who want to hit the ground running and soak up everything we have. People say "I love it, I'm watching one or two videos a week, joining trainings every single week, going to the meetups, implementing a new system every single week." Their business starts to accelerate every month as they execute through our system.
21:34
No desk fees, no monthly fees, no annual fees. Just a low 12K cap. We brought in Zillow Showcase. One agent put a $2M listing in MLS, got a $3M buyer lead from it the next day. We cut a deal with Zillow to get a certain percentage of their market share of Zillow Showcase. Phenomenal opportunity. We think agents who have even one listing, this is a tremendous value proposition.
22:13
Our agency is now the top 10 brokerage in the marketplace for luxury sales. This was not intentional. Our agents are just breaking into luxury across the board. We bought Lux VT, a luxury marketing platform. You can get advertising in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Robb Report, international exposure. When you go into a listing presentation and show them what Zillow Showcase is, and lock in with Lux VT, you're winning that luxury appointment. Other agents aren't offering anything. They're just sticking the sign in the yard and praying.
23:02
Compensation: the Momentum compensation is 0.002 times the sales price. On a $300,000 house you pay $600. There is a $350 transaction fee which most agents pass on to the consumer or charge more for their transactions. When you cap, this transaction fee goes to $100. Super competitive against other brands in the marketplace.
23:32
If you are open-minded, a big thinker, coachable, interested in personal development, you enjoy feedback, and you want to get to the next level, this is the tribe for you. We have an independent contractor agreement that's easy to move in and out of. We don't slow you down. You sign the ICA, you move to us, then move your listings if you're able to do that. We help you review everything in that regard.
24:32
TCs are not included in each deal. Each independent TC is a TC company that generally does transactions for $200 up to $450. Most are around $350. Depends on what you need them to do. Are they calling your customer? Just doing the emails? Keeping it organized? Submitting your Dotloop? Every TC does things a little differently. We recommend you interview TCs and figure out which works for you.
25:28
To join Boomtown or Opcity, reach out to our virtual assistant. He sends over all the paperwork and insights. Super easy to sign up. You sign a DocuSign, you get access the same day. Your own link to your website where you can generate leads. You can follow your customers and see what they're looking at on the internet. We switched from Follow Up Boss because Boomtown has the lead aspect. Agents have loved that platform.
26:42
A lot of people will charge you $100 a month for Dotloop or BrokerSumo. We don't charge anything additional for that. Use a Google sheet for all we care. There's no separate cost for E&O insurance. No monthly fees, no annual fees, no fees at all. Period.
27:11
E&O covers the real estate brokerage. If you want to buy insurance for yourself, you can. Very familiar with E&O. Lots of policy exclusions. At other brokerages they'll say E&O is covered. E&O is covered for the brokerage. If a lawsuit names you personally and the brokerage, you would need to have bought your own E&O policy. Brokerages will not explain this. They'll say "you're covered" and upcharge you for their E&O, but E&O policies are not covering you individually.
27:50
If a lawsuit names you individually, this does not go into our brokerage E&O policy and coverage. You can always go get your own personal individual E&O policy. Brokerages will not tell you that, but I do recommend it just in case. You never know who they're going to name in a lawsuit. Usually it's a money grab.
28:33
If you're a top producer, look into it. You have great people who can support you and you can look at what the coverage costs are as an individual agent. Not going to be that much. Might be worth it if you're a top agent and concerned about it. You don't want them to have to go after your personal wealth.
28:56
We love that part of Momentum, helping each other push to get to the next level and achieve their goals. It's a very goal-oriented company. We appreciate the people, the passion, the energy they bring every single day. Get into one of these rooms, one of our trainings, you'll understand immediately.
29:13
Come join us for tomorrow's call with Kevin Mills. You're going to be blown away. We had a call last year with his listing assistant. They manage over 150 listings per year as a listing assistant. How do you do that? What are the processes? What does it look like? What are the conversations? The value of having access to those type of people for free, just for being part of the ecosystem, is unmatched.
29:39
We bring in the next wave of speakers every single quarter that are going to blow you away. You take one idea from each meeting, you go execute it, your business is transformed by the end of the year. You're just like "I don't know why, it's just different." You go out there and execute what you've learned.
★ More from Momentum
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Our Story
How Momentum was built
Jon and Brittany Brooks. The thesis. The five-year arc.
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Roster
Meet the agents
270+ agents. Filter by specialty, geography, or designation.