How to Calculate TC ROI for a 50-Agent Real Estate Brokerage

Calculate TC ROI for a 50-agent brokerage is a question that’s easier to answer with a worked example than with a general formula, because the formula only becomes useful once you see which numbers move it. Below is an illustrative example using round, clearly labeled hypothetical figures, not real client data. It shows the method so you can plug in your own numbers.

The math has three parts: what coordination costs, what it saves in reclaimed agent time, and what it saves by reducing fallen-through deals. Add the savings, subtract the cost, and you have your ROI.

Quick answer: For an illustrative 50-agent brokerage closing 200 files a year at a hypothetical $500 per-file cost, coordination spend totals $100,000. Reclaimed agent time and avoided fallthroughs might add up to roughly $66,000 in estimated value against that cost, using round, hypothetical inputs. The real case depends on your own agent-hour value and fallthrough rate, not a fixed multiple.

Step one: what’s your coordination cost?

Start with your real closing volume and a real or quoted per-file rate. For this illustrative example: 50 agents, 200 closings a year (an average of 4 per agent, a round planning assumption, not a benchmark), and a hypothetical $500 per-side coordination fee. That’s $100,000 a year in coordination spend. Your number depends on your closing volume and negotiated rate, so pull your last 12 months of closings before doing anything else.

Step two: what’s the value of agent time reclaimed?

Estimate hours saved per closing (4 to 6 hours is a reasonable illustrative planning figure) and put a value on that time. In this example, 5 hours per closing across 200 closings is 1,000 agent-hours a year. Valuing that hour at a hypothetical $50 gives you $50,000 in reclaimed value. The hourly figure should reflect what an hour of prospecting or client-facing time is worth at your brokerage, not a market average. It’s the most brokerage-specific input in the whole calculation, so spend time getting it right rather than guessing.

Step three: what’s the value of avoided fallthroughs?

This one is harder to pin down but too large to ignore. If dedicated coordination prevents even one or two fallthroughs a year, say two deals at a hypothetical $8,000 average commission impact each, that’s $16,000 in avoided loss. Your real number depends on your current fallthrough rate and average commission. You likely already track both, or can pull them from your transaction management system. RealTrends publishes brokerage productivity benchmarks that can help sanity-check your average commission assumption if you don’t have a clean internal figure.

Step four: what does the full illustrative comparison look like?

Adding the two savings categories in this example: $50,000 in reclaimed agent time plus $16,000 in avoided fallthroughs equals $66,000 in estimated value against $100,000 in coordination cost. In this hypothetical, the case isn’t a slam dunk on paper. That’s the point of showing real math instead of a rounded-up sales number. The outcome for any brokerage swings heavily on the agent-hour value and the avoided-fallthrough count, and both vary a lot by market and by how loose the current process already is.

What inputs should you replace with your own numbers?

Four inputs drive this model: your annual closing volume, your current or quoted per-file coordination rate (see current published rates for a real reference point), your honest estimate of agent-hours saved per file, and your historical fallthrough rate and average commission value. Swap in your brokerage’s figures and the ROI answer will look very different from the example above, in either direction.

Does the AI-plus-human model change any of these inputs?

It mostly affects the fallthrough input. Automated deadline tracking catches issues earlier than a manual once-a-day check would, which over time should lower your fallthrough count compared with a purely manual process. The structure of the calculation stays the same. Only the assumption you plug into step three changes. Review how the automated tracking works if you want to estimate that effect for your own file volume.

Frequently asked questions

Is this worked example based on real Simply Closed client data?

No. Every number in this example is a round, clearly labeled hypothetical figure chosen to demonstrate the calculation method, not client results.

What’s the most important number to get right?

Your real fallthrough rate and its average commission impact. Most brokerages have never measured it.

Does a 50-agent brokerage always benefit from outsourced coordination?

Not automatically. It depends on your closing volume, your current fallthrough rate, and how you value reclaimed agent time. Run your own numbers through this same four-step method before deciding.

The four-step method above is how you calculate TC ROI for a 50-agent brokerage, or any brokerage, once you swap the illustrative figures for your own. Ready to plug in your real numbers instead of hypothetical ones? Get a quote based on your actual volume.