Example P&L for a Real Estate Agent
What a statement-built P&L looks like for a solo agent in a feast-and-famine quarter: three closings, one month at zero, and the trailing arithmetic that reads it the way an underwriter does.
- This example shows a fictional solo agent, Priya Vantwest, banking $9,246.18 in April, an $874.50 referral fee in May, and $16,843.52 across two June closings, all net of the brokerage split.
- May closes nothing and posts a loss of $650.26. That is the shape of the trade, not a problem, and the reading notes show how underwriters actually read it.
- Marketing timing is the quiet story: May's $962.37 of photography, ads, and staging preceded the June closings it helped produce. Cash basis puts spend and payoff in different columns.
- The tax set-asides are handled the honest way: the savings transfer and the June 15 estimated payment are owner activity below the statement, never expenses.
- The quarter nets $21,151.25 on $26,964.20 of income, about 78 percent, which is normal when commissions arrive already net of the split and overhead is a desk fee, dues, and a car.
- The numbers are fictional, but the format, categories, and judgment calls are exactly what a reconciled statement-based P&L delivers.
Below is a complete example profit and loss statement for a fictional solo real estate agent, Priya Vantwest of the equally fictional Apex Realty, covering April through June 2026. Every line is the kind that actually appears on an agent's bank and card statements, and every total on the page is computed from the lines, so the document foots the way a delivered report must.
The quarter is deliberately lumpy, because agent income is: one closing in April, none in May, two stacked in June. The commission deposits are few and large, already net of the brokerage split, while the expense side runs steadily underneath, desk fee, dues, E&O, and the car, with marketing spiking in exactly the month that banked the least. Reading that shape correctly is most of what this page teaches.
| INCOME | April | May | June | Total |
| Commission deposits (after split) | $9,246.18 | $0.00 | $16,843.52 | $26,089.70 |
| Referral fee | $0.00 | $874.50 | $0.00 | $874.50 |
| Total income | $9,246.18 | $874.50 | $16,843.52 | $26,964.20 |
| EXPENSES | April | May | June | Total |
| Brokerage & desk fees | $474.00 | $125.00 | $823.00 | $1,422.00 |
| MLS & association dues | $217.09 | $29.66 | $29.66 | $276.41 |
| Marketing & staging | $384.12 | $962.37 | $418.66 | $1,765.15 |
| Vehicle & fuel | $213.18 | $264.05 | $241.12 | $718.35 |
| E&O insurance | $143.68 | $143.68 | $143.68 | $431.04 |
| Transaction coordinator | $400.00 | $0.00 | $800.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Total expenses | $1,832.07 | $1,524.76 | $2,456.12 | $5,812.95 |
| NET PROFIT | $7,414.11 | -$650.26 | $14,387.40 | $21,151.25 |
- Transfer to tax savings $7,000.00: Setting aside tax money after each closing is smart, but moving your own money between accounts is not an expense, so it sits below the P&L.
- Quarterly estimated tax payment $3,150.00: The June 15 estimated payment is the owner's personal obligation, owner activity rather than a business expense, which keeps the practice's profit comparable.
- Owner draws $11,000.00: The agent's own pay comes out of profit, not before it. Draws below the statement keep the practice's result honest.
Line notes
- Commission deposits (after split): One closing in April; none in May; two in June (a wire of $11,240.19 and a check of $5,603.33). Each arrives under the brokerage's name, already net of the split.
- Referral fee: A referral from an out-of-state agent, paid through the brokerage. Irregular by nature, categorized under the same recurring name.
- Brokerage & desk fees: A $125.00 monthly desk fee plus a $349.00 transaction fee per closing where the brokerage bills it separately instead of netting it from the commission.
- MLS & association dues: The quarterly MLS bill lands in April on top of the monthly lockbox subscription. A compliance stack of debits that must all be present.
- Marketing & staging: Listing photography, ads, and staging. May's spend is the largest even though May closed nothing: this money goes out before the listing sells.
- Vehicle & fuel: Showings and caravans, at actual cost as it cleared the bank. The standard mileage deduction is the preparer's filing-time call and never appears here.
- E&O insurance: Errors and omissions coverage billed monthly through the brokerage. Reviewers like seeing it present.
- Transaction coordinator: A $400.00 Zelle after each closing. A payment that follows closings is contractor expense, not a draw, and the line feeds the practice's 1099 obligations.
Feast, famine, and the number an underwriter computes
April nets $7,414.11. May loses $650.26, because a referral fee of $874.50 was the month's only income against the fixed stack and the quarter's biggest marketing spend. June nets $14,387.40 on two closings. Nobody who underwrites agents is alarmed by that shape; what they compute is the trailing average, and this quarter's is $21,151.25 over three months, about $7,050 a month. That is the practice's real run rate, and it is the figure to set living costs and marketing budgets against.
The margin runs about 78 percent because the top line is already net of the brokerage split: the split is the trade's biggest cost, and it never reaches the bank. Gross commission volume is a production statistic; this page shows practice revenue, which is the number a lender verifies against the statements and the number the agent actually lives on.
Marketing leaves before commissions arrive
May's $962.37 of marketing and staging is the quarter's largest, spent preparing the two listings that closed in June. On cash basis the spend and the commissions it produced sit in different columns, which is why a heavy-marketing month with no closings reads as a deep loss and why single months mislead in this trade. Across the quarter the picture is fair: $1,765.15 of marketing against $26,964.20 of income, about 6.5 percent, which is the ratio worth tracking from quarter to quarter.
The transaction coordinator works the same per-closing rhythm from the other side: a $400.00 Zelle after each of the three closings, $1,200.00 for the quarter. On a raw statement those payments look identical to personal transfers, and categorizing them as contractor expense rather than draws is a judgment call with a 1099 obligation attached, which is exactly why recurring person-to-person payments get reviewed instead of guessed.
Where the tax money went, and why it is not an expense
Three things left this account that are not on the P&L: $7,000.00 moved to a tax-savings account after the closings, the $3,150.00 June 15 estimated payment, and $11,000.00 of draws. All three are owner activity. Estimated taxes in particular tempt agents into the expense column, but they are the owner's personal obligation on the practice's profit, and burying them in expenses would make a healthy quarter look mediocre and the P&L incomparable to anyone else's.
Kept below the statement, the three items still tell a disciplined story: the quarter's $21,151.25 of profit funded the draws and the tax set-asides with the account roughly level. That is the reading a lender wants to be able to do, and it only works when owner activity and business expenses are cleanly separated.
Use this format yourself
The free real estate practice P&L template is this exact layout as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. For the full walk-through of categories, judgment calls, and what lenders ask a real estate practice for, read the real estate practice P&L guide. And to see a statement-built report with working charts and reconciliation detail, the full sample report is a complete delivered order for a different fictional business.
Common questions
No. Underwriters who handle agent files work from trailing averages over six to twenty-four months and from tax returns. What sinks a file is not variance but numbers that cannot be verified against statements, which reconciliation rules out.
Nowhere, honestly: the deposits arrive already net of it, so the split never touches the bank. The P&L shows the agent's share, which is the verifiable number. The January 1099-NEC reconciliation is where the preparer squares the brokerage's reported figure against these deposits.
Yes. The free real estate practice template below is this exact layout as a spreadsheet with the categories pre-loaded. Or upload your statements and RapidPnL builds the reconciled version for you in minutes.
Upload the PDFs and get a management-use profit & loss in minutes, with every statement reconciled to the penny. $79 for a quarter, $249 for a full year in monthly columns. Full refund if we can't reconcile.
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Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution.