I want two people selling land under me. Do I need to be the broker or can I just pay them?

The plain version: a salesperson license is the entry tier and it has to be held by a broker who supervises you. A broker license is the tier above it and it's what lets you operate a firm and hold other people's licenses. So no, you can't have two salespeople under you while you're a salesperson.

The commission sharing question has a hard line around it in every state I've read about. Commissions generally have to flow through the broker who holds the license, and paying an unlicensed or improperly supervised person a cut is exactly the thing licensing law is built to stop. The specifics of what counts and what the penalties are vary by state, so check your commission's rules directly rather than a forum's summary.

If you want the arrangement you're describing, the path is you sit for the broker exam. Most states require a couple of years of active salesperson experience plus additional coursework first, and yours will have its own list.

I'm mid-coursework right now and verity has it. One thing that surprised me: in my state the broker license requires documented transaction experience, not just time holding a license. Sitting on an active license so you can see the MLS may not count toward that. Worth pulling your state's actual application checklist before you assume the two years is satisfied.

There's also a middle option nobody's mentioned. You could stay a salesperson, all three of you hang under an existing broker, and you form a team. Teams are how a lot of people get the economics you're describing without owning a brokerage. The broker still takes their cut off the top and the team lead takes a share of the rest. Team structures and what you're allowed to call yourself are regulated differently state to state, but it exists and it's a lot less work than opening a firm.

Team is the answer for what you actually want, at least to start. I run one and the difference is enormous. I don't carry E&O for the firm, I don't do file review as the designated broker, I don't sign the compliance attestations. The house does all of that and I pay for it out of the split.

What I do get is the leverage you're describing, a share of what my people produce, without the supervision liability sitting on my license.

The honest trade is that you're renting the infrastructure. If you build the land niche big enough that the house's cut becomes the biggest line on your P&L, that's when the broker license conversation gets real. Not before.

Your actual asset here is the county zoning knowledge, and I'd think about whether a brokerage is even the right container for it. Two people wanting to list under you is flattering. It's also a fairly small business.

What's the average land commission in your market and how many of those transactions happen a year? If it's a thin market you could do all the licensing work and end up with a firm that closes fourteen deals a year, which is a job with paperwork.