Your 6,000 covers the dues and the tools. It doesn't cover the gap before revenue, and that gap is the line that ends most first years.
On the recurring side, budget MLS access at roughly 30 to 70 a month depending on the market, sometimes billed quarterly at 150 to 300. Local, state and national association dues together commonly run 600 to 900 a year and are often billed as a lump sum with a hard deadline. Lockbox or showing service key access is usually 20 to 30 a month. A CRM you'll actually use is 30 to 100 a month, and transaction management is frequently bundled by the brokerage. E&O, if the brokerage doesn't carry you, runs a few hundred a year or a per-transaction fee at closing. Continuing education requirements and their cost are set by each state, so check your commission's hour count before you assume a number.
The two splits aren't comparable as stated. 90/10 with a 500 desk fee costs you 6,000 a year before you close anything, so it only beats 70/30 above roughly 30,000 of gross commission income. Ask both whether they cap, what the per-transaction fees are on top of the split, and who pays for the compliance review of your buyer agreements.
On runway, buyer work under the current rules is slower to monetize than it was. You're doing an unpaid conversation about compensation before you show anything, and on each deal you're negotiating the gap between the rate in your agreement and what the seller side will fund. Twelve months of expenses saved is a fairer plan than six. If you assume the brokerage's leads will shorten that, name the assumption out loud and get their actual per-agent close rate rather than the office total.
