Choice Realty Spokane, a residential real estate brokerage that offers its agents a lower-cost alternative to conventional agent commission arrangements, has moved into an about 800-square-foot space on the first floor of the Minnesota Building, at 423 W. First. Owner Diana Schuster began operating the company a year ago in a smaller space inside the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center, at 308 W. First.

Schuster says she believes the new office will appeal to clients and agents alike.

Choice Realty currently has one full-time administrative employee and two agents, including Schuster. Schuster says she would like to have about 30 agents working with the brokerage eventually, and might open a second brokerage office here in the future.

Schuster, who has been working in the real estate field since 1994, says her brokerage is tailored to home-based real estate agents who would like to keep more of their commissions.

"Pay the broker less, you keep more," she says.

She notes that agents typically are independent contractors who pay for their own marketing tools, such as signs and flyers, as well as key lockboxes and other tools of the trade. She says the reduced number of transactions occurring right now combined with the customary big cuts taken out of agents' commissions by brokerages can make it difficult for agents to survive in this tough economic climate.

Choice Realty charges its agents a $200 transaction fee and an administrative fee of 5 percent of each commission they receive, plus a monthly $500 brokerage fee. Schuster says that a typically good commission split for agents is 70 percent, with 30 percent going to the brokerage, which usually also charges 6 percent of the agent's commission as an additional fee.

Thus, on a sale of a $170,000 home, where agents receive a 3 percent commission of $5,100, Choice Realty's agents would take home $4,145 after paying the required fees, compared with $3,264 at a typical traditional agency. If a Choice Realty agent sold a second $170,000 home that month, their take-home pay would jump to $4,645 for that home, since they've already paid the $500 monthly brokerage fee.

"With the real estate market the way it is, agents just have to figure out how to make more money," she says.

The Puget Sound Business Journal recently reported that about 2,800 Washington state real estate agents have left the business since the end of 2007, a decrease of about 9 percent. Schuster says she has seen some examples of that locally as well, and says her brokerage is well-positioned to weather downturns in the market.

In addition to lower fees, Schuster's agents have round-the-clock access to the company's downtown office, which she designed to resemble a coffee shop rather than an office.

The office features wireless Internet service, cozy chairs, high tables and stools, and a sofa. "Agents are often signing contracts at coffee shops instead of their offices, so I designed the brokerage accordingly," she says.

Schuster declines to disclose her cost in renovating the space, but says she acted as her own general contractor and spent five months completely transforming the previously unoccupied space before opening the office at the beginning of November. Renovation work included removing and constructing walls, and installing hardwood floors, plumbing, and lighting.