If you are making this comparison, you’ve probably been there already. You have worked in a traditional agency, or you are working in one right now, and at some point, you asked yourself the question that all growing agents ask: “Do the numbers I produce justify what the agency retains?”
It is the right question. And in 2026, it has more concrete answers than it did five years ago.
The market has shifted its balance. Portals, cloud management software, digital signatures, automated valuations—everything that once justified the structural cost of a physical agency—is now accessible in a different way. This doesn’t mean traditional agencies are dead. It means the agreement between agency and agent must be renegotiated, and those who don’t are leaving money on the table.
In this article, I compare the three main models—high-street agency, franchise, and the phygital hybrid model—based on the factors that truly matter to an agent: net income, operational autonomy, real support, and growth prospects.
The Traditional Model: What It Offers and What It Costs
The independent high-street agency is still the most widespread model in Italy. A local brand, a visible office, an owner who has known the area for twenty years. For many starting agents, it is still the most natural entry point.
The problem is not the model itself. It is the math behind it.
In a traditional agency, fixed costs are structurally high: office rent, utilities, portals, management software, insurance, support staff. These costs do not disappear during lean years. And they are covered, in large part, by retaining a higher share of the commissions generated by the agents.
The practical result: in many traditional setups, the agent retains between 10% and 25% of the total commission collected by the agency. On a €250,000 sale with a 3% commission, the agency collects €7,500. The agent takes home between €750 and €1,875. The agent did the work. The agent also paid for the structural costs, indirectly.
This is not a value judgment. It is a cost structure that made sense when the physical office was the only way to be visible and when portals didn’t exist. In 2026, that logic holds less water.
The Franchise: The Brand Is Not Free
Real estate franchising in Italy, with large national and international networks, promises a recognizable brand, structured training, and tested systems. For many junior agents, it has been a good entry point, especially for those coming from outside the industry.
But here too, the math must be understood before signing.
Monthly royalties vary between €500 and €1,500, depending on the network. Added to these are the entry fee (often between €10,000 and €30,000), local office costs, and a percentage of the commissions that goes to the franchisor. The result is that an agent working in a franchise incurs significant fixed costs before even closing their first deal of the year.
The commission share retained by the agent in franchises generally ranges between 20% and 40% of the gross income. Better than the pure traditional model, but still far from what the market allows today.
The value of the brand makes sense when it brings in clients. But in 2026, more and more buyers and sellers search online before even stepping into a physical agency—and there, the agent’s personal brand matters as much as the network’s brand.
The Hybrid (Phygital) Model: How the Structure Works
The phygital hybrid model—like the one at hasamia.it—starts from a different idea: removing the structural costs that do not produce direct value for the agent, and redistributing that margin more equitably.
No high-street office to maintain. No fixed royalties independent of revenue. Technology—management software, portals, digital signatures, automated valuations, digital marketing—is centralized and shared, with costs diluted across the entire network. The agent works with the same tools as a structured agency, without bearing the costs alone.
What remains—and what hasamia considers the heart of the model—is the physical presence of the agent in the territory. Not the office as a storefront, but the agent as a real point of reference for the area they oversee. Technology and human relationships together: this is the meaning of the term phygital applied to the agent’s work.
The direct consequence on earnings is concrete. The retained commission share is structurally higher than any traditional franchise. On the exact same sales volume, the agent earns more not because the market is different, but because the structure is more efficient.
If you want to understand the real numerical impact on your situation, read our article on how much a real estate agent earns in 2026: the data clearly shows how the choice of model affects actual earnings more than talent.
The Comparison That Matters: Three Real Scenarios
To make the comparison concrete, let’s hypothesize an agent with an annual volume of 6 transactions at an average price of €220,000 and an average commission of 3% from the seller.
Gross volume generated: €39,600
Same number of deals. Same market. Difference in net earnings: over €16,000 per year.
This is not an edge case built for effect. It is the structure of the problem.
Who the hasamia Model Is Made For
We are not saying the hybrid model is right for everyone; we are saying it is perfect for a specific profile, and that profile is more common than you might think.
You already have field experience. You are not looking for someone to teach you the job from scratch—you already know how to manage a negotiation, how to acquire a listing, how to qualify a buyer. What you are looking for is a structure that allows you to apply those skills without half the value you generate disappearing into fixed costs.
You want to build something of your own. In the hasamia model, the agent is not an interchangeable collaborator—they are the reference point of a territory. Their name, their reputation, their network: they belong to them, not the agency. As we explain in the article on what a real estate agent really needs in 2026, the personal brand is the true professional asset of the decade.
You have an area you know well. Geofarming, the strategy of systematic territorial presence, works best when the person applying it already knows the territory. If you already have a local network, hasamia gives you the tools to make it more productive, not to replace it.
You want fair margins, immediately. Not in three years, when you will have amortized the franchise entry fee. Immediately, from the first transaction.
The Right Question to Ask Yourself Now
If you are an agent with a few years of experience and are reading this article, the question is not “which model is better in the abstract”. The question is: in the model you work in right now, how much of the value you generate is actually recognized to you?
Do a simple calculation. Take the gross commissions you generated in the last year. Subtract what you actually took home. The difference is the costs—fixed, variable, visible, and hidden—that you are bearing to stay in that structure.
Then compare that number with what you could retain in a different model. If the difference is greater than €10,000 a year, it is worth looking into. If it is greater than €20,000, you are already late in not doing so.
The market in 2026 rewards those who work well. But it rewards even more those who work well in the right structure.
Are you an experienced real estate agent and want to understand what would concretely change in your case?
Discover how the hasamia model works and compare the numbers against your real situation.
