Like many real estate agents today, Clay Tate doesnt really need an elaborate office or a lot of copying machines.

His growing business is highly mobile and increasingly paperless thanks to smart phones and computer tablets.

Which means that Tate not only doesnt need as much office overhead he also doesnt want to sacrifice as much of his hard-earned commission to pay for it.

Thats the main reason he left his former agency and joined the Benchmark Realty team last year.

I get to save so much money, he said.

In early 2011 while working at another agency, his business was in a bit of a lull, by his own description.

He had some pending offers and some other deals cooking on the back burner, but this period of slower activity turned out to be a gift: it gave him the time to really take stock of where he was, and where he wanted to go.

He took the time to review his sales for the previous three years and discovered that only two of them had happened as a result of his agency affiliation.

But I was paying 40 percent to the house, he noted.

The split was 70-30, but they got an additional 10 percent for ancillary fees and services.

At Benchmark Realty, Tate discovered that he would get to keep more of his own money for himself and his young family, instead of paying for office support services that he doesnt really need.

Benchmark has definitely been more lucrative for me, he said.

When I ran the numbers, it became clear that if I had closed all my transactions at Benchmark Realty over that period of three years, the money that I would have saved would have been enough to pay my mortgage, my car payments and buy groceries every month for the last three years.

Always a self-starter, Tate has found that Benchmark Realtys business model complements his fast-paced, streamlined style.

A former construction management team member for Tennessee Valley Homes, Tate also worked for Wells Fargo before becoming a real estate agent.

He is experienced in working with first time homebuyers, foreclosures and short sales, in Nashville, Brentwood and Franklin.

To connect with Clay Tate, visit his comprehensive website: http://www.claytate.com.