JOIN OUR TEAM AND GROW WITH A BROKERAGE
THAT VALUES CONNECTION
A BROKERAGE BUILT FOR YOU
At Homes By Connect, we’re redefining what it means to be part of a real estate team. Founded by Katy Donovan, 2025 Newport County Board of Realtors (NCBR) Realtor® of the Year, our brokerage was created around a simple belief: when people work together and feel supported, everyone succeeds.
Why Experienced Agents Choose Homes By Connect
Collaborative Culture: We believe the best results come from sharing knowledge and resources, not competing internally.
Hands-On Mentorship: Benefit from the accessibility of an award-winning leader who is invested in your personal success.
Low Overhead, High Value: We keep your costs low with a competitive yearly cap and minimal monthly fees.
Work-Life Balance: Success should complement your life, not consume it. We offer the flexibility and freedom you value.
What Our Agents Are Saying
After 10 years in the business, and two other previous brokerages, joining Homes By Connect felt like coming home. The award-winning brokerage immediately distinguished itself through its collaborative approach and exceptional accessibility to its broker, Katy Donovan. What that means for an agent is daily support, mentorship, and resources to ensure your success as a Realtor®.
With 20 years of real estate experience, I have found working with Homes by Connect to be an exceptional experience from the start. What sets this team apart is their unwavering commitment to integrity and knowledge— they don’t just facilitate transactions, they build lasting relationships rooted in trust. I always feel fully supported by the entire team, knowing that they handle every detail with the utmost care and professional responsibility.
Choosing Homes by Connect was the best career move I have made. The brokerage provides a collaborative culture and resources that allow me to focus on my clients while consistently hitting my sales goals. What truly sets us apart is the unwavering support from leadership and the tools for success provided to every agent. At Homes by Connect I have dedicated colleagues and a clear path to professional growth.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here’s what agents most often ask us about working at Homes By Connect. For the full picture on any of these, read our complete career guide.
What is the culture like at Homes By Connect?
Our culture is guided by three pillars: Connection, Communication, and Collaboration. Of the three, collaboration is what most accurately describes what it feels like to work here.
You see it most clearly in our monthly office meetings. Agents come together in the same space, both newer and seasoned, to learn new policies, share experiences, and ask questions. Each agent brings value to everyone else. Real estate is dynamic, anecdotal, and deeply practical, and our meetings turn that shared experience into a learning community for everyone present.
That’s a meaningful contrast with what often happens at larger brokerages, where agents work in their own silos and competition between agents supersedes collaboration among them.
How does Homes By Connect engage with the community?
Homes By Connect is committed to making an impact on our community beyond real estate and transactions. Through our Connect Cares initiatives, we identify local nonprofits that meaningfully benefit from our support and engage with them throughout the year.
Recent examples include a holiday pajama drive during the Christmas season, a pop-up food pantry that ran for nearly a month during the recent government shutdown, ongoing support for organizations like the Women’s Resource Center, RI PBS, and West Place Animal Sanctuary, and annual participation in Newport Pride and Newport Out events.
We look for opportunities to grow with our community, not just sell to it.
Read more about Connect Cares →
How does Homes By Connect support agents at every career stage?
Mentorship is the scaffolding we build around every new agent, and the resource our experienced agents draw on throughout their careers.
For new agents, our mentorship program synthesizes theoretical knowledge with practical experience on a logical timeline. Our mentors guide new agents through their first transactions and remain available as their careers grow. The framework is simple: tell, show, do, review with each step building on the last. Daily support is built in: mentees meet with Katy on Mondays to plan the week ahead, and on Fridays to review wins, challenges, and where additional support is needed.
“As a former educator, I really love the process of teaching, and I really love the process of learning.” — Katy Donovan, Broker/Owner
For experienced agents, the same collaborative environment offers something different: a brokerage that invests in helping you take an established skill set to the next level. Our monthly office meetings include agents who just started out alongside agents nearing the tail end of their careers. New agents learn. Veteran agents teach. Both walk out sharper than when they walked in.
Read more about mentorship and growth →
How does Homes By Connect help agents grow their business?
Building a thriving real estate business takes two things: a strategy that fits your business, and the resources to execute on it.
We collaborate with each agent to identify their specific challenges and build a customized scaling strategy. That might mean expanding networking capacity, better leveraging an existing sphere of influence, or scaling up social media presence with marketing team support.
Behind that customized strategy, every Homes By Connect agent gets access to robust in-house marketing resources:
- Custom Digital Content — monthly blog posts and ready-to-share social media content
- Email Marketing — branded newsletters that keep you top-of-mind with your sphere
- Listings & Profiles — listing promotions and personalized agent profile pages
- Robust Web Presence — inclusion on our full-service, custom brokerage website
We don’t encourage buying leads, and we don’t believe in the efficacy of cold calling. Our focus is helping you build authentic, repeat, and referral business.
“The key to building a thriving real estate business is to leverage your authenticity and your real estate skills simultaneously to become the real estate advisor of choice for your sphere.” — Katy Donovan, Broker/Owner
Read more about scaling and marketing →
How does compensation work at Homes By Connect?
How agents get paid is one of the best-kept secrets in real estate, and one of the most important things to understand before choosing a brokerage. At Homes By Connect, our focus is transparency.
We’re extremely competitive when it comes to how much our agents keep in their pockets. Specifically:
- Competitive Cap. Our annual Cap on Company Dollar payments is set at a realistic goal. Once you reach it, you keep 100% of your transactional compensation for the rest of your year.
- No hefty Transaction Fees. We charge a nominal administrative fee for documentation compliance. That’s it.
- Low Monthly Fees. Ours are primarily a pass-through for costs you’d otherwise pay on your own: MLS dues, Errors & Omissions Insurance, and a small technology fee.
Every brokerage’s compensation structure looks different on paper, and side-by-side comparisons matter. Email Katy directly for a confidential conversation about how the numbers would work for your specific situation.
Related Blog Posts
More from our blog on building a real estate career and what makes Homes By Connect different.
Considering Homes By Connect? What Every Rhode Island Realtor® Should Know
Honest answers to the questions Realtors® ask most about joining Homes By Connect—culture, mentorship, compensation, and community in Rhode Island.
Homes By Connect at 5 Years: Recognition, Reflection, and Community Impact
As Homes By Connect marks five years, recent recognition for Katy Donovan highlights the brokerage’s values of connection, collaboration, and community impact.
What I’ve Learned Growing Up In Real Estate
In this special “Let’s Learn,” Katy Donovan’s daughter shares a personal perspective on building Homes By Connect—from early beginnings to the values that continue to shape the brokerage today.