Recruiting Real Estate Agents: What You Need to Know

As a real estate broker or team leader, you know the strength of your business is determined by the strength of your team. This is why knowing how to recruit real estate agents is so crucial to the health of your business.

And even if you are happy with the size of your business, sales agents typically stay at their jobs for a median of five years. A high turnover rate is common, so it is critical that you are prepared not only to recruit great agents, but to retain the best of the best. 

This article will present several ideas for recruiting real estate agents, and will act as a guide for what you need to do to have the makings of a strong team. Of course a team is more than its component parts, so once you have world-class agents, you'll need to build a world-class team, both so your business can thrive.

Why Recruiting Real Estate Agents Is Critical

At the end of the day, the better the team does, the better the bottom line. But a successful business is more than a bottom line. 

By hiring qualified top agents, you'll have the power to create a stronger team, one that is motivated and guided by knowledge and professionalism. It positions your business to be highly competitive, and having top agents is a strong way to corner specific markets.

It's important to start out by making a plan for recruiting real estate agents. This means taking a look at your firm and deciding what it is you most need—what type of agents are you looking to recruit to your firm? 

Think about what those kinds of agents would be looking for in their place of employment? Are you able to offer that? What can you do to offer your talent what they’re looking for? 

What Is the Best Place for Finding Top Agents?

When reaching out to potential agents, you can think of them as falling into two categories: pre-licensed and licensees. Pre-licensed agents are often interested in potentially pursuing a career in real estate, while licensees either have their license and are seeking a broker or are in school completing their training.

To reach the pre-licensed, you can turn to basic employment sites like ZipRecruiter and Indeed.com. For those who are newly licensed, one of the best places to look are real estate schools. Many will allow brokerages to come in and do a 15-minute presentation in exchange for providing lunch or snacks.

Of course, both of these sources are going to only provide brand new agents, which while they can form an integral part of the team, are not quite the same prize as hiring an experienced agent with a history of regular closings. 

The secret to finding the true rainmakers in your area is to conduct a thorough search of Multiple Listing Services for the areas which you cover. Look out for names of agents who have two properties closed over the last 6 months in the area you are searching for. 

You can even use MLS to find the agents' contact information. This can be an invaluable tool for learning who the real movers are—those closing on 30 properties a year. There is also software that can automate the search for area top-producers. These cost about $200/month.

How to Support Your Agents

Once you've identified the top-producing agents who will best serve your market, it's now a matter of luring them to your brokerage. The key to achieving this is offering more than the competition.

This can mean offering a title, or providing new training and enrichment opportunities. Showing that there is room for growth and building a community amongst your team is critical. Consider instituting a mentorship program, and never forget to recognize veteran and top-producing agents. Promotions and awards are important forms of recognition. 

And of course, money talks. Offering a better compensation package can go a long way in both hiring and retaining talented agents. Consider offering a point or two better on the commission split than the competition, especially for the top producers.

Using Technology to Recruit and Retain Top Real Estate Talent

One of the most important ways to support your team, and create a strong community that top agents will want to be a part of for years to come is through the right integration of technology. Today, those who do not utilize the many tools that technology offers those in the real estate industry are getting left behind.

There are two main purposes to real estate tools. They must either increase productivity, or help serve clients better.

A customer relationship management tool (CRM) is one of the most important tools which an agent can have access to. A good one, like Shaker, does more than simply manage clients' information, it's a powerful tool that can organize all contacts, while also managing tasks and properties, to ensure no lead falls through the cracks, while every step of the transaction flows smoothly.

Final Thoughts

Wherever you are in your business, as a broker, you will need to invest some time and energy into recruiting real estate agents. To find success it's important that you approach the task with a plan. 

Decide who it is that you are looking for and consider whether you have what it takes to attract who you're looking for. It's worthwhile to invest some money into making sure that your brokerage will be the right fit for the talent you need to attract, it's the only way to achieve your business goals. 

This means building a strong team through recognition, competitive compensation and community. It also means providing your team with the tools they need from access to training to the software and technology, like Shaker, that will allow them to be the best and most productive agents possible. For their own good and for yours.