You often hear your peers, mentors, coaches, or even yourself say that real estate is an extremely tough industry to be in. Whether if it’s lead generation, prospecting listings, or endless showings on weekends and holidays, there is nothing easy about running a self-employed business that runs on you. But the toughest challenge in the real estate industry isn’t the sales, the lead generation, or even the fact that agents essentially have no way of retiring ever. It’s the ongoing battle of convincing others to join the hardest industry in the world.
Whether if it’s recruiting new agents to join your newly established team or finding the next top producer to join your 150 agent brokerage, recruiting real estate agents to join your team or brokerage is undoubtedly the hardest, most challenging part of the industry.
Even in an industry where the attrition rate is absolutely vicious with agents bouncing around brokerages like ping pong balls, we rarely ever see anyone person replicate the success they had in their sales career as an agent in their recruiting career as a broker, team leader, or growth manager. Why is that?
That is because there are only two methods of recruiting used by real estate recruiters and broker-owners and neither strategy are sustainable. The majority of real estate brokerages in North America are independent brokerages of less than 50 agents, very rarely will a real estate brokerage be successful enough to have more than 50 agents at a time. And because of that, most independent brokerages have no recruiting plan, usually, the broker-owner will only recruit the people that are already in their database and use their previous connection as the main source of attraction.
As for the bigger brokerages, usually franchise or market centers, the broker-owner or owners like to hire corporate recruiters or third party recruiting companies to help them grow their office, treating the agent recruiting process like a corporation hiring employees at a massive scale, treating every agent simply as a cog in the “corporate machine”.
Although you can argue for days as to which of the two strategies are better, I am here to tell you that neither one of them works when it comes to recruiting real estate agents to your team or brokerage in a sustainable fashion. On one hand, corporate recruiting strategies fail because real estate agents are not employees and nothing like employees, they are self-employed independent business owners who take pride in their craft and their business, thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs.
But on the other hand, if you only recruit through yourself and your own connection and network of agents with no plan and no strategy, then there is a good chance that your brokerage will never exceed 10 agents, which means that you will never have enough agents in order to retire or exit the business.
So how can you develop a strategy as a team leader, brokerage owner, or real estate recruiter to absolutely dominate the recruiting side of the business? What can you do to recruit agents to your team or brokerage like clockwork and duplicate or even surpass the same level of success you had in your sales career as an agent?
In this article, I am going to show you exactly how to recruit real estate agents the right way and how you can develop a strategy for recruiting agents to your team or brokerage that can be tailored towards every agent you speak to so that you are not treating your potential recruits as cogs in a corporate machine while setting up a perfect recruiting system so that you can duplicate your successes over and over again.
Here is The Ultimate Guide to Recruiting Real Estate Agents in 2023!
Table of Contents
Who Should You Recruit to Your Team or Brokerage?
The first question that you have to answer before you can begin taking any steps towards even recruiting your first agent is who is your ideal real estate agent that you want to work with at your team or brokerage. Too many times, real estate brokers and team leaders treat recruiting as a numbers game and try to recruit every agent in their market area. That is the wrong approach.
Recruiting real estate agents to your brokerage or team is extremely different from any other sales or even any other type of recruiting. Because your main business as a broker-owner is to recruit enough of the right agents, develop and train them, and offer them value to stay so that you can make an override on their commissions from their sales, you want to make sure that every one of your agents is successful because every agent you recruit to your office is a time or even monetary expense.
You need to think of your agents as assets and business partners rather than employees or salespeople. Without successful agents, a real estate broker-owner has no business and can never achieve the goal of the business in the first place, which is to free up more time and retire from selling real estate. So the very first step you need to take when coming up with a recruiting plan is to identify which agents you want to recruit to your office.
How to Identify Your Ideal Agent
Before a real estate recruiter, team leader, or broker-owner can begin to identify their dream or ideal agent, they first must break the belief that recruiting agents to their brokerage or team is not their primary business. Too many brokerages and recruiters treat their recruiting as a secondary or even tertiary task, usually focusing more of their efforts on lead generation and marketing. But like I mentioned before, if you don’t have agents that can produce, you have no business in the first place.
Treat your recruiting like any other business, identify your target market who are your dream customers, people that you really want to work with, and then go from there. Identify the traits of the agents that you really want to work with. How much industry experience. do they have, how do they treat their business, what traits do they possess, what backgrounds do they come from, etc.
Then, after identifying your ideal agents you can begin to brainstorm what their goals are and what they are looking for in a brokerage. Remember, agents are business owners themselves, so they are also looking for value in the brokerage that they join. Treat your potential agent recruits as business partners, think of who your ideal agents are and what they want the most in a brokerage that would be their partner in business. Can you offer that? If not, how can you offer that and what can you offer?
How to Recruit Real Estate Agents
Now that we’ve gone over the basics as to how a real estate broker or team leader should approach their recruiting from a mindset perspective, it’s time to start developing an actual strategy for how to recruit those agents to your brokerage or team the right way, and how to do it so that the system you set up can be duplicated over and over again to increase efficiency.
The 3 Essential Skills You Need to Become a Top Agent Attractor
In order to develop a sound strategy for recruiting real estate agents to your team or brokerage, you need to be able to treat every agent as an individual and be able to tailor your conversations with them to their specific needs and wants that are in accordance with their unique business goals, as well as be able to follow a streamlined system or sequence of events so that you are not just treating your recruiting as a hobby.
To do that, you need to follow a 3 step agent recruiting process that will require you to master 3 different skillsets at each point of the recruiting process. Think of it as your sales business in the past, you have a system for prospecting, lead generating, listing and buyer presentations, and sales that you follow every time, but each conversation is a little bit different with each prospect because everyone’s situation and goals are unique.
1) Prospecting
The very first skill that you will need to master in the 3 step agent recruiting process is prospecting. As you probably know from your sales business, prospecting is the most important aspect of your entire business because if you have no leads to work, then you have no business to begin with. There are a couple of different ways that you can prospect agents, but the very first and most effective way is to build your list.
Build Your List
If you are familiar or have had any experience with network marketing, another recruiting heavy business, you know that the first thing a network marketer has to do is to build their list. Usually, that involves around 100 people that they know from their contacts list that they have a previous relationship with, either in business or their personal lives.
The same strategy can be used for brokers, team leaders, and recruiters to recruit real estate agents. Build a list of at least 100 contacts from your network that you have had a previous business relationship with or of just anyone in your contacts list that is a licensed real estate agent. Then, if at that point you still don’t have 100 names on your list, find all of your contacts in your database that you have a previous relationship with that can possibly refer a real estate agent to you.
Instead of recruiting real estate agents with mass emails and text messages, this way, you are actually able to begin your prospecting and conversations with someone who already has a previous relationship with you and know, like, and (hopefully) trusts you. It’s just like when you first started in your sales career, the first thing that every coach tells a new agent to do is to work their sphere of influence. The same concept can be applied to your agent recruiting business,
Where Can You Find Real Estate Agents?
Once you have made your list and have contacted every prospect and every referral prospect in your warm market, you will need to move on to creating a strategy or multiple strategies for bringing in new leads from your cold market.
Cold Calling
The simplest way to do that in your local market is by researching and calling for sale signs of top producing agents. Much like in your sales business, cold calling is a time-intensive but effective way to make contact with new leads. Remember the perfect agent avatar you created from above. Look for those agents in your area either online or through yard signs and give them a call and invite them out for lunch, get to know them and start building a relationship and trust with that agent.
Meeting Agents at Open Houses
The second strategy that you can use is prospecting through Open Houses in your area. One of the most successful real estate recruiters in North America used this strategy to recruit over 1,000 agents to his brokerage! Simply look for open houses that are happening in your area and hit them as you would on a door-knocking driving route. Introduce yourself to the listing agent or the agent hosting the event and focus on building a relationship with them first before trying to recruit them. Remember, the same rules apply in sales as they do in recruiting: relationships over transactions.
Meeting Agents at Networking Events and Masterminds
Another great way to meet agents for your real estate recruiting pipeline is to attend networking events in your area or through masterminds online. Again, the same rules apply for this strategy when it comes to building a relationship first before trying to recruit them. People go to networking events to network, not to be sold on why they should park their successful real estate business at your brokerage, get to know the agents there, and really take an interest in their businesses. Find out what they’re doing well, what they’re struggling with so that you have an idea on how to approach the conversation when and if you are ready to recruit this agent.
Sponsoring Real Estate Schools
Another great passive way for brokerages and team leaders who do not have a ton of time is to sponsor real estate licensing and continuing education classes in their area. You can either take the time to actually teach the course or simply provide lunch as a sponsor and take advantage of the 15min-30min speaking time you get as a sponsor in between sessions. This is a great way to recruit agents because real estate schools are where a fresh batch of agents graduate every single month, and the best part is they all need to find a brokerage to get started with.
Social Media
The last and in my opinion best strategy to prospect for new agents is through social media and the internet. The biggest issue that is in the marketplace for brokers who are not recruiting real estate agents at the rate that they want to is because they have zero social media or internet presence. With social media, you can not only duplicate yourself using inbound strategies, but you can also reach a wider audience faster, especially if your brokerage covers a large area or more than one market region.
On social media, there are two prime strategies that you can use to recruit agents. An inbound reactive strategy and an outbound proactive strategy. An inbound strategy is when you create content on your website, social media accounts, YouTube Channel, or blog and get potential prospects to engage with you by attracting their attention either organically or through paid ads. An outbound strategy is when you proactively reach out to potential prospects and recruits that fit your ideal agent profiles based on your research.
A good real estate recruiting strategy on social media usually requires a combination of both. One to build your brand so you get a consistent stream of leads, the other so that you have leads that you can work as you build your brand up.
Agent Recruiting Scripts
Now that we have gone over the best strategies that you should use to prospect for your real estate agent recruiting pipeline, it’s time to dig in to the actual scripts and ways to start conversations with agents and how to recruit real estate agents using these scripts.
Before I share the best real estate agent recruiting scripts to use with cold market leads that you actively reach out to, I want to make one thing clear. The script and the exact words you use are not as important as your tone of voice, conviction, confidence, and body language. So although the scripts that I will share below are helpful, use them as a guideline rather than a word-for-word script.
Cold Calling Scripts
When you’re cold calling agents based on their marketing either physical or digital, the best way to break the ice and start building a relationship is to compliment them on their marketing piece and tell them how they were able to capture your attention. Invite them out for lunch and offer some value to them in return for having a conversation with you such as referral for buyers for your listings or collaborating on creating content and marketing.
Hey (Name), this is (Your Name) with (brokerage or team name) and I’m calling because I saw your for sale sign in the area and was really impressed. I’m looking to connect with a couple of rockstar agents like yourself to add to my referral base for some of my buyers…I would love to invite you out to lunch sometime and get your take on the marekt and learn more about how we can collaborate in the future!
Networking Events and Open House Agent Recruiting Scripts
When you are trying to recruit agents to your brokerage or team at networking and social events, the best way to introduce yourself is to ask the other party about their business. Give them a quick introduction of yourself and your business but the best way for you to build a relationship is to take a vested interest in the prospect, their business, and their life. Listen to what they have to say and find what you guys have in common and always try and find ways that you can add value to their business.
Nice to meet you…my name is (Name) and I thought I’d introduce myself…I run a real estate team here in (area) so I’m always looking to connect with real estate agents in the area…what are you currently doing in your business?
And then you just let them talk and listen for key points in the conversation. Some other probing questions for agents during your conversations are:
- What are you struggling with the most in your business?
- How is business treating you right now in this market?
- What brokerage are you at? What do you like about working there?
- What are your goals this year? Are you on your way to reaching those goals?
- How is your brokerage helping you reach those goals?
Social Media Cold Market Recruitng Script
When you’re recruiting agents on social media the one thing you absolutely need to avoid is to blast mass messages to agents that you are looking to recruit. Mass agent recruiting strategies do not work! When you reach out to potential agent recruits on social media, make sure you are doing something that is making your message stand out and unique so that you generate enough curiosity so that they actually respond to your message.
Some good ways to do that are to send video messages, voice texts, and cite specific things about the potential agent recruit that is specific to them.
(Name)….I see that you are in (X market) I am also in that market and get leads from time to time that I am looking to refer out to another agent here in my market…would you be interested in having a business conversation sometime.
Another great opportunity that you have to recruit real estate agents on social media is if you are working at a brokerage or have a brokerage model that allows you to grow your team in multiple markets around the country or even the world. In this situation, you can be much more aggressive with your recruiting message especially if you have already had success with your current brokerage model in your local market.
Hey (name) I came across your profile and I see that you are in (X market)…I am a (broker owner or team leader) in (Y market) and we are looking to grow in new markets…I get referrals from time to time in your market so i am looking to work with someone in that market and I would love to have a business conversation with you.
or if you are looking for a more aggressive recruiting message…
(name)…I came across your profile and wanted to have a conversation with you…I am a (broker/team leader) and I need to talk to you because I see that you are in (X market).
2) Presenting
The second skill that you need to master as an agent recruiter is presenting. After you’ve prospected your leads and your list, and have built a relationship with those agents, you are now responsible for identifying the agent goals and offering them to help them achieve those results. The way to do that is through brokerage presentations, live events, and opportunity calls.
Invitating Agents to Attend Recruiting Presentations
The first thing that you have to know is how to invite your prospects to live or virtual agent recruiting presentations that break down your brokerage’s business model. Usually, these events can be held by you the broker-owner or by a managing broker, office recruiter, or if you are a team leader you can invite potential agents to presentations that your broker holds.
When inviting agents to these events, frame the presentations as an opportunity for the agent in order to create scarcity and increase the rate of attendance. Like we mentioned earlier, once you’ve built a relationship with an agent you will know what their business looks like and see what their goals are and how they plan to reach them. If you know how you can help those agents achieve those goals the way to frame the event is by presenting it as an opportunity for the agent to learn exactly how they can achieve the results that they want by using your brokerage model.
As for the actual presentation, if you are inviting your prospects to a presentation done by a third party, you need to edify the individual who is doing the presentation. This means that you need to be able to list off the achievements and credentials of the presenter so that the agent being invited will 1) show up to the event 2) actually pay attention to the speaker. Make the presenter walk on water, the better you can make the presenter sound the more likely the lead will convert.
If you are doing the presentation yourself, make sure that you have a pre-built rehearsed presentation that you need to practice over and over again so that you can pull the presentation out of your back pocket anytime anywhere. This way, the repetition will be engrained in your mind so that you don’t have to be “on your game” every presentation so that you can give the presentation even on your worst day.
Using Events to Build Your Team
One of the best and fastest ways to build your team and recruiting real estate agents to your team is to host lunch and learn events or happy hours in your local restaurants, bars, or order catering at a local office. This way you can invite agents to the event and offer them something in exchange for their time by giving them free lunch so that they actually have an incentive to show up to the agent recruiting event.
For brokerages and teams that have larger presences and bigger budgets, hosting these real estate agent recruiting events is one of the fastest ways for you to grow your team or brokerage and recruit agents in your local market to your teams. Host these events either weekly or monthly depending on your budget and also consider giving your agents an incentive for inviting an agent friend to those events.
Always Use Live Presentations
The final thing that you need to know when it comes to learning presenting skills for real estate agent recruiting is to always use live presentation events instead of using pre-recorded zoom webinars or even worse, sending agents informational videos. The reason why you always need to use live presentation is that it shows your potential recruits that you are taking their business and your business seriously instead of sending them a generic video for them to watch on their own time.
Also, it gives the agents a chance to ask questions immediately after or even during the presentation. Most of the time, the most interested agents are the ones that have the most questions and if they aren’t able to get those questions answered immediately, they will very likely lose their spark and interest especially as more time passes between the time of the presentation and the follow-up call. Always find ways to strike when the iron’s hot!
3) Recruiting
The third and last skill that you need to master if you want to recruit real estate agents to your brokerage or team consistently is recruiting. But wait…isn’t that what we’ve been talking about this entire time? How to recruit agents to your business? Yes, but the skillset of recruiting is actually extremely unique and different from the other skillsets that we talked about. The actual skill set of recruiting is being able to correctly identify your agent prospects’ goals, their desired results, and using communication and objection handling skills to actually overcome the agent’s objections and recruit them to your brokerage.
Objection Handling
When it comes to the actual process of recruiting agents to your team or brokerage, the number one skill that you need to have is objection handling and communication skills. Most of the time, whether if it’s a new or experienced agent, your prospects will have various objections for why they feel that they should not join your team or brokerage. Although there are literally endless possibilities for the different objections that agents will have, they usually fall under two categories: Emotional and Real Objections.
Emotional objections are objections that agents have because they do not trust you, your brokerage, or they feel intimidated by you or your approach. Commonly these objections are stemmed from the agent’s relationship with their current broker or brokerage, team, or even other agents on their team and sometimes indirectly from outside influence such as family, friends, or peers. Emotional objections are usually the easiest type of objections to handle because they can be rebutted with clear communication of the agents’ goals and how you can help them achieve that goal.
Real objections are objections that are based on math breakdowns and logistic obstacles such as non-compete clauses in agent’s contracts, franchise agreements, or other contractual tie-ups. Real objections are most commonly used when agents don’t see the value that your brokerage or team brings to them. Although many real objections have actual logistical merit that can not be bypassed such as contractual agreements with former brokers, some real objections can be handled through the same process of asking probing questions so that the agent clearly states their goals, and you showing them the value of how your brokerage or team can help them achieve that goal.
Common Objections
In this next section, we are going to go over some of the most common and general emotional and real objections and I will show you exactly how to handle each situation. I am also going to share with you some real estate recruiting scripts that you can use in your next recruiting meeting with an agent if you happen to run into any of these objections.
Common Emotional Objections
The most common emotional objection that I hear from agents is “I like my current broker”. This is an easy objection to handle, especially if you are confident that you can offer the agent a better compensation plan with more value because people make business decisions based on numbers, not theory and opinion.
If you happen to run into this objection (which I am sure you will at some point), ask them this:
I know you like your broker (name), but who do you like better? Your family and your goals or your broker?“
This question works best if you know that your brokerage model can offer a definitively better compensation plan for that agent than their current brokerage. Because if you can, the next thing you would do is to ask if you can show them a side-by-side numbers comparison of the two compensation plans using their real production numbers from the previous year.
Another very common objection that agents will have for you is that “they are not interested”. This is an objection you will commonly get when you are in the early stages of recruiting this agent. As a real estate agent or an entrepreneur with any sales experience at all, you know that this is the most common objection that you will hear in sales, not just real estate agent recruiting.
When an agent is telling you that they are not interested, what they are actually saying is that they haven’t looked at your brokerage or team model yet and that they are confident that they are not interested in learning more because they are busy and not actively looking for an opportunity at the moment. To handle this objection, you must relay the information and data that you should have already gathered in your prospecting phase back to the agent, and simply say:
“(name) I know that you are not interested because I reached out to you…if you were then you would’ve reached out to me…you told me that you wanted to (state their goals) by the end of (the timeline they told you to reach their goal) and our (team or brokerage) can help you do that but we can’t do that unless I show you the information first.“
Then all you have to do is invite them to your presentation, and if they ask for how you can do that on the spot, simply tell them that you can’t do that because your business model is unique and has different perks for different agents with different goals and it would require them to participate in a live 1-2 hour-long interactive presentation for them to fully understand the model and the pros and cons and that it would not do the agent justice for you to simply list off a few benefits on the spot.
The last objection that you will commonly hear from agents is that they “don’t have enough time” to have a conversation with you or to attend an agent recruiting presentation or event. Since most brokerage models offer two things to agents, more money in the form of higher commissions or better tools to increase production and more time in the form of outsourcing tools and support staff, focus your talking to point to show this agent how you can save them more time by making the move to your team or brokerage.
(“Name), I’m really glad that you said that because one of the main benefits for agents that decide to work with us is that we are able to offer them the tools and outsourcing resources so that they have more time…that is actually the exact reason why many of the current agents are joining our team now!“
Common Real Objections
The most common numbers-based objection that you hear from agents will be that your fees are too high. What this really means is that your fees are higher than their current fees and they have not seen how being at your brokerage can make them more money than being at their current brokerage.
When you do hear this objection from agents ask them if they would be open to seeing a side-by-side math comparison of their old brokerage and your brokerage of the agent’s net profit using their production numbers from the previous year.
Another great situation to use this strategy is when you get the second most common real objection: “my split is higher”. Most of the time, an agent at a brokerage that has a high split usually has extremely high caps or no cap at all. If your brokerage has a cap, then very rarely will an agent at a brokerage with no cap actually end up making more money at their current brokerage than at a brokerage with a cap, even if there is a 10% difference between the splits.
As you can probably tell by now, when it comes to real estate agent recruiting, pivoting the conversation towards a math and numbers breakdown is always the most effective method to convince an agent to join your team or office. Remember, real estate agents are business owners, and business owners make decisions based on facts and numbers, so if you want to recruit real estate agents, you have to speak the language of business.
The other type of real objection is the objections that are logistically and contractually based. They might see the value of your brokerage, but they are tied down to their current brokerage or franchise by their ICA agreements. This type of objection is usually most common amongst other teams or top producing agents, when you get this objection the best way to handle the situation is to simply tell them that you will keep in touch with them and revisit the conversation when their contract expires.
Know the Model
Now that you’ve learned how to recruit real estate agents using communication and objection handling skills, let’s talk about the two things you must do in order to actually develop the confidence to talk to these agents and be able to communicate your brokerage model effectively.
The first step is to aggressively educate yourself in your brokerage model. If you are a team leader or an office recruiter, make sure you learn the business model of your brokerage inside and out from the compensation plan to the fees to the benefits. Remember, every single detail is important for you to be able to communicate the business model correctly, if you leave out any details it may be the difference between recruiting the agent or not recruiting the agent.
Know the Competition
The second thing that you need to do as a real estate agent recruiter is to learn about the different brokerage models out there in the marketplace and research your competition. This can be one of the first things that you do, especially as a broker or brokerage owner, because this will actually help you make decisions as to how you want to run your brokerage and alter your own brokerage or team model in order to recruit real estate agents to your brokerage.
Learn about the most popular brokerage models in your marketplace, know their caps, splits, fees, and benefits. Not only will this make you more informed during your presentations and recruiting calls with agents when you are showing math examples and handling objections, but it can also actually help you make a decision as to whether or not you want to purchase a franchise, be a part of a national brand, or be an independent broker.
Follow Up
Recruiting real estate agents is just like any other sales-based business, and in any other sales-based business, follow-up is absolutely crucial. Make sure that you are following up with your real estate recruiting prospects just as much as your sales leads from when you were a real estate agent. Remember, it usually takes over 8 touches before a sale is made, and the same goes for real estate agent recruiting.
Many times, real estate recruiting prospects take even more time to make a decision than other sales prospects, sometimes up to 6 months or even a year. Consistent follow-up will be the key to you having more success as a real estate recruiter, especially if you include video messages and phone calls in your follow-up campaign.
In the beginning, when your leads are fresh, follow up with them once a week or once a day depending on the time between events, then as time progresses change your follow-ups to one-touch a month or one-touch every two weeks. That way, you can consistently follow up with a lead and keep yourself front of mind without seeming too pushy.
How to Recruit Different Types of Agents to Your Team or Brokerage
Now that you know the general strategy that you should apply to recruit real estate agents to your real estate company, let’s take a look at how you would approach the recruiting process with different types of agents at different experience levels: New, Mid-Level, and Top Producers.
When you create your perfect agent avatar for your ideal real estate agent recruit, one of the most important factors to consider is whether or not the experience level of the agent matters because agents at different points of their careers need different things from their brokerage or team. If your ideal real estate agent recruit falls within any one of the three categories then you need to know how you would approach the recruiting process with each type of agent.
How to Recruit New Agents
Everyone was once a brand new real estate agent who just came fresh out of real estate school, even you. The most experienced and top-level performers all started as new agents in their careers and needed the same value that brand new agents need today. Never count out the potential of new agents, everyone has to start somewhere so you never know which brand new agent might become the next top producer for your company.
In fact, recruiting new agents to your real estate company should be a big part of your recruiting plan because like in any industry, old agents retire and leave the business as fresh batches of new agents enter the business. Without a plan to consistently add new agent recruits to your business means that your business is not built to sustain long term. NAR says that over 80% of all real estate transactions that will be done in the next 5 years will be closed by those who are not yet even licensed yet!
When it comes to recruiting new agents to your brokerage, think of the things that every new agent needs. What were you looking for when you first started in the industry? In order to successfully recruit new agents, you need to emphasize your training, one on one mentorship, office and contractual support structure, and overall career and business development for agents. Because new agents are new to the industry, the things that matter the most to them are training and mentorship.
Ask your potential new real estate agent recruits what their goals are in business, most of them will say that they plan to start part-time and want to work their way into becoming full-time agents. Make sure to emphasizes points such as your training program and the success rate of new agents who take the program, the flexibility of the training for those wanting to work part-time at first, and any one-on-one mentorship programs that you or your company offers.
How to Recruit Mid-Level Agents
Mid-level agents are agents who have been in the business for a couple of years and have had some track record of success under their belt. These agents are usually full-time real estate agents who consistently do anywhere from 6-12 deals a year depending on their market and the price point.
These agents are usually the most inclined to switch brokerages or change teams from a financial standpoint, often looking for new opportunities to either increase their income with higher splits or increase production so they can become top producers. Usually, these agents will be drawn towards caps because of the amount of production they do in a year.
In order to appeal to mid-level agents, your brokerage or team must be more financially sound for the agent, whether if it’s shown in splits and caps, or development and opportunities to increase production. During your conversations with mid-level agents make sure to ask them what their current cap and split are at their brokerage and compare it to your current caps and splits. If you find that your compensation plan is not as desirable, focus on the ways that your company can help the agent achieve their goals, which is to increase production in order to increase income.
How to Recruit Top Level Producers
Top producers are the hardest types of agents to attract to your brokerage. Most top producers are given extremely beneficial and lucrative splits at their current company that is specifically designed to keep these agents at their brokerage for the entirety of their careers. Most of these agents enjoy a 90/10 or above split at their current brokerage. Because most of the time top producers generate their own business and already have sales systems, lead generation, and marketing plans in place, they are looking for new opportunities rather than higher compensation or more tools.
In order to appeal to top producers, you have to be able to offer the agent something that they do not already have at their current brokerage situation. This is where you have to think outside the box and relate back to the same reasons why you started your own real estate company. In most cases, top-producing agents who make high-level incomes are going to look for ways that they can buy time back into their business and their lives.
Real estate is an extremely time-intensive business, so for the highest performing agents in the world, they are looking for outsourcing tools, business systems, assistants, brokerage support, and new business opportunities that can help them free up more time and reduce stress in their lives so they can not only be successful in business but also create a desirable and enjoyable lifestyle.
For top producing agents, special programs and opportunities such as management positions, recruiter roles, profit or revenue share opportunities, team leader opportunities, equity ownership opportunities, and real estate investment training can help these high-level performers reduce stress and free up time through equity, duplication, and residual income. If you currently can not provide these programs and opportunities to top producers, consider partnering your business with a national or international brand that can offer these opportunities for even the top 1% of agents in the world.
The Secret to Becoming Great Recruiters and Team Leaders
The very last skill that all real estate recruiters, brokers, and team leaders must know in order to master the art of real estate agent recruiter and become high-level leaders in the industry is also the most overlooked and ignored skill set. There is a reason why the attrition rate in the real estate brokerage world is absolutely vicious with agents changing brokerages seemingly every single year. And that is because of the lack of retention and duplication skill sets amongst leaders in the industry.
Recruiting a real estate agent to your brokerage is great, but keeping that agent at your brokerage for the rest of their real estate career and duplicating your success through them is how you build a real business. Think of it this way, if you can recruit 100 agents to your brokerage but only 20 stays at the end of 10 years, you have achieved the same results as someone who recruited 20 agents to their brokerage but managed to keep all of them.
Find ways in your business today to not only retain the real estate agents at your company right now but also to provide them with so much value that they are actually seeing tremendous growth in their business year after year. What are you doing right now with your agents at your company to keep them happy and maintain your business relationship with them? How can you add more ways to help your agents?
Again, just like recruiting real estate agents is the basis of growing your business, retaining real estate agents should be the main focus of maintaining your current business. Think of ways that you and your company can help your agents be more successful, if you can not provide that, consider partnering with another company or brand that can.
Become a Recruiting Power House
Recruiting real estate agents to your real estate company is no different than building any other business or creating any other avenue of income or sales. You have to be able to identify each prospect’s individual goals, define your targeted dream customers, find out what they want to achieve, offer it to them, communicate it effectively, and retain that customer for life.
Just like in sales, real estate agent recruiting requires you to use many of the same skills that you have already mastered in your real estate sales career. If you know how to define your target market, prospect them, communicate your sales pitch to them, handle objections, and follow up consistently, then you will have no trouble duplicating the same success you had as a real estate agent to your new business of owning and running a real estate team or brokerage.
To learn more about the 3 step agent recruiting process and see how you can recruit an additional 1-2 agents every month to your current team or brokerage, book a free strategy session below!
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