11 Proven Tips For Recruiting Real Estate Agents On-Demand

This guide will break down everything you need to know about recruiting real estate agents.

The real estate industry can be extremely competitive when it comes to recruiting agents. Many real estate professionals are being courted by multiple brokers – and a broker has to do a lot to stand out.

In my years of experience working in real estate, I’ve had to recruit many agents, both years ago when I had my own independent brokerage, and also now that I’m with eXp. What’s the best way to convince someone that your team or brokerage is the best? Why should they choose you?

Let’s take a look at a few tips that have helped me in recruiting real estate agents, from your company culture to your external marketing.

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1. Work on Your Team or Company Culture

Know what you’re about. Most real estate agents don’t just want a place where they can build their careers. They want a “home.” They want a community they can grow into.

What can younger agents expect to learn from your team? What can current agents expect as benefits? Who would be the ideal candidate? What makes you different?

In all business and real estate, you need to have a value proposition – what makes you better than the others.

Take the time to create a complete mission statement for your team or brokerage. Ask existing members what your team means to them. To truly achieve success, everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction.

2. Be Honest and Direct

Everyone in the real estate business has heard a pitch before.

When you “sell” to someone in the business, you need to be particularly open and transparent.

As a real estate broker, you don’t want any potential agent. You want the right agent. And the right agents are going to be the happiest ones.

Your campaigns for recruiting real estate agents should focus on what you know you can deliver — and should be honest about what you can’t. That’s the only way your recruitment process will find agents that stick with you long-term.

Of course, you don’t need to be brutally honest with your recruit. There are always better ways to phrase certain things: a small team is a growing team, an inexperienced team is learning. But it’s important they know what to expect.

3. Use Your Marketing Tactics

You’re already marketing listings. The same tactics can be used to market to brokers. Build out your social media accounts. Create landing pages. Send out mailers. Put out ads.

The same marketing funnel that can be used to bring in buyers and sellers can also help you bring in new Realtors. Develop a comprehensive recruiting plan just like your existing marketing strategies — and stick to it.

Just like getting buyers and sellers, getting new real estate agents can take time. The marketing you send out today may not yield results until the next quarter.

And by leveraging these marketing tactics, you’ll also get better at using them. A stunningly positive marketing campaign for new recruits could be transformed into a solid marketing campaign for buyers and sellers.

4. Think About the Type of Agents You Want

What type of agent would work best at your brokerage or team?

Make a list of the aspects of an agent that are most important to you. This will provide you with invaluable insights regarding whether the agents that apply are right for your culture.

When you’re building a team, you really need to pay attention to whether that team will work together. Include other members of the brokerage or team at your recruiting appointments. Listen to them if they have any concerns.

It’s really not that hard for a recruit to move from one brokerage to another or from one team to another. You need to keep people happy if you want to keep them at all.

5. Keep Your Existing Agents Happy

In many ways, your agents sell the team more effectively than you ever could.

If you have a lot of friendly, experienced agents, you’re going to make a great impact on any new recruit.

But if your agents seem to have one foot out of the door, an experienced real estate agent will pick up on it.

When your existing agents are happiest, they’ll also want to pull more people in. You don’t want to be the brokerage or team that other people are warned about at events.

6. Consider Your Compensation

Compensation does matter.

If you’re just starting out, you can always consider increasing the total compensation of your agents.

But it’s not always strictly necessary for that compensation to be in cash.

Often, other soft benefits (like opportunities for networking, seminars, continued education) are more sought after because recruits have an eye on improving their career and performance.

If you’re dealing with new recruits, they will want to concentrate on career development. If you’re dealing with experienced agents, they will want to build their book and acquire additional support in terms of networking and administrative streamlining.

7. Make Your Presence Known at Local Events

Take the time to sponsor local charities, attend local events, and otherwise maintain a presence in your community.

You never know where you’ll meet people who are looking to get into the business.

The better known you are, the greater the likelihood that someone will see fit to approach you regarding a spot on your team.

And it’s always helpful for finding new clients!

8. Go to Real Estate-related Networking Events

In addition to general community events, use real estate conferences and networking events to build your team as well as your book.

As you network, make it known that you’re looking to expand. Express what you’re looking for in terms of new agents.

Recruiting is a full-time job, especially for a brokerage. While a real estate team might recruit during internal events, a brokerage will always be recruiting.

Even if a recruit isn’t looking to make a change right now, they may think of your brokerage in the future.

9. Build The Right Media

Your website should have a landing page and a dedicated section regarding the recruiting process.

When you advertise for new recruits, they should be directed to a page that is tailored to move them down the funnel — just as you would do with a client.

In many ways, finding a recruit is exactly like finding a client; a new agent has to be “sold” on the business just like a new client would be.

Put together a “press kit” full of marketing materials for each new recruit.

What are the benefits of working with your team? What does your team do differently? Statistically, how successful is each agent? How many years does each agent have in the business? What kind of support can a new recruit expect to have?

10. Improve Your Recruiting Process

What does your recruiting process look like? You need to build your funnel the same way that you would build your client funnel.

That includes your first contact, newsletters, follow-up emails, follow-up calls, recruiting interviews, and more.

Ask your current agents about what you could do to improve your recruiting process. They’ll know what it’s like from the other side.

Regularly audit your recruiting process. Where are potential recruits dropping out? Where does it seem like you lose them? Are there areas for improvement? Are other offers just more competitive?

Exploring these questions and more will give you a better handle on how your recruiting process is performing and how it can be improved.

11. Get Creative With Your Connections

As a real estate recruiter, sometimes you need to be a little creative. Maybe you want to recruit at the local real estate school. Maybe you want to establish lines of communication with builders or banks.

Some people talk to estate sellers for leads. An estate seller is often contacted to empty out a house before connecting with a real estate agent. And they know all the great real estate agents because of it.

Others talk to senior housing administrators for leads. When a senior person moves into senior housing, they often sell their house. Consequently, the housing administrators know all the movers-and-shakers within that niche.

There are many ways you can get in contact with successful real estate agents — and not only does that help when recruiting real estate agents, but it also helps when building your book of potential contacts.

You can find a new agent anywhere. But it’s important to find agents who really work with your brokerage and your team. The long-term sustainability of your real estate team is going to depend on your community, mission, and brand – not just raw agent recruitment.

FAQs on Recruiting Real Estate Agents

How can you find a quality agent for your real estate team?

Successful agents generally make themselves known. But the easiest way you can recruit good agents is to already have good agents on your side. Your agents are the best at determining the other prospective agents that they would like to work with.

What are prospective recruits looking for in a real estate team or brokerage?

Surprisingly, many agents aren’t looking for raw income; they’re not necessarily choosing for the best commission percentage. Rather, many want to know that the brokerage or team will support their success and help them build their career.

Should you work with a real estate recruiter?

There are companies that specialize in real estate recruiting; they have premium real estate recruiting software and are able to streamline and improve the onboarding process. But they also take a cut.

This can be a viable choice if you have a brokerage or team that’s just starting out. But if you don’t have the connections in the real estate industry to connect with new talent, it may be a hard sell.