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Real Estate Agent Recruiting FAQ
Thirteen common questions brokerages ask when recruiting real estate agents, answered from the hiring side. Most producing agents are not actively applying for new roles. Their listings usually stay with the current brokerage, and the decision to move often depends more on support, operations and growth opportunities than on a bigger split.
01
3 questions
Hiring an employee usually starts with someone who is already looking for a job. Recruiting a producing agent is different because you are approaching someone who already has clients, active production and a brokerage they are working with. They may have no immediate reason to consider moving.
Most agents also work as independent contractors, which changes the conversation. You are not simply offering a job. The agent is comparing your support, fees, tools and business environment with what they already have. At the same time, your brokerage needs to check their production, experience and whether they are the right fit.
The move is not complete until the agent’s license is transferred to your brokerage with the state. NAR reports that 86% of Realtors are independent contractors at their firm and the median agent has stayed with their current firm for six years. That helps explain why recruiting an established producer usually takes more effort than filling a normal employee role.
Producing agents usually are not applying to job ads, so brokerages have to look in places that show who is active in the market. Start with your MLS and state licensee records to identify agents, confirm their current brokerage and see who is producing. Referrals from your own agents can also be valuable, along with title reps, lenders and inspectors who work with those agents every week. Your own audience can help too if you publish content agents actually read.
Job ads tend to reach newer agents or people who are already between brokerages. If your goal is to recruit established producers, a more targeted approach works better. Our recruiting strategies page explains how to narrow the market and build that target list.
Outreach can run across phone, email and LinkedIn. Use cold calling scripts for live conversations, recruiting email templates for follow-up and LinkedIn messages when you want another touchpoint. Our real estate agent recruiting service brings those channels together, handles the outreach and books qualified agents on your calendar.
Only a small share of productive agents in your market are likely to switch brokerages each year. In Q2 2026, about 2.92% of productive agents changed brands, or roughly 1 in 34. That rate has stayed between 2.72% and 3.74% for seven straight quarters. Across 2025, total agent turnover was 6.8%, with 5.5% moving to another brand and 1.3% transferring within the same brand.
In a market with 600 productive agents, roughly 17 may change brands in a quarter. With such a small number of movers, broad coverage matters because missing even a few agents can mean missing a large share of the available opportunities. Internal transfers are worth watching too. They rose 52% over eighteen months, and those agents had 31% higher median annualized sales volume than agents who moved to a different brand.
Do not multiply the 2.92% quarterly rate by four to estimate annual turnover. The quarterly and annual figures use different samples, so that would overstate how many agents are likely to move.
02
4 questions
Recruiting a top producing agent usually happens in stages rather than all at once. Finding the right agent and getting to the first real conversation can take weeks or even months because timing matters. Most agents move when they already have a reason to consider leaving their current brokerage.
Once an agent is interested, the interview and agreement stage may take a few weeks. After that, the license transfer, association updates and MLS changes still need to be completed. The agent may also need time to rebuild a pipeline that largely stayed with the previous brokerage.
In one six-month campaign we booked 63 qualified recruiting appointments for a California brokerage. Fourteen agents joined. Another 25 were still deciding when the six months ended. That last part is the real answer. The meetings happen while the campaign runs. The hires keep landing after it.
The best time to recruit is usually tied to an agent’s financial and contract deadlines, not to a particular season.
Several events can make an agent more open to moving. These include the notice period in their independent contractor agreement, the anniversary of their cap year, annual association dues, MLS fees, errors and omissions insurance, state license renewal and a pipeline that has started to slow down. Migration data also shows stronger movement in April and January.
That does not mean you should wait until those months to start outreach. An agent who changes brokerages in April may have started considering the move months earlier. Working back about 60 to 90 days gives you more time to reach them before they make a final decision.
The license stays with the agent, but their brokerage affiliation has to be updated with the state. Once the agent leaves their current brokerage, they generally cannot conduct real estate business at all until that change is completed.
The exact steps depend on the state. In Louisiana, an agent cannot practice once their current sponsorship ends until a new sponsoring broker is in place. In Texas, the new broker accepts a sponsorship request to complete the change. This can take a few days or a few weeks. The agent may also need to update their association and MLS access separately.
Before making an offer, confirm the agent's license number and current brokerage of record. This helps you understand how long the transfer may take and avoids promising a start date before the paperwork is complete.
The agent can take their relationships with them, but active client agreements usually stay with the current brokerage. A listing agreement is between the seller and the brokerage, which means an agent cannot simply move that listing to a new firm. The Texas Real Estate Commission explains that the current broker must release the seller before the listing can move. Buyer agreements and deals already under contract usually stay with the original brokerage as well.
What usually follows the agent is their network of past clients, referral partners and repeat business. NAR's Standard of Practice 16-20 also limits agents from encouraging clients of their current brokerage to cancel exclusive agreements. So when you recruit an agent, plan for them to bring relationships and future opportunities rather than assuming their active listings will come with them.
Done for you
We build the target list from license and production data, run daily multi-channel outreach, qualify on license, production, and switch intent, and hand you the interview.
03
3 questions
Ask for the agent’s production numbers before the interview and compare them with their MLS records. Look at how many deals they closed and their total sales volume over the last 12 months. Then check how much came from listings, how much came from buyers, how many active listings they have and how much business came from leads provided by their brokerage.
The state licensee lookup can confirm whether the agent’s license is active, when it was issued, which brokerage they are with and whether there is any disciplinary history. It does not show how much business the agent has actually closed.
Be careful with team numbers. An agent may show the production of the whole team instead of their own results. NAR reports that a typical individual agent closes 9 sides and $2.7 million in sales volume, while the median team closes 32 sides and $17.5 million. Those numbers are very different, so make sure you are comparing an agent’s own production with other individual agents.
Skip the usual job interview questions. You need questions that show how the agent actually produces, why they may want to move and what they expect from your brokerage.
The first few questions help verify production. The middle questions show why the agent is considering a move. The final questions reveal whether they have seriously thought about joining a new brokerage.
A few warning signs can show up before you make an offer. Look closely at agents who move between brokerages often without improving their production, present team numbers as their own or blame other people for every deal that went wrong.
Also watch for agents who rely too much on leads from their brokerage, judge everything by one unusually strong year or cannot name a lender or title rep who has worked with them.
A slow pipeline is different. Among agents closing 12 or more sides a year, those with a recent closing and three or more active listings changed brands at 2.3%, while similar producers with a stalled pipeline changed at 17.4%. A stalled pipeline can make an agent more open to moving, though they may need more support during their first 90 days.
04
3 questions
Yes, recruiting licensed agents from another brokerage is generally legal. The bigger risk comes from what the agent has already agreed to with their current firm and how the move is handled. Independent contractor agreements may include notice periods, non-solicitation terms and rules about active listings or deals already in progress.
Two simple rules can reduce a lot of that risk. Do not ask an agent to bring a client list, CRM export or other data from their current brokerage. Keep the recruiting conversation focused on the agent and their move, since NAR’s Standard of Practice 16-20 limits efforts to encourage clients to cancel exclusive agreements with the current firm.
Recruiting calls and texts still carry compliance risk. Courts have reached different decisions on how the TCPA applies to recruiting calls and state rules can vary. Have legal counsel review your outreach before the campaign starts.
The decision is often about more than getting a better split. Recent agent migration data shows that dissatisfaction with broker support and compliance is a bigger reason agents leave than money.
About a third of recent moves came from agents whose business was already declining. Many were heavily buyer side, with sales volume down 18% to 24%. For an agent in that position, a bigger split may not solve the real problem. At the other end, agents producing $20 million or more changed brands at just 1.47%, which shows how difficult top producers can be to move.
Focus first on what your brokerage can improve for the agent, such as transaction support, listing marketing, lead flow and reliable compliance help. Once that value is clear, the split and other financial terms become easier to discuss.
You need a few basics in place before outreach starts. First, define the type of agent you want to recruit, including the market, production floor and experience level. You also need your offer written clearly, including the split, cap, fees and what the brokerage provides.
Make sure someone is available to take interviews quickly. A delayed interview can mean losing the agent to another brokerage. You should also have one person responsible for onboarding, including the license transfer, association updates, MLS changes and the agent’s first 90 days.
The prospect list and targeting approach are covered on our recruiting strategies page. When comparing outside providers, knowing how to choose a recruiting company can help you judge data quality, qualification standards and market coverage. Your recruiting pricing should also match the type of agents you want to reach and the size of the market you plan to cover.