If you’ve been in real estate or mortgage long enough, you know the recruiting game is fiercely competitive and, sometimes, cutthroat. Behind the corporate wheeling and dealing to attract the best and brightest in the industry, there’s an underlying motivation that drives housing professionals to seek greener pastures.
For top-producing agent Costanza Genoese Zerbi, joining eXp Realty in June was about regaining momentum in her career. Zerbi closed $65 million in sales volume on 65 units in 2024, and previously closed $91 million in a single year as an individual producer. Her phone was constantly ringing off the hook with recruiters from big names eager for her to hang her license at their shops.
After a decade at Redfin and a brief time at a smaller brokerage, Zerbi realized a change was needed to put her back on top.
“I wanted a high split, and I wanted a strong marketing package in terms of the brand and brokerage so I can build my own brand,” Zerbi said. “When I started thinking about a new brokerage, I looked at who’s providing a solution for agents and is nationwide, has a lot of top agents, has strong marketing and isn’t taking all their money. That’s how eXp kind of bubbled up to the top.”
Like Zerbi, many real estate agents and mortgage professionals are weighing these considerations as they think about the next step in their careers. As the housing industry limps through another tough year of slow home sales amid high home prices and mortgage rates, brokerage leaders are vying for the best of the best, albeit more carefully in a tight-margin market.
But that’s proving harder than ever as more top producers show less willingness to jump ship—unless they get an offer they absolutely can’t refuse.
Experienced agents staying put, but low performers see more churn
In 2024, roughly 144,000 real estate agents changed brokerages in the 12-month period ending June 2024, according to an analysis from industry expert Mike DelPrete, who looked at data from 82 Multiple Listing Services (MLSs). That’s 10% of all agents nationwide.
Lower-producing agents closing less than $10 million in volume annually had the highest churn rates, with agents with one to two years of experience most likely to make a switch. On the other hand, veteran agents with 12 or more years in real estate were least likely to make a move, according to DelPrete’s research.
In today’s cooled-down market, recruiters are being far more strategic and intentional about who they’re bringing on by looking closely at an agent or loan officer’s production numbers and lead relationships to fill in the gaps, said Jeff Walton, CEO of InGenius, an industry consulting and data firm.
“Everybody has a positive to sell to recruit, and you don’t have to write the biggest check, necessarily,” Walton said. “It is a conservative market out there where people have brought their horns back in, no question.”
Walton said he’s advising leaders to grow their companies’ bottom lines by getting more production out of their existing people—or by adding producers who can bring in the business.
For some brokerages, change means aligning with a national brand and leaving an independent identity behind. That’s where larger firms have an advantage.
Take Jorge Chavez and Jacqueline Solares as an example. The team leaders recently brought their independent 37-agent team to RE/MAX, forming RE/MAX inMotion in Denver. The co-broker/owners said they were attracted by the firm’s technology, training and brand marketing.
“When we decided to align with a national brand, it was important to choose one that reflected those same values—and that’s exactly what we found with RE/MAX,” the pair said in a news release.
Brokerages get creative to attract prospects
At Lamacchia Realty, growth leaders have found the sweet spot in recruiting top performers while helping to professionalize the industry. The brokerage’s “Crush It In Real Estate” consists of regular online and live training sessions, as well as a Facebook group, and it’s open to all agents, regardless of where they work, said Jackie Louh, COO of Lamacchia Realty.
She noted that each time they run a training, they’re able to recruit two to three top agents from other firms, usually because those agents aren’t receiving training at their current brokerage. And with a goal to recruit agents to bring in an additional $2 billion in sales volume this year, the pressure is on to get the right people on board.
“When you educate, you attract,” Louh said, noting this applies to agents and to their clients, too. While other firms are throwing money at top performers to join up, Lamacchia takes a different approach.
“If you join us for money, you’re going to leave us for money,” Louh said. “We want to offer value; we want to be your final destination.”
That’s a similar sentiment shared by leaders at Compass, which rocked the industry in recent weeks with its monster lawsuit against Zillow’s headlining ban of private listings on the search portal. Compass’ controversial private listing network is touted to new agents as a competitive advantage, but opponents to the practice say it’s anti-competitive and harms sellers’ bottom lines.
Compass previously used cash and equity sign-on incentives to entice top agents to join its ranks. But since dropping those practices in August 2022, the firm has recruited more than 2,000 agents. How’d they do it?
“There was a time when the vision of Compass was aspirational,” Rory Golod, president of growth and communications with the brokerage, told RISMedia in an email interview. “We aspired to have the best technology, the best agents and the best support teams. We now do.”
Competing against other big brokerages can sometimes be a contact sport, but Compass focuses on providing value through its tech stack, coaching and culture to connect agents with “high-value opportunities,” Golod said.
“Compass attracts agents who want to grow their business, save time and support their clients. Our singular focus is that, and what we see is that experienced, successful agents want to focus on selling real estate and not having to recruit new agents to the industry for incentives.”
Top mortgage loan officers staying put for longer, too
Among top producers, the trend seen in real estate is also mirrored within mortgage companies, with top-performing loan officers showing reluctance to move.
The top 10%, or 14,000 loan officers who generate 40% of the overall loan volume, close about 160 loans annually, or 13 per month, according to InGenius data. But these top producers have an attrition rate with their current brokerages of less than 10% annually, said Garth Graham, a senior partner with Stratmor Group, an industry consulting firm. That means this group is much harder to recruit—especially if you don’t have a compelling value proposition.
“The battleground in retail is mortgage bankers focused on purchase, who are trying to recruit the people who have those relationships in order to drive purchase,” Graham said.
But it’s not just the loan volume recruiters should be paying attention to as they look at what prospects to reel in. They should evaluate the Realtors® the loan officer works with, what share of loans closed are purchase versus refi, government versus bond loans and whether they do business that fits the prospect company’s model, Graham pointed out.
When business was booming, many brokerages offered hefty sign-on bonuses and, infamously, going after loan officers who took those sweet deals then left early before the clawback period ended.
But chasing a paycheck will always keep you on the run, Walton cautioned.
“At the end of the day, they are salespeople, and salespeople like to be sold,” Walton said, adding that recruiters and brokerage leaders need to share how they’ll add value to new agents’ businesses. “I’m not a big fan of chasing the money. It causes some people a lot of problems, because then (the brokerage) owns you. If they own you, they can treat you how they want to treat you.”
For their part, companies must work on building their brand, offer tech tools that make closing transactions easier and provide data that agents and loan officers can use to win new business and help their clients, Walton noted.
Brokerages focused on retention through adding value, setting example
At New American Funding (NAF), growth in sales production was up 42% through the end of May, tracking a similar pace to this time last year. The national lender has achieved this by recruiting a diverse, top-producing workforce where culture plays a key role in bringing in new blood, said Pat Bolan, chief production officer and head of retail lending with NAF.
While some brokerages use mergers and acquisitions to grow marketshare and head count, NAF eschews that approach, Bolan said.
“When you do an acquisition, it’s very difficult bringing two cultures together, so that’s not our strategy,” Bolan explained. “We want to grow organically, one LO or one branch at a time, and it’s less expensive. We can be very selective.”
But the work doesn’t stop there, because NAF is looking at new ways to keep its loan officers engaged and drive new business their way, Bolan pointed out.
“What’s really important in this industry is that these loan originators have a voice, and so that’s something that we’re very big on,” explained Bolan. “We don’t want anybody feeling like they’re out on an island when they have a problem.”
On his Brokerpreneur podcast, Matt Vigh, a veteran brokerage leader, directly sums up what other leaders need to do to attract (and keep) talent.
“How you lead is how you recruit,” Vigh told listeners. “If you tell your agents, ‘Hey, go out and get more listings,’ (…) and they don’t see you putting things in place that help you grow your business the way that you want, then they don’t see you leading them. They just see you telling them.”
Golod with Compass acknowledged that the industry has been through some turbulent times, but pointed out that the tumult has actually improved the brokerage’s ability to recruit new agents.
“While others scramble to adjust, we remain focused on execution. Agents recognize the importance of stability and want to be part of it,” Golod said. “Agents want to maximize the value they provide their clients and now require more than a brokerage; they need a partner. This means seamless technology and opportunities to grow and connect.”
At the same time, Compass acknowledged in its lawsuit against Zillow that industry opposition to its “3-Phased Marketing” has resulted in significant turmoil for agents, who have faced questions and pushback from clients because of the private listings ban.
With churn inevitable, how companies offboard people is just as important as how they recruit and retain, Lamacchia’s Louh said.
“We’ve had that happen probably every other week where we have agents who want to come back,” Louh said. She emphasized that cutting commissions or immediately shutting agents out of the system when they hand in notice hurts both the agents and clients.
“We always tell the business development team if an agent leaves, stay in touch with them. Check in on them every few months. See how business is going, see how they’re doing personally. Again, keep that relationship going.”
