Recruiting Insight, in partnership with Lone Wolf Technologies and MyBFF Social has released its Q1 2026 Agent Migration and Brokerage Model Performance Report, signaling a sharp rebound in agent mobility following a slower 2025.
Drawing on a dataset representing nearly 30% of the U.S. market, the report found that external agent movement reached 3,742 brand changes in the first quarter, representing $16 billion in annualized production. Based on this sample, the firm projects approximately 50,000 agent moves nationally in 2026.
“The ‘wait-and-see’ era is officially over,” said Mark D. Johnson, managing partner at Recruiting Insight. “We focus exclusively on the agents who are controlling or actually moving the needle, and this quarter, those agents were 35% more likely to change brands than they were just three months ago. The market is running a fever, driven primarily by mid-tier producers who sat still in 2025 and are now actively seeking new brokerage models.”
The surge is particularly acute in high-velocity “raid zones” led by Dallas ($1.05B in motion), San Diego ($734M), and Tampa ($600M).
The report also highlights continued growth in internal mobility, with office-to-office transfers rising 38% year-over-year, signaling a parallel trend of brokerages consolidating operations while retaining top talent.
“For over a year, internal moves grew as agents sought a better fit within their current brands,” said Ben Hess, managing partner at Recruiting Insight. “While we saw an expected seasonal dip in Q1, the broader year-over-year data tells the real story. Internal mobility is actually up 38% as operators strategically consolidate their offices in a flat market.” This trend highlights a critical retention signal; internal movers outproduce external recruits by 28%, averaging $5.47M in annualized volume.
According to the report, internal movers outperform external recruits, generating an average of $5.47 million in annualized production—approximately 28% higher than the $4.27 million average for external movers.
The findings also challenge the industry’s focus on brokerage models as the primary driver of success. Data shows that performance varies widely within each model type—traditional, flat-fee, virtual and hybrid—indicating that execution, not structure, is the key differentiator.
“The model sets the stage, but it does not determine the outcome,” said Johnson. “What determines it is execution: how well a brand brings in production relative to what it loses.”
This performance is measured through the Efficiency Ratio (ER), which compares incoming to outgoing production. Top-performing firms are achieving ERs above 2.0, while underperformers fall below 1.0, regardless of their business model.
The report also identifies a significant concentration of productivity within a small segment of the agent population. Just 20% of agents, also referred to as the “Productive Core,” consistently generate transactions quarter over quarter, while the remaining 80% exhibit irregular production patterns.
“If 1 in 3 agents who closed a deal this quarter had zero production last quarter, the industry is recruiting from an increasingly unreliable pool,” Hess added. “The brokerages that understand this are not chasing headcount. They are identifying and protecting the 20%.”
Additional findings include increased group moves, rising independence among departing agents and growing pressure around succession planning, particularly as a significant portion of the industry approaches retirement age.
“Our clients who are using Broker Metrics and our back-end tools are winning,” said Kyle Hunter, industry principal at Lone Wolf Technologies. “This report gives you the roadmap to integrate the insight and the data into an actionable plan to execute.”
For the full report, visit www.recruitinginsight.net.
