13 of the best real estate agent retention strategies

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7. Great culture

We always say clients work with agents they know, like and trust. The same can be said for why real estate agents choose one brokerage or team over another. The “know, like and trust” factor is huge. Increase this by creating a great culture within your organization. Every office, brokerage and team has a culture, whether it’s something that’s focused on or not. Think about yours: what’s the vibe? Do people help each other, or is it more competitive? Do you take time to have fun with your agents?

There are lots of ways to improve culture. Here are a few ideas:

• Host regular fun events, like happy hours, holiday parties, summer BBQs or movie nights
• Call your agents to check in on them and genuinely ask how they’re doing and what support they need
• Create contests and incentives to not only drive performance but make lead gen enjoyable
• Say thank you. Show appreciation for your agents when they go above and beyond, help another agent or assist you with something in the brokerage

8. Lead generation

Yes, it’s always best to teach your real estate agents how to generate leads and find their own clients, but in reality, agents want to be given leads, and they’re willing to pay for them. Offer a lead program with a higher commission split to cover your cost of generating or buying the lead, and you’ll be surprised how many agents will jump at the chance to work with a lead given to them, even if they net less money.

There are lots of lead sources out there. CINC is one of the best because it offers many different types of lead generation, so you can choose what will work best for your brokerage or team. CINC offers paid Google ads, Facebook ads, cash offer campaigns plus services to showcase your team’s listings to a larger audience. In addition, your subscription will include a comprehensive CRM and website.

Visit CINC

9. Real-time market updates

Keeping your team members and agents informed of market conditions and trends at regularly scheduled events like weekly team meetings or group calls will build team loyalty and improve your agents’ skills. Agents who are up-to-date on what’s happening will more easily build trust with their clients, as well. Imagine how good your brokerage would’ve looked if your agents were the first ones to fully understand the implications of last year’s lawsuit, for instance.

Provide these essential opportunities to make sense of data. Have your team leaders break down your association’s data into bite-sized, valuable insights that can be passed along to your team’s buyers and sellers. Become your market’s leading source of meaningful insights into market trends through effective email marketing delivered to your entire team’s clients.

This will take some extra legwork on your part (or your staff’s part), yet it’s a great way to provide additional value to your agents without any additional cost. Or you can use a tool like Altos Research to save time and get the most up-to-date market reports!

10. Support physical and mental health

Supporting your real estate agents’ overall well-being will do wonders for your retention. Real estate is a tough business, and when agents feel supported in all aspects, they’re much more likely to stay with their brokerage or team.

Here are a few ideas for supporting physical and mental health:

• Work with a local gym to provide discounts to your agents.
• Encourage days off and follow through with supporting agents’ days off by facilitating coverage for them.
• Model taking time off (take your own days off and vacations).
• Ask your agents how they’re feeling and how things are at home, when appropriate.
• Provide a safe space for them to speak freely if and when they need someone to talk to. 
• Partner with local therapists to provide higher-level support, possibly at a discount.
• Host fun events with a physical component, like a yoga class in the office (great for improving office culture, too!).
• Keep healthy snacks in the office.

Importantly, keep all these offerings completely optional. Agents should always feel invited to participate but never feel pressured to join in.

11. Recognition

One of the easiest ways to improve your real estate agent retention is to recognize and reward your agents. Recognition provides all that feel-good dopamine to agents, which helps them feel seen and acknowledged while also feeling motivated to keep going, even through tough times. In addition to an annual awards ceremony where you can reward your top producers and rookie of the year, consider adding more awards throughout the year.

At our monthly brokerage meeting, for instance, we present the Spirit Award to one agent who has been especially helpful to others or demonstrated exceptional culture that month. The single trophy gets passed from agent to agent, and it’s a beneficial tool for retention.

12. Strong branding and marketing

Agents often select a brokerage or team because of the branding and marketing they provide. It saves an individual real estate agent an immense amount of time and effort by not having to create their own branding. Offer templates to your agents to make it even easier for them and improve your retention.

Check out Coffee and Contracts as a way to deliver polished, consistently branded marketing materials for your brokerage or team. For a low monthly subscription fee, you gain access to a suite of social media content ideas and branded templates that you can customize with your brokerage’s brand colors and fonts.

Visit Coffee and Contracts

13. Graceful exits

I’ve seen this time and again in my 12 years in the real estate industry: an agent leaves a brokerage to join another, then a year or two later, they return to the original firm. One vital yet often overlooked component of real estate agent retention is the graceful exit.

When an agent leaves, treat them with respect and kindness, because if they do find out the grass isn’t greener at their new brokerage, you’ll want them to feel welcome to return to yours. It’s a small world in real estate, and protecting your good reputation by not creating enemies is a smart long-term strategy, as well as just being a good way to live.

The full picture

Recruiting and retaining real estate agents isn’t easy, yet the brokers and teams who master the above strategies are the ones who will see their organizations grow and thrive. When in doubt, ask yourself: what would I want if I were an agent looking to join a new office or team?