The Real Job of an Agency Boss: Recruitment & Retention
Many real estate agency leaders misunderstand their primary role. They believe their job is to sell houses or find buyers. While these tasks are part of daily operations, focusing on them keeps firms small. Leaders of large agencies operate differently - they focus on just two things: recruitment and retention.
An agency is, at its heart, a people business. The size and quality of your agent team directly determine your influence and success. A larger, stronger team gives you more negotiating power with developers, more resources to solve complex problems, and more opportunities for growth.
Why Agents Join - or Leave
For most real estate agents, the decision to join or leave a firm boils down to one factor: compensation. Agents want to earn as much as possible. A senior agent might question why they should let a firm continuously "tax" their commission when the value they receive in return is minimal. If a firm's commission structure is flawed, no amount of effort can fix its recruitment and retention problems
Many leaders spend decades trying to scale their business, only to find themselves back at square one. We've seen entire teams of 500 agents leave and whole branches change their names overnight. This cycle has repeated itself countless times, yet even the most seasoned leaders still haven't found a lasting solution. Commission isn't everything, but it is the foundation of your company's policy and culture.
Why Cash Beats Prizes
Traditional leaders often try to retain agents with incentives like free trips or expensive gadgets. They feel generous, but agents can do the math - these perks are typically funded from their own commissions. Most agents would prefer a higher split or faster, clearer payouts. When an agent chooses cash over a trinket, it's not ingratitude; it's a rational financial decision. Many agents will even take these incentives and still leave because they know their long-term growth is tied to a better compensation structure.
If an agency leader doesn't solve the twin problems of recruitment and retention, the business will never scale. There are many possible approaches. What matters is providing real, tangible value to the people who drive your results. If you want an outside perspective, consider a conversation with the founder of ListingMine - it may help you think through the problem from a fresh angle.
