A top concern we often hear from brokers is their real estate agent retention rate. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the median tenure for Realtors at their current firm is five years, and the median experience of agents overall is eight years. The time and resources you spend on your agents while they work with you are valuable resources you cannot get back. By increasing your current agent’s tenure at your firm, you gain a better understanding of that agent, and better yet – you gain time to grow that agent into a highly successful agent and leader on your team.
Retaining your agents is key to building success year after year. Once agents are in the door, developing relationships with future home buyers and sellers, and closing deals, how do you get those agents to stay? We’ve put together a list of our top four best practices and tools you can use to retain the real estate agents on your roster and foster a culture of growth and success.
Tip #1: Understand Your Agents
Many agents enter the career field to be their boss and give themselves more control over their schedule and more importantly, gain autonomy in reaching their career goals. Another enticing prospect of starting a career in real estate is the minimal gatekeeping on the path to becoming a licensed real estate agent. However, the time and study it takes to reach even the average salary ($51,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) for real estate agents is difficult to quantify. Understanding who your agents are, what their goals are, and building a diverse base of agents on your team, is the first step to maximizing success for your team.
A few stats to keep in mind:
- Over 65% of active Realtors are women
- The median age of all Realtors in the U.S. is 52.
- 45% of Realtors have completed a bachelor’s or graduate degree
New and emerging agents are a diverse group. Helping your agents dig into their goals and helping them uncover their client niche will help them solve the puzzle of who they are as an agent, and how to build a strategy for success.
Tip #2: Focus on Training
The resources you provide to your agents can make or break the agent experience. But basic training is no longer enough. With fewer homes on the market and more agents competing to close those homes, your agents need an edge. Adapting and updating training resources to a diverse agent population, current market challenges and technology updates provide the edge they need.
Some agents are incredibly social media savvy but may rely on you for negotiation tactics. Others may need assistance building a reliable follow-up communication strategy. Focus on areas of opportunity and knowledge new agents appreciate such as:
- Social Media Marketing: Help your agents set up and maintain a LinkedIn or Facebook profile to connect with their network and deepen connections to those in their local community. Using social media platforms to further their reach by sharing content and quick, actionable tips related to home selling or home buying reinforces your agent’s expertise. Exploring new content forms like creating videos on TikTok for their target audience also helps them carve a niche for themselves.
- Email Marketing & Communication Strategies: A tested, dependable, easy-to-follow communication flow for clients in different stages of the buying process is crucial to agent success- ie closing. Providing email, call, and SMS scripts to get them started and a platform to manage their communications and contacts can go a long way in developing a communication strategy and winning follow-up cadence.
- Negotiating: According to a recent article in Realtor magazine, negotiating skills and a strong understanding of the client’s position are more important than ever as listings receive multiple offers in record time.
Encourage your agents to share their success stories – and areas they struggle with – and build training around these key areas, too!
Tip #3: Provide Lead Sources & Technology
Leads are top of mind for your agents. Providing a valuable lead source – one with built-in buyer or seller prescreening and live connections is a game-changer. While established agents may have access to a reliable lead source through years of network building, new agents rely on you to help them uncover new lead sources. Connecting your agents to a lead generation platform that’s built to save your agents time and help them convert leads is a win-win for you and your agents. Explore more real estate lead generation options for your team.
Tip #4: Join the #ThrivePastFive Initiative
Understanding the roadblocks new agents face today is key to solving the agent retention challenge. Join our industry initiative today by sharing our #ThrivePastSurvey with your agents. Use the templates below to share the survey with your agents, or direct them to the landing page linked below!
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|Email template to share the survey with your agents|
Hey, [agent name],
Have you seen the #ThrivePastFive survey from Realtor.com? I’m asking everyone on our team to take it!
The survey focuses on the challenges you face in your first 5 years as an agent. After you finish the survey, you’ll get a copy of “Agent Foundations: Five Ways to Thrive”, the resource Realtor.com created to provide detailed information on sales and marketing tactics you can use to succeed.
Start the survey here.
Thank you,
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The #ThrivePastFive survey is packed with interactive features and thoughtful questions on how agents approach specific scenarios and obstacles they face in years one through five. After the survey, we’ll share our findings and create new resources for you and your agents to build a path to success.
