How to Recruit the Best Agents for Your Real Estate Firm

To be the best agency, you need the best agents. How do you recruit the best? It’s definitely a challenge to find talent to join your team, and the industry is competitive. How do you stand out as the firm of choice for top agents to join? What benefits are agents looking for, and what are they looking for in terms of a firm? Here are some tips for real estate agent recruiting:

Know Your Target Audience

Before you start hiring, know your target audience. If you are selling multi-million dollar homes, a 21-year-old agent selling houses on the side while he is in school, is probably not your best choice. It’s better to go with someone with more robust real estate and life experience or who possibly lives in the area and thus has first-hand knowledge. If you’re in a historical area, hire someone who knows the history or who is a history buff and can learn it. If you’re selling in a turnover neighborhood that is being revitalized, and empty nesters are moving out, and young families are moving in, consider hiring millennials as your agents. This is a traditionally underemployed group, so you have lots of interview candidates to choose from to find the highest quality employees.

Millennials are very tech savvy, so hiring the right ones can really help your digital real estate business. But you must recruit digitally, too! Use social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to look for current agents, or use Indeed, Monster or LinkedIn as well. You can find agents here who are working without an agency, and find people who fit your firm. Reach out to them and show them your brand. You can find agents who live nearby or who have worked in particular markets or niches. Use Messaging features to send personal notes to potential recruits. After all, who doesn’t like getting a personal note?

Showcase Your Culture

Social media is a great way to showcase your brand and your culture. Millennials want to enjoy where they work (as we all do), so really open up on social media about your team and why they like to work for your firm. List those things that make it a great place to work. Do you have a lot of company parties? Do you have a bowling team? Do you support charitable causes? List all of these things that set you apart.

Showcase Your Business

Of course you must give potential hires an idea about your business. Talk about the size of your firm. Talk about your current agents and their traits, and your team goals for growing your real estate business. Share your financial information and talk about deals closed annually. Many firms give a “day in the life” video or PowerPoint presentation that is a very effective communication tool. Spend a lot of time on developing a way to communicate your culture, brand and business aspects, because the way you differentiate your business from everyone else is a key factor in attracting new agents.

A biggie with agents is what infrastructure and support your firm has in place for them to be successful. Create a list of core benefits that are reasons why they should work for you over a competitor. When you interview, ask them what they’d like to see in place to create success.

Ask the Right Questions

There are other great questions to ask as well. When it comes to hiring, quality is better than quantity. On your first pass through the sea of resumes, look at the candidate holistically—experience, niche, ratings as an agent, and age. This will save you tons of time! You’re looking for the agents that will best fit your brand and your firm’s culture. Once you’ve culled the list, ask the right questions to thin the herd even more:

• Ask why he or she decided on a career in real estate, and to become an agent
• Ask how they currently market themselves and how they generate leads
• Ask how they persuade buyers and sellers that they are the right agent
• Ask how they handle difficult clients or situations

Money (Always) Talks

Of course, money is always a factor, but it’s not the factor. Nevertheless, firms that offer lucrative commission rates certainly get the attention of top agents. Know your competition and what bonus incentives they offer, then top them! Give agents the tools of the trade to increase their earning potential.

Agents Know Agents

Your current staff is crucial in building your future staff. Your agents are a tremendous recruiting resource. They know the business and they know agents who are rising talents. Offer incentive programs to your current agents for bringing in new hires. Social media is a great way to do this, as you can allow existing agents to share job listings within their own personal and professional circles. You or your agents might be attending professional real estate meetings, and that is another great forum in which to scope out talent.

We hope these real estate agent recruiting tips will help you find the best agents who will be with your agency for years to come.