A new report and Intel findings reveal that a depressed market and crowded securities industry are shifting efforts from quantity to quality. For agents, it’s now an unavoidable aspect of the job.
this is the first story Recruitment War ’24is a multi-part series, exclusive to Intel subscribers, about how brokerages are poaching and retaining top agents in down markets. Stay tuned for future installments. Subscribe to Intel now.
As the summer of 2022 was drawing to a close, eXp Realty shared some news. It turns out that the virtual brokerage firm had just hired the top team from Keller Williams and his RE/MAX.
About a month later, the Compass covered Rhode Island’s top team and continued to make similar headlines for the next year and a half. Meanwhile, Coldwell Banker, The Agency and Ryan Serhant Securities all touted their wins in recruiting top industry talent. In fact, Inman has published dozens of similar articles over the past two years.
All these stories had something in common. There were few references to the number of staff at securities firms. That’s actually a big change. It wasn’t that long ago that the most notable hiring headlines were about companies like eXp achieving unprecedented employee numbers. But by last week, when Compass announced another major acquisition, the brokerage’s press release didn’t even mention the fact that the acquired company had thousands of agents.
In other words, recent years have seen a gradual but significant shift in the way the industry focuses on recruitment success. Today, trading volume is almost an afterthought, at least in public, but at the same time brokerages are working hard to tell the story on the issue. quality of their recruits. Top performer. top team. No.1 agent in No.1 market. Such that.
This change reflects that the housing market has fundamentally changed and become leaner. But it also highlights a new chapter for the real estate industry, with more competition for talent and a more crowded playing field.
As a result, our latest Inman Intel Index survey of 1,009 real estate professionals found that many agents are now fielding recruiting inquiries on a near-continuous basis.
Market downturn and intensifying competition
So what exactly led companies to focus on top performance rather than big numbers?
Data from the National Association of Realtors shows a decline in transactions in 2022 and 2023. Credit: Jim Dalrymple II
- Even more crowded: Collabra Technology CEO Russ Cofano said recruiting has evolved as the market has become more crowded. RE/MAX and later Keller Williams were first and second generation companies that leaned heavily into hiring and employee numbers. EXp was something else. But now other companies like Real Brokerage, Fathom Realty, and LPT are also growing rapidly using similar models. In other words, not only are there fewer agents, but there are more companies competing on the same playing field for those agents.
- “When that happens, they have to pivot their outward message to, ‘Hey, don’t look at our growth, look at who we’re acquiring,'” Cofano said. told Intel.
![](https://assets.inman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-03-at-3.30.05-PM.png)
EXp’s earnings report shows that employee growth has slowed. Credit: Jim Dalrymple II
- The recent congestion situation is as follows. OJO president Chris Heller told Intel when he was CEO of Keller Williams in the 2010s that “we didn’t really have any competition and were able to really grow at the expense of other companies.” .
- “Five, six years ago, they didn’t exist at the level they are today,” Heller said of the rise of growth-focused companies.
- Compass helped change the narrative. Although the number of agencies is increasing, they are less vocal about their numbers and are instead focusing more on the big players. Compass has emerged as the top U.S. brokerage firm by trading volume and has a significant influence on how companies hire and talk about hiring.
- “They were all about quality and never bought into PR cycles like agent growth because that was never part of their purpose,” Cofano said. “Compass was not interested in facilitating agent growth.”
- “The more aggressive brokerages we have, the more other brokerages will do the same,” Heller said.
![](https://assets.inman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-04-at-10.11.28-AM.png)
The number of principal agents at Compass has been gradually increasing each quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2022, the company only reports the annual average number of major distributors and does not report quarterly numbers. Credit: Jim Dalrymple II
Agents are constantly fielding calls, but few listen to their calls
Intel will dive deeper into brokerage leaders’ thoughts on this situation in future articles in this series.
But in the meantime, it’s worth noting that the pressures on agents – and the opportunities for them – have been tremendous.
- Most agents receive job offers. amazing thing 71 percent The percentage of agent respondents to the March Inman Intel Index survey said another broker had tried to hire them in the past 60 days. in addition, an additional 12 percent The company has not hired in the past 60 days, but said it was the target of a rival broker’s hiring effort last year.
![](https://assets.inman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-04-at-10.46.43-AM.png)
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II
- The broker, not the agent, is in control. There were very few respondents to the survey (0.6 percent) They stated that they had contacted the broker as an agent in the past 60 days if they were not also employed as an agent. Overwhelmingly, agents who weren’t actively wanted weren’t actively thinking about jumping to a competitor.
- I often receive recruitment calls. almost 19 percent A higher percentage of respondents said someone tries to recruit them at least once a week.another 32 percent Conduct on-site inspections at least once a month.and 26 percent We receive requests at least once a quarter. In total, more than three-quarters of respondents face several recruitment drives each year.
![](https://assets.inman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-03-at-4.14.59-PM.png)
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II
- Most recruitment efforts go unheard. The overwhelming majority (90 percent) Some survey respondents did not change brokers last year, and that trend is likely to continue in 2024.almost 74 percent Of the agents who responded to the survey, 100% of them said they would not change jobs this year. The numbers suggest that a few more agents may be willing to change jobs this year than in 2023, but ultimately the near-continuous recruitment drive means most agents are new to the job market. The company will not separate you.
In the coming weeks, Intel will analyze intermediary adoption in more detail based on detailed questions from the Inman Intel Index and interviews with experts in the field.
Methodology notes: this month inman intel index investigation was conducted from March 20 to April 1, 2024. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate. intel There were 1,009 responses.Respondent to this investigation They were directed to the SurveyMonkey platform, where they self-identified their profile in the residential real estate market. Respondents were limited to one answer per device, but there was no restriction on IP address. Once a profile (Residential Realtor, Mortgage Broker/Banker, Business Executive/Investor/PropTech, etc.) was selected, respondents answered a unique set of questions regarding that specific profile.because investigation Demographic information regarding age, gender, and geography was not requested, nor was the data weighted.this investigation It is conducted monthly and includes both recurring and unique questions for each profile type.
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