Real Estate Agent Recruiting and Retention: What Brokers Shared at NAR's Mastermind
When more than 460 real estate brokers gathered for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) National Broker Networking event in October 2026, the conversation focused on some of the industry's biggest challenges: recruiting productive agents, retaining existing talent, and using technology to build stronger brokerages.
One solution came up repeatedly: Courted.
In its October 16 article, NAR Hosts Online Networking Mastermind for Brokers, NAR reported:
“Repeatedly, NAR’s REACH partner, courted.io, surfaced as a solution to recruiting and retention.”
Brokers described using Courted to identify and recruit agents in their markets. They also highlighted the platform's ability to identify agents who may be considering a brokerage move, allowing leadership to engage proactively before losing valuable talent.
For us at Courted, what makes this recognition particularly meaningful is its source: brokers sharing the real estate brokerage tools they use in their businesses with other brokers.
And it reinforces something we've long believed: successful brokerage growth isn't just about recruiting more agents. It's about recruiting the right agents, helping them become more productive, and giving them compelling reasons to stay.
What Are the Biggest Recruiting and Retention Challenges Facing Real Estate Brokerages?
At NAR's event, brokers discussed three interconnected challenges: attracting new talent, developing agents, and retaining productive professionals.
One interesting concern emerged around mid-career agents. Some brokers reported that agents who had been with their companies for five to seven years were particularly difficult to retain.
Participants shared strategies that were working, including mentorship and shadowing programs that help newer agents develop while giving experienced agents more opportunities to contribute.
The conversation highlighted an important distinction: recruiting and retention are not simply transactional activities. They depend on understanding agents' businesses, recognizing their needs, and building meaningful relationships.
Technology can make those relationships more intentional and scalable.
Rather than relying exclusively on intuition, historical production reports, or infrequent check-ins, brokerage leaders can use real estate agent recruiting and retention software to identify opportunities and act at the right moment.
How to Recruit Real Estate Agents More Effectively
Traditional real estate agent recruiting often begins with a familiar process: build a list of agents, review their past production, and start reaching out.
But identifying an agent who produced $10 million last year is different from knowing whether that agent is likely to grow, whether they might be open to a move, or what makes your brokerage a compelling fit.
Effective real estate recruiting software should help answer three questions:
1. Who should we recruit?
Identify agents based on production, market activity, growth potential, and fit with the brokerage's strategy—not simply the largest historical production numbers.
2. When should we reach out?
Use predictive agent intelligence and movement signals to recognize potential opportunities before they become obvious to every competing brokerage.
3. How do we turn opportunities into relationships?
Give recruiting teams the context, personalized outreach tools, and structured workflows needed to build relationships, maintain consistent follow-up, and convert prospects into productive agents.
This is where Courted Talent Solutions helps brokerages move beyond static agent lists. The platform combines predictive intelligence, candidate identification, recruiting pipeline management, and actionable insights to help leaders recruit more strategically.
The objective isn't simply more recruiting activity. It's better recruiting decisions and stronger outcomes.
Why Agent Retention Is Just as Important as Recruiting
Recruiting new agents is exciting. Losing existing agents can quietly erase that progress.
According to Courted's 2025 State of Brokerage Recruiting & Retention research, approximately 16% of agents switched firms in 2025.
For brokerage leaders, this makes retention a fundamental driver of growth.
But retaining agents requires more than reacting when someone announces they're leaving.
It requires understanding what's happening in their businesses, identifying potential frustrations, recognizing achievements, and creating reasons for agents to feel supported.
Courted helps make proactive retention possible at scale.
Through Courted Talent Solutions, brokerage leaders can:
- Identify potential flight risks: Surface predictive signals indicating that an agent may be considering a move, creating an opportunity for an earlier conversation.
- Celebrate meaningful milestones: Recognize production achievements and important career moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.
- Find opportunities to coach: Use agent performance trends and market intelligence to identify where additional support could make a difference.
- Make every interaction more relevant: Give managers actionable reasons to connect with agents rather than relying on generic check-ins.
These capabilities don't replace great brokerage leadership. They help leaders practice it more consistently.
The goal is to spend less time searching for information and more time building the relationships that make agents want to stay.
Beyond Recruiting: Real Estate Brokerage Software That Connects the Entire Business
Recruiting and retention are critical, but they represent only part of the brokerage growth equation.
As brokerages evaluate real estate brokerage software, real estate broker CRM systems, and brokerage management tools, an increasingly important question is whether their technology connects talent decisions to the operational and financial performance of the business.
Courted is building around three complementary product areas.
1. Courted Talent Solutions: Recruit and Retain
Courted Talent Solutions helps brokerages identify recruiting opportunities, strengthen their recruiting processes, and proactively retain existing agents.
Its capabilities include:
- Predictive agent intelligence and movement signals
- Recruiting pipeline management and workflows
- Retention intelligence, including milestones, potential flight risks, and timely reasons to engage
The result is a more informed, consistent approach to brokerage recruiting and retention.
2. Courted Back Office: Onboard, Compensate, and Account
Recruiting the right agent is only the beginning. Brokerages also need to manage compensation economics, onboarding, and ongoing operations.
Courted Back Office connects recruiting strategy with the financial and operational decisions that follow.
Its capabilities include:
- Commission design and financial guardrails that help managers structure economically sound offers
- Approval workflows with an audit trail
- Agent onboarding and commission accounting
By connecting these processes, brokerages can make better-informed compensation decisions while reducing administrative friction.
3. Courted Connect: Grow Ancillary Business Opportunities
Brokerage growth extends beyond traditional commission revenue.
Mortgage, title, and other real estate service providers also benefit from understanding which agents and referral relationships create the greatest opportunities.
Courted Connect provides relationship intelligence designed to help these businesses identify and develop valuable referral partnerships.
Its capabilities include:
- Identifying productive real estate agents and potential referral partners
- Understanding competitive referral relationships within a market
- Prioritizing outreach toward the most relevant opportunities
Together, these products support a more connected approach to the brokerage lifecycle: recruit, onboard, compensate, retain, and grow.
What Should Brokerages Measure to Know Whether Their Recruiting Is Working?
Agent count alone doesn't tell the whole story.
A brokerage can recruit dozens of new agents and still experience disappointing growth if it loses more production than it adds.
Likewise, recruiting a highly productive agent doesn't necessarily create an attractive financial outcome if the incentives and servicing costs are too high.
Brokerages should look beyond gross recruiting numbers and measure:
- Net production growth: Production gained through recruiting and organic growth, less production lost through departures.
- Agent retention: The number of agents retained and, importantly, the production associated with those agents.
- Recruiting conversion: How effectively candidates progress from initial outreach to meaningful conversations and signed agreements.
- Agent productivity: Whether the brokerage helps existing agents grow their businesses.
- Recruiting profitability: The expected and realized economic contribution of recruits after compensation, incentives, and operating costs.
Connecting recruiting, retention, and financial information helps brokerage leaders distinguish activity from profitable growth.
That's the broader opportunity Courted is addressing: bringing more intelligence and consistency to decisions throughout the agent lifecycle.
Frequently Asked Questions About Real Estate Agent Recruiting and Brokerage Software
What is real estate agent recruiting software?
Real estate agent recruiting software helps brokerages identify prospective agents, manage recruiting relationships, track outreach, and improve recruiting results. More advanced platforms, such as Courted Talent Solutions, use predictive intelligence, agent production data, and movement signals to help brokerage leaders prioritize opportunities and engage potential recruits more effectively.
How do you recruit real estate agents successfully?
Successful real estate agent recruiting starts with identifying agents who fit the brokerage's value proposition, understanding their business needs, and developing personalized relationships. Data-driven recruiting software helps leaders identify suitable candidates, recognize timely opportunities, organize follow-up, and track progress through the recruiting pipeline.
Can software predict when a real estate agent might leave a brokerage?
Yes. Predictive real estate agent retention software can analyze relevant agent activity and movement signals to identify potential flight risks. Courted provides these insights to help brokerage leaders recognize when proactive outreach may be valuable. Predictive signals are not certainties, but they can help managers focus attention before an agent decides to leave.
What is the difference between a real estate broker CRM and real estate recruiting software?
A real estate broker CRM generally helps organize contacts, communication, and relationship-management activities. Real estate recruiting software focuses more specifically on identifying prospective agents, understanding production and movement patterns, managing recruiting pipelines, and improving recruiting outcomes. Courted combines recruiting intelligence with pipeline workflows and retention insights designed for brokerage leadership teams.
What is the best way to improve real estate agent retention?
Improving agent retention requires a combination of competitive compensation, business development support, strong leadership, and consistent engagement. Technology can strengthen these efforts by highlighting potential flight risks, identifying coaching opportunities, and surfacing milestones worth celebrating. The most effective strategy combines timely data with meaningful human relationships.
What does Courted do for real estate brokerages?
Courted provides software designed to help residential real estate brokerages recruit agents, improve retention, and manage important operational workflows. Courted Talent Solutions supports recruiting and retention through predictive agent intelligence. Courted Back Office addresses commission design, onboarding, and accounting workflows. Courted Connect focuses on referral relationships and growth opportunities in mortgage, title, and related services.
Does Courted provide brokerage management software?
Courted offers brokerage-focused technology spanning recruiting, retention, and back-office operations. Its broader platform includes capabilities for agent intelligence, recruiting pipeline management, commission design, onboarding, and commission accounting. Certain operational features may be available through early access.
What is Courted Connect?
Courted Connect is a relationship intelligence solution for mortgage, title, and other real estate service providers. It helps organizations identify potential agent referral partners, understand competitive relationships, and prioritize business development opportunities using real estate transaction and market intelligence.
Why was Courted mentioned in NAR's Broker Networking Mastermind?
In its October 16, 2026 recap, NAR reported that participating brokers repeatedly discussed Courted as a solution for recruiting and retention. Brokers described using the platform to find prospective agents and identify potential departures earlier. Courted is also a participant in NAR's REACH program.
Building a Brokerage That Grows—and Keeps Growing
The conversations at NAR's Broker Networking Mastermind reinforced an important reality: successful brokerages need more than a larger recruiting pipeline.
They need better information, more productive agent relationships, thoughtful compensation decisions, and technology that helps leaders act proactively.
We're grateful to the brokers who shared their experiences with Courted, and we're excited to keep building tools that make their businesses stronger.
Because the goal isn't simply to recruit more agents. It's to build a brokerage where great agents can thrive—and choose to stay.