The real estate industry in North America didn’t just “change” after COVID — it split into two completely different games.
On one side, you have brokerages still trying to win the old way: bigger splits, louder branding, more bodies in the building. On the other side, you have the few broker-owners who realized that if you don’t change the way you recruit, lead, and support agents, the market will change you anyway.
The question isn’t whether real estate has changed. The question is: are you still playing a game you can no longer win?
1. The Split War: The Fastest Way to Stay Broke
Competing on split is a race to the bottom.
When agents choose a brokerage based on split first, you are no longer a business – you are a discount. There is always someone willing to go cheaper, and if split is your value proposition, you have to follow them down.
Here’s the hard truth:
- If you can’t recruit on value, you will be forced to recruit on price.
- If you recruit on price, you will never own a truly profitable company.
- If you attract agents only because you’re “cheaper,” they will leave the moment someone else is.
Split is not a strategy. Split is what you use when you don’t have anything else compelling to offer.
2. Agents Don’t Join Brands. They Join People.
COVID exposed something most broker-owners already suspected but didn’t want to admit: your logo is not leading your agents — YOU ARE!
In a crisis, agents didn’t look to the sign on the lawn…they looked to the person running the brokerage. They were asking:
- Who is communicating with me?
- Who is helping me navigate this market?
- Who actually knows how to win right now?
Agents recruit to leadership, not brand. If your best pitch is your company name, your billboards, or your franchise identity, you’re missing the only thing top producers are really buying: confidence in the person they’re following.
In this market, your leadership is your value proposition.
3. Mass Recruiting Is Dead. Stop Dialing Into the Void.
Nobody answers calls from numbers they don’t know anymore and that includes agents.
The old model of mass cold-calling, blast texts, and generic “we’re hiring” posts is broken. Agents are slammed, skeptical, and more protective of their time. When your outreach looks like everyone else’s, it gets treated like everyone else’s – ignored!
Today, the only recruiting strategy that works at a high level is:
- Targeted.
- Relationship-based.
- Focused on specific, experienced, productive agents you actually want on your roster.
You’re not trying to “add as many agents as possible.” You’re building a roster of the right agents, at the right stage, with the right mindset.
If you’re not sure what to do instead of mass recruiting, use my free Recruiting Calculator to get a clear, custom action plan for the agents you should be targeting next.
→ Get Your Recruiting Action Plan
4. The Widening Gap: Your Agent Count Is Lying to You
Post-COVID, the performance gap has exploded.
The top 20% of agents are doing the majority of the volume, while many “COVID agents” (the ones who caught a few deals in the boom) haven’t done a transaction since.
That has massive implications for you as a broker-owner:
- You can’t afford to pretend all agents are equal.
- You can’t build a profitable business on inactive licenses and wishful thinking.
- You can’t pour the same time and resources into everyone and expect leverage.
Headcount is a vanity metric. Production, profitability, and retention of the right agents are the ones that matter.
This is the era of intentional rosters and intentional leadership.
5. Culture and Support: No One Is Coming Back “Just Because You Want Them To”
Getting agents into the office is harder than ever and that is not going to change just because you send stronger emails.
Agents are used to flexibility, virtual options, and choice. They are not suddenly going to show up every day because you ask them to.
“Culture” and “support” used to be differentiators. Now, they are table stakes.
Agents are quietly asking:
- Do I feel connected here, even if I’m not physically in the office?
- Do I get real support that moves my business forward, or just noise and meetings?
- Do I have access to systems, coaching, and leadership that actually help me win?
If your culture depends on people being in the building, you don’t have culture — you have geography.
The modern brokerage has to create connection and support in a virtual-first world, on purpose, with systems and intention.
BUILD a Recruiting Action Plan
If this hit home and you know the old mass recruiting playbook is broken, don’t just click away and think, “I’ll figure it out later.”
Use my free Recruiting Calculator and get a clear, step-by-step recruiting action plan based on where your brokerage is today and the agents you actually want to attract.
You’ll walk away knowing:
- Who you should be targeting next.
- How many agents you realistically need.
- What to focus on now to move your recruiting forward this quarter.