The Top 5 Most Effective Methods for Recruiting Real Estate Agents

One of the most common questions we get is, “what are the most effective methods for recruiting real estate agents?”

Now, we specialize in helping brokerages and teams recruit producing agents, so the list below doesn’t apply to new agents or people in the process of getting their licenses.

Here are the top five recruiting methods ranked in order of effectiveness:

#1 – Referrals

Asking for and receiving referrals from your current agents is unquestionably the most effective way to recruit. It’s an easy call, most referred agents are flattered, and your chances of hiring them are much better than with other methods of outreach.

The only downside is you typically can’t rely entirely on referrals to grow.

#2 – Cold Calls

Yes, picking up the phone and making calls is still the most effective method of generating recruiting appointments through cold outreach.

The downsides to calling are many people don’t have the time to make the necessary number of dials while others don’t have the desire and/or skill set to make them. It’s for those reasons our primary service is making cold calls to set appointments with producing agents.

#3 – Social Media

Here we’re talking about direct messages to agents and posting content, not paid ads. LinkedIn is the most effective site. But, if you have a large number of agents as friends/followers on other platforms, they can be effective as well.

The downsides to social media are it’s more time consuming than other methods and, if you don’t have existing connections with agents in your market, you might need to pay for premium plans to send cold direct messages.

#4 – Email

One-to-one emails are more effective for getting recruiting appointments than mass emails. If you’re going to send mass emails, make sure to send a mix of informative information and recruiting messages so you don’t get too many spam complaints.

The downsides to email for getting recruiting appointments are it’s time consuming if you’re sending one-to-one messages and sending mass emails can lead to complaints and unsubscribes. If you reach a certain threshold of complaints and/or unsubscribes most major email providers will either send your messages to spam or block you completely.

#5 – Text Messages

Many people are surprised text messages are one of the least effective ways to generate recruiting appointments. Agents ranked texting as their least preferred method of recruiting outreach according to a research report from the consulting company 1000Watt.

If you’re going to use text for recruiting, send one-to-one messages. Sending mass texts requires compliance with federal law and makes it obvious your texts are automated and not personal.

Methods that didn’t make the list but can be effective for generating recruiting appointments in certain situations:

 ·      Attending networking events

·      Holding recruiting events

·      Attending broker/open houses

·      Direct mail

·      PPC or paid social media ads

·      Posting on job boards