4 Common Challenges You’ll Encounter When Recruiting Real Estate Agents

Building an ideal team of agents can be quite a struggle, especially if you don’t know what to watch out for. Fortunately, it’s never too late to take a step back and see where things may be going wrong.

Indeed, many successful agencies invest a significant amount in optimizing their recruitment processes. Some even invest in a real estate POS such as Get Brokerkit to gather and analyze data regarding their recruitment performance.

By taking the time to identify areas for improvement, your agency can then implement appropriate strategies to address them. That said, here are four of the most common problems you may face while looking for the right candidates:

Discovering Top Talent 

In real estate recruitment, you’ll rarely come across hundreds of candidates who are interested in your job opening. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of them have the skills or experience that you’re looking for. While there may be plenty of potential applicants, only a small percentage of them are likely qualified for the position.

Indeed, agent discovery is one of the first and biggest problems many agencies encounter. Despite the number of candidates out there, it’s tough to find talented ones who are actually worth hiring. And because your options are limited, you sometimes end up choosing the best person you could find at the time even if they aren’t necessarily the perfect fit.

One way to get around this is to switch to a better marketing channel or recruitment platform. Some of these conduct a more thorough screening process, leaving you with a better pool of applicants to choose from. You can also try incentivizing referrals, with your employees acting as the first stage of the screening process. Additionally, referrals require no advertising spend and are relatively easy to get, all while generally resulting in higher-quality candidates.

Speeding up the Hiring Process

For most agencies, maintaining a full team of available agents is the key to success. However, most agents only stay at the same company for an average of two years before leaving for better opportunities.

So if your agency doesn’t have an optimized recruitment process, your people will end up scrambling to find a replacement as quickly as they can. Unfortunately, this is not the most efficient nor effective use of resources, as rushing through the recruiting process may cause you to settle for less-than-stellar candidates.

Additionally, agencies don’t want positions to stay vacant for long. This is because each vacancy means your agency isn’t operating at full capacity, causing delays in your business operations as well as a loss of potential profits.

If your hiring process is taking too long, try to identify which stages are causing bottlenecks. Determine if each phase is truly necessary and if everyone involved in recruitment is communicating quickly enough with each other. You should also figure out if you’re looking for candidates in the right places or if it’s time to go elsewhere.

Standing Out from Other Agencies

With so many real estate agencies out there, it can be hard to stand out from the competition. So how do you convince talented agents to choose your business out of all the options available?

To boost your agency’s visibility, you can try building up your business’s brand. This not only makes your company look more professional, but it can also attract and engage better potential hires. In fact, companies that invest in their branding are three times likelier to hire a highly qualified agent.

With this in mind, you’ll want to create a good first impression on your ideal candidates. If you don’t know where to start, you may want to hire a branding specialist to help craft a more compelling identity for your agency. After all, an eye-catching logo and collaterals can go a long way in showing people that you’re serious about growing your business. You can also invest in a well-designed website and promote your company culture on social media to strengthen your online presence.

Retaining Your Current Agents

When it comes to real estate recruitment, hiring the right people is only half the battle. After they’ve signed on with your company, your next challenge is to keep them around. Because the cost of hiring and onboarding new talent can be quite high, you’ll want to make sure that they do not leave your agency prematurely.

To keep your current agents from quitting, you need to make sure that their wants and needs are being met. And while perks such as free snacks and transportation can help, these are not the things that matter most to employees. Instead, many talented agents prioritize career growth, mentorship, and an environment that encourages learning.

Hence, pay close attention to the kind of company culture that your agency has cultivated over the years. Make sure to ask your team for feedback on the things that your business does well and what needs improvement. By nurturing a healthy work environment, you not only keep your current agents happy and fulfilled, but you also differentiate your business enough to attract new talent.

In Conclusion

If you want to take your agency to the next level, it’s important to address these recruitment problems before they can get any worse. By overcoming each challenge, you’ll become better equipped to bring in the best agents for your business.