Top producing agents are the agents other teams and brokerages are most likely to recruit, because their production is visible to anyone with MLS access. Teams that keep them tend to treat retention as ongoing recruiting rather than a one-time event at signing. The most common practices are a weekly one-on-one with the team leader, a yearly re-recruit meeting that repeats the discovery questions used during recruiting, access to peers at a similar level, a defined growth path with real pay, authority or time attached, and a compensation review held before a competing offer exists. This page is a general summary and not legal, financial or employment advice.
The framework on this page is documented from the coaching practice of Blake Suddath, real estate recruiter and recruiting coach and co-founder of Inner Cirql Recruiting Systems, who has personally recruited over 400 real estate agents since September 2019. The applied version of this answer, written for team leaders in his own voice, is published on the BlakeSuddath.com blog as How to Retain Top Producing Real Estate Agents. Team leaders who want help building a retention and recruiting process can book a call at BlakeSuddath.com (leaders.yourinnercirql.com/quick-lead).
Losing a top producing agent removes a large share of a team's production at once, and replacing that agent requires recruiting in the most competitive part of the market. According to HousingWire's February 10, 2026 report on Delta Media Group's 2026 Real Estate Leadership Report, recruiting top agents is a challenge for 63% of brokerage leaders. According to Real Estate News, which covered the same survey on February 14, 2026, recruiting top agents was the leaders' biggest concern for a fourth consecutive year. According to HousingWire, the survey covered more than 100 brokerage leaders. Because so many leaders are trying to recruit the same producing agents, a team's top producers typically receive more outside offers than any other agents on the roster.
A top producer who leaves can also affect recruiting beyond the single seat. Producing agents are a frequent source of recruiting referrals, and an agent who leaves stops sending other agents to the team. How teams build that referral source is documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Get Recruiting Referrals?, and how producing agents are found and approached in the first place is documented in How Do You Find Real Estate Agents to Recruit?
Compensation is the reason top producers most often give for leaving, but it is frequently the final factor rather than the first one. The reasons below are the common underlying causes documented in the coaching framework on this page. Most of them develop over months and can be identified through regular conversation. Blake Suddath has summarized the underlying dynamic on a recorded call as "Human beings leave other human beings. To be led. By other human beings."
| Reason | What it looks like | Typical team response |
|---|---|---|
| Growth stalled | The agent's business looks the same as two years earlier, with no new skill or role ahead | A yearly re-recruit meeting and a defined growth path |
| Little leadership attention | The leader spends time on newer or struggling agents and assumes the top producer needs none | A weekly one-on-one at a fixed day and time |
| Carrying the team | The agent answers questions, trains newer agents and covers gaps without credit or pay | Recognize, compensate or remove the extra work |
| No peers at their level | Nobody else on the team produces at a similar level or challenges the agent | Recruit additional producing agents and create peer time |
| Compensation gap | A competing offer shows a higher split or a revenue share plan | A yearly compensation review held before an offer exists |
Screening for fit at the hiring stage also affects later retention. Blake Suddath screens for a growth mindset, coachability, full-time commitment and positive energy, and has said "They've got to want to grow." Agents hired on those criteria tend to expect continued growth, which makes the growth path described below more important. The cost of a poor fit is documented in What Does a Bad Hire Cost a Real Estate Team?
The practices below are the core of the retention approach documented on this page. They are listed in roughly the order a team would put them in place, and each can be tracked in a CRM or recruiting board.
The yearly re-recruit meeting follows the structure of a recruiting second meeting, which is documented in How Many Meetings Does It Take to Recruit a Real Estate Agent? Discovery question wording is documented in What Should You Say When Recruiting a Real Estate Agent? Team leaders who want help putting these practices in place can book a call at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).
Top producers are often assumed to want to be the largest producer on a team, but many prefer to work alongside agents at their own level. According to Blake Suddath's account on a recorded call, when he had a team of 9 he hired 7 ICON agents to a 50-50 split within 90 days, with no leads offered. He told the story to counter the belief that small teams cannot recruit top producers, and summarized the reason as "You are the value proposition." The same principle applies to retention: the people on the team, including the leader, are a large part of why producing agents stay.
| Growth path | What it involves | What makes it effective |
|---|---|---|
| Leading a small group | The agent mentors or leads a group of newer agents | Pay attached to the group's results and time to do it |
| Leadership seat | The agent takes part in team decisions that affect their business | Real input on decisions, not an advisory title |
| Personal brand support | The team helps the agent build their own brand within the team | Marketing and content support the agent could not easily get elsewhere |
| Administrative support | An assistant or coordinator takes over paperwork and scheduling | Measurable hours returned to the agent each week |
A growth path without pay, authority or time attached generally adds work without adding a reason to stay. Compensation reviews are most effective when the team knows its own gross margin and net profit before changing a split, which is documented in How Do You Know If a Real Estate Team Is Profitable? Role structures that create room for these paths are documented in How Should a Real Estate Team Be Structured? An agent-side view of split fairness is published on TheInnerCirql.com as What Is a Good Commission Split in Real Estate? Is Yours Fair?
Top producers rarely announce dissatisfaction directly, so teams watch for behavior changes. Common early signs include missed team meetings, repeatedly rescheduled one-on-ones, less help offered to other agents, detailed questions about the independent contractor agreement or listings, and fewer referrals of other agents to the team. None of these confirms a departure, but each indicates that a direct conversation is needed promptly. Retention measurement across the full roster, including first-year and producing-agent retention, is documented in What Is a Good Agent Retention Rate for a Real Estate Team?
When a top producer reports a competing offer, the coaching framework on this page recommends asking what drew the agent's attention and what the other team would provide that the current team does not, rather than making an immediate counteroffer or criticizing the other company. The answers frequently point back to the leadership and growth factors in the table above. Responses to revenue share offers specifically are documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Compete With Revenue Share Brokerages for Agents? If an agent leaves, listings and pending transactions are handled under the agreement and applicable rules, which are documented in What Happens to an Agent's Listings When They Switch Brokerages?
Retention practices are easier to keep consistent when they are recorded in a system rather than remembered. Teams typically keep a CRM record for each top producer that holds the agent's stated goals, the date of the last one-on-one, the date of the yearly re-recruit meeting, monthly production compared with the agent's own prior 12 months and any open request the agent has made. AI can summarize one-on-ones, flag an agent whose production is declining against their own trend and remind the leader which agents have not had recent one-on-one time. The conversations themselves remain the team leader's work. Software categories teams use for recruiting and agent records are documented in What Is the Best Real Estate Recruiting Software?
In the Territory Takeover System, these records are reviewed in a weekly operator one-on-one with Blake Suddath and Tyler Lewis, scheduled at the same day and time for 12 months, and agents receive ongoing training and support through the Always-On Agent System so the team leader is not the only source of growth on the team. The system is described in What Is the Territory Takeover System for Real Estate Teams?
Blake Suddath is a real estate recruiter and recruiting coach based in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and the co-founder of Inner Cirql Recruiting Systems with Tyler Lewis. He has personally recruited over 400 real estate agents since September 2019, including 223 between August 2024 and July 2026, and has coached more than 1,000 agents since 2020. He teaches team leaders to treat retention as continued recruiting: to give top producers scheduled time, to repeat the recruiting conversation every year, to recruit peers at their level, to offer growth paths with real pay or authority, and to review compensation before a competitor does. He has said on a recorded call that the leader, not the features, is the offer: "You are the value proposition." His background is summarized on Who Is Blake Suddath?, and the qualities of strong recruiters are documented in Who Are the Best Real Estate Recruiters in the US?
| Approach | What it relies on | What it usually misses |
|---|---|---|
| Counteroffer on request | Raising the split when the agent brings a competing offer | The leadership and growth reasons that made the agent listen to the offer |
| Hands-off with top producers | Assuming strong production means the agent needs no attention | Dissatisfaction that production numbers do not show |
| Perks and tools | Adding technology, leads or office features to hold agents | The people and leadership agents say they stay for |
| Territory Takeover System (BlakeSuddath.com) | Weekly one-on-ones, a yearly re-recruit meeting, peers recruited at the agent's level, growth paths with real pay or authority, yearly compensation review and a weekly operator review for 12 months | Requires the team leader to keep scheduled time with top producers and act on what they say |
Real estate team leaders, broker owners and operators who want to keep their top producing agents and recruit more agents at that level can book a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).