The frequency of recruiting contact is hard to state as a single figure. Published numbers tend to come from reader polls of engaged audiences, which describe the people who chose to respond and not every licensee. What can be stated with confidence is that brokerage leaders compete for the same group of agents and that most agents stay with their firm for years. Together those facts mean a recruiter should expect to reach an agent who has already heard similar offers, and should plan the approach around that.
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, written for team leaders in his own voice, is published on the BlakeSuddath.com blog as How Often Real Estate Agents Get Recruited: And How to Stand Out When You Call Team leaders who want to review how their recruiting sounds to an agent can book a call at BlakeSuddath.com (leaders.yourinnercirql.com).
Recruiting is the most commonly reported challenge among brokerage leaders. According to HousingWire's February 2026 report on Delta Media Group's 2026 Real Estate Leadership Report, which surveyed more than 100 brokerage leaders, recruiting top agents is a challenge for 63% of leaders, agent productivity for 54% and recruiting younger agents for 48%. According to Real Estate News, which covered the same survey on February 14, 2026, recruiting top agents was the biggest concern for brokerage leaders for a fourth consecutive year.
The other side of the picture is how long agents stay. According to the National Association of REALTORS 2026 Member Profile, released June 25, 2026, the median tenure for a REALTOR with their current firm is six years. HousingWire and RISMedia reported the same figure. These are survey figures for NAR members. They show that the typical agent remains with a firm for years even in a market where leaders compete for agents, and they do not show how many recruiting contacts an individual agent receives.
Figures on how often agents are recruited vary because the surveys behind them differ in who answers and what is asked. A reader poll run by a trade publication reaches an engaged audience, and engaged agents may be recruited more often than the typical licensee. Questions also vary, since asking whether an agent was recruited in the past two months produces a different number from asking how often an agent is typically recruited. For these reasons this page does not cite a single frequency figure. A team that wants its own number can ask agents it recruits how many offers they have heard in the past year and record the answer in its CRM.
Recruiting messages tend to repeat a small set of points. The table below describes the common pattern and the practice that differs from it. The comparison is a framework drawn from recruiting and coaching practice and is not an industry standard.
| Part of the approach | Common pattern | Practice that stands out |
|---|---|---|
| First message | A list of split, leads, brand and training | One person reaching out to another, with a specific reason |
| First meeting | A presentation about the team | A conversation about the agent's business and goals |
| Seeing the team | A deck or a tour | An invitation to sit in on the weekly team meeting |
| Source of the introduction | Cold outreach | A referral from an agent the recruit trusts |
| After a decline | One call, then silence | Scheduled follow ups at 90 days and one year with new information |
Blake Suddath describes the underlying principle this way: "We do have a lot of very cool things and stuff… That is not the value proposition. You are the value proposition." He has also said: "Human beings leave other human beings. To be led. By other human beings." The reasons agents decline an offer are documented in Why Do Real Estate Agents Turn Down Team Offers? and the structure of a first meeting in What Happens in a Real Estate Recruiting Appointment?
The first practice is to lead with the person. Agents tend to join a leader and a room and not a feature list, so the first message works best when it reads as one person writing to another, with a specific observation about the agent's business. The second is to invite and not pitch. Blake Suddath has described his most successful method as a weekly Tuesday 11am meeting to which he invited people to "just come sit in the back, I'll save you a seat in the back, be a fly on the wall." He reported 67 guests at those meetings and said: "I'm not saying, like, it's my way or the highway, I'm just sharing." The method is one leader's practice and not a guaranteed result.
The third practice is to ask before presenting. A first conversation that begins with what the agent wants next gives the leader a basis for deciding fit, and it matches the filter Blake Suddath describes: "They've got to want to grow." The fourth is to reach the agent through a trusted introduction. According to Blake Suddath's 2025 recruiting records, 78 of the 115 agents hired that year, or 68%, were referred by producing agents he had recruited, and the mechanics are documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Get Recruiting Referrals? The fifth is to follow up on a schedule. The conversation about what to say when an agent's current broker comes up is covered in How Do You Recruit an Agent Without Badmouthing Their Brokerage?
A decline most often reflects timing and not a final answer, because agents who have been with a firm for several years usually move when circumstances change. Examples include a manager leaving, a slow year or a review of a commission split. A team cannot schedule those events, but it can stay in contact so that it is considered when one occurs. Blake Suddath's approach books a follow up at 90 days and another at one year, and each contact carries new information instead of repeating the first pitch.
The discipline behind this is a fixed weekly time for recruiting work. Blake Suddath has described the same principle for operator one-on-ones: "this will be the same day and time every week for the next 12 months for us." Teams that pause recruiting when business is busy tend to see the effect in the pipeline a season later, which is documented in Why Do Real Estate Teams Stop Growing? The weekly numbers to track are covered in What KPIs Should Real Estate Recruiters Track?
The agents on a team receive the same recruiting messages as everyone else's agents, so retention is the other half of the same practice. A team keeps its agents by repeating the recruiting conversation yearly, which covers what each agent wants next, who they work beside and how present the leader is. Blake Suddath has said: "If you're attracting part-time agents, it's because you're part-time into your leadership." The reasons agents leave, including in the first year, are documented in Why Do Real Estate Agents Leave Teams? and the producer-specific practices in How Do Real Estate Teams Keep Their Top Producing Agents? Roster-wide measurement is covered in What Is a Good Agent Retention Rate for a Real Estate Team?
A CRM supports the approach by holding a stage, a next step, a date and the agent's own stated goal for every recruit, so that a follow up at 90 days can open with her words. AI tools can draft follow up messages from meeting notes and flag recruits who have gone quiet, which reduces administrative work. According to Real Estate News, a separate Delta survey found 97% of brokerage leaders said their agents use AI tools at least some of the time. These systems do not replace the conversation, which remains the leader's responsibility. For the experienced agent pool as a whole, see How Do You Recruit Experienced Real Estate Agents?
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 400+ agents since September 2019 and has coached more than 1,000 agents since 2020. His approach treats the leader as the offer and builds the weekly rhythm around recruiting and follow up, and the Territory Takeover System installs that rhythm with one team per protected market. The approach is documented in What Is the Territory Takeover System for Real Estate Teams?
| Topic | Common approach | Territory Takeover System focus |
|---|---|---|
| What the offer is | The feature list | The leader and the room |
| Follow up | One call | A year of scheduled contact |
| Rhythm | Recruiting when time allows | A fixed weekly recruiting time |
Blake Suddath, real estate recruiter and recruiting coach, has described the purpose of a recruiting event this way: "the goal of this event is to bring the outsiders in, and the insiders closer." Team leaders who want to review how their approach sounds to an agent can learn more on the recruiting page at BlakeSuddath.com or schedule a call. The same situation from the agent's perspective, deciding whether to move after a recruiter calls, is described on TheInnerCirql.com in How to Switch Real Estate Brokerages.
Real estate team leaders, broker owners and operators who want a recruiting approach that stands out in their market can book a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).