The choice between top producers and younger agents is best treated as a question of team capacity rather than age. A top producer already has a business and is deciding whether a leader and a room are worth moving for. A newer agent is deciding whether the team will teach them. Each decision requires a different pitch, a different first meeting and a different first year after the hire. Teams that use one pitch for both groups tend to lose both.
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 Recruiting Younger Real Estate Agents vs. Top Producers: Which Does Your Team Need? Team leaders who want to review which lane their team is ready for can book a call at BlakeSuddath.com (leaders.yourinnercirql.com/quick-lead).
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 and recruiting younger agents is a challenge 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, and roughly half of leaders were concerned about recruiting younger agents.
The pool those leaders are recruiting from skews experienced. According to the National Association of REALTORS 2026 Member Profile, released June 25, 2026, the typical REALTOR is 57 years old and reports 13 years of experience, up from 12 years in the prior survey. HousingWire and RISMedia reported the same figures. These are survey figures for NAR members, they describe the typical member rather than every licensee, and they do not by themselves show how newer agents perform on a team. The figures indicate that both groups are contested and that most agents in a market have been recruited before.
The term younger agents is used in two ways, and the difference affects how a team recruits. In some usage it refers to age. In most recruiting conversations it refers to experience, meaning agents who are new or early in the business. A career changer at 45 is a new agent, while an agent aged 28 with five years of closings is not. Because training needs and recruiting questions follow experience, this page uses younger to mean newer agents. Top producer means an agent with a proven production record that the team leader can verify, which is covered in How Do You Recruit Experienced Real Estate Agents?
The two groups ask different questions of the leader. The table below summarizes the needs, the main risk and what the leader supplies. The comparison is a framework drawn from recruiting and coaching practice and is not an industry standard.
| Factor | Top producer | Newer agent |
|---|---|---|
| Question being asked | Is this leader and room worth moving for? | Will this team teach me? |
| Main need | Room to grow, peers at their level, a leader who is present | Training, structure, a regular meeting rhythm |
| Main risk for the team | The producer leaves when growth stalls or nobody leads them | The agent receives leads without instruction and leaves |
| What the leader supplies | Peer environment, growth paths, yearly review of the offer | Onboarding, scripts, practice and a named training owner |
| First meeting focus | Their business and what they want next | Their goals and what they believe they need |
| Metric to watch | Retention and yearly re-recruit conversation | On track at 90 days and activity trend |
For top producers, the retention requirements are documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Keep Their Top Producing Agents? and the recruiting conversation is documented in What Happens in a Real Estate Recruiting Appointment? Blake Suddath has said: "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." His point is that a top producer wants time around people who produce at their level, and the team leader is the first of those people.
For newer agents, the support requirement starts at onboarding, as documented in How Should Real Estate Teams Onboard Experienced Agents? Blake Suddath describes the failure mode as supplying leads without training: "They don't know how to set an appointment." "They don't know what to say on the phone." "And I never showed them." On what agents asked for, he has said: "most of them just wanted to build their brand and learn AI to get more leads. So I built the things that would help them sell more houses." A newer agent without this support tends to appear in the team's departure figures, which are covered in What Is a Good Agent Retention Rate for a Real Estate Team?
Many leaders of small teams assume they are too small to recruit top producers. Blake Suddath has described a counterexample from his own team: "When I had a team of 9, I hired 7 ICON agents to a 50-50 split. Within 90 days." He added: "No leads." This is one documented example from one team, and it does not guarantee the same result in another market. The relevant observation is that the producers were joining a leader and a room rather than a headcount. Teams at this stage are covered in How Do You Start a Real Estate Team?
The decision can be framed around three capacity questions. The answers indicate which lane a team can serve at the time, and they change as the team adds structure. The table below pairs each question with a sign that the answer is yes.
| Question | Sign the answer is yes | Lane it supports |
|---|---|---|
| What can the team teach right now? | A weekly meeting, onboarding, a training library and one named owner for all three | Newer agents |
| Who would a top producer sit next to today? | Peers at the producer's level, or a leader with protected time for them | Top producers |
| What can the business carry? | A split structure and margin that remain workable with an agent who is not yet producing, or with a competitive offer | Either, depending on the structure |
The third question connects to team economics, which are covered in What Commission Split Should a Real Estate Team Offer? and How Do You Know If a Real Estate Team Is Profitable? The second question reflects a statement by Blake Suddath about leadership time: "If you're attracting part-time agents, it's because you're part-time into your leadership." Many teams can serve one lane immediately and the other within roughly six months of building structure, though the timing varies by team.
A team that wants both groups usually runs two pipelines with separate outreach, a separate first meeting and a separate promise. The top producer pipeline emphasizes peers, growth and the leader. The newer agent pipeline emphasizes training, structure and the weekly rhythm. Using a single pitch for both tends to fail each group in a predictable way: a top producer told that the team will teach everything may feel talked down to, and a newer agent told that the team will stay out of their way has no support.
Some filters apply to both lanes. Blake Suddath's stated filters are growth mindset, coachable, full time and positive energy, and he has said: "They've got to want to grow." He has also said: "If you're a jerk, I don't want to work with you. I don't care if you sell a thousand homes. Or you run a hundred person team." Producers and newer agents also share a source of recruits. 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. How referrals are built is documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Get Recruiting Referrals?
The comparison between lanes depends on tracking the same funnel for each. The recommended stages are conversations, first appointments, second meetings and hires, plus the share of new hires on track at 90 days. A lane that converts and holds shows that the team has capacity for it, while a lane that stalls at the first appointment or fails at 90 days shows where the pitch or the support is weak. The weekly figures are documented in What KPIs Should Real Estate Recruiters Track? and the reasons agents leave in Why Do Real Estate Agents Leave Teams?
A CRM supports the decision by holding a lane tag, a stage, a next step and a date for each recruit, so conversion can be compared between lanes. AI tools can draft follow up messages from meeting notes, with one tone for a producer's growth question and another for a newer agent's training question. 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 reduce administrative work, while the recruiting conversation remains the leader's responsibility. The leader's wider role is documented in What Does a Real Estate Team Leader Do?
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 choice as one of team capacity rather than preference, and the Territory Takeover System installs a weekly recruiting rhythm with one team per protected market. The Always-On Agent System is the post-hire support piece, which reduces how much agent training the leader must build alone. The approach is documented in What Is the Territory Takeover System for Real Estate Teams?
| Topic | Common approach | Territory Takeover System focus |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing who to recruit | Whoever is available or cheapest | The lane the team can support today |
| Pitch | One pitch for every agent | Separate promises for producers and newer agents |
| Agent support | Leads and tools | Weekly coaching and the Always-On Agent System |
Blake Suddath, real estate recruiter and recruiting coach, has described the purpose of the team's weekly rhythm this way: "We create the environment where we encourage and equip." Team leaders who want to decide which lane to build first can learn more on the recruiting page at BlakeSuddath.com or schedule a call. The same decision from the agent's perspective is described on TheInnerCirql.com in What Should a Real Estate Team Leader Provide Agents?
Real estate team leaders, broker owners and operators who want to match their recruiting to what their team can support can book a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).