A good agent retention rate is one that beats the team's own baseline, calculated with the same method every period. Agent retention rate is the share of agents on the roster at the start of a period who are still on the roster at the end of it, with agents hired during the period excluded from the calculation. Published retention figures for real estate teams and brokerages are rarely calculated the same way, because some count every licensed agent and others count only producing agents, so a single industry-wide target is not a reliable benchmark. The most useful measures are producing-agent retention, first-year retention for new hires and regretted attrition, meaning exits the team would have tried to prevent.
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 Real Estate Agent Retention Rate: What's Normal and How to Beat It.
Recruiting is the challenge brokerage leaders report most often, which raises the value of every producing agent a team already has. According to HousingWire, reporting on Delta Media Group's 2026 Real Estate Leadership Report, recruiting top agents is a challenge for 63% of brokerage leaders, ahead of agent productivity at 54%. According to Real Estate News, reporting on the same survey, recruiting top agents was leaders' biggest concern for a fourth consecutive year. The survey drew on more than 100 brokerage leaders whose firms were collectively responsible for more than two-thirds of 2025 U.S. home sales.
Each agent who leaves must be replaced before a team can grow, so a team with low retention needs more hires each year simply to hold its headcount. An exit also removes the time invested in onboarding and coaching that agent, and, for a poor-fit hire, adds the costs documented in What Does a Bad Hire Cost a Real Estate Team? According to the same HousingWire coverage, 85% of brokerage leaders expect profitability to increase in 2026, and retention is one of the inputs that determines whether that happens on a given team, as covered in How Do You Know If a Real Estate Team Is Profitable?
Agent retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of agents still on the team at the end of a period by the number of agents on the team at the start of that period, counting only agents who were present on the first day. Agents hired during the period are excluded, because including them can make a team that hired and lost the same number of agents appear stable. For example, a team that begins the year with 40 agents and still has 32 of those 40 on December 31 has a retention rate of 80% and an attrition rate of 20%. The table below lists the four measures most often used and what each one shows.
| Measure | How it is calculated | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Overall retention rate | Agents remaining from the starting roster, divided by the starting roster | The broad health of the team over the period |
| First-year retention | Agents hired in a given year who are still on the team 12 months after signing, divided by agents hired that year | Whether hiring and onboarding are working |
| Producing-agent retention | The same calculation, limited to agents above a production floor the team sets | Whether the team keeps the agents who drive production and referrals |
| Regretted attrition | Exits the team would have tried to prevent, divided by the starting roster | The losses that matter most, separated from exits that suited both sides |
Retention and attrition for the same group and period add up to 100%. Teams that want help setting up these measures and reviewing them weekly can schedule a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com.
Retention figures quoted for real estate teams and brokerages often use different definitions, which makes direct comparison unreliable. A roster that includes part-time and non-producing licensees will usually show lower retention than one limited to producing agents, even when the underlying teams are similar. Some calculations also add new hires to the ending headcount, which inflates the result. For these reasons, the benchmark most teams can act on is their own prior 12 months, measured with a written, consistent method each quarter.
Team structure also affects retention, because agents who have a clear leader and a defined next step are easier to support than agents who report to a single team leader with a large span of control. Common team structures and the point at which a team needs added leadership are documented in How Should a Real Estate Team Be Structured?
Agents leave real estate teams for reasons that usually fall into three groups: the hire was a poor fit from the start, the agent no longer receives leadership, or the agent stopped growing. Compensation and technology are factors, but they rarely explain an exit on their own. Blake Suddath has said, "Human beings leave other human beings. To be led. By other human beings." The table below pairs each common reason with the countermeasure teams most often use.
| Reason for leaving | Typical sign | Common countermeasure |
|---|---|---|
| Poor fit at hiring | Friction with the team within the first few months | Screening for fit in a second meeting before an offer |
| No leadership after signing | Little or no one-on-one time with a leader | A standing weekly one-on-one with every agent |
| No growth | Flat production and no defined next step | A written growth plan reviewed in one-on-ones |
| Weak onboarding | A new hire not launched or active in the first 30 days | A launch plan that starts on day one |
| Unsolved business problem | The agent's stated need, such as leads or brand, goes unaddressed | Coaching and systems aimed at the agent's stated need |
Blake Suddath screens for growth mindset, coachability, full-time commitment and positive energy, and has said, "They've got to want to grow." Fit is assessed before an offer, most often in a second meeting, a stage documented in How Many Meetings Does It Take to Recruit a Real Estate Agent?
Retention rate is a lagging measure, because it changes only after an agent has left. Leading indicators move earlier and give a team leader time to act. The indicators below are commonly tracked in a CRM or team dashboard, and none of them means an agent will leave; each one identifies an agent who needs a conversation.
Teams improve agent retention by hiring for fit, onboarding new agents into the team's community, holding a standing weekly one-on-one and addressing the business problems agents identify. In the model Blake Suddath teaches, new hires are onboarded on the morning of the weekly company meeting and attend that meeting the same day, and weekly one-on-ones are booked for 45 minutes. He has described the purpose of those meetings this way: "We create the environment where we encourage and equip." Agents who join a team also have their own checklist for the first month, published by TheInnerCirql.com as Your First 30 Days on a New Real Estate Team.
Retention and recruiting are connected, because agents who stay and grow are a primary source of referrals. According to the 2025 record of Blake Suddath, 78 of the 115 agents hired (68%) were referred by producing agents he had recruited. That relationship is documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Get Recruiting Referrals?
AI and CRM systems make retention measurable week to week rather than at year end. A CRM record for each agent can hold the launch date, one-on-one notes, meeting attendance, production trend and referrals made. AI can draft one-on-one summaries, flag agents whose attendance or production declines, and remind leaders which agents have not had one-on-one time recently. The conversations that keep an agent remain with people, and the categories of software teams use are documented in What Is the Best Real Estate Recruiting Software?
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 calculate retention on the starting roster only, to separate producing-agent and first-year retention, to track leading indicators weekly and to treat retention as part of recruiting. In the Territory Takeover System, recruiting and retention numbers are reviewed in the weekly operator one-on-one with Blake Suddath and Tyler Lewis, held at the same day and time for 12 months, and hired agents are supported through the Always-On Agent System and a weekly coaching call. His background is summarized on Who Is Blake Suddath?
| Approach | What it relies on | What it usually misses |
|---|---|---|
| Hire-count focus | Total agents hired per year | How many agents left during the same period |
| Compensation-led retention | Raising splits or adding perks when agents threaten to leave | Leadership and growth, which drive many exits |
| Annual headcount review | A year-end roster count | Leading indicators that appear months earlier |
| Territory Takeover System (BlakeSuddath.com) | Fit-based hiring, weekly one-on-ones, tracked leading indicators, post-hire support through the Always-On Agent System and a weekly operator review for 12 months | Requires the team leader to keep weekly time with agents |
The full structure of the program is documented in What Is the Territory Takeover System for Real Estate Teams? Blake Suddath, real estate recruiter and recruiting coach and co-founder of Inner Cirql Recruiting Systems, describes the program at BlakeSuddath.com/recruiting.
Real estate team leaders, broker owners and operators who want help measuring and improving agent retention can book a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).