Recruiting commercial real estate brokers is not easy for the managing director of a commercial brokerage.

Feb 9

There are a few ideas that might help you grow your team:

Create visibility for yourself at local colleges and junior colleges that teach real estate
Get a list of all the people that are taking real estate classes in your region and build a stable of people who might want to work for a commercial brokerage
Go to local brokerage events like CCIM and commercial board of realtor meetings and meet brokers who you might be able to recruit to your team.
Hire a headhunter to deliver potential candidates to your desk
Delegate the recruitment and visibility process to someone on your team

Recruiting in Commercial Real Estate Is Particularly Challenging

Commercial real estate differs from residential real estate in its focus on larger transactions, longer sales cycles, and specialized knowledge in areas like leasing, investment sales, and property management. Top agents often have established networks, proprietary deal flow, and loyalty to their current firms, who have developed them, making them reluctant to switch.

Key challenges:

High Competition and Low Mobility: Experienced CRE agents rarely actively seek new opportunities. Many are content with their current setup, and brokerage switching rates have been at historic lows in recent years due to market stability and boutique firm growth.
Talent Shortage for Producers: Truly productive commercial agents, those closing high-value deals consistently—are scarce. Brokerages compete fiercely for them, often offering better commissions, listings, or support.
Generational Shifts: Younger agents (Gen Z and Millennials) prioritize flexibility, professional development, and work-life balance, while veteran agents value proven revenue-sharing models and administrative support.
Transitioning is difficult for a broker: It takes time for a broker to recoup their income flow when they transition from one company to another. They have to remarket to all of their clients and set up new systems. It can take as long as six months to complete a transition. As a recruiter you have to have to find a way to offset that risk.

Transition Points

Brokers will transition from one company to another at five critical decision points

One decision point is when they’re brand new into the industry and they need training in best practices and relationships to establish their business.
Another decision point is mid-career, where potentially revenues are not meeting expectations or there’s a management or political problem in their current company or a sale of their current company that creates enough uncertainty to precipitate a change
You may want to consider recruiting senior brokers as key players to your company, since they have existing relationships with clients but in their 60s start slowing down and need additional help to generate revenues and get the transactions completed. These brokers our great mentors for new young junior brokers as long as everybody understands what the rules of the game are and there’s a clear process where both the Senior and Junior brokers can find financial success.
You can also add small brokerages to your team by buying them and creating a clear track to success for the brokers with the purchased firm to keep them with your company.
Finally, as you target high potential brokers in the marketplace and seduce them with signing bonuses, you might be able to attract them to your brand to generate additional growth and revenue.

Success breeds success:

Messaging is important

Commercial real estate companies need to focus on marketing to grow. Not only to attract clients but also to attract top brokers. No successful or want to be successful broker wants to work for a company that is a second or third-tier company.

Your job as an owner and manager of the business is to lead a successful company and to reflect that success over and over again.

In this case size does not matter, because boutique firms can be so much more successful than huge firms. Overhead can strangle you and affect your return on investment. It’s not unusual to see a specialized company be extraordinarily financially successful while a diversified company just can’t attract the right mix of brokers to generate the cash that’s expected.

Good leadership is critical

An experienced leader will make themselves visible and have an inventory of all the brokers in their local marketplace. That way they can meet them, build confidence in their skills and pick out the ones that they want to work with and help brick by brick, broker by broker grow an extraordinarily successful brokerage over a period of time.

Even experienced leaders will have challenges when veteran brokers do not perform up to their potential. I recruited a second-generation broker from a boutique company who seemed experienced but unfortunately could not close any deals, even with twenty years of experience. I recruited another broker who was at the top of his game (top five broker) who left a high-profile competitor. I thought landing him was a homerun.

Unfortunately, he’d had a mental break and was unable to successfully resume brokerage when he worked at our office. He finally recovered many years later.

On the successful side, we recruited a broker fifteen years ago who, five years into his tenure, started producing commissions of $500,000 to $1,000,000 a year. It did not happen on day one, it took time for him to be successful, and our job was to help develop and support him.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in this business it just takes hard work experimentation encouragement and visibility. You must be willing to train and help lead brokers to success and be willing to fire those that cannot get there.

Brokerage is a relationship business

Commercial real estate brokerage is changing. What was and maybe still is a local business is now being viewed as a regional or national business as well. Brokers from out of state, or out of town will get some level of licensing in the state and start calling on your existing customers. They may have a new widget or a new marketing approach to listing and selling properties that delivers better results to clients than your team can.

This means you need to compete. You need to step up your game. You need to understand what your competition is doing and what you must do to hold on to your clients. This is not only a challenge for you and your relationships with your brokers, but also a challenge for your brokers.

Conclusion

Recruiting commercial real estate sales agents is no easy task for the managing director of any commercial brokerage. With good planning and a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve, you can, attract loyal and successful brokers to your brand. Without a proactive recruiting approach, you risk stagnant growth and the potential of losing your talent to your competitors.

Clifford A. Hockley is Principal Broker at SVN | Bluestone, as well as the managing member of Cliff Hockley Real Estate Consulting, LLC. As a Certified Property Manager & Designated Managing Broker, Cliff has 41 years of experience in the brokerage and management of Real Estate companies. Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services manages condominium associations, multi-family, and commercial properties in the greater Portland area. He was focused on running the company and involved with investment property brokerage. He worked with financial institutions, governmental agencies, private investors, and not for profit organizations. He also has vast knowledge in budgeting, organizational management, and building structures. His previous experience includes over five years in accounting, production supervision for a manufacturing company, and work for state agencies in California.

Cliff grew Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services into a 100 employee company that managed over 2 billion dollars of real estate assets before he sold the company in 2021. He also supervised a sales team of over 15 real estate brokers for over 35 years. His monthly newsletter, QuickFacts has over 2,300 subscribers. He has been involved in numerous real estate transactions that include industrial, retail, office, and multifamily properties. Cliff has also written a book called “Successful Real Estate Investing; Invest Wisely, Avoid Costly Mistakes and Make Money” published by Morgan James Publishing in 2019.

Cliff has successfully coached real estate investors and CEOs located throughout the United States since 2015. He has acted as a sounding board to help untangle knotty issues that need an experienced outside opinion. He guides leaders who find it is “lonely at the top” and need an experienced hand to help set a strategic direction, sort out operational problems and want to talk through challenging business decisions.

He has served as an adjunct professor at Portland State University from 2028 – 2021, teaching classes in: Intro to Real Estate, Basic Real Estate Finance, Property Management as well as Real Estate Investment Fundamentals. He has instructed hundreds of students and believes that substantial preparation and active student engagement are crucial for learning and appreciating the field of real estate. Students appreciate his candor and real-world experience.

Among his many civic activities, Cliff served on the Board of Directors for the Portland Chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and the Rental Housing Alliance of Oregon. In 2014 he was recognized by IREM as board member of the year, and in 2015 he earned an achievement award in brokerage from SVN International. In the years 2000 & 2003, he was recognized by IREM as Certified Property Manager of the Year.