First-quarter 2025 agent moves were up nearly 70% year over year, a trend driven largely by a small subset of top producers. The majority of agents remained largely static, according to the report.
“Movement was up — and it’s concentrated,” Mark Johnson, a managing partner at Recruiting Insight and an author of the report, said in an interview with HousingWire. “Nearly 66% of total volume was generated by the top 25% of productive agents. That surprised me in a number of ways.”
This disparity is sharpening the distinction between full-time professionals and so-called “hobbyist” agents, who tend to gravitate toward lower-cost models.
“There’s really an oversupply of agents versus the number of homes being sold, so you have this bigger division of top producers versus what we may call hobbyists,” Johnson said.
Business models and the ‘movable middle’
Brokerages using a capped revenue share model led all others in attracting high-producing agents, capturing 31.1% of business operator movers.
Tech-enabled brokerages followed, drawing 22.6% of this group. Traditional brokerages, by contrast, accounted for only 19.3% of movement and also retained a higher proportion of non-producing and hobbyist agents.
Flat-fee and fee-based firms accounted for 14.2%, although the report notes that growth in this category appears to be slowing. Independent firms and those using lead generation models saw smaller but consistent gains.
“Maybe the mentality of the agents who moved — especially productive and maybe even non-productive ones — is that, looking at the market, buyers went to the sidelines considering the (mortgage) rates, tariffs, stock market, everything,” said Jay Teresi, vice president of back office sales and strategy at Inside Real Estate.
“I think the spring market is coming later this year, because as things calm down, you might have a summer-spring market.”
The “movable middle” — defined as the agents who have not yet reached top-producer status but are demonstrating potential for growth — also made their presence known in Q1 2025.
- Tech-enabled firms gained 26.7% of this group, up from 22% in Q4 2024.
- Capped revenue share models attracted 23.8%.
- Traditional brokerages held a 19.7% share, continuing a downward trend over several quarters.
Income anxiety, market conditions
As for what’s driving the top producers to move, the report identifies several converging pressures: income unpredictability, high interest rates, low housing inventory and rising client acquisition costs.
“Agent satisfaction is on the decline,” Johnson said. “They’re concerned about income unpredictability, client acquisition. All of these create significant anxiety. And agents pop their head up to say, ‘Well, maybe over here is better.’”
In many cases, this means looking to a brokerage model that promises higher take-home pay per transaction, even if other benefits suffer.
“When 70% of the agent churn involves individuals contributing to only 30% of the production, are we seeing a flight to quality, or more accurately, a flight to the ‘right fit’?” Teresi asked. “It certainly suggests many agents are looking for brokerage models that better match their operational style and business goals.”
Culture and leadership still matter
There’s more at play than just splits and fees.
“When we did the post interviews with many of these agents who moved, they talked about all that, then they talked about fees,” Johnson said. “And many of them said, ‘Well, you know, I made a switch, and I got some extra commission, but I lost those other things.’”
Those “other things” often include culture, leadership, training and long-term education.
“More or less, when we looked at the top gains and the top losses, they represented multiple model types,” Johnson added. “Agents are increasingly prioritizing leadership, stability, vision, professional development and the support culture.”
Tech-enabled models gain ground
Tech-enabled brokerages continue to make significant recruiting progress — particularly among business operators.
“I think it was by design,” Johnson said. “What we found out is some (tech-enabled brokerages) have more centralized recruiting and attraction efforts — what I call singularity of focus. With that, you’re going to have a different result.”
A strong tech stack, paired with clear internal success stories, is becoming a recruiting differentiator.
“Those who are confident in their tech stack and have rock-solid retention — and can point to the gains of the agents who are using it internally — have an easier time of using that as an attraction tool,” Teresi said.
But it’s not just about functionality; it’s also about optics and psychology.
“That’s all you hear about in real estate too,” Teresi said. “What CRM are you using? What social media posting? It’s almost like there’s a nature among real estate agents to say, ‘OK, well, I don’t want to do what I did last year, so maybe I should actually buy into this whole tech thing.’”
Retention is the new recruiting
Johnson and Teresi pointed to increased transparency and self-evaluation as significant ways for brokerages to attract agents in the coming years.
“Am I at the right place? Do I have the right leadership?” Johnson asked, putting himself in an agent’s shoes. “But is the ship that I’m on heading in the right direction? Do I feel it’s going to get me to where I need to go? When times are tougher, we start to question everything.”
“That self-evaluation, that audit, knowing who you want to be and what you’re offering in your market … is so important,” Teresi added. “That goes to what we’re hearing. I saw a great piece out about retention being the new recruiting. That’s true, and that starts with that self-evaluation, knowing who you are, making sure your agents love you because they know you love them.
“That’s a conversation that can help put a plan together to turn external for agent attraction.”
