7 Talent Sourcing Tips to Find the Best Real Estate Agents

There are many challenges facing real estate agent recruiters. One among them is agent discovery or sourcing, particularly because other brokerages are also looking for talented recruits.

Thus, if you want to find the best agents, you need to improve the sourcing aspect of your real estate recruitment strategy. There are many ways to do this, such as finding a recruitment platform and choosing the right channels carefully. For even more sourcing tips, check out the list below:

Separate the Role of Sourcers and Recruiters

In the world of recruitment, sourcers are responsible for finding qualified candidates. Recruiters, on the other hand, handle the end-to-end hiring process once sourcers identify those who are qualified. Therefore, you need to separate these roles. Let the sourcers focus on looking for people who meet all the requirements. This way, recruiters can dedicate more time in evaluating the candidates.

Obviously, this isn’t always possible, especially if you have a small recruitment team. If this is the case, make sure to streamline the sourcing and recruiting processes. In particular, define a timeline for the sourcing phase so that you don’t spend too much time on looking for qualified applicants.

Source Candidates for Future Hires

When you’re recruiting for real estate agents, you’re likely looking for people to fill in currently vacant positions. While there is nothing wrong with this practice, it’s much better to be proactive and source candidates for future hiring. This way, you’ll always be prepared should the need to hire more employees arise.

Look at the business plan of the brokerage, as well as the trends in the hiring history. From there, make a forecast of sorts for hiring needs. By having a candidate lineup already prepared even before there’s a need to hire, you can get a headstart on your competitors. You’ll also be able to adapt faster if there are any changes within the workforce.

Make Full Use of Social Media

Social media is one of the most useful recruitment tools nowadays, especially if you know how to use it properly. Indeed, there are already thousands if not millions of job seekers on various social media platforms. This means you can easily diversify your candidate pool, and increase your visibility.

Make sure to update your social media profiles and cultivate an employment brand to help boost your visibility. Participate in relevant conversations, which you can find using hashtags and keywords. At the same time, there are also filters that can help you narrow down your list of potential applicants.

Look at Previous Candidates

As a real estate recruiter, you’ve likely turned down more than a few agents due to various factors. Nevertheless, while they did not initially make the cut, there’s probably a reason why you considered them qualified at some point. Don’t immediately throw these un-hired candidates’ resumes or CVs away. Instead, keep them for future reference when you need to hire for the same position.

There are many upsides to revisiting your “rejected” candidate pool. For example, you already know that these real estate professionals are already interested in working for your company. It’s also likely that they have gained more experience and skills since you’ve first interviewed them.

Hire Internally

When you’re looking to hire talented people, one of the best candidate pools is actually your employees. This is particularly true if you’re looking for more senior positions. Instead of hiring new people, whom you still have to on-board, promote your deserving employees. Consider lateral movement as well, if you have employees who are looking for a change in responsibilities or develop new skills.

Hiring internally reduces the time you need to find quality candidates. It also comes with the bonus of knowing that they’re already a good match for your brokerage. While you’re at it, ask your employees if they have people they can refer to replace them in their previous posts.

Don’t Take Too Long to Decide

It’s true that you need to take your time if you want to hire only the best real estate agents for your brokerage. However, there’s also such a thing as taking too much time. Don’t take too long to decide if a candidate is indeed qualified, or offering a contract. If you do, you might end up losing a great candidate to your competitors.

Value your applicants’ time. Contact them in a timely manner and don’t forget to update them (even if they didn’t make the cut). In addition, make sure that you’re easy to get in touch with so candidates can reach out at any time during the hiring process.

Attend a Variety of Events

If you’re a recruiter, it makes sense for you to attend recruitment events such as job fairs. However, you should also participate in non-recruitment events. Consider networking parties or even local real estate agent meetups. Check your industry calendar for workshops or conferences conducted by professional organizations as well. It’s easy to find passionate, talented individuals in these kinds of events.

What you have to remember about sourcing candidates is that there’s no clear-cut strategy to find a talented hire. You’ll likely need different tactics and adjust accordingly as you go along so you can get the results you want. Don’t forget to analyze data and apply your findings to further improve your strategy.

Monica Mendoza is a PH-based digital marketer by trade who’s on the lookout for a new house. As part of her research, she’s taken a good look at how the real estate industry works and how she can find agents who can help her get a good deal. When she’s not working at home, she can be found baking and looking for new recipes online.