5 Reasons Real Estate Agents Quit a Brokerage or Team | Steve D. Valentine

5 reasons real estate agents leave a brokerage or a team. And number 1 may not surprise you, but it might because it's not exactly what you think it is. The first one, number 5, they're blind. This is what's crazy, is that they leave because they're blind. They don't see all the opportunities that are possible with their real estate license. And they leave because they get burnt out chasing the shiny object because everybody has told them to do more open houses, more phone calls, more things that have not resulted into efforts. And they get bits and pieces of training. And some agents struggle to apply in all these different areas because there's no focus, right? It's just come in, get onboarded with a fire hose. And then good luck, right? Number 4, uneducated, uneducated or overeducated and under-executing. So real estate is notorious for all of its free education. You can get a license and you can take 24/7 classes between online and in-person because the title companies, the lenders, everybody is putting on a class to draw people in. And we go to these classes with no plan. We don't look at what we're currently trying to learn and apply to our life, and we just go because we have nothing else to do, which again leads to burnout and either overeducated, under-executed, or undereducated and no execution whatsoever. This is, this is why they leave, because they're, they're not having any success. They're looking for where the success point is, is, and if the brokerage is, or the team is not giving them places to seed or have little wins, they're going to look for the next thing because social media is so great in showing what's going on and the grass is greener on the other side. But nobody talks about the hard work it took to get there. 3, guys, this is on you. Unwilling to do the work. So the brokerage and the team can only do so much. And then you leave because you're unwilling to do the work. You're unwilling to follow the process. You're unwilling to follow the people that have done it before you. And have created it. And for some odd reason, you doubt the process and you won't stay in it. And that's something that is on you that you need to pause and identify. Why am I not doing the things that created success for people? Or here's the other identification. How do I take the thing I learned and apply it to my life and my authenticity so I can make it mine? The same reason that we're built, not bought. You see, I believe that you educate yourself is the building, right? The knot is being able to take the idea and build it to who you are. Does it work for you? Can you have good conversations around it? Are you willing to do the work in the way that it suits you? Just because somebody said you needed to make 100 phone calls doesn't mean that that's the work. It means that you need to take the underlying response and say, that means 100 conversations, not 100 calls. So who do I need to have conversations with and what about that makes sense right now? But all we hear is got to make 100 calls and we sit at our desk with our phone and go, okay, I should make 100 expired calls. Why are you doing that? What do you know about expireds? What do you know about that neighborhood? It's great if it's practice, but if it's burning you out and just doing things over and over again, change it. Be willing to do the work in your way. If you don't like it, don't do it. Find the things that you like. You'll keep from burnout. Number 2, the biggest reason that agents leave is because they didn't ask the right questions and they didn't set themselves up for success by understanding that this is going to be a 3 to 5 year run of learning and earning. And who do I collaborate? Who do I build with? Who do I learn from? And what do I want to learn and how do I want to build it? Too many agents come in and they go straight to wanting to sell. And I'm sorry, but we're not in the sales business. If you want to do it the built, not bought way, the Steve D Valentine way, we're in the people business. And when you're talking to people, you're not selling them things. You're guiding them through their biggest life decision of investing in real estate or selling real estate. And yes, everybody is an investor, even you. You may not own anything, but every decision you're making is an investment decision. Agents are not doing enough. Consulting and wisdom searching, and they're not willing to look at the first 3 to 5 years of real estate as college or internship. You don't know enough. You haven't had enough experiences. And the way you learn is by being involved in others' experiences so that you can ask questions, be curious, and apply those things to your life. It's how I learned. It's how I know the most successful people have learned in their life. The number one thing that everybody talks about, and you know what it is? It's money. Agents leave because they're focused on the wrong thing. You see, money comes in the form of opportunity, and opportunity comes in the form of you active listening and paying attention to what's going on around you. And the most active attention that most real estate agents do is paying attention to their colleagues on social media, wishing to have their life rather than building their own. And so we tend to want to take on everybody else's identities in this business rather than being comfortable and confident with who we are and how we show up. See, real estate, back to it, is the people business, not the housing business. The house doesn't care how you dress. The house doesn't care how you talk. The house doesn't care how you show up. The people do. The people depend on your advice, your guidance, and how you show up. So my question is, how are you showing up? If it's about the money and you want to make more money and you're leaving because of money, how did you show up? How did you invest your time and energy into the people around you that were willing to give you the time. Are you willing to change? Do you want to make more money? Because I don't know a single agent that doesn't want to. But here's the number one thing: they don't know how to. Goes back to all these things. We've been conditioned in the business to just move to where we think something is better. And the reality is we move without intention because we don't even know why we're moving. But the number one thing is money, because we want to make more money. And that environment that you're moving to, it might be motivational at the beginning, it might be inspirational at the beginning, but what's the longevity of it? The longevity of making more money is up to you. If you move brokerages or teams because you thought you could make more money, my question is, that's great, but did you intentionally look at— let's give you a great example. I walked several agents through their team structure to see how much money they invested in team splits. Or invested in team training and environment versus what they kept. And then I asked them what their return on investment was. They found out real quick there wasn't as great of a return on investment, and they were responsible for more of their leads than the team was, therefore giving them permission to move. They're now a solo operator. Now they have to do the business side of things. Money is not everything. You know, that same agent that I talked about, he paid $100,000 in splits in his first 2 years. That was $100,000 he invested into training, mentorship, environment, all the places that he needed to succeed in his first 2 years. He was willing to pay $100,000 of unearned income that he was going to earn and share with somebody else that was willing to help him get there. That's the difference in somebody leaving based on thinking versus somebody leaving based on intention. So the 5 things: 1. Don't go into this blind. Two, you're either undereducated or overeducated, and you're either under-executing or not executing at all. Are you devoted to your craft? The unwillingness to do the work. Agents leave because they're unwilling to do the hard work, and then they blame it on the teams and the brokerages for their success. The reality is, no matter where I go brokerage-wise, I will succeed because it relies on me to make that succeed. Same with you. I'm encouraging you and telling you right now, your success does not rely on the people in the room for you to succeed. What will enhance your success is when you're in the right room with the right people, and that's the intention that you're looking for, because that's where your life will start to build and grow when you're in the right environments. So if you're stuck, move. If you want to change, choose it. Consulting, wisdom, coaching, mentoring. Learn to ask questions from people that have done it, both the ones that have failed and succeeded, so that you can be involved in those people's lives and learn from what they have and have not done. Money. Don't make your opportunities about money. Money comes from proximity of people that have done what you want to do because there are opportunities to learn, there are opportunities to create income, and it's the number one thing that people don't see is that opportunities are created over time and through consistency. So today I'm gonna ask you to take those 5 things and take a pause and identify, are these reasons that you would leave or have left? Or maybe you're considering leaving and choose to change. Ask yourself hard questions. Am I willing to do the work? Do I have the right mentorship? Am I in the right environment? Is money really the issue or is it me? Is my success lacking because of me and what I'm willing to do? Or is it the company and the team environment that I need to move away from? If you're looking to move or change any of those things, check this out. There's some links below. One, subscribe, share, comment below. Would love that. Two, there's links below. If you're struggling in this, first you gotta find out who you are. Uh, I went through this. I have the receipts for it. I rebuilt my companies with the AI, uh, prompting methodology down there. Uh, you run it through AI, you answer the questions deeply, and you're gonna figure out who you are and where you are. And then you can start answering some of these questions truthfully, and then you can start making some intentional moves. And if you want to make some intentional moves and you want a way to start this and answer some questions, some great ideas, join me on Wednesday mornings, 9 AM, Built Not Bought, specifically for real estate agents. I want to walk you through building the life that you want around this amazing business that has so many opportunities. And once you learn how to build it, you get to help your clients and your friends and your sphere build their lives. That's the best part about Built, not bought. Talk to you guys later.