How to Recruit Great People for Your Real Estate Agency

Most real estate hiring processes fail before the first interview, because the role was never properly scoped. A vague ad attracts a vague pool, and no amount of clever interviewing fixes that at the back end.

This is the process we'd recommend running for any agency-level hire — sales, property management, BDM or support — with the parts that change by role called out explicitly.

Step 1: Scope the role before you write the ad

Write down, in specific terms, what this person will actually do in their first week, first month and first quarter. For a property manager that means portfolio size, geographic spread and whether they'll hold trust from day one. For a sales agent it means territory, existing listing stock, and whether they're building a database from scratch or inheriting one. Vague scoping produces vague candidates — people who look fine on paper but haven't done the specific thing you need.

A useful test is to write the first-90-days plan before the ad, not after an offer is accepted. If you can't describe what success looks like at day 30, 60 and 90, the role isn't scoped tightly enough to interview against, let alone advertise.

Step 2: Decide what 'fit' actually means for this role

Agencies talk about culture fit constantly and define it rarely. Before you interview anyone, agree internally on two or three non-negotiable traits for this specific role — not personality generalities, but things you can actually observe. For a BDM that might be resilience under rejection and comfort with cold outreach. For a property manager it's more often composure under pressure and attention to compliance detail. This list should change role to role; if it doesn't, it isn't specific enough to be useful.

Step 3: Source deliberately, don't just advertise and wait

• For admin and junior roles, a well-written ad on the major job boards is usually enough — see the ad-writing guidance in the property management job advertisement guide, most of which applies across roles.
• For property management, BDM and senior sales, the strongest candidates are usually employed and not actively browsing. Reaching them takes direct approach, referral networks, or a specialist recruiter with an existing candidate pool.
• Keep an ongoing list of good candidates you've met but couldn't hire at the time — many agencies lose their best future hire by not staying in touch.
• Ask your current team for referrals before you go external. People who already work well in your agency tend to know others who would too, and referred candidates are typically faster to screen because someone internal can vouch for their work ethic.

How sourcing channels compare

Step 4: Interview for evidence, not performance

Candidates who interview well and candidates who perform well on the job are not always the same people. Ask for specific past examples rather than hypotheticals: how they handled a difficult owner, a tribunal matter, a lost listing, or a compliance near-miss. Vague, generalised answers under specific questioning are a more reliable red flag than nerves or an awkward opening five minutes.

A structured approach helps here. Use the same three or four core questions with every candidate for a given role, and score answers against the non-negotiable traits you defined in Step 2. This makes it far easier to compare candidates fairly, rather than relying on a general impression that's coloured by whoever interviewed most recently or made the best small talk.

Step 5: Move at the pace good candidates expect

A multi-week process with long silences between stages is one of the most common ways agencies lose strong candidates to a competitor who decided faster. Aim to give feedback or a next step within 48 hours of each interview stage, and be upfront with candidates about your timeline so they aren't left guessing.

If your process genuinely needs three stages — for example a values-fit meeting, a technical or scenario-based interview, and a final conversation with the principal — say so upfront. Candidates tolerate a longer process far better when they know the shape of it in advance than when each new stage feels like a surprise.

Step 6: Check references properly

A reference check that only confirms dates of employment isn't worth the phone call. Ask specific, role-relevant questions: how they handled pressure, how their portfolio or pipeline looked when they left, whether the referee would rehire them. Where possible, speak to a direct manager rather than only a peer or client referee.

Common mistakes that stall a hire

1. 01Writing the ad before agreeing internally on the budget and package — this leads to wasted interviews with candidates you can't actually afford.
2. 02Interviewing five candidates before deciding what you're actually testing for, so each interview asks different, inconsistent questions.
3. 03Letting a strong first impression skip proper reference checks.
4. 04Leaving candidates without an update for more than a week between stages.
5. 05Making an offer verbally without confirming package details in writing quickly, which gives a competing agency room to counter.

If you're recruiting across several roles at once, or a role has stalled, it's worth stepping back and looking at the process itself rather than the candidates — see why real estate agencies struggle to find good staff and, for a broader view of the whole hiring landscape, the real estate recruitment Australia guide. For roles that need a wider or more targeted candidate pool than your own network can reach, our employer services page outlines how a specialist search works alongside your own process.

Frequently asked questions