10 Services Smart Brokerages Are Offering to Attract More Agents

Today’s agents expect more from their brokerage than basic supervision, transaction oversight, and commission processing. As a real estate agent, I know the decision goes beyond commission splits. Training, technology, marketing support, lead generation, mentorship, and company culture all matter. These were many of the same factors I considered when choosing my own brokerage, and the support available can be just as important as the compensation.

For brokers, the goal is to offer services agents will actually use without stretching your resources too thin. Trying to provide everything at once can create unnecessary costs and make it harder to deliver consistent support. Below, I’ll walk through 10 real estate brokerage services, explain their value, and outline cost considerations to help you decide which offerings make sense for your agents and your business.

Services smart brokerages are offering:

• Buyer & seller leads
• Consistent digital & print marketing
• Listing preparation & marketing
• Transaction management services
• Agent signs & lockboxes
• Agent safety and showing support
• Meetings & events
• Education & training
• Agent onboarding
• Office management services

Buyer & seller leads

In an agent’s world, prospecting is the name of the game. They’re hungry for leads, and as more companies provide them, that appetite keeps growing. Keep in mind that when brokers supply their agents with leads, everyone wins. With more leads to work, your agents should close more deals — and add money to your brokerage’s pocket. 

The game has changed nowadays, making leads more accessible (as long as brokers are willing to pay). However, the benefit of buying these leads directly is that you can also save money on marketing — just cut out the advertising middleman and buy the leads directly from a platform like zBuyer. 

Of course, it’s not that cut-and-dry. Providing your agents with leads means that you’ll need to budget for them. You’ll also need to hold your agents accountable for the leads you provide — that’s a fine line to balance. By offering leads, you may be attracting more junior agents with less experience who may need more coaching and education. This balance is important to keep your brokerage alive with seasoned professionals as well as fresh new agents.

Why smart brokers provide leads

Your return on investment (ROI) on providing leads will be directly related to your training and accountability to the agent. Brokerages that do this well can see a three-to-four-times return on their money. Additionally, many talented agents just need a little momentum in their business, which brokerage-supplied leads may provide.

Lead generation cost breakdown

Of course, the cost of providing your agents with leads will vary depending on where your brokerage is located. But if you want to provide enough leads to attract and maintain motivated newer agents, then you should expect to spend anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per month on leads. Once you throw in a lead manager, you can expect to pay another $45,000 per year for their salary. Let’s review some of the top lead gen companies that brokers should be looking at:

Consistent digital & print marketing

One of the most important lessons I've learned over my 28-year real estate career is that nothing matters more in an agent’s business than getting their marketing out consistently. Despite all the systems and tools that are available, more than 80% of agents still fail to follow up with their clients after a sale — not even a postcard!

Brokerage-provided marketing services can include mailing monthly postcards to their sphere of influence (SOI) and farm area, as well as helping agents with social media content and creating professional listing and buyer presentations. Your brokerage can provide marketing services through software, outsourcing, or, when you’re large enough, hiring a full-time marketing manager.

Agently offers a full AI marketing suite with thousands of real estate social media templates — including buyers, sellers, video marketing, listing marketing, open houses, and much more. It automatically integrates your brand so you spend less time on social media. You can also track your productivity and enhance your communication with your broker. Check them out at the link below.

Why smart brokerages provide digital & print marketing

If you want to add a service that provides value and measurable returns in both productivity and profits, then taking over your agent’s marketing is the answer. Agent marketing will attract other agents, increase referrals and repeat business from your agents’ SOI, and — best of all — it helps maintain your brokerage’s brand image and standards.

Digital & print marketing benefits vs costs breakdown

Coffee & Contracts is a real estate marketing company that offers thousands of social media templates designed specifically for real estate agents. This includes Instagram Reels, carousels, Broke Agent memes, and more. 

You’ll get access to fresh content and new options every month as a subscriber. You can get started with $15 off your first month with the promo code THECLOSE.

Listing preparation & marketing

This is a no-brainer if you’re trying to recruit listing agents. Many high-producing agents are good at lead generation and sales but can fall short when it comes to marketing and managing their listings.

That means you can take a big burden off their plate by offering to handle all the details of listing preparation, like cleaning and staging. You may also help them with marketing tasks like photography, video production, sign installation, MLS input, and promotion.

These services should be outsourced until your real estate brokerage is large enough to support a full-time listing manager. Be sure to negotiate volume discounts with your vendors to keep your expenses within budget. If you’re just dipping your toe into this brokerage service, I recommend looking into providing your agents access to a service like Apply Design, an easy-to-use virtual staging software that charges $7 to $10 per image.

Why smart brokerages provide listing preparation & marketing services

Of course, these services will allow you to attract the right agents for your brokerage, but there are other benefits you may not be aware of.

Maintain your brand’s image & standards

This way, listing marketing will be up to the standards of your real estate brokerage and in line with your branding. No more cell phone pics, dark, blurry images, or real estate signs printed in the wrong colors or fonts. Just this by itself will attract image-conscious homesellers.

Listings sell faster & for a higher price

When your marketing is done correctly, you will attract more buyers, too. The more buyers who see your listings, the greater the chance they will sell quickly and for top dollar, and the more your agents will look good!

Higher splits & fees

Believe it or not, many productive, top-producing agents are happy to pay their broker more to have all the listing marketing done for them. This provides them with the confidence they need to go after luxury listings and gives them back more time to do what they love — making more sales!

Listing preparation & marketing benefit vs costs breakdown

Transaction management services

If you have a highly accountable group of agents, then any task you can take off their plate will increase their productivity. Simply put: If your agents are chasing paperwork, they are not generating leads. Transaction management is an easy, low-cost way to take some of those red-tape tasks off your agents’ schedules.

Some brokerages choose to offer this as an à la carte service, while others build the cost into their transaction fees and include it with every file.

Why smart brokerages provide transaction management services

Taking over the transaction once it has gone under contract will not only free up your agent’s time; it will also eliminate the challenge of chasing down paperwork from your agents to complete your required brokerage file.

Since you have to pay someone to manage that file, it is easy and inexpensive to add this transaction management service to the list of what your brokerage provides. I’ve done a breakdown of our top transaction management software picks to make the choice as easy as possible.

Transaction management benefits vs cost breakdown

Agent signs & lockboxes (installation, removal & storage)

It may sound simplistic, but providing signs and lockboxes and having them installed, removed, and stored is very enticing to agents. Why? Because what self-respecting agent loves to swing a sledgehammer at a steel sign frame to get it into a frozen lawn? No one, that’s who! Even worse is placing 20 open house signs on busy intersections wearing a black Armani suit in 100-degree weather. Been there — hated it!

Save your agents the pain and embarrassment of having to install listing and open house signs. Let someone else deal with the headache of where to place the lockbox and finagling it onto a metal screen door. Your agents will love you for the simple gesture. To provide this service, you can contract with a local sign company to manage the whole process. The cost is typically $30 to $50 for each install or removal.

Why smart brokerages provide sign & lockbox services

Maintain your brand image & standards

If I had a dollar every time I saw one of my brokerage signs printed in the wrong color or font, I could buy the Miami Dolphins! Most agents aren't in tune with the importance of maintaining a brand, and if they can save $10 per sign by printing more cheaply, they will. If you include listing and open house signs as part of your services, this will ensure that your brand is always presented with quality.

Promote your brand

If your listing and open house signs are branded to your brokerage, you are also promoting your brokerage — and the best part is you only pay when your agents take a listing or hold an open house.

Signs & lockboxes benefits vs cost breakdown

• Sign installation, removal & storage, $60 per listing
• Lockbox installation, $20 per listing
• Open house sign installation & removal, $50-$100 per open house

Agent safety & showing support

Agents spend a lot of time meeting unfamiliar people and working alone. As an agent, I’ve found that having someone know where I am and being able to ask another agent to join me makes a difference. A brokerage can support that by making safety part of its everyday procedures and giving agents a clear way to request backup.

That support could include showing buddies, two agents hosting an open house when needed, and a check-in process for appointments. Make it easy for agents to ask for help without feeling that they need to justify being uncomfortable.

Why smart brokerages provide agent safety & showing support

A written safety policy is useful, but agents also need to know how to put it into practice. Who can accompany them to a showing? Where should they share appointment details? Who follows up if they miss a check-in? Clear responsibilities make the process easier to use.

I’ve used brokerage group chats to share my location and appointment timing, and I have another agent with me at open houses when I feel it's needed. Brokers can help make that support reliable by organizing coverage rather than leaving agents to find someone at the last minute.

Safety support brokerages can offer

Showing buddies

Create a way for agents to request a colleague for a showing or first meeting. Explain how to arrange coverage and what each agent’s role will be. Agents should know they can request a buddy whenever they feel they need one.

Two-agent open houses

Offer a second agent for open houses when needed, whether because of the property’s layout, expected attendance, or the hosting agent’s concerns. Agree beforehand on who welcomes visitors, monitors activity, and handles follow-up so both agents understand their responsibilities.

Safety training

Include safety procedures in onboarding and revisit them throughout the year. Walk through preparing for appointments, identifying exits, protecting personal information, and leaving when something feels wrong. Use practice scenarios so agents know what to do and whom to contact.

Appointment check-ins

Establish a check-in process that identifies the appointment location, expected finish time, and person responsible for following up. Explain what happens if an agent misses a check-in. Sharing information in a group chat only helps if someone has agreed to monitor it.

Agent safety & showing support benefits vs costs breakdown

Meetings & events

Real estate sales is a social business, and most agents love to socialize. A healthy event calendar will not only increase agent retention, but will make recruiting easier. Real estate can also be a lonely business, and many agents are hungry for connection, especially if they are struggling.

3 types of events successful brokerages host

Team meetings

Believe it or not, team meetings are less about education and information and more about building and maintaining relationships and company culture. Coffee and donuts, or lunch right after your team meeting, can give agents a reason to socialize and bond. It also gives them a reason to show up (besides listening to you or your sales manager talk shop).

Social happy hours

A monthly happy hour at a local brewery or trendy restaurant shows your agents you value them and want to get to know them better. Additionally, these social happy hours are a great opportunity to invite agents from other brokerages to check out your company’s culture.

Client events

Getting in front of your agents’ clients not only builds your brokerage’s brand, but also gives your agents a reason to reach out to their SOI and past clients. Many busy agents would love to throw customer appreciation events but lack the time or skills to do it. And some agents with small SOIs or client databases fear that they won’t have enough people show up. 

Why not give them all a helping hand and coordinate the event for them? There’s no need to do them monthly — quarterly or bi-annually will be enough to keep your agents in front of their SOI.

Meetings & events benefits vs costs breakdown

Education & training

Any real estate brokerage that wants to serve agents throughout their careers must provide a full suite of education and training. If they’re not getting it from you, they will get it somewhere else. Plus, keep in mind that your educated agents tend to be more productive and on top of the newest contract changes, leading to fewer mistakes — in short, your errors and omissions insurance will thank you. 

Begin by thinking about what type of agents you want your brokerage to serve. What phase of their career are they in? What skills and knowledge do they need to be successful in order to push through to the next phase?

If you don’t have time for this rhetorical question, I did some of the thinking for you. Below you’ll find a short list of the phases of an agent’s career, as well as classes that will support them in that phase.

Types of agents & training smart brokerages offer

Unlicensed prospects

People interested in getting into real estate need access to a real estate school. Many successful brokerages either offer an in-house real estate licensing school or have an affiliation with one, where they refer students in exchange for promoting their brokerage as an affiliation option. So if your business model includes recruiting brand-new agents, getting into prelicensing education is a no-brainer.

New & newer agents

This is where you need a structured training calendar — one that can walk a new licensee through a marketing plan, lead generation strategies, and all the required tasks related to working with buyers and sellers.

Newer agents also need the support of a mentor whom they can call to get their urgent questions answered. This ensures that they are doing the right thing and protects your brokerage.

Productive agents

Busy productive agents don’t want to sit in classes week to week. They only want to attend classes that they can directly apply to their business. Productive agents are attracted to business planning, lead generation classes, and continuing education (CE) credit courses that offer knowledge they can use.

Top producers & teams

Top producers and teams are looking for educational opportunities that are geared toward the latest systems, tools, and strategies that help them bring their business to the next level.

Try bringing in coaches, trainers, or top producers from other markets to teach your driven agents. Agents from outside your market area are more likely to share their secrets without the fear of a competitor taking their market share away.

Education & training benefits vs costs breakdown

Agent onboarding

An agent’s first few weeks at your brokerage should help them feel welcomed, supported, and ready to work. That takes more than sending login information and pointing them toward a training calendar. Introduce them to the people they’ll work with, explain how the office operates, and make sure they know where to turn for help. 

When I was a new agent, onboarding really helped me feel confident. Having guidance as I got started made the process feel more manageable. Brokers can create that same foundation for incoming agents, but the approach should reflect each person’s experience.

Why smart brokerages provide agent onboarding

Recruiting an agent is only the beginning. Onboarding is your opportunity to deliver the support you discussed during recruiting and show agents how to access it. A brokerage may offer excellent marketing tools, transaction support, and technology, but those services have little value to an agent who doesn’t know they exist or how to use them.

Give each incoming agent a clear starting plan, a designated contact for questions, and scheduled check-ins. Those conversations can help you catch missing access, unanswered questions, or confusion before they interfere with the agent’s work.

How to onboard agents at different experience levels

New agents

Newly licensed agents need help connecting what they learned in school to the work they’ll actually do. Walk them through your brokerage’s process for working with buyers and sellers, submitting documents, and getting broker guidance.

Pair them with an experienced agent who is willing and available to help. Make that relationship specific: explain what the experienced agent will assist with, how to handle questions, and any compensation arrangement. Shadowing a consultation or reviewing a sample transaction together gives a new agent a practical place to begin.

Experienced agents

Experienced agents need an introduction to your brokerage, not to relearn real estate. Start by asking about their business, the systems they already use, and the support they want. 

Focus on onboarding what your company offers: marketing resources, technology, administrative support, referral opportunities, and brokerage-specific procedures. Respect their existing skills while clearly setting expectations and outlining the support available.

Agents new to your market

An experienced agent may still need local guidance when entering a new geographic area. Introduce them to local MLS practices, commonly used forms, market resources, and the people who can help them understand unfamiliar transaction processes.

Arrange time with a knowledgeable local agent to review the areas they plan to serve. Keep this support separate from assumptions about their overall ability or experience.

Agent onboarding benefits vs costs breakdown

Office management services

Beyond printing fliers, holding classes, and running team meetings, you still have to fulfill all state-mandated managing broker activities, such as agent supervision and file compliance, not to mention the management tasks that come with running a brokerage, like financial management, office reception, and recruiting.

While these services may not be on your company brochure, if you wish to have a successful brokerage, they still need to be managed.

Office management & services benefits vs costs breakdown

Essential software to manage real estate brokerage services

Now that you have decided what services you are going to provide the agents with your real estate brokerage, next look for the software solutions that will help you deliver these services and manage your brokerage.

To keep your expenses low, use software whenever you can. Even though the upfront cost and setup of software can be pricey, it will save you money over the cost of hiring an employee.

For a full list of software solutions to run a real estate brokerage, please check out the article: Real Estate Brokerage Software

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

It’s a fine balance & further reading

The services you choose to offer will ultimately influence the resources, systems, and staff needed to run your brokerage successfully. As both an agent and someone who has evaluated brokerages from an agent's perspective, I’ve seen firsthand how important these offerings can be for attracting and retaining talent. However, one of the most common mistakes newer brokerages make is trying to offer every possible service from day one, which can quickly create operational challenges and strain limited resources.

Instead, focus on building a strong foundation and strategically expanding your offerings as your brokerage grows. Many successful brokerages leverage software, third-party vendors, and outsourced solutions to provide agents with valuable support without immediately increasing headcount. This approach allows brokers to deliver a competitive agent experience while maintaining efficiency and controlling costs.

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