Author

Michael Darmanin

Michael Darmanin is the Chief Executive Officer of Sellstate Realty, where he leads one of the company’s core priorities around broker growth, innovation, and technology systems that support franchisees, brokers, and agents. His background combines engineering and marketing, and Sellstate credits him with helping drive the company’s technology direction, including Powersuite.

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Short answer

There comes a point in a successful real estate career when personal production is no longer the main challenge.

You already know how to prospect. You know how to list. You know how to negotiate. You know how to close. The next level is usually not about doing more of that yourself. It is about building a place other agents want to join, grow inside, and stay loyal to over time.

That is where many strong team leaders and future broker-owners hit a wall.

Recruiting good agents is hard enough. Keeping them engaged, productive, and committed is even harder. And when retention is weak, everything feels heavier. You end up constantly replacing people, re-explaining standards, solving preventable issues, and carrying more of the business on your own shoulders than you should.

That is why recruiting and retention are not just people problems. They are growth problems.

Key takeaways

• As agents become leaders, the bottleneck often shifts from personal production to team-building.
• Recruiting is difficult, but retention is where many leadership models quietly break down.
• A stronger environment usually includes support, training, visibility, culture, and reasons for agents to keep building with you.
• Sellstate’s public messaging emphasizes leadership support, technology, ongoing training, growth workshops, and corporate-paid revenue sharing as part of its broker and agent growth model.
• The next level usually is not about selling more homes yourself. It is about building a place other agents want to stay.

The real challenge is not just production. It is people.

This is one of the biggest mindset shifts in career growth in real estate.

Early on, success is mostly about your own consistency. Can you generate leads? Can you convert appointments? Can you stay disciplined long enough to build momentum?

Later, the question changes.

Once you become a team leader, office leader, or future broker-owner, your results are no longer tied only to your own output. They are tied to whether you can create an environment where other people can perform well too.

That sounds simple, but it changes everything.

Now the challenge includes questions like:

• Can I attract the right people?
• Can I get them productive faster?
• Can I build a culture they want to stay in?
• Can I create enough support that they do not feel stuck?
• Can I lead without becoming the answer to every problem myself?

Those are leadership questions, not sales questions.

And many high-performing agents discover that being great at production does not automatically mean they have the right environment to build a stable, growing team.

Why recruiting and retention get harder as you grow

Recruiting and retention often become harder for one basic reason: complexity increases faster than structure does.

At first, a small team can survive on energy, hustle, and personal relationships. But as the group grows, informal systems start breaking down.

That is when leaders begin to notice problems like:

• newer agents taking too long to ramp up
• good agents leaving because they do not see a future
• inconsistent coaching and accountability
• too much dependence on one leader
• lack of clarity around standards and support
• recruiting that feels reactive instead of repeatable

This creates a frustrating cycle.

You recruit someone promising. They join. They get some attention early on. But without clear systems, consistent leadership, development, and reasons to stay engaged, momentum fades. Then the leader ends up back at the beginning, trying to recruit again.

That is exhausting.

It also makes scaling harder than it should be.

The next level is not just about attracting agents. It is about giving them reasons to stay.

This is where many leaders focus too narrowly on recruiting.

They spend time asking, “How do I get more agents in the door?”

That matters, but it is only half the equation.

The better question is: Why would the right agents want to keep building here?

That usually comes down to a few deeper issues:

1. Development

Agents want to know they can improve, not just transact.

2. Visibility

People stay longer when they can see where they are going.

3. Support

Agents may want independence, but they do not want to feel unsupported.

4. Leadership

Strong agents often stay where leadership is clear, credible, and consistent.

5. Opportunity

People are more likely to commit to a place where they can imagine a bigger future.

That is why retention is rarely just about personality. More often, it is about whether the business feels worth staying in.

What a stronger recruiting and retention environment looks like

A scalable team or brokerage usually needs more than motivation.

It needs infrastructure.

That can include:

• clearer onboarding
• regular leadership communication
• training and development
• better operational support
• stronger culture
• technology that actually helps people perform
• a model that gives agents reasons to keep growing inside the platform

When those pieces are missing, retention usually suffers.

When they are present, recruiting also gets easier, because people can feel the difference.

The environment itself becomes part of the value proposition.

Where Sellstate fits this conversation

Sellstate’s current public messaging is built around this exact leadership challenge.

Its broker opportunity page says brokers can run their office on their terms while using franchise backing that includes technology, training, marketing, support, and corporate-paid revenue sharing. The page also frames the model as “independence without isolation.”

Sellstate’s main site adds more detail, describing Powersuite technology, Icenhower AMP training, corporate-paid revenue sharing, C.P. Technology for quick commission processing, and continued leadership support that includes weekly strategy calls, monthly Zooms, quarterly business-development meetings, and the annual Sellstate Celebration.

Its public events pages also highlight broker business development meetings, monthly broker Zoom meetings, and growth-focused workshops for leaders who want to improve recruiting, accountability, and brokerage growth.

For a leader trying to solve recruiting and retention, that matters. It means the model is not positioned around “just recruit harder.” It is positioned around creating a stronger place for agents to build their careers.

What changes when the environment gets better

When the environment improves, a few things usually start to happen.

Recruiting becomes less forced because the story gets clearer.

Retention improves because agents feel more supported and see more opportunity.

Leadership gets easier because expectations, tools, and communication become more consistent.

And the business becomes more stable because growth is not resting on constant replacement.

That is the real opportunity here.

Not just adding people.

Building something people want to stay part of.

Final thoughts

If recruiting and retention feel harder than they should be, the issue may not be your ambition.

It may be your environment.

A lot of leaders assume the answer is to sell more, work harder, or keep pushing through the friction on their own. But the next level of business expansion in real estate usually looks different. It looks more like building a place where agents can join, develop, perform, and stay.

That is why this pain point matters so much.

Because once personal production is no longer the problem, the quality of the team-building environment becomes one of the biggest growth levers in the business.

And for leaders who are ready to think beyond their own closings, that is often the real next step.

FAQ

Why do recruiting and retention become bigger issues as agents become leaders?

Because growth creates more complexity. Once a leader is no longer focused only on personal production, success depends more on whether the business can attract, develop, and keep the right people over time.

What usually hurts retention the most?

Weak onboarding, inconsistent support, unclear leadership, lack of growth opportunity, and an environment that makes agents feel like they are operating alone.

How does Sellstate position itself around recruiting and retention?

Sellstate’s public pages emphasize franchise backing, leadership support, training, growth workshops, technology, and corporate-paid revenue sharing as part of a broader environment designed to help brokers and agents grow.

Is this only relevant for large teams?

No. This becomes relevant as soon as a leader wants to grow beyond their own production. Even a small team can feel the effects of weak systems, weak retention, and unclear development paths.

What is the real next level for many strong agents and team leaders?

Often, it is not just about selling more homes personally. It is about building a stronger place for other agents to succeed and stay.

Download the Franchise Guide

If you are at the point where personal production is no longer the main challenge, and you want to build a place other agents actually want to stay, Sellstate’s Franchise Guide is a strong next step. Sellstate positions its broker model around leadership support, ongoing training, connected technology, and corporate-paid revenue sharing designed to help brokers grow stronger teams and stronger businesses.

Download the Franchise Guide