By reflex the answer is “yes.” But the answer really is, “it depends.”

Now more than ever it is important that we are extremely selective when hiring new agents. We owe it to them, we owe it to our current agents and we owe it to ourselves.

For the potential new agent just entering the industry, you have to admire their courage. In spite of the daily barrage of media, people all across the country are still becoming licensed and choosing real estate as their career. We owe it to them to make sure they have all the info they need when making this decision and we owe it to them to provide them with the systems, training and support necessary to make their new career work. If you are not prepared to invest in their success to a higher degree than you’ve ever done before, don’t hire them. They deserve better.

To our existing agents, we owe them a duty of selectivity. Sure it’s great to announce a new addition to the team, but if the existing agents just roll their eyes and groan, there’s a problem. If these seasoned agents are feeling vulnerable and challenged by the current conditions, imagine the impact that will have on your new agent. Also, imagine the impact on your company if the new agent comes and goes from your office without ever making a sale or taking a listing. It is a lose-lose scenario all the way around.

Lastly, we owe it to ourselves. If you’re a brokerage owner, you are well aware of the hard costs associated with every agent in your office. Not only in fixed overhead costs; but in opportunity costs. If that untrained agent loses just one inquiry, what does that mean to your bottom line? Let’s say you bring in 5 new agents per year who lose 10 transactions for your office; that could be a loss of over $60,000 in gross commission income (assuming an average sale price of $250,000 at 2.5{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} commission). And that is just scratching the surface.

Qualifying, interviewing, and training the right recruits are critical to the success of your business.