The 5-Step System to Adopt and Scale a Retiring Agent’s Real Estate Business

As a real estate agent, diversifying your income is crucial for long-term growth. One of the most overlooked opportunities to scale your business is right under your nose: adopting the business of retiring agents.

Retiring agents want to know their hard-earned clients will be left in good hands. For you, it’s an instant goldmine for expanding your database and market presence. In today’s episode of the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast, we break down the exact 5-step framework to make this transition seamless and successful.

📍 Key Takeaways:
Evaluate the Business: Do a deep dive into their online presence and CRM. An organized database is the backbone of a smooth transition.

Build Trust & Rapport: Create a joint video introduction with the retiring agent to build immediate comfort with their past clients and leads.

Define Roles & Expectations: Get clear on logistics and establish explicit agreements regarding final listings and commission splits.

Match Client Expectations: Deliver the same high level of care and local expertise the clients are accustomed to.

Handle Special Situations: Learn the family dynamics and unique needs within the database to provide a personalized, high-touch experience.

Resources & Links:

Real Estate Systems Snapshot: https://www.kimhughes.com/systems-snapshot/

Read the Blog: https://www.kimhughes.com/the-5-step-system-to-adopt-and-scale-a-retiring-agents-real-estate-business/

Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/twQvi4a7AW0

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Additional Resources:

📩 FREE RESOURCE: Download my Complete Checklist – 72 To-Do’s to Dominate Success in Real Estate to supercharge your strategy! https://www.kimhughes.com/72-to-dos/

Visit my website for FREE Templates: https://www.kimhughes.com/resources/free-downloads/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, it's Kim Hughes. I am your host for the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents podcast, and I am delighted that you are here with us today. Today we're going to talk about retiring agents and adopting agents. So if this is a new term for you, if you're a newer agent, this is where an agent that has decided to retire, but they don't want to just walk away from the business. They want someone to take over their business. And then, you know, maybe y'all have some kind of financial arrangement. I'm not going to go into financial arrangements in this podcast because I feel like that that is a personal thing between you and the retiring agent. But what I am going to do is give you five tips on things to consider and put into place if you are the adopting agent going over into the retiring agent. Okay. Welcome to the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast. I'm your host and real estate productivity expert, Kim Hughes. Join me as we focus on real strategies and implement real solutions designed for you to achieve major success in your business and life while getting you organized. So the first thing I want to very much talk about is there's a lot of moving pieces here. So I want you to be one of those agents that takes a lot of notes when you are going through this process. So as an adopting agent, that's what we're going to talk about today. But we will be doing a series of podcasts over the next couple of months that address more about the adopting agent, but also talking to the retiring agent. So make sure that you subscribe to this podcast so that you will get those podcasts so that can help you put your plan in place as you build your business. So one of the tips that I'm going to give you, let's call it tip number one, is to look at the retiring agent's business. That means look at all of the programs, look at all of the places that you can find them on the internet through social media, third-party programs, what designations do they have, what certifications do they have? And if they have these designations and certifications, is it important for you to have them as well, depending on her or his database? So keep that in mind, and that should be a discussion that you should have with your retiring agent. But I want to talk about the CRM. So hopefully the retiring agent has an organized CRM or will have one. I know agents do not like to work in their CRM, and I totally get it. But it's one of the most important things of your business. It is the lifeline of your business. So this could be a really good organizational tip for both of y'all. So as you're looking at the retiring agents database, you want to make sure that they have things categorized correctly. People are in the right places. So if she has past clients, you know, are they all in there? Does she have active clients? Does she have investors? Does she, you know, what does her database entail? So you want to look at that. And if it's not organized, then it's her responsibility to make sure that it's really organized by where everybody is. And then, you know, if it's a past client, what are the notes? Um, if they have a lead, what are those notes? If they are working with an active client, what are those notes? So notes can be your best friend when it comes to looking at another agent's database. So I would be the person that says, I'm taking over your business when you retire. And in return, I'm asking you to go through your database and everybody belongs in a category because you don't want to be second guessing. That's not going to be beneficial to you. Because if you reach out to a lead and they're in past clients and you talk to them as they're a past client, it's going to confuse the lead and then they're not going to want to look work with you. And the same goes for a past client. If they're in the lead category and you're calling them about being a lead because they came through a third-party program, they're going to go, what are you talking about? And right there, you have just lost your first impression. So make sure that your retiring agent make, you know, has her database in stellar order. Okay. Now, the second thing that you want to do is make sure that you understand, does she have a newsletter? What kind of email sequences does she send out? Um, you know, there's email sequences are going to be for pre-listing, listing, active, and under contract, and past clients. Those are the major categories. But then you'll have others, you know, like leads from third-party programs. And how you talk to them is going to be different, how you talk to everybody else. Past clients are different than everybody else. So if she has an email sequence that does um talk to that particular group, great. If not, then I would suggest that y'all start working on that unless you have one as the adopting agent and you can kind of migrate them into yours. Okay. But what I'm going to recommend for the adopting agent at the time that they take over the other agent's business is to keep those separated until you feel comfortable with the relationship in building that relationship. Okay. So that goes into tip number two. And that is building trust and rapport. So when you have a retiring agent, you want to understand what kind of a relationship do they have with their past clients? Do they talk to their past clients all the time, or have they not talked to them in over a year? What is that situation? Because if you're taking it over, you need to understand how you're going to step in and build that trust with her past clients, with her leads, with her active clients, etc. Now, granted, any active clients she has going into this relationship will probably be past clients at the end, but you still need to understand how she builds her relationships so that you can make sure that they fit along with what you do. Another part of that is when you're building that trust, I'm going to recommend that you come up with some kind of a strategy to introduce you to her past clients, her leads, etc. You need to be involved. And you don't want to wait until the day she retires and walks out of the country and goes on a trip to start trying to figure this all out. So this is baby steps. You know, we're going to take those little baby steps so that we are a success when it all comes together. So building that trust and everything is going to be, if they are getting a newsletter from her, then she should introduce you as the agent that's going to be taking over the database, her business, whatever she's going to say. So this can be a really important part of it to introduce you. And I always will tell an agent to do a video. What are your goals for the new clients? You know, for her past clients, which will be your new clients, you know, um, how you work, a little bit of your background. Um, you know, have a very casual, friendly, you know, um conversation together. It doesn't have to be so professional and just it's going to be fun and entertaining and all of that. And if you're not one or your retiring agent is not one to get on video, then you should put together a letter, an email, um, maybe do phone calls together, something like that. But I always say the best success is doing it together, showing y'all as a unity, okay? So building that relationship is going to entail of strategies. So if you, if she's an agent that does a lot of pop buys, then you might want to ride along with her. And when y'all take the pop-by gift to the client, you want to make sure that you have a little package. Don't put a whole lot of stuff in this, okay? You might even roll it up and tie it with a ribbon, you know, make it something that's fun. And when they open it, it should maybe have a little one-page bio about you. It has a picture, you know, your past success, um, you know, what your mission statement is, what your goals are, you know, things like that. But like I said, it should only be a one page. And then put um with that maybe the last quarter of market stats or the last six months of the market stats. Roll those together. And then when you give them the pop buy, now they have everything and they have the pop-by gift, which is always a feel-good. They've met you in person, and now they have a little information on you. Now they may not be ready to buy and sell, but if they're impressed by that presentation that y'all just did with the pop buy, they're going to refer you. So, right there, you're going to start building a rapport with them where they feel comfortable referring you. So that could be of a huge part of your business. Tip number three is going to be about what obligations or maybe what kind of uh commitment has your retiring client, I mean, the retiring agent uh has given them at that time. So if you have a retiring agent that you're going to maybe maintain the listing after she leaves, um, you're gonna have to take it into closing and all of that. That's one thing. I really don't recommend that. And so in this part of the tip, I'm gonna say, you know, if if your retiring agent is always going to have a deadline. She's gonna have a set date in her head of when she wants to walk away. So we're gonna use in this scenario, let's say December 31st. And here we are in June. So you have six months, okay? So you have six months to get comfortable with the new clients, have them where they trust you, they can communicate with you going forward. Whether she's retired or not, they can still reach out to you. And that's the preference, right? So let's say she gets a phone call in October and she has a new listing. Is it wise for her to take that listing, or would it be better for her to have you take the listing and she reap the rewards? Okay. So that is something that y'all might want to think about, especially in the finance area of the contract. Because if you're if she's giving you a client before she's ready to retire, she may not want to lose that entire commission. She may want to split that with you, she may do a referral fee. Whatever that is, y'all need to have that in place so that there's no misunderstanding, no hurt feelings, and nobody gets mad, right? Um, the last thing you want to do is have, you know, bad feelings about anything. But over that six-month period, y'all can work on how you're going to do that because everybody is going to be different in what they want and what they expect and what they get. Okay. So make sure that that agreement, that contract that y'all put into play is very detail-oriented because little things can come up that you need to be aware of that could affect the entire um, you know, relationship. Okay. Then the next thing you want to do is make sure that you are meeting her client's expectations. So if she is one of those agents where she's like, you know, if you need a plumber, you call me. If you need, you know, a dog sitter, give me a call. You need to know who those people are that she would recommend should one of her past clients need that. And that way they trust you as well because you've done your homework. You've gotten it all taken care of. So you want to be that agent that they're calling and saying, well, gosh, you know, I'm going on a trip for a month. I need somebody to house sit. Who would you recommend? So that way you're offering the same caliber of services that the retiring agent is offering. Now, you may say, I'm not doing that. I don't have time for that. Make the time. It's going to be worth it. Um, if you are, and and I would think anybody that's listening to my podcast takes their business very seriously, they will do whatever they need to do to make sure that the retiring agent retires with confidence and you have the confidence of all of the um past clients, anybody else in her database. We want this to work for both parties because we don't want a retiring agent walking away going, gosh, you know, is that gonna hurt my reputation? She may not be selling real estate anymore, but as an individual and a pillar in the community, she does want to keep her reputation intact. And she wants her past clients coming to her saying, you know, the the you know, Johnny Joe realtor that you took let take over your business did a great job. You know, there we would highly recommend him to anybody else. You know, you want that information going to her as well as to you because that's gonna just make everybody's relationship better. Okay. So you want to make sure that if she offers specific service that you're aware of it and you can decide if you're gonna offer that as well. Um, doesn't mean you have to, it just means you need to be aware of it. Um, if you're taking over a listing or any uh contracts after she retires, then you need to know all the details and you need to be involved in every step of the way because you don't want any surprises on your end, but you also don't want any surprises for the client, right? Um any challenges that that may come up, you know, that um, you know, like we had a client that when she was retiring her business, she worked with a very high caliber of people. And I mean, we're talking high, high-end. And so there was a lot of expectation on the adopting agent who was only a five-year agent, but showed a lot of potential and had the personality to deal with higher um, you know, higher priced homes, you know, a clientele that's a little bit higher than the norm. So make sure that you're comfortable with that and that you can meet those expectations because what we find is the higher the price the home sometimes is the higher the maintenance of the client. And you want to make sure that you can do that and you want to devote that time and you're not walking away with a sour taste in your mouth because that could be something where you know particular clients may have expectations that you can't meet. They may want services that you don't want to offer. Um, that could be a problem. So, you know, you have to deal with that on a, I think, on an individual basis, but at least the retiring agent should tell you about any challenges that may come up. Um, you know, in my opinion, you know, if you have a, if she's going through her past clients, one good thing to know is, yeah, you want to know about these people. You want to see her notes and, you know, how many kids do they have? How many dogs? Do they not have children? Are they just starting out? Are they empty nesters? What's their situation at the time that they um became a client of the retiring agent? And are there any handicap? You know, is there any special needs of that, you know, in this family? Those are really important to know because um, you know, if somebody has a child that's autistic, they don't want to have to go through that story again, you know. So you should be aware of what that family dynamics is. You know, maybe um somebody, a spouse had died, um, a child had passed away, you know, whatever that is, they're very hard conversations. But when you sit down with your um retiring agent and you're walking through all of these contacts or these past clients, then she can share with you that personal information. So it's not um a surprise to you or that they feel like they have to explain themselves again, because I wouldn't want to, you know. Um, but that's a good agent sharing with a good agent, in my opinion. So um the other part of this is, you know, when you are working through this, you know, I'm just hypothetically saying six months. If you want to get feedback, you want to um, you know, follow up with these people. So let's say, for example, you are going on pop buys with your retiring agents and you're meeting all of these people. So you met five people today. You want to go home, sit down, write them out, a thank you note, and you know, thank you for your time. It was such a pleasure to meet you. And I hope to, you know, um, you know, be able to help you with your real estate needs, whatever you want to say. If their kids were at home, if the dog was outside, if they had a cat, if they had a horse, had a snake, whatever that may be, and you knew about it, then you might want to say, oh, your dog Johnny was so cute, you know, blah, blah, blah. Um, or, you know, your son, you know, Skylar was such a pleasure to meet. What a cutie pie, you know, things like that. Little personal notes about that conversation. And that will mean a lot to the past client, and it goes a long way. Believe me. In the world that we live in, when you take a moment to pay attention to the person that you're talking to, um, you know, to go back and then re- and and then tell them, hey, you know, it was so great meeting you, and it was such a pleasure to meet your children, your husband, your, your dog, whatever. Um, people appreciate that. They went, wow, you know, she took time to really listen to me. And I'm not just a number, I'm an actual person to her. That's where you start building the rapport, which goes back to the other tip that I gave you. I think it was tip number one, where that's how you're building the rapport. Okay. Just like if you are standing in the grocery store line and the person beside you, I mean behind you, saw your shirt and it had your name on it and that you're a realtor, and you she reached out to you and y'all started talking, you always ask little things like, you know, oh, you know, if she says to you, oh, you're a realtor, I'm thinking about selling my home. Um, great. You know, tell me a little bit about yourself. And when you do that, that's where they're like, oh, wow, nobody ever asked me that. So that's an impression that you're making on that person. So make sure that you do that, okay? Um, it's really important. And if they don't want to go into it, that's fine, but at least you asked and they appreciate you asking, okay? So we're gonna wrap this up on the um adopting agent looking at taking over a retiring agent's business. Now, if this is something new to you, keep in mind that if you look at all the agents in your market or just in your brokerage, you know, who's gonna be retiring in the next two to three years that you can start working with now to develop a relationship to take over their business? Because as an agent that's retiring, again, I'm gonna, I've already said this once, but I'm gonna tell you again that if I'm at church and I just retired and you came in and I'm sitting there with one of my past clients, and they look at me and they're like, you know, why did you give him your business? That's not good look on the retiring agent. You want that person to go, oh my gosh, the person that took over your business is phenomenal. He's checking in on me, he's helping me, he's giving me market stats. He, I get his newsletter, I get tons of information about what's going on in the real estate market. That's what your retiring agent wants to hear. Because they, even though they're not selling anymore, they still have that reputation. And you want to make sure that they're very proud of the decision that they made, as well as you being appreciative to giving you a business that is remarkable. So start looking around, see who you know, and start building these conversations on, you know, who's retiring. Um, you know, this could be a great part of your income. You know, it's all about passive income, streams of income, etc. So the things that we've talked about in the last couple of months that would really help you is one is a really good expired listing system. And as you know, we have one, it's really good. We have the proof that it's Works, we have the testimonials. Um, we have agents that are making a difference with their expired listings system. Um, that's one way to make another income. Um, affiliate marketing is another great way to make an income. So if this is something you're not doing, it's something I highly recommend. And you can go back to a couple of podcasts and download my affiliate um guide for real estate agents. And then doing this with retiring agents, adopting their database is a win-win situation. So I hope that you will really think about this and really take a hard look in your office, maybe talk to your broker, um, you know, and talk to other agents in the community to see what's going on and who you can help. Because I, as an agent, would want somebody to walk in and say, yes, I can take over your business and treat your people the same way you treated them. Great. You know, and remember this if that agent doesn't have a good rapport with her past clients, this is an opportunity where you can really stand out and shine. So let me know what you think. Um, if you have any questions, put them in the comments. I would love it if you would give us a thumbs up on YouTube. And if there's anything else we can help you with, you just let us know. Thanks so much. See you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you know someone, and I bet you do, who would appreciate this podcast, please share it with them. As a reminder, this podcast can be delivered directly to your favorite device by using the subscribed links you can find in the show notes below or over at unstoppable realestateagents.com. Remember, it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Have a great day.