If you've built a brokerage beyond a few million dollars in revenue, you already know that the wrong hire costs far more than the fees and time invested in that person.
A bad hire can cost months of momentum, weaken team morale, and sometimes result in losing clients you may never get back.
I've made these mistakes myself over more than 25 years in commercial real estate.
Here's what I would tell any brokerage owner or manager before making their next hire.
Mistake #1: Hiring for Production Before Culture Fit
Early on, it's tempting to hire anyone who can close deals.
Production numbers are easy to measure, and additional revenue can solve a lot of short-term problems.
But a high performer who doesn't fit your culture can become a slow leak inside the organization.
They may erode trust with the rest of the team, resist coaching, and eventually take clients—or even agents—with them when they leave.
The fix is simple:
Screen for culture fit first and production second.
A B+ producer who believes in your team's values will often outlast an A+ producer who doesn't.
Mistake #2: Underestimating the Challenge of Hiring New Agents
At any given time, we typically had two to four new agents in the pipeline.
Our interview process included a phone interview followed by an in-person meeting, where we explained how the training and business-building process would work.
The training itself included classes five days a week at 8:30 a.m. with our CEO, along with opportunities to participate in showings, pitch meetings, and listing presentations with senior agents.
Attendance was rarely the issue.
The new agents consistently showed up for training.
Building their book of business was a different story.
We asked them to make a minimum of 70 to 100 calls per day. They often started strong, but over time, many found reasons to let that number slip.
Content creation followed a similar pattern.
We asked for:
Two to three social media posts per week
One article per month
Consistent participation in personal brand building
The monthly article could be used as a blog post and as a way to promote the agent individually.
However, many agents only posted occasionally and rarely completed the article unless we set a firm deadline.
Both the financial investment and time commitment can become significant if you don't stay closely involved with new agents and help them build a strong understanding of the industry.
Once they begin seeing real results, however, it becomes much easier for them to put in the effort on their own.
Mistake #3: Not Defining the Role Before Posting It
We've recruited for Managing Broker, Office Manager, Commercial Real Estate Agent, and Digital Marketing Manager positions.
The postings that attracted the strongest candidates were always the ones where we had clearly defined the role's actual day-to-day responsibilities before writing the advertisement.
A vague job description attracts vague candidates.
It also creates the potential for a mismatch several months later, when the person you hired realizes the position isn't what they expected.
The fix:
Write the first 90-day plan before writing the job posting.
You should be able to explain what success looks like during:
The first week
The first month
The first 90 days
If you can't clearly describe those expectations, you may not be ready to hire yet.
Mistake #4: Skipping the Reference Check Because You're in a Hurry
When you need to fill a position quickly, it's easy to rush the vetting process.
Maybe the office is short-staffed.
Maybe the deal pipeline is slowing down.
Maybe the team needs immediate support.
I've rushed the process before, and it rarely ends well.
Candidates who look impressive on paper and perform well during interviews aren't always the people who show up consistently and put in the work every day.
Even brief reference checks can reveal things a resume never will.
The fix:
Make reference checks a non-negotiable part of the hiring process, regardless of how urgent the position feels.
A two-week delay is minor compared with the cost of a bad hire who remains with the company for six months.
Mistake #5: Relying on Gut Instinct Alone in a Growing Market
As we've expanded our recruiting efforts, tested tools designed for the brokerage industry, and explored what AI-assisted recruiting can add to the process, one lesson has become clear:
Gut instinct alone doesn't scale.
The approach that works when hiring your first five agents may not work when you're hiring your fiftieth.
As the organization grows, hiring decisions need to become more consistent and less dependent on the individual conducting the interview.
The fix:
Build a structured and repeatable recruiting process that includes:
Consistent interview questions
Candidate scorecards
Defined evaluation criteria
A clear recruiting pipeline
Standard reference checks
Hiring quality shouldn't depend on who happens to be conducting the interview that week.
The Bottom Line
Every mistake on this list cost us time, money, or both.
The good news is that each one is avoidable.
The solution is often the same:
Slow down on the front end so you don't pay for the mistake on the back end.
If you're building your brokerage team right now, use these lessons as a checklist.
They aren't meant to make you afraid of hiring.
They're a reminder that how you hire matters just as much as who you hire.
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