On Wednesday, the National Association of REALTORS® facilitated an online National Broker Networking event to provide a safe and productive space for brokers to connect with one another, talk about their pain points and offer solutions to implement in their businesses. Over 460 brokers were in attendance.
The hour-long Zoom event was facilitated and run by brokers. Veteran industry professionals and new brokers, boutique and large names, those who manage a handful of agents to those who manage several thousand agents, attended from all over the country, representing the strength and diversity of the broker network.
NAR provided the platform for the conversation, and the creation of the mastermind was largely spurred by Nykea Pippion McGriff, NAR vice president of association engagement, in collaboration with NAR’s three broker committees. The idea was that brokers working together to brainstorm and share solutions to their most pressing issues leads to a stronger, healthier industry.
An Event Built For and Led by Brokers
Understanding the time constraints brokers face every day, Vice President of Association Affairs Bobbi Howe and Sherry Fowler, chair of the Idea Exchange Council for Brokers, kept the introduction brief before moving attendees into breakout rooms of their choosing to collaborate and discuss the important issues they face in their businesses. The breakout rooms centered on three key issues: strengthening the talent pipeline, modernizing the brokerage using AI and broker tech essentials. Each breakout session was moderated by a broker.
Sharon Love-Bates, NAR director of emerging technology, was on hand listening to the tech needs and wants of brokers, as was Karen Willims, who oversees NAR’s global and commercial efforts.
In the Strengthening the Talent Pipeline breakout room, Sherry Maser, vice chair of the Idea Exchange Council for Brokers, and Byron Menke, vice chair of the Broker Engagement Committee first asked brokers which was hardest in today’s market: recruiting, developing or retaining talent.
The brokers in the room had a range of answers. Some struggled with recruiting while others noticed that it was the mid-career agents who have been with the brokerage five to seven years who were difficult to retain. After pain points were expressed, many brokers jumped in with solutions.
Some expressed great success with implementing mentorship and shadowing programs, noting that these offerings were beneficial for the new agents and more seasoned agents. Brokers found that mentorship and shadowing helped new agents get up to speed faster and gave seasoned agents a sense of purpose within the brokerage outside of selling.
A Recruitment and Retention Solution
Repeatedly, NAR’s REACH partner, courted.io, surfaced as a solution to recruiting and retention.
Brokers spoke at length about courted.io as a key resource they used in their markets to find and recruit agents. Making the tool even more valuable though is courted.io’s ability to predict when an agent might be thinking about leaving a brokerage. The platform highlights and alerts a broker when it observes that an agent might be thinking about moving to a different brokerage, helping brokers get in front of and mitigate a potential loss before it happens.
In the Modernizing the Brokerage breakout room, led by Casey McLeod, member of the Idea Exchange Council for Brokers, and Sabrina Brown, chair of the Broker Engagement Committee, some brokers highlighted balancing modernization with compliance as a source of concern. Others offered solutions they’d found in their modernization efforts, including understanding what errors and omissions insurance covers and doesn’t cover when it comes to AI use.
A Way to Scale and Maintain Compliance
NAR REACH partner BrokerBot rose to the top as a customizable solution that allowed brokers to scale and modernize while maintaining compliance. Brokers with agent counts of 40 up to the thousands found BrokerBot’s highly customizable features a boon to helping them enforce compliance and improve modernization.
Artificial intelligence was overwhelmingly the topic of choice in the Broker Tech Essentials breakout group, led by Crystal Elijah-Ramos, member of the Idea Exchange Council for Brokers, and Claire Killen, chair of the Small Broker Committee.
Many brokers highlighted Claude as their main and most beneficial AI tool because of its versatility and number of features along with a relatively low cost. BrokerBot came up again as a tool of choice as well, because of its range of features tailored to the needs of brokers. Overall, brokers noted that technology is and will continue to be a main source of innovation and concern at the brokerage level for the foreseeable future.
This mastermind was the first event of its kind — one that included breakout rooms and was largely broker-run — hosted by NAR. It was a deeply collaborative event between the association and broker committees. NAR also offers regular Broker Power Hours, advocacy updates and a suite of broker-focused toolkits to help brokerages thrive. All are available at broker.realtor.
The next opportunity brokers have to engage with an online event is at the Dec. 16 Broker Power Hour, where NAR CEO Nykia Wright, NAR 2026 President-elect Christine Hansen and NAR General Counsel and Senior Vice President Jon Waclawski will give an update on what the association is tackling in 2027.
