The Commercial Real Estate Industry Is Losing Its New Talent

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

18 Dec 2025

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The commercial real estate industry faces a retention crisis that most firms avoid discussing publicly. According to Joe Killinger, partner and co-founder of Commercial Brokers International, the vast majority of new commercial real estate agents leave the field within three years.

“It’s 87 to 92% after around three years” who exit the industry entirely, Killinger says. This attrition rate points to more than just a recruiting challenge—it exposes a structural failure in how the industry trains and supports new professionals.

This level of turnover places commercial real estate brokerage among the most difficult entry-level professional careers in the United States. By comparison, high-turnover sectors like restaurant management and retail typically see first-year attrition rates between 50% and 70%. Losing nine out of ten new agents within three years signals a deeper, systemic issue.

Why New Agents Fail

Several factors contribute to this extraordinary failure rate. Killinger argues that much of the industry is still “stuck in the good old boys network of the 70s,” where new agents are expected to build their business through cold calling and personal connections rather than modern marketing strategies.

This approach creates significant obstacles for younger professionals. “There’s so much more opportunity for a younger generation to come into this industry and market themselves,” Killinger says, but the traditional training model does not teach these skills. New agents are often left to figure out client acquisition alone, competing against established brokers who already have decades of relationships.

The financial structure of the business adds further pressure. Unlike salaried positions, commercial real estate agents work entirely on commission from day one. New agents must generate and close deals to earn income, often facing months without pay. Many cannot withstand this financial strain and leave the industry before gaining traction.

Recognizing this gap, Killinger developed a free booklet titled “Your First 90 Days in Commercial Real Estate” to help new agents navigate the critical early period when most attrition occurs. The need for such a resource underscores the lack of adequate onboarding and training at many brokerages.

The Broader Industry Impact

The 87-92% turnover rate affects more than individual careers—it undermines the industry’s long-term health. For brokerage firms, high attrition means wasted resources on recruiting and training agents who never generate revenue. Each failed agent represents lost time and investment.

For clients, this churn results in a workforce dominated by either newcomers or long-time veterans. The middle tier—agents with five to fifteen years of experience—is notably thin because so few survive past the early years. This imbalance can limit the quality and continuity of service available to commercial real estate clients.

Killinger also notes that many agents who do succeed eventually leave to start their own firms. “So many brokers get started right, and then they want to become broker-owner. They want to own their own company,” Killinger says. This pattern creates a secondary retention challenge, as successful agents leave to establish competing brokerages rather than staying to build the organizations that trained them.

The Modern Marketing Gap

Another factor hindering new agent success is the industry’s slow adoption of modern marketing, especially social media. “I mean, social media, the free marketing. Who doesn’t want free marketing?” Killinger asks. Despite the clear benefits, most commercial real estate firms still rely on traditional relationship-building and cold outreach, neglecting digital presence and content marketing.

Killinger’s involvement with the Commercial Real Estate Influencer Summit, which helps professionals use social media to grow their businesses, highlights how rare these skills remain in the industry. The fact that digital marketing requires outside organizations rather than being standard brokerage practice shows how far the industry lags behind.

For new agents, this creates a double disadvantage: they lack both the established relationships that veteran brokers enjoy and the digital marketing skills that could help them build a client base. As a result, many struggle to gain traction and leave before they have a chance to succeed.

Possible Solutions

Killinger’s approach at Commercial Brokers International offers a potential model for addressing the retention problem. The firm provides free educational resources, including guides for new agents and those aspiring to become broker-owners. By sharing “the mistakes we made, and this is what you can do to help with those mistakes,” Killinger aims to provide the institutional knowledge that most new agents never receive.

The company also embraces transparency in a field known for secrecy. Killinger describes meeting with competing brokerage owners to openly discuss commission splits and recruiting practices—topics usually kept confidential. “If the smaller people get together and work together, that combined energy is going to help everybody,” he says.

Whether these efforts can reduce the 87-92% attrition rate is uncertain. However, the willingness of a brokerage co-founder to publicly acknowledge the problem and invest in solutions indicates that some in the industry recognize the current model is unsustainable.

Why This Matters Now

The retention crisis in commercial real estate comes at a time when the industry faces broader challenges, including evolving client expectations, increased competition, and technological change. As more firms compete for a shrinking pool of experienced talent, the high failure rate among new agents will continue to strain the industry’s ability to serve clients and grow sustainably.

The data suggests the industry must overhaul how it recruits, trains, and supports new professionals. Without meaningful change, commercial real estate risks perpetuating a cycle of wasted talent and missed opportunity—one that neither firms nor clients can afford.