Our first look at the Inman x Lone Wolf 2026 Broker/Owner Survey exposed a hard truth: brokers know retention matters, but most are flying blind when it comes to protecting it. Asked to weigh the two directly, nearly three quarters (74%) rate retention as more valuable than recruiting, yet few have the systems in place to back that up.
Only 15% feel confident they’d catch a flight risk in time. That gap costs the average brokerage $18,036 and 200 days every time it goes unaddressed.
The follow-up question is simple: If the old playbook isn’t working, what does a better one look like?
It starts with intent, not instinct
The survey found that 94% of brokers say culture and leadership are the top factors experienced agents weigh before making a move, ahead of compensation, marketing support, and technology. That tracks with what brokers told us directly: agents rarely leave over one bad conversation. They leave because something shifted, over months, and nobody was tracking it.
It also explains why team departures hit so hard. When a whole team leaves at once, 64% of brokers say it was because a competitor recruited them away aggressively, not because of one issue anyone could have caught in a single check-in. Culture erodes gradually. Catching it requires watching for the pattern, not waiting for the resignation.
Where brokers are putting their money next
Brokers aren’t ignoring the problem. 38% plan to invest in technology and tools over the next 12 months, more than any other category, while compensation restructuring sits dead last at just 4%. The instinct is right: brokers already sense that better tools, not bigger paychecks, are what closes this gap.
The missing piece is that retention-specific AI adoption still lags every other function in the brokerage. 52% of brokers use AI for market analysis. Just 19% use it for flight-risk detection, even though 66% believe it could help. The tools brokers trust for everything else haven’t caught up to the one area they say matters most.
Closing the gap
This fall, Lone Wolf is launching Talent in BrokerMetrics, powered by Aspen AI built to close exactly this gap. Instead of retention living in one broker’s head, or a spreadsheet nobody updates, Talent surfaces early warning signs from a brokerage’s own production, engagement, and activity data, giving brokers a real head start while there’s still time to act.
The brokers who move first on this aren’t just stopping the bleeding. They’re building the kind of reputation and culture that makes recruiting easier too, turning retention from a defensive scramble into a genuine competitive advantage.
Get ahead of it
Join the VIP list for early access to Talent in BrokerMetrics before it’s available to the rest of the industry.
Lone Wolf is the leading provider of real estate technology in North America, serving brokers, agents, and MLSs with tools spanning transactions, back office, marketing, and analytics. Learn more at lwolf.com.
