When a real estate agent leaves a firm, the most common place they go is another real estate firm. Not out of the business. Not into retirement. Down the street.

The National Association of REALTORS® put numbers on that in an October 16, 2026 analysis of agent movement and retention. Brokerages said 34% of the agents who resigned from them left to join another real estate company. On teams and hybrid firms, it was 47%.

I'm Rob Bergeron, Owner–Realtor of Winner Realty in Louisville, Kentucky. I've been in this business since early 2013, and I hung my license at four different companies before I started my own. So I'm part of this data. I also own a brokerage now, which means I have an obvious interest in agents moving. That's why every number below links back to where it came from. Check it yourself.

The short version

• About one in three agents who leave a brokerage go to another brokerage. Retirement accounts for 27% of departures. Starting your own firm, 6%.
• Agents move most in the middle of their careers. Nearly a quarter of agents with 6 to 10 years in the business joined their current firm within the last year.
• The agents who move are often producers. Among agents who switched in the last two years, 17% of those with 6 to 10 years of experience did more than $8 million in volume.
• Bigger firms worry about it more. Only 8% of firms with 1 to 10 agents call retention a top challenge, compared with 53% of firms with 500 or more.
• Most agents aren't leaving real estate. Three out of four Realtors say they're very sure they'll still be in the business two years from now.

How common is switching brokerages, really?

More common than staying put, once you've been around a while.

NAR's data comes from two surveys. The 2025 Profile of Real Estate Firms asked brokerages why their agents left. The 2026 Member Profile asked Realtors themselves about their careers. Here's how firms described departures:

• 34% of departing agents left to join another real estate company
• 47% at team-based firms and hybrid firms, and 40% at virtual firms
• 27% retired
• 6% left to start their own independent brokerage

A separate August 2026 reader poll from The Close asked agents how many brokerages they've worked with over their careers. More than 73% said more than one. Among agents licensed over 10 years, 82% had switched at least once, and half had been with three or more. That was a newsletter poll, not a random sample, so treat it as a gut check rather than gospel. But it lines up with what NAR found.

If you've switched before, you're normal. If you're thinking about it, you're normal too.

When in a career do agents switch brokerages?

The middle. Not the beginning, and not the end.

According to NAR's Member Profile, nearly one in four agents with 6 to 10 years of experience joined their current firm within the past year. Compare that with 13% of agents who have 16 to 25 years in, and 8% of agents with 26 years or more.

The veterans settle in. Half of members with 16 to 25 years of experience have been at their current firm for 12 years or longer. For those with 26 or more years, it's nearly two-thirds.

That tracks with what I've seen. Your first brokerage is usually the one that trained you. By year six or seven you know what kind of business you actually run. You know whether you're a buyer's agent, a listing agent, an investor's agent, or something else. And you start noticing whether the place you're at was built for that business or for somebody else's. I wrote more about that here: Signs It's Time to Switch Brokerages.

The agents who move are often the good ones

There's an old idea that agents who switch brokerages are the ones who couldn't make it. The data says otherwise.

NAR looked at agents who left their firm within the past two years and checked their production. Among movers with 6 to 10 years of experience, 17% did more than $8 million a year in sales or leasing volume. For movers with 11 to 15 years, and with 16 to 25 years, it was 16%. For movers with 3 to 5 years, 2%. For movers with 2 years or less, none.

A Q3 2026 report from Recruiting Insight and Lone Wolf Technologies, covering four markets, found something similar from the other direction. The top 10% of agents who moved carried 41% of all the production that changed firms.

So when a mid-career agent with a real book of business starts asking questions, they're not failing. They're shopping. More on that in what top producers look for when they switch.

Bigger brokerages feel it more

NAR asked firms whether agent retention is one of their biggest challenges over the next two years. The answer depended a lot on size:

• Firms with 1 to 10 licensees: 8%
• Firms with 26 to 99 licensees: 45%
• Firms with 500 or more licensees: 53%
• One office: 14%. Three offices: 44%.
• Firms doing $250 million to $500 million a year: 53%. Firms doing $500 million to $1 billion: 57%.
• Hybrid firms: 30%. Team-based firms: 20%.

I want to be fair about what that means. A small firm has fewer agents to lose, so of course it worries less. This isn't proof that small brokerages are better. It does tell you where the churn is, and it matches where agents are landing. The Recruiting Insight report found 53% of agents who leave national brands end up at independent firms. And according to NAR, 53% of Realtors already work at an independent company. I break that down in Small Brokerage vs. Big Brokerage.

What actually pushes agents out the door

NAR's firm survey tracks where agents go, not every reason why. But two findings from the Recruiting Insight report surprised me.

First, agents whose production fell by 25% or more were no more likely to switch than anyone else. A bad year alone doesn't move people.

Second, agents in an office that had just lost 20% or more of its roster to competitors were 1.9 times as likely to follow. People move when the people around them move.

Here's what I hear from agents across Louisville and Southern Indiana when they reach out. Deals feel heavier than they used to, because there are fewer of them and each one carries more weight. Some are paying for expensive portal leads and watching the math stop working. Some just don't feel supported when a deal is falling apart at 7 p.m. None of that shows up in a split comparison. All of it shows up in whether you're happy.

Before you switch, ask these five questions

• What do I pay every month, whether or not I close anything?
• What's the split, what's the cap, and what's included in it?
• Where do my leads come from, and what do they cost me?
• Who answers when a deal is falling apart on a Friday night?
• What happens to my pending deals and listings if I leave? Get that answer in writing before you sign.

The full list is here: Questions to Ask a Brokerage Before You Join. In Kentucky, the paperwork side has some real traps, including a 30-day clock that starts with an email from the Real Estate Commission, not your last day. I wrote a full guide on that: How to Switch Real Estate Brokerages in Kentucky. Indiana agents, here's yours: How to Switch Real Estate Brokerages in Indiana.

Where Winner Realty fits

Winner Realty is a small, independent brokerage in Louisville, licensed in Kentucky and Indiana. We're built for agents who want real deal flow, including investor and commercial deals, without buying leads. Here's what that looks like:

• Three ways to get paid: keep 100% for $595 a month, an 85/15 split for $100 a month, or a 60/40 plan for $50 a month for newer and part-time agents. Each has a $295 fee per closing. Details are on our Join page, and I walk through the math in Real Estate Commission Splits Explained.
• Residential and commercial leads in your inbox every morning at 6:30. We don't pay for portal leads.
• A principal broker, Lisa Tucker, licensed in both Kentucky and Indiana, plus contract-to-close support from our COO, Colleen Reilly.
• Extra income streams beyond commission through Winner Services.
• A $500 bonus for every agent you refer who joins.
• 1% of our net profits go to Hand in Hand Ministries, which builds homes for families who need them.

Other licensed agents hire me to sell and buy their own homes. I take that seriously, and I run this brokerage the same way. We don't promise income or production numbers. We'll show you exactly what you'd be working with, and you can call any of our agents and ask them how they're supported.

Not in Kentucky or Indiana? We're open to bringing Winner Realty or Winner Commercial to new markets. If you'd like to build one where you are, here's how that conversation starts.

Book a time with me here, or text or email me at (502) 305-8915 or Rob@thewinnerrealty.com. You can see all three of our plans on our Join page.

Frequently asked questions

How often do real estate agents switch brokerages?

Often, especially mid-career. NAR's 2025 Profile of Real Estate Firms found 34% of departing agents left to join another real estate company. In NAR's 2026 Member Profile, nearly a quarter of agents with 6 to 10 years of experience had joined their current firm within the past year. In an August 2026 poll by The Close, 82% of agents licensed over 10 years had switched at least once.

Why do real estate agents leave their brokerage?

The most common destinations are another brokerage (34% of departures, per NAR) and retirement (27%). Agents tell us the deeper reasons are cost, support, lead flow, and whether the firm fits the business they actually run. A 2026 Recruiting Insight report found agents were 1.9 times as likely to leave when their office had just lost 20% or more of its agents.

When is the best time in your career to switch brokerages?

There's no perfect year, but NAR found agents with 3 to 15 years of experience are the most likely to have joined a new firm recently. That's usually when an agent knows what kind of business they run and whether their brokerage was built for it. Line up the license transfer so it happens the same day you leave. In Kentucky, you can't practice between brokerages.

Are top-producing agents more likely to switch brokerages?

Mid-career top producers do move. Among agents who switched firms in the past two years, NAR found 17% of those with 6 to 10 years of experience did more than $8 million in annual volume. A 2026 Recruiting Insight report found the top 10% of movers carried 41% of all the production that changed firms.

Do small brokerages keep agents better than large ones?

Small firms report far less worry about it. NAR found only 8% of firms with 1 to 10 licensees call retention a top challenge, compared with 53% of firms with 500 or more. Small firms also have fewer agents to lose, so it isn't proof they're better. It does show where the turnover is concentrated.