Real estate agency: how to build a candidate pool for recruiting agents and independent brokers in your area

Karim runs a real estate agency in a mid-sized city. Three sales agents — one of whom just announced he's leaving to join an independent broker network. He posted on the usual job boards, received twelve applications over three weeks — nine completely off-target, two who never called back, and one who accepted another offer before the interview. Yet he knows that on his market, there are dozens of people doing exactly that job right now: at competing agencies, as independent brokers, or transitioning from sales careers. The problem isn't that they don't exist. The problem is that they're not reading his job posting.

Recruiting a strong sales agent isn't about waiting for them to apply. It's about finding them where they are. And for that, you need one simple thing: an up-to-date list of people to contact in your area, with their contact details. Here's how to build that list properly — and how to approach those candidates without coming across as yet another cold-caller.

Why waiting for applications is no longer enough

Short answer: the best agents aren't actively looking. They're employed, performing well, and not browsing job boards. If you rely solely on posting a listing, you only reach people in active job search mode — a fraction of the real talent pool, and not necessarily the best fraction.

The real estate sales agent profession (ROME code C1504 at France Travail) is practiced both as an employee at an agency and as a self-employed or independent broker affiliated with a network. In practice, your area is full of identifiable professionals: they have business cards, direct numbers, and pages on their agency or network websites. They're publicly visible. They're just not in your inbox.

Recruiting through direct outreach isn't unfair poaching — it's standard practice whenever you're targeting candidates already in employment. The only thing that changes is your method: you build a targeted list, reach out individually, and handle people's data responsibly.

Where to find potential candidates in your area

Before building your list, know where to look. In any given area, the agents and independent brokers you could recruit fall into three categories, all publicly visible.

Competing agencies

This is the densest source. Every agency in your area displays its team: on its website, on its Google listing, and in property listings (the agent's name and number often appear directly on the listing). You don't need to buy a database to know who's selling what in your market — the information is right there in the window.

Independent brokers

Broker networks (such as IAD, SAFTI, Capifrance and others) publish directories of their advisors by city. An independent broker, by definition, has a personal website or page, a visible phone number, and often a strong presence on Google Maps and social media — since visibility is their livelihood. Some, tired of the isolation that comes with self-employed status, are precisely the ones most likely to respond positively to a well-framed salaried position offer.

Career changers and sales professionals

Not all of your future agents are currently working in real estate. Field sales reps, former bank advisors, commercial agents from other industries: many transition into property transactions. They're harder to identify with a job-title search, but they show up in local business directories, on Google Maps (shops, dealerships, mortgage brokers), and in professional groups in your region.

Building your contact list from public sources

The goal: go from "I know they're out there" to a usable file — name, agency or affiliated network, phone number, email, city. The most direct method for a specific geographic area is mapping.

Google Maps is, for this use case, the most comprehensive source. A search for "real estate agency" + your area returns virtually all local agencies, with address, phone number, and website. From there, you work your way to the teams. A search for "independent broker" + city surfaces self-employed agents directly. You build a first raw list by cross-referencing the listings.

Doing this manually is feasible but time-consuming: open each listing, copy the name, find the team on their website, note the number, repeat. This is exactly the type of collection a Google Maps scraping tool with CSV export handles in minutes: you pull all listings in an area at once, in a clean CSV, ready to enrich. The same logic as building a list of 500 targeted companies in an hour applies to field recruiting.

If you want to specifically target independent brokers, the approach is similar to the one described in our guide to building a compliant list of real estate brokers in an area: same sources, same rigor — just a recruiting angle rather than a partnership one.

Once you have the raw list, you'll often still be missing direct professional email addresses. That's the enrichment step: starting from a name and agency, find the likely email address and verify it before using it. This is precisely the step that turns a list of names into a list you can actually reach.

To place this topic in the broader picture, browse the guide to prospecting without a SIRET number.

Approaching a candidate the right way

This is where everything is won or lost. An agent already in employment is already receiving solicitations. If your message reads like a mail-merge, it's in the bin before the second line. The difference between a successful recruitment and spam comes down to three things.

Genuinely personalize. Start with something concrete about the person: a listing they're managing, their affiliated network, their preferred territory. "I noticed you cover the northern part of the city with [network]" is worth a hundred times more than "We're hiring a sales agent." The person needs to feel you're writing to them specifically, not to a list.

Be clear and honest in two sentences. State the position, the employment type (salaried, freelance, independent broker), a realistic salary range, and what makes your agency attractive (territory, property portfolio, culture, autonomy). The person should understand in ten seconds whether it's relevant to them. Making them guess wastes their time — and yours.

Give them an easy out. "If the timing isn't right, no problem — keep my contact." This sentence does two things: it sets you apart from the pushy recruiter, and it leaves the door open for later. Many great hires happen six months after the first message.

On format: a well-written personalized email often works better than a standardized message on a professional network. What matters most isn't the channel — it's precision. And if you're sending several dozen initial outreaches, pay attention to the technical side too: a bulk send from a poorly configured domain goes straight to spam. Better to check your domain deliverability before launching an email sequence.

Following up without harassing

Direct-approach recruiting plays out over time, not in a single message. That's why you need a follow-up system — not a complicated one, just a simple spreadsheet: name, agency, city, source, date of first contact, status (sent / seen / replied / interview / no follow-up), date of any follow-up.

The follow-up rule fits in one line: one follow-up, polite, five to seven days after the first message, with a new piece of information (a detail about the role, a concrete reason that might change their mind). Not three follow-ups. Someone who doesn't respond after two attempts isn't interested right now — note them for six months from now, don't hound them. The local real estate market is small: your reputation as a recruiter travels fast, in both directions.

What you need to respect regarding candidate data

Building a contact list from people's publicly available professional details means handling personal data. Good news: the framework is clear and accessible, and the CNIL (France's data protection authority) has published a recruitment guide covering it in detail.

Three points are sufficient to stay compliant in this recruiting context (not to be confused with prospecting property owners, which falls under a distinct legal framework):

• A legal basis. Processing data for a recruitment approach generally relies on the recruiter's legitimate interest — the CNIL notes that all processing must be grounded in one of the legal bases defined under GDPR, established in advance.
• Informing the person. The candidate has the right to know how their data is being used: in your first message, simply mention where you found the information ("I came across your profile on your agency's website" / "via your network's directory").
• The right to object. The person must be able to easily opt out of further contact. One sentence is enough: "Let me know if you'd prefer not to be contacted again, and I'll remove your details." And then actually do it.

On retention: data collected for recruitment purposes cannot be kept indefinitely. For a talent pool of candidates not selected, the CNIL's standard position is a retention period not exceeding two years after the last contact, provided the person has been informed (CNIL, recruitment for small businesses). After that, you delete. That's it — no overwhelming paperwork, just basic data hygiene.

FAQ

Is it legal to recruit a sales agent currently employed at a competing agency?

Approaching a professional in employment to offer them a job is a normal and lawful practice, as long as they are not bound by an enforceable non-compete clause and you are not inducing them to breach their contractual obligations. You're recruiting a person, not poaching a client database. One key precaution: never ask a candidate to bring data or listings from their previous employer.

Do you need consent before contacting someone for a recruiting approach?

No, prior consent is not required for a first recruiting approach based on publicly available professional contact details: the recruiter's legitimate interest serves as the legal basis. However, the person must be informed and must be able to object to being contacted again, in line with the GDPR framework referenced by the CNIL.

How long can I keep the contact details of a candidate who didn't respond?

For a talent pool, the CNIL's standard position is a retention period not exceeding two years after the last contact, provided the person has been informed. After that, you must delete the data — unless the candidate has explicitly agreed to a longer retention period.

What's the difference between a salaried sales agent and an independent broker for recruiting purposes?

A salaried agent works under an employment contract within the agency; an independent broker is self-employed and affiliated with a network, paid on commission. The recruiting approach differs: a salaried agent weighs stability and a base salary against freedom, while an independent broker may be receptive to a salaried position that removes administrative burdens and the isolation of self-employment. Tailor your message to the profile you're targeting.

How many candidates should you contact for a recruiting effort?

It depends on your area and how precise your targeting is. With a direct-outreach approach to candidates already in employment, many people simply won't be available at the time you reach out. A broad but well-targeted list (several dozen relevant contacts) mechanically increases your chances of finding the two or three people genuinely open to moving right now. A precise list focused on your area beats a mass send outside your target every time.

Can a small agency do this without expensive recruiting software?

Yes. Building the list uses public sources (Google Maps, agency websites, network directories). Tracking it fits in a simple spreadsheet. The only genuinely time-consuming step is collecting and enriching contact details — that's where an all-in-one scraping and enrichment tool saves the most time, with no need for a full ATS subscription. For solo recruiters facing the same challenge, the principle is identical: see building a candidate database without LinkedIn Premium and sourcing candidates without LinkedIn Recruiter.