Brokerage Support
What Agents Expect From Broker Support and Access
Updated
Bottom line: Your broker should give you two things: people who take marketing, technology and compliance off your desk, and leadership you can reach. Agents who recently left a brokerage named both as missing.
What do agents who left a brokerage say was missing?
Mike DelPrete interviewed agents who had recently left a brokerage, and a lack of support came up among their biggest pain points. Tech overload sat beside it in Mike DelPrete's findings.
Access was part of the same complaint. One agent in Mike DelPrete's study said they may have talked with their broker only 10 times in 13 years.
On a busy practice, each of those gaps is time spent away from clients.
Does the money matter more than the people?
Mike DelPrete's research treats financial terms and technology as important, but found that emotional alignment, leadership accessibility and belonging drove loyalty and satisfaction.
So when you compare offers, the split is one line. Who you can reach is another.
Does the brokerage model change the support you get?
HousingWire's comparison of flat-fee and traditional models lists limited training and marketing support as a typical drawback of flat-fee brokerages.
HousingWire lists extensive training, mentorship and marketing resources as a strength of the traditional model, with significant investment in agent development.
Ask any broker you are weighing to name who handles each of those for you.
What sits behind you at Keller Williams Southwest?
Our office at 1650 Highway 6 in Sugar Land has 14 people behind you. Their work covers marketing, technology, compliance and productivity coaching.
Those are four kinds of work a busy practice does not have to carry alone. When technology is the strain, there is a person on staff for it.
How much say do agents have in how the office runs?
A 12-agent Associate Leadership Council sets office strategy at Keller Williams Southwest.
For you, access means a seat where decisions get made, not only a broker who answers the phone.
Filed in The team, for agents who are no broker contact.
Questions & answers
What do Sugar Land agents ask about this?
Who did Mike DelPrete actually talk to for that study?
Mike DelPrete's study rests on 10 in-depth interviews from June 2025, all with agents of at least five years in the industry. Each had left a brokerage within the previous six months, according to Mike DelPrete. Their annual sales ran from $3.5M–$35M. These are producing agents with a recent move behind them, so their points about support and broker contact come from people who have weighed both sides.
Ten interviews is a small group. Treat the findings as what experienced movers said, rather than a count of the whole industry. The sales range is the useful part for a high-volume practice. The voices include agents carrying real volume, describing what was missing when they decided to go.
How often would I actually sit down with someone about my business here?
Every week. Keller Williams Southwest provides weekly one-on-one coaching, and your yearly business plan is reviewed every month. Classroom training runs alongside both. For a practice that is already producing, the weekly session is the place to decide which work to hand to the staff, and the monthly review checks whether the plan still fits your volume.
A weekly one-on-one puts a conversation about your business on the calendar instead of leaving it to whoever has a free hour. The monthly review gives each session a fixed reference point. Coaching then ties back to the numbers you set for the year, rather than to whatever came up that week.
Who actually runs the office, and what does the team say it stands for?
Jana Hayes is Team Leader and Operating Partner at Keller Williams Southwest, Powered by Keller Williams. The stated values of the office are Growth, Collaboration, Community. If access to leadership weighs in your decision, ask to meet the person in that role before you compare anything else. A name and a title give you someone specific to put your questions to.
Mike DelPrete's research named leadership accessibility among the factors that keep agents loyal and satisfied. Meeting the operating partner early lets you judge that for yourself, on your own terms.