The Q2 2026 Agent Migration Report shows a clear shift in how real‑estate agents are moving within the industry, with internal transfers now outpacing switches to competing brands.
Agents remain active despite fewer brand changes.
External moves flat, internal transfers rise
Based on 113,372 records from four MLS corridors, the report found that agents changing to a different brand stayed essentially flat year‑over‑year, with 3,390 external moves in Q2—just six more than the same period in 2025. By contrast, name‑brand internal transfers rose from 526 in Q4 2024 to 800 in Q2 2026, marking a 52% increase over 18 months.
“Agents didn’t stop working. They stopped switching brands,” the document states. “External switching is essentially frozen while internal transfers have accelerated, and internal movers are the higher‑producing population.”
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Production gaps between mover types
Internal movers generate more volume than their external counterparts. The median annualized volume for internal transfers was $3.64 million, compared with $2.77 million for external moves—a 31% premium. Mean annualized volume stood at $6.79 million for internal movers versus $4.77 million for external, a 42.5% premium.
Total closed volume in Q2 reached a record $199.6 billion, up 6.4% from the prior year. Only 2.92% of productive agents changed brands during the quarter, roughly one in every 34 agents, a rate that has held steady across the seven‑quarter data set, fluctuating between 2.72% and 3.74%.
Elite producers are less likely to move. Agents in the $20 million‑plus production tier switched at just 1.47%, less than half the average rate. The report notes, “The population choosing to move is not the population at the top of the market.”
Concentration of volume among top movers
The distribution of production among movers is heavily skewed. The top 10% of movers—339 agents—controlled 41.3% of all annualized volume in motion, accounting for $6.68 billion of the $16.16 billion that changed hands in Q2. “One Tier 1 hire brings the same annual production as 13 Tier 4 hires,” the analysis says, suggesting that broad‑net recruiting is inefficient.
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Growth‑oriented brands are expanding their physical footprint while cycling agents faster through the front door. Traditional brands, meanwhile, are contracting footprints but retaining agents more effectively. Retention rates vary widely; the highest‑retention brand, “The Global Franchise Legacy,” held agents at 73.9%, while the lowest, “The Emerging Value Model,” retained only 58.6%.
Firms may need to treat internal mobility as a deliberate retention strategy rather than a side effect of turnover. Locking in higher‑producing agents could have a significant financial impact, especially given the premium internal movers enjoy.
Office size and regional trends
Office size emerged as the strongest predictor of group departures. Offices with 15‑59 agents were 1.6‑to‑1.67 times more likely to see five or more agents leave within a 30‑day window compared with the baseline. “An office at 15‑59 agents that lost 5‑10% of its roster in the prior quarter is the single highest‑value competitive‑intelligence target for the next 30‑90 days,” the report advises.
Broker‑owners should monitor two key metrics for each new hire: whether the recruit stays beyond 12 months and whether they reach steady‑state production within six months. Tracking these indicators could help firms better allocate resources in a market where external recruiting has become a precise, high‑stakes game.
