New agent checklist for a brokerage

What to put in place before a new agent's first file, and what they should be able to see on their own.

A new agent onboarding checklist is not the document checklist on a closing. The closing checklist asks whether the purchase agreement and the disclosures are on the file. This one asks whether the person is in the office's records, on a plan, and able to open their own files. Skip it and their first closing is priced by whoever remembers the conversation from the interview.

Before they are on a file

Collect what your brokerage and your state already require for a licensee to hang a license with you. That packet is the broker's compliance file. It is not the same object as a commission plan. Keep it where the office keeps personnel records. Do not paste a license image into the commission sheet and call the onboarding done.

Then write down the commercial terms, in the same words you will use on the first statement. Which plan: a split until a cap, a fee-only plan, or tiers. The cap amount, if there is one. The day the cap year starts, which is usually the agent's own anniversary with the office, not January 1. Whether a transaction fee is charged on every closing, including after the cap. Whether a team fee comes off the agent's side. The start date those terms apply from. If any of those are still a handshake, do not put the agent on a live file.

How they get into the office's tools

Add the person to the roster under the name the office will use on files. They sign in with their Google account or a Gmail address, or, where the office offers it, with Microsoft. An exact address on the roster is what a statement email uses. Turning someone off in Google Admin ends their access within an hour. Marking them as left on the roster ends it at once. Both belong on the checklist for the day someone leaves, which is the other end of onboarding and is worth writing now.

Tell them what they will see. Their own statements, their pay this year, their cap progress, and the day their next cap year opens. They do not see the office's figures. Teammates see each other's pay unless you make that team's pay private. Saying this on the first day prevents the screenshot in the group chat later.

Their first file

Open one file with them, not a tour of every screen. A file needs an agent, an address and a price. A client is a name and a role. No email address is required to save the file. Show them the document checklist their file will carry, and that they drop documents on the file rather than emailing the office a zip archive. A document the office cannot match to a line waits for a person to place it. It is not guessed.

Show them the dates the office watches. Closing, inspection and financing are the ones that slip. The transaction timeline calculator will list those from a contract date and a closing date while you are sitting with them. It does not create the file. It gives you the dates to type onto it.

What the office still does

Onboarding is not finished when the agent can sign in. Someone at the office approves documents, moves the file through review, and closes it from final review. The agent does not pay themselves by advancing a stage. Pay & archive, when the figures are right, is what issues the statement. Walk that path on a file that is not a real client's, or on their first file with you watching, before they are alone on a Friday.

The cap they were promised has to be the cap the first closing uses. Set the anniversary before that closing is paid. A cap year that starts on the wrong day is very hard to explain on the second statement. The page on how to track agent commission caps is the longer version of that rule.

A short list you can print

License and brokerage paperwork, in the personnel file. Plan, cap amount, cap-year start, and fees, written down. Roster entry and the sign-in they will actually use. What they can see, and what their team can see, said out loud. One file opened together: address, price, checklist, and the dates. The first statement compared with the plan before it is treated as routine. The day they leave: mark them left, and confirm access ended.

What belongs inside each of their files after that, document by document, is a different list. What to keep in a transaction file covers the listing file and the buyer file. Do not merge that list into onboarding or the new agent will think compliance paperwork and a purchase agreement are the same folder.

Questions brokers ask

What should be set before an agent's first file?

The plan, the cap amount if there is one, the day the cap year starts, and any transaction fee or team fee. Also the roster entry they will sign in with. A handshake is not a plan the first statement can be checked against.

How does a new agent sign in?

With Google or a Gmail address, or with Microsoft where the office offers it. The address on the roster is the one a statement email uses. Marking them as left on the roster ends access at once.

What can a new agent see?

Their own statements, their pay this year, their cap progress, and the day their next cap year opens. They do not see the office's figures. Teammates see each other's pay unless that team's pay is private.

Try it on your own office

Set up a plan, file a deal and close it before you decide. A desk you set up yourself through the signup page is free. If we set up your desk with you, what your brokerage pays is set out in our written agreement with you. Read about pricing.