Industry Updates
March 24, 2026
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Real estate agent turnover is one of the biggest challenges brokerages face, especially during an agent’s first few years in the industry. While recruiting often gets the most attention, education plays a critical role in long-term agent retention.
This creates an opportunity for real estate schools to support both agents and brokerages through structured learning programs. Schools that provide prelicensing, post-licensing, and continuing education (CE) for real estate agents help professionals stay licensed, build skills, and continue developing throughout their careers.
In this article, we’ll explore:
Why real estate agent turnover happens early in many careers
How education and CE support agent retention
How real estate schools can partner with brokerages to provide CE and training
How Dearborn’s real estate education content and the REcampus learning platform help schools deliver scalable education programs
Real estate offers strong earning potential and flexibility, but the early stages of an agent’s career can also be difficult to navigate. Industry data consistently shows that many newly licensed agents leave the profession within their first few years. This early attrition is rarely the result of a single issue–it’s usually the combination of several challenges that arise once agents begin practicing in the real world.
A few common factors contribute to early real estate agent turnover:
Uncertainty Around Building a Business: Many new agents enter the industry without a clear understanding of how to generate leads, market themselves, or build a sustainable client pipeline.
A Steep Transition from Licensing to Practice: Real estate licensing courses focus on laws, regulations, and foundational knowledge, but the day-to-day work of being an agent–prospecting, negotiating, managing transactions–requires additional practice skills.
Limited Structured Learning After Licensing: Once agents complete their prelicensing education, ongoing training can vary widely depending on their brokerage, leaving some agents without a clear development path.
Difficulty Applying Coursework in Real-World Situations: Concepts covered during licensing education don’t always translate directly into real estate transactions, which can make the first deals feel overwhelming for new professionals.
These challenges don’t mean the industry lacks opportunity. Instead, they highlight an important gap between initial licensing education and the practical skills agents need to succeed long-term.
For real estate schools, this gap presents a meaningful opportunity. By offering post-licensing education, CE, and professional development courses, education providers can help agents build confidence, strengthen their business skills, and continue learning beyond their initial licensing requirements. Over time, this type of ongoing education can play an important role in helping agents stay active, productive, and engaged in their careers.
For many agents, success in real estate depends on more than passing the licensing exam. Long-term growth requires continued learning, practical skill development, and access to education that evolves alongside the industry. When agents have structured opportunities to keep building their knowledge, they’re more likely to stay engaged in their careers and remain active in the profession.
Education plays a key role in real estate agent retention by supporting competency over time. Rather than treating learning as a one-time milestone, successful development models recognize education as an ongoing part of a real estate professional’s career.
Structured learning can support agents in several important ways:
Building Professional Confidence: CE and skill-based training help agents strengthen their understanding of contracts, negotiations, compliance, and client relationships.
Providing Guidance Early in a Career: Structured training programs give new agents a clearer path forward as they transition from licensing coursework to day-to-day real estate practice.
Helping Agents Adapt to Market Changes: Ongoing education keeps agents informed about evolving regulations, market trends, and technology shaping the real estate industry.
Encouraging Long-Term Engagement: When agents have access to consistent learning opportunities, they’re more likely to stay invested in developing their careers.
This is why education that stops at prelicensing often isn’t enough to support long-term success. Agents benefit from continued access to post-licensing education, CE, and professional development training that helps them expand their skills throughout their careers.
For real estate schools, offering education across these stages creates opportunities to support agents well beyond their initial licensing requirements while contributing to stronger professional development across the industry.
Real estate schools already play an essential role in the industry by preparing future agents for licensing. But their impact doesn’t have to end once a student passes the exam. Schools can continue supporting the real estate workforce by partnering with brokerages to provide education throughout an agent’s career.
Brokerages often want to offer structured learning opportunities for their agents, but building internal training programs can require significant time, staffing, and regulatory expertise. Real estate schools are well-positioned to help fill this gap by delivering reliable education resources that support agent development while allowing brokerages to stay focused on recruiting, mentoring, and running their businesses.
By extending education beyond prelicensing, schools can support brokerages in several ways:
Post-Licensing Education for Early-Career Agents: Courses that help new professionals apply foundational knowledge to real estate transactions, client relationships, and day-to-day business activities.
CE for License Renewal: State-approved CE courses that help agents meet regulatory requirements while staying current with industry practices.
Professional Development and Business Skills Training: Education focused on lead generation, marketing strategies, transaction management, and business growth.
When schools provide these types of learning opportunities, they become valuable partners in agent development. Brokerages gain access to trusted education resources without needing to build and manage training programs internally, while agents benefit from consistent learning opportunities that support long-term success in the industry.
Over time, these partnerships can strengthen the broader real estate ecosystem within a community–connecting education providers, brokerages, and agents through shared goals around professional development and industry standards.
Collaboration between real estate schools and brokerages can create a more connected education environment for agents. Rather than operating independently, schools and brokerages can work together to make professional education easier to access and more closely aligned with the realities of working in the real estate industry.
In many local markets, brokerages prefer to guide their agents toward trusted education providers instead of leaving each agent to search for courses on their own. As a result, some real estate schools become a brokerage’s preferred or exclusive CE provider, giving agents a consistent place to complete required coursework.
These partnerships often involve practical collaboration, such as:
Preferred Education Relationships: Some brokerages work with a trusted real estate school as their recommended provider for licensing education and CE courses.
Coordinated Communication Around Education Requirements: Schools can help brokerages stay informed about course availability, regulatory updates, and licensing timelines that affect their agents.
Brokerage-Level Access to Education Resources: Schools may provide brokerages with enrollment links, education guides, or informational materials that make it easier for agents to find and register for courses.
Industry Collaboration Within Local Markets: Schools and brokerages can strengthen professional networks by sharing educational events, regulatory updates, and learning opportunities with the broader real estate community.
When schools and brokerages collaborate in this way, education becomes more coordinated across the local real estate community. Brokerages gain a reliable point of contact for licensing updates and required coursework, while schools remain closely connected to the evolving needs of practicing agents. Over time, these relationships help create a more consistent learning environment where agents know where to go for required education and professional development as their careers progress.
For most real estate professionals, CE is one of the few consistent requirements that follows them throughout their careers. Nearly every state requires agents to complete approved CE courses in order to renew their real estate license, making CE a regular and unavoidable part of maintaining active status.
Since CE happens regularly throughout an agent’s career, it creates an ongoing connection between agents and real estate schools. Instead of interacting only during the licensing stage, education providers that offer state-approved real estate CE courses remain part of an agent’s professional development as regulations, markets, and business practices evolve.
Beyond meeting renewal requirements, CE helps agents stay informed and sharpen the skills needed to remain competitive. CE courses often support agents through:
Regulatory and Compliance Updates: Courses keep agents informed about changing real estate laws, disclosure requirements, and industry standards.
Market Insights and Industry Trends: Education helps agents understand shifting housing markets, consumer expectations, and emerging tools used across the industry.
Business and Operational Skills: Some CE courses explore topics like transaction management, marketing strategies, or client communication.
Ongoing Professional Development: As agents progress in their careers, CE offers opportunities to revisit core concepts and expand into new areas of expertise.
For real estate schools, offering CE creates a consistent point of engagement with practicing agents. Each renewal cycle brings professionals back for updated coursework, allowing schools to remain a trusted source of industry education well beyond the initial licensing stage.
As real estate schools expand their programs, managing course content, regulatory updates, and delivery formats can become increasingly complex. Education providers need reliable materials that meet state requirements while also supporting agents at different stages of their careers. That’s where established real estate education publishers like Dearborn play a critical role.
Dearborn provides trusted real estate education content used by schools, training providers, and industry organizations across the country. By offering comprehensive course materials aligned with state licensing regulations, Dearborn helps schools maintain high-quality education programs without needing to develop every course from scratch.
Dearborn’s course libraries are designed to support learning across the real estate career lifecycle, giving schools the flexibility to serve both new and experienced professionals.
Education providers can use Dearborn content to support a wide range of programs, including:
Prelicensing Education Materials: State-aligned textbooks, digital resources, and instructional content that prepare students for real estate licensing exams.
CE Courses: Approved course content that helps practicing agents meet license renewal requirements while staying informed about regulatory updates.
Professional Development Education: Additional coursework that explores specialized topics, business practices, and evolving industry trends.
Integration with the REcampus Learning Platform: Schools can deliver Dearborn course content through REcampus, providing an online environment for course access, enrollment, and student management.
By combining trusted course content with scalable delivery tools, real estate schools can expand their education offerings while maintaining alignment with state regulations. This allows schools to serve a wider audience of students and practicing agents while also providing brokerages with a reliable source of real estate education within their local markets.
Recruitment often gets the most attention in real estate, but retaining agents requires a broader support system. Education plays an important role in that system, particularly when learning opportunities are accessible throughout an agent’s career rather than limited to the initial licensing stage.
Real estate schools sit at the center of this learning network. By working alongside brokerages, education providers help ensure that agents have a clear place to turn for required coursework and more as their responsibilities grow.
Education partnerships contribute to a stronger professional environment by helping schools:
Create consistent learning pathways as they progress from licensing into active practice
Serve as a reliable education partner for brokerages seeking trusted resources for their teams
Stay connected with practicing agents through recurring education requirements
Support industry alignment around regulations, ethics, and changing real estate practices
When schools combine trusted course content with scalable delivery options, they can support a wide range of learners–from newly licensed agents to experienced professionals returning for CE. This allows education providers to remain closely connected with the real estate community while helping agents and brokerages navigate an increasingly complex industry.
