Your 2027 Plan Is Already Written

You Just Have to Read Your 2026 Numbers

It’s Q4, which means planning season. And most brokerage plans start the same way: “We’re going to grow 20% next year.”

That’s not a plan. That’s a result, and an opinion with a number attached.

Earlier this week I wrote that action produces data and theory produces opinions. So here’s some data. Take one West Coast region, for example. Dollar volume closed in Q2 2026 was up 3.4% over a year earlier. The number of agents switching firms was down 5.5%. Business is up. Switching is down. If your market looks anything like that, growth in 2027 will come from keeping people, not grabbing them.

And the clock is running. In that region, agent moves peak in January, which means the decisions get made now, in the quiet months. Your 2027 plan isn’t a January project.

What Your 2026 Numbers Are Telling You

For the Broker-Owner: Agents gained versus agents lost. Ten hires and ten departures isn’t growth. It’s a treadmill. And headcount can hide the real story. In that same region, the typical agent leaving a franchise brand produces $4.31M a year. The typical agent arriving produces $3.64M. Count who you sign. Then count what they produce.
For the Recruiter: Calls, then appointments, then hires. Where does the funnel leak? Plenty of calls but few appointments is a message problem. Plenty of appointments but few hires is a value proposition problem.
For the Manager: Who left, and why? Don’t wait for their numbers to warn you. Elsewhere in that data, 25% of agents who switched firms saw their production fall before they left. For agents who stayed, it was 23%. Almost no difference. Talk to them first. And when they say it’s the money, dig deeper. In 200 hours of Recruiting Insight exit interviews, money is one of eight reasons agents leave, and it’s rarely the real one. Look at leadership, coaching and culture first.
For Your Support Staff: Retention includes your team, not just your agents. Who did you lose this year: a transaction coordinator, an office manager, a marketing lead? Your agents felt every one of those exits. And where did transactions stall? Friction is a retention number too.

Start, Stop, More Of, Less Of

Before you set a single goal, run your year through the four questions I use for building better habits:

Start: What should we begin doing? Example: day-30, 60 and 90 check-ins with every new agent.
Stop: What took time and produced nothing? Example: mass recruiting emails to the whole MLS.
More Of: What worked that we didn’t do enough of? Example: one-on-one time with your top 10%.
Less Of: What worked a little but cost too much? Example: chasing signings you can’t keep.

How to Build the Plan

Pull the Numbers: One page. No spin. Agents in, agents out, staff turnover, appointments, hires, and the reasons people left.
Find the One Constraint: Is the problem recruiting volume, conversion, or retention? Usually one of them is holding the other two back. In today’s market, start with retention, for agents and staff alike. Keep before you chase.
Set Two Standards: One recruiting activity and one retention activity, measured weekly. Standards are activities, not outcomes. “Ten recruiting conversations a week” beats “50 new agents.”
Stack Them: Attach each standard to a habit you already have. That’s the habit stacking we covered earlier in this series.
Debrief Quarterly: Compare the plan to the data every 90 days. Adjust. Repeat.

Once you know where to aim, it’s time to march. That’s where Your 2027 Twenty-Mile March picks up.

A plan built on opinions breaks by February. A plan built on data compounds every quarter.

Look back. Then lead forward.

Win the day!

A System Will Produce What A System Will Produce, Nothing Less and Nothing More!