A few months ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the CEO of a large real estate company in the Midwest. The company operates in several metro areas and aggressively recruits experienced agents from competitors. This company meticulously tracks their recruiting and retention data and looks for patterns they can use to optimize their efforts. They also track the recruiting and retention performance of their competitors for the same reason. After reviewing data from more than 7600 offices in the service areas, I asked the CEO: What causes agents to move from one company to another?He answered: There are no macro patterns that make agents move in-mass around the marketplace–almost all of the movements are the result of micro patterns. Agents move for reasons such as: An office gains the reputation of being the new pace to be and picks up four agents. A popular manager leaves a company and takes six agents with him. An office changes their commission formula or reduces their service offering, and a few agents become disgruntled and leave. An agent decides to make a change, and her closest friend in the office decides to leave too. If agents mostly change companies due to micro patterns, recruiting execution is more important than ever. The most diligent recruiters end up the with most hires—regardless of the company for which they’re recruiting.