Knowledge Base
Onboarding a New Agent
Build the checklist once, then run it for every hire — with the uploads that matter filed as compliance records.
The shape of it
Four things happen, in this order, and they live on different screens.
- Recruiting — tracking someone before they have agreed to join. Optional.
- The template — a reusable checklist of everything a new agent must do. Built once, used for everyone.
- The user account — their login, role and billable status.
- The onboarding record — assigning the template to that person and tracking progress to 100%.
Build the template before your first hire, not during. Assembling a checklist while a new agent waits is how steps get skipped, and skipped steps on licensing and agreements are the ones that matter at audit.
Building the template
RealtySlate ships a starter template called New Agent Onboarding with eleven steps covering licensing, agreements, MLS, association, systems, profile, training and payment details. Most brokerages should edit that rather than start from nothing.
A template carries a name, an optional office scope, a status, and a description. Use a specific office only when that office genuinely differs — a separate association, or its own compliance rules. Only Active templates can be assigned.
Most brokerages end up with two or three: a full one for newly licensed agents, and a shorter one for experienced transfers who do not need training but still need agreements and payment details.
The starter steps
- Upload license — agent, 3 days, upload required, compliance record
- Complete independent contractor agreement — agent, 3 days, upload required, compliance record
- Join MLS — agent, 7 days
- Join Realtor association — agent, 7 days
- Set up email — admin, 2 days
- Set up CRM — admin, 2 days
- Upload headshot — agent, 5 days, upload required
- Write bio — agent, 5 days
- Complete training — agent, 14 days, admin review required
- Add bank/payment info — agent, 7 days, upload required
Note that not everything is the agent's job. Due dates count in days from when the checklist is assigned, not fixed calendar dates, so one template works for everyone regardless of start date.
The three switches that matter
Each step can carry three separate requirements, and they are often confused.
- Upload required — the step cannot be completed without a file. Use for anything where the document is the point.
- Admin review required — the agent marks it done, but it stays open until an admin approves. Use for anything you would not take on trust.
- Agent compliance record — files the upload as a named compliance record against the agent.
The third is the one worth understanding. Without it, a licence upload is a file attached to a task that will eventually scroll out of view. With it, the document becomes a named record on the agent — the difference between "we collected that somewhere" and being able to produce it.
For licences and agreements, use all three. Requiring the upload without review means nobody looked at what was uploaded, and a wrong or expired document sitting in the file is worse than a missing one, because everyone believes it is handled.
Onboarding an actual agent
Create their user account first, setting role, office and billable status. They receive an invitation to set their own password — you never set one for them.
Then open Agent Onboarding, choose the agent and the template, and assign it. Progress starts at 0%.
Assigning again is safe, and deliberately so. Assigning a template replaces unfinished steps while completed and skipped steps stay on the record. So you can correct a wrong template choice, or push out an updated one mid-onboarding, without destroying what the agent has already done or the evidence that they did it.
Add Custom Step puts a one-off task on this agent's checklist without touching the template — a state-specific licence condition, a hand-over from their previous brokerage. If you find yourself adding the same custom step a third time, it belongs in the template.
Making it actually finish
Two habits do most of the work. Check the record at the end of the first week rather than the end of the month, because the three-day licensing steps are the ones that stall. And clear your own admin steps promptly — email and CRM access block almost everything else the agent is trying to do.
- Progress stuck at the same percentage — check who owns the outstanding steps. It is usually an admin step nobody claimed.
- A step does not apply — skip it rather than deleting, so the decision stays visible later.
- An experienced transfer does not need training — build a second template. Skipping is a per-agent decision; a template is a policy.
- An office has different requirements — scope a template to that office rather than adding custom steps each time.
Recruiting, if you use it
Recruiting tracks people from first contact through application to joined, with its own pipeline, follow-up dates and referral fees. Entirely optional — if somebody has already agreed to join, start at the user account.
The number to watch is overdue follow-ups. Recruiting is lost to silence far more often than to a competing offer, and that count is the only place the silence is visible.