Get Top Agent Insights: Best Interview Formats for Launching Your Real Estate Brokerage
Launching your own real estate brokerage is a huge step, and understanding your future agents and partners is crucial. The wrong way to ask questions means getting polite, useless answers. How you conduct those initial conversations – through quick video messages (Loom), live video calls (Zoom), or face-to-face meetings – changes how deep the responses are and your ability to uncover true needs. Choosing the right method depends on where you are in your brokerage launch, who you're talking to (top-producing agents, team leaders, or strategic partners), and what you aim to learn.
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The Quick Answer
Use Loom for initial contact with busy agents or team leaders. Send a short video explaining your vision for the new brokerage and ask if they'd talk. It's less intrusive than a cold call. Use Zoom for deeper discovery conversations. When you need to understand an agent's current brokerage pain points, probe their commission split preferences, or get feedback on your technology stack, Zoom lets you read their tone and follow up in real time. Use in-person when stakes are highest. Think recruiting a powerhouse team, securing a major referral partner, or pitching an investor. Showing up at their office (or a neutral location) signals serious commitment to building your real estate firm.
Side-by-Side Breakdown
Loom: Free–$15/month. Async video messages. Best for warming up cold contacts like a top agent you admire on LinkedIn or sharing an early mock-up of your brokerage's agent-facing dashboard. A quick video asking for 2 minutes of their time often gets a better reply rate than a generic email. Weakness: No live back-and-forth; you can't immediately ask "Why?" when they mention a challenge with their current CRM.
Zoom: Free (40-minute limit for groups) to $15/month. Live video call. Ideal for real discovery conversations. You can hear an agent's hesitation when discussing commission caps, see their excitement about a new lead generation tool, and dive deeper into their ideal brokerage culture. Weakness: Requires scheduling; busy agents might ghost 30–40% of the time on initial cold outreach.
In-person: Highest quality signal, but factor in travel time and coffee costs. Best for critical interviews with influential broker-owners, potential core team recruits, or when validating local market trends with a developer. Observing an agent's current office setup or how they interact with their CRM in their own space reveals hidden issues. Weakness: Limited by geography; very time-consuming for each interaction.
When to Choose Loom
Use Loom to send a personalized video introduction to busy real estate professionals. Instead of a cold text email asking for 30 minutes, a 90-second Loom explaining your vision for a new brokerage and why you value their input has a much higher response rate. For example, send it to a team leader you want to recruit, asking about their current marketing challenges. You can also use Loom to showcase a sneak peek of your brokerage's new agent portal or a unique lead gen system and ask for recorded video feedback.
When to Choose Zoom
Use Zoom for all your actual discovery conversations, especially when meeting a busy agent or team isn't practical. The live video format lets you explore key topics like agent support, technology needs, or training programs. If an agent mentions a unique challenge with their current brokerage's transaction coordination, you can immediately pivot and ask more about it. Always record these sessions (with permission) and review them later. Both what agents say and how they say it are vital data points for your brokerage's business plan.
When to Choose In-Person
Choose in-person interviews when you're validating local market needs, assessing a potential co-working space for your brokerage, or needing to observe agent behavior firsthand. For instance, watching a top-producing agent manage their CRM workflow in their current office can reveal bottlenecks that no amount of questioning would. In-person meetings are also essential for high-level conversations with established broker-owners, major real estate developers, or key investors who expect a face-to-face pitch for a new real estate firm. It shows you're serious about building a significant presence.
The Verdict
The most effective approach for new real estate brokerage owners is this sequence: First, send a Loom video to warm up a prospective agent or partner, earning their interest for a meeting. Then, conduct a 30-minute Zoom conversation to deeply understand their needs, using a structured approach like The Mom Test framework. Always record and transcribe these calls with tools like Otter.ai. Save in-person meetings for your most critical potential recruits or strategic partnerships when logistics truly allow.
How to Get Started
Start by recording a 90-second Loom video. In it, introduce yourself, explain your vision for your new real estate brokerage, and specifically state what you're hoping to learn from them. Send this video to 10 top-producing agents, team leaders, or potential referral partners you've identified on LinkedIn, through industry associations, or via direct email. In the video, ask one simple, open-ended question at the end, like "What's the biggest challenge you face with your current brokerage's tech?" This makes it easy for them to reply. For anyone who responds, follow up immediately with a Zoom calendar link.
RECOMMENDED TOOLS
Loom
Record and share short videos for outreach and prototype demos
Typeform
Follow up Zoom interviews with a structured survey to collect consistent data points
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Should I record my customer interviews?
Always, with permission. Recordings let you review what you missed in the moment, share key clips with co-founders or advisors, and build a library of customer language you can use in your marketing.
How do I get people to agree to an interview?
Lead with curiosity, not pitch. Say: 'I am researching how [their type of business] handles [problem area]. I am not selling anything. Would you spend 20 minutes telling me about your current process?' Most people agree when the ask is genuinely about them.
How many interviews do I need?
After 5 interviews you will start hearing patterns. After 10–15 you will hear most of what there is to hear in that segment. Aim for 10 minimum before drawing conclusions.
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