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Mike Miedler knows that retention is a concern for brokers. And soon, Century 21 could become a concern for its competitors.
The franchiser is on the cusp of launching an internal competition for its brokers to recruit agents and acquire companies next month.
Miedler — the franchisor’s CEO — said other unnamed competitors have become “collectors” who are focused on growing agents no matter what. But he’s focused on attracting top producers to Century 21 so that everyone can share in the upside, and he’s preparing to roll out a way for brokers at the brand to sell that story and bring more agents into the fold.
Miedler is scheduled to speak at Inman Connect San Diego next month. He spoke with Inman about his goals for growth, the debate around private listings and the biggest issues in real estate today.
Below is a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.
INMAN: Inman bought a survey company a year or two ago to check in with brokers and agents and consumers. What do you think is the No. 1 concern that brokers have been telling us is their top concern for the past six months to a year?
Mike Miedler: I would probably say either inventory from a consumer standpoint, or, if you’re talking about a brokerage standpoint, I’d probably say commission pressures.
That’s what I would have assumed too, both of those. It’s actually retention and recruiting. Three out of every four agents say they’re getting hit up by a competitor to jump ship. Brokers are saying they feel the heat, both to keep the people that they have and to gain new ones. In your role, how do you set the tone and tenor and address that concern?
I did a stint out in the Cleveland area marketplace, four or five brokers in three days. I’ve been out to Southern California recently as well. But no matter where I sit down with brokers, even though agents aren’t moving as much as they used to — maybe that’s because there’s been a reduction or a culling of those agents, maybe it’s because those agents who were doing business aren’t even doing business anymore because the market is constricted — but the No. 1 thing that these guys and gals are all saying is that every single day, they feel a fight to prove the value that they have as an agency in order to retain those agents and keep them here.
A lot of that comes around price pressure [and] commission pressure. Agents are feeling the pinch, obviously, on the consumer side. Units remain restricted and the market is continuing this now two-, three-year stint of just low units. And now we’re seeing a weakening in prices.
So I feel like everybody’s asking a lot of questions when the market gets tough, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Probably every broker is feeling that pressure. When they get an agent coming into their office, ‘Hey, you got a minute?’ They’re always scared about where that conversation is going to head.
What do you do about it?
From the middle of August through the beginning of April in 2026, we are going to be putting on a competition on recruiting and retention for our brokerages. I find that a lot of brokers in this business, they don’t recruit because they either don’t know what to say, or it’s just a difficult thing to do.
So a lot of people aren’t actively recruiting in their market, even though a lot of them have tremendous value and can prove production increases for the agents that they bring into their system.
We’re literally putting this plan together, which is going to be this competitive series, a week by week challenge with step by step instructions, to have our brokerages in this marketplace talk to agents about how they can help put more money on their 1099, help them do more business and, at the end of the year, be better off from a professional standpoint than they are right now with some of these self-serve companies.
It is so ultra competitive right now in that every single day, if you’re an agent doing business, you’re getting a text, an email, a call. Like every single day, any agent that does any amount of business in the marketplace is getting hit up by all the competition. And quite candidly, sometimes we kick dirt on one another.
So how do you win them over to Century 21?
Other brands have turned into what I call collectors. They don’t necessarily care about a more productive you; they just want more of you, whether that’s somebody who just has their license or someone who’s really good at the business. They don’t care. They just want to collect more agents.
From a local, independently owned and operated Century 21 perspective, we want to invest in the agents that we have and make them better so that everybody can share in the upside of what that can produce.
What are your goals for that competition?
We have an internal goal of bringing on 50 new conversion companies, meaning that we go out and work in a marketplace where we’re underserved. We bring a new entrepreneur who is a mom and pop today and has whatever number of agents and has the same aspirations and vision we do for growing in that market. So that’s our internal conversion goal.
We also have an M&A goal of about 25 M&As, meaning helping our existing Century 21 companies who are out there do the same thing, go into their existing market and grow horizontally or vertically through acquisition.
I haven’t put this out in public yet, but our hope is that we get a 10 percent lift in total agents across the system for Century 21 in between August and April.
In all your time in real estate, do things feel more divided among industry players?
I’m kind of, I don’t want to say embarrassed — I just think the free market and the consumer will eventually speak to what’s in their best interest on the Clear Cooperation front, and that we honestly shouldn’t have to go down this path and talking about it, debating it, reviewing it.
The consumer will speak and the free markets will take hold. Winners will be declared, if they don’t dig in their heels and don’t do their fiduciary responsibility to their clients.
Let’s just say there’s an anonymous brokerage that is launching the broadest possible network of listings that don’t start on the MLS. Is that, in your opinion, the best thing for the consumer?
I don’t know that it is right now. The markets will speak. Maybe in the marketplaces that company might serve, it could be great.
A majority of listings, 90 plus percent, are going to be out there [on the MLS]. We’ve always had for sale by owner in this country. We’ve always had people who want to do things privately.
I believe that as long as you’re giving the consumer the full story and they recognize what they’re getting into and they understand the data and analytics and the whole kind of process around days on marketplace, listing price versus sale price and how quickly things occur, they’ll make the best choice for themselves. I believe in free choice.
You have to wonder if the ultimate goal is to put everything in one spot, if that’s self-serving or if that’s really the best thing for the customer. The free markets will play out.
You’ve said before that Century 21 has private listings tech in place, if need be. What did you mean there?
If need be, we do have the technology that we could do that if possible or if our consumers choose that route. We’re finding right now that they don’t. They want more transparency.
They want to be out in the public market. They want to get the most amount of eyeballs and the highest price for their property. But we do have the capabilities and the technology to do so.
