Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free real estate agent onboarding checklist is for managing brokers, branch managers and the people who onboard agents at brokerages and estate agencies. One run covers one new agent, from the licence check and the signed agreement to their first listing or buyer client and a 90-day review. It covers the commission split and fees, the brokerage’s compliance set-up, email, CRM, MLS or portal and e-signature access, brand materials, training on your transaction process and on fair housing or equality law, a mentor and shadowing, and a written business plan. The managing broker or branch manager signs the agent off before they work with clients alone. Answers on the first task add the US or UK compliance tasks, a contractor or employee note and, for experienced agents, a task to agree what they bring from their last firm. For the first meetings with buyers and sellers, use the Real Estate Client Onboarding Checklist.
A new agent can be fully licensed and still not ready to work for you. They need your agreement signed, your systems and forms, your way of running a deal, and training on the rules that apply to every client conversation. Most of that is the brokerage’s own process. Some of it is law, and the law depends on where the agent works.
This checklist covers the agent joining your firm. The first meetings with a buyer or seller are in the Real Estate Client Onboarding Checklist, and one deal from listing to close is in the Real Estate Transaction Checklist.
Licence: issued by each state’s real estate regulator. In California, for example, a salesperson without a responsible broker may not do licensed work.
Federal rules in the training: the Fair Housing Act, RESPA section 8 on referral fees and the FCC do-not-call rules.
Your choice, not law: MLS and association membership.
Licence: none. The Estate Agents Act 1979 power to set standards of competence (section 22) is not in force.
Duties on the agency: HMRC registration for money laundering supervision and an approved redress scheme for residential work.
In the training: anti-money laundering, fee information, personal interest disclosure, misleading descriptions, equality and marketing calls.
Licence: whatever the local regulator requires, if anything.
In the template: a task to record the local rules on licensing, discrimination, money laundering, advertising and marketing calls, which the training tasks then use.
Same process: agreement, systems, mentor, sign-off and check-ins.
Seven phases take one new agent from the signed agreement to their first listing or deal and a 90-day review. Three answers on the first task decide what appears: the country brings in the US or UK compliance tasks, the way the agent joins adds a contractor or employee note to the agreement, and an experienced agent gets a task to agree what they bring from their last firm. Nothing after the managing broker’s sign-off can be completed until it is given.
The first task sets every due date and decides what appears: where the agent will work, how they join and whether they are new to the job. Nothing else starts until the licence or registration check is done and the agreement is signed.
Some duties sit with the brokerage or agency rather than the agent, and they must cover the agent before their first day. The policy manual goes out now so it can be signed in the first week.
Have every login working before the start date, so the first week goes on training and shadowing, not on passwords.
The agent learns how your brokerage runs a deal and the rules they must follow before they meet a client alone. The jurisdiction on the first task decides which training tasks and notes appear.
The agent watches the mentor do the work, then does it under watch. By the end of the phase they have a written plan for where their first clients will come from.
The managing broker or branch manager decides whether the agent can work with clients on their own. Nothing after this decision can be completed until it is recorded.
The mentor stays close until the first listing or buyer client is signed, then the check-ins measure the agent against their own business plan.
The training tasks show only the notes for the country you choose on the first task. This table puts the two side by side. Every entry comes from the regulation, statute or regulator page named in it, read in October 2026.
| Topic | United States | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Licence to work as an agent | Issued by the state real estate regulator; check type, status and expiry on its public lookup | None under the Estate Agents Act 1979: the section 22 power to set standards of competence is prospective, not in force |
| Who the agent works under | A responsible or supervising broker, as the state requires (in California a salesperson without one may not do licensed work) | The agency; the lead enforcement authority can ban an unfit person from estate agency work (section 3) |
| Discrimination | Fair Housing Act: race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status and national origin, including steering and advertising (24 CFR 100.50 to 100.80) | A ground for a prohibition order (section 3(1)(b)); the Equality Act 2010 applies in England, Wales and Scotland |
| Referral fees and kickbacks | RESPA section 8: none for settlement service referrals on federally related mortgage loans; cooperative brokerage splits allowed (12 CFR 1024.14) | Not covered by this template |
| Money laundering | Not covered by this template | Agency registered with HMRC or a professional body supervisor; agents trained and a written record kept (Money Laundering Regulations 2017, regulations 7, 8 and 24) |
| Complaints | Brokerage and state process | Approved redress scheme for residential estate agency work, a duty on the business rather than employees (section 23A, Redress Scheme Order 2008) |
| Prospecting calls | No telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., or to numbers on the national do-not-call registry (47 CFR 64.1200(c)) | No unsolicited marketing calls to numbers on the regulation 26 register or to people who objected; show a number (PECR regulation 21) |
| Contractor or employee | A licensed agent paid on output under a written contract is self-employed for federal tax purposes (IRS statutory nonemployee) | Set by the agreement and employment law; a self-employed sub-agent may need its own HMRC registration |
Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Estate Agents Act 1979 and the Money Laundering Regulations apply across the UK, but some rules differ. The Equality Act 2010 does not extend to Northern Ireland. Check the rules where the agent works before you rely on the UK notes.
Lettings. This template covers agents who sell. If the agent will also let property, add the letting rules where you work.
The managing broker or branch manager’s sign-off is assigned to them, and the checklist halts there: the announcement, the first listing review and the check-ins cannot be completed until the decision is recorded. See how approvals that halt a checklist work.
Three answers on the first task decide what appears: the US licence and RESPA tasks or the UK registration, anti-money laundering and Estate Agents Act tasks, a contractor or employee note on the agreement, and a task for experienced agents to agree what they bring. Change any of it with conditional rules.
The checks and set-up count back from the start date and training, sign-off and the 30, 60 and 90-day check-ins count forward. The Reports Grid shows every agent being onboarded and what is still open, and licence renewals and refresher training can run as a recurring checklist.
CheckFlow does not check licences or decide whether an agent is ready, and this template is not legal advice. It runs the same onboarding for every agent, with a record of who did what and when.
This template covers one agent joining your firm. Once they have clients, the Real Estate Client Onboarding Checklist covers the first meetings, the Open House Checklist runs an open house and the Real Estate Transaction Checklist runs the deal. Staff who are not agents start with the Employee Onboarding Checklist. See how brokerages use CheckFlow on the real estate industry page.
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
A licence or registration check, the signed agent agreement with the commission split and fees, the brokerage’s own compliance set-up, every system the agent needs (email, CRM, MLS or portals, e-signature and the transaction file), brand materials and a website profile. Then training on your transaction process and the rules that apply where the agent works, a mentor and shadowing, a written business plan, the managing broker’s sign-off before the agent works with clients alone, and check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days.
In the US, yes. Licensing is by state, through each state’s real estate regulator, so check the rules of the state where the agent works. In California, for example, the Department of Real Estate says a salesperson without a responsible broker may not do work that needs a licence. In the UK there is no licence to start: the Estate Agents Act 1979 lets the government set minimum standards of competence (section 22), but that section has not been brought into force.
Either, depending on the agreement. For US federal tax, the IRS treats a licensed real estate agent as self-employed if substantially all of their pay is directly related to sales or other output rather than hours worked, and they work under a written contract saying they will not be treated as an employee for federal tax purposes. State rules can use different tests. In the UK, a self-employed sub-agent may need its own HMRC registration for money laundering supervision.
In the US, the Fair Housing Act bans discrimination in selling or renting a dwelling because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin. Training should cover steering buyers towards or away from neighbourhoods, advertising, posts and photographs that show a preference, and giving false information about availability (24 CFR 100.50 to 100.80). In the UK, discrimination in estate agency work is a ground for banning a person from the work (Estate Agents Act 1979, section 3).
In the US, RESPA section 8 bans giving or accepting any fee, kickback or thing of value for referring settlement service business on a federally related mortgage loan, and splitting a charge for work not done (12 CFR 1024.14). A thing of value includes gifts, trips and paid expenses. Splits under cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements between real estate agents and brokers acting as brokers are allowed, but the exemption does not cover arrangements with mortgage brokers.
Yes. Estate agents are covered by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Regulation 24 requires the agency to make relevant employees, and agents it uses, aware of the law, to train them regularly in how to recognise and deal with suspicious activity, and to keep a written record. HMRC’s guidance adds that staff must know who the nominated officer is. The agency itself must be registered with HMRC, or supervised by a professional body, before it does any estate agency work.
This template starts two weeks before the start date with the licence check and the agreement, has the systems ready before day one, and puts training and shadowing in the first two weeks. The managing broker’s sign-off is due two weeks after the start date, and the check-ins run at 30, 60 and 90 days. Change the offsets once in the template if your brokerage moves faster or slower.
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