Adding more agents to a real estate team might make the roster look impressive, but without clear standards and a path for people to advance, growth eventually creates more complexity than production.
George Laughton has built the kind of infrastructure that can support an enterprise-sized team. His Phoenix-based team is ranked #7 in the nation by RealTrends, with 220 agents producing nearly $1 billion in annual volume.
Of course, that’s not where the team started. Back in 2013, it was George, his wife and an assistant. At the center of The Laughton Team’s growth is a four-level system that determines how agents are onboarded, coached, held accountable, and rewarded.
Today, we’re breaking down Laughton’s framework for evaluating your own roster, giving each agent the right level of support, and raising standards without forcing every producer into the same box.
Laughton recently broke down the system during a conversation with ReminderMedia president Luke Acree and business coach Dave Richards on the Stay Paid podcast. He’ll take that conversation even further at BAM Camp Team Leaders, a closed-room event for operators scaling toward $100 million and beyond, happening September 22–23 in Scottsdale.
Here’s how his four-level system works, beginning with the first 90 days.
The Framework: What Defines Each Level
Laughton’s team sorts every agent into one of four levels by production. The level someone joins at sets the tone for their entire path on the team.
Laughton breaks down how the four levels work:
“What we’ve identified is that within our team there are levels of agents one through four. One being the lowest production numbers as they come into the team, and four being the highest production numbers as they come into the team.
“The threes and fours that we recruit usually come in and get running. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Splits move opposite of what many agents expect. The lower levels get the higher splits, which gives newer agents a bigger cut of a smaller opportunity while they build a track record.
As agents move up, the split narrows and the lead quality rises.
A level four agent works a seller funnel with a $400,000 floor. Nothing under that price point reaches their desk.
Onboarding: The Prove-It-To-Me Phase
Laughton tracks one number above all others when a new agent joins: how many close a deal in the first 30 days. The same measure gets checked at 90 days, then at six months. This single metric tells him whether onboarding works and whether recruiting is bringing in the right people.
A level three or four hire comes in and starts producing right away. A level one hire gets a different first 90 days built around one question: Will you do what you say you’ll do?
Laughton describes what a level one agent walks into:
“We recruit level ones, these are newer to the industry, maybe a year or two in, have done two or three transactions, probably all SOI, don’t understand how to build a database, the CRM, don’t understand scripting.
“If you’re a level one coming in, it is a much different first 90 days than if you’re a level four coming in…. it’s a prove-it-to-me phase.”
The test comes with specific requirements attached:
“So the first 90 days, they have to make a certain amount of dials. They have to finish some monotonous online training too, that is meant to jump through the hoops a little bit, to see if you’re willing to stay consistent and committed, and learn who we are too. You might think you know how to work a lead. We probably do things a little differently than you do, and this is how we do it on this team.”
Level one turnover runs high on Laughton’s team, and he treats it as a fair trade. He lost 80 agents last year, and 90% of them were level ones. His view: bringing in enough people at that stage lets the strongest ones prove themselves and the rest self-select out.
Hiring for the right fit goes beyond a resume. Laughton uses DISC and other personality profiles to check for the traits that predict success on his team.
The old assumption was that real estate rewards the outgoing, driver personality. Laughton has found steady, detail-oriented agents winning at the same rate, provided they carry a strong desire to win.
Accountability by Level
Coaching format changes with level:
- Level one agents get coached in a group setting.
- Level two agents earn one-on-one time with their team leader once they’re hitting the marks expected of them.
- Levels three and four get individual coaching built into the tier, no benchmark required.
The structure runs on the Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) framework, paired with dashboards that show every agent where they stack rank against the rest of the team. Wins get recognized in the open, through sales contests and public recognition for whoever is producing.
Laughton opens most team meetings with a segment built to reinforce whatever behavior he wants more of:
“Almost every meeting starts with what we call acts of awesomeness, which are very intentional if we’re trying to drive more referral agent business within our team. I’m going to give shoutouts to people that referred people to the team. In those acts of awesomeness, we’re very intentional about whatever it is we’re trying to drive.”
The same tool works for whatever priority he sets, whether that’s referrals or follow up. If the priority for the month is follow up, the shoutout goes to the agent who worked the lead nobody else wanted.
Every agent fills out an annual goal sheet with their own number attached, whether that’s 15 transactions or 50. The team leader builds the coaching plan around that individual number.
The coach’s job is helping each agent unlock the goal they set for themselves.
AI changed what that coaching plan looks like day to day. Team leaders record one-on-ones through Fireflies and Zoom, and that recording feeds into what Laughton calls a soul file, a running coaching record built for every agent on the team.
Laughton draws a clear line between coaching before AI and coaching after it:
“There’s pre-AI and then there’s after AI. We’ve become a lot more effective coaches by being able to build out soul files and coaching files for every single one of our agents, and speak their language that drives them.”
Those files carry patterns forward across months. A team leader can see language an agent keeps repeating, including the excuses that show up every time performance dips.
Enforcing Standards Without One Hard Number
Some teams run on one flat number. Luke raised his brother’s team as an example, a standard of 24 transactions a year, no exceptions. Laughton had started his own team on a similar number, and ran into the same dilemma: what do you do with a good agent, a strong culture fit, who closes 15?
The real question behind any standard, in Laughton’s view, is whether you would let that agent go. Laughton explains why the standard changed once he ran into that exact situation on his own roster:
“So our standard changed. What helped with that was the levels of agent. Your splits and your support change depending on what level you’re at, higher splits at a lower level. So the goal is to motivate them to continue to drive for higher production. Some are happy sitting in level two the rest of their career. And that level two is at ten to fifteen transactions.”
A level two agent doing 10 to 15 deals a year for a decade meets the standard for that level. The split and the support match it.
Level one agents who fall short of the bar tend to see it before anyone tells them. Laughton says most of them deselect on their own once the difference between what’s expected and what they’re delivering becomes clear.
Roster cleanup happens on a cycle, about every two years, for agents stuck below standard for years.
Every agent gets the same opportunity at the start. What happens after that is built around production. Laughton sums up the philosophy in one line: reward flows to whoever is producing.
Where This System Actually Pays Off
Laughton’s system works because the standard and the coaching plan match where an agent stands. So does the split.
Any agent or team leader reading this can run the same exercise without changing a single tool overnight. Map your own roster against these four levels. Notice where each person sits today, and what that tells you about the coaching and the standard they need.
Acts of awesomeness cost nothing and need no team size to start. Pick one behavior you want to see more of this week. Open your next meeting with a shoutout for the agent who is doing it.
The same principle runs through every level of Laughton’s business, from the newest recruit trying to prove they belong to the agent closing deal number two hundred.
Recognize the behavior you want, and more of it shows up.
Laughton will unpack more of the systems behind his billion-dollar team at BAM Camp Team Leaders, happening September 22–23, 2026, in Scottsdale. The closed-room event is built for team leaders scaling toward $100 million and beyond.
Spots are (very) limited so lock yours in before they run out.
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