SmartSetter is an appointment setting service: its callers reach agents at competing brokerages near your office and book the interested ones on your calendar, on a monthly subscription. BrokerStaffer reaches the agents you choose by personal email, follows up until they’re ready, and charges only for results: $150 per interested agent, $500 per call that shows up, or $5,000 per salaried hire.
Choose SmartSetter if you want booked phone appointments and are comfortable with a subscription. Choose BrokerStaffer if you want no monthly fee, MLS production on every agent, and a recruiting CRM that syncs with Follow Up Boss.
BrokerStaffer vs SmartSetter at a glance
What is SmartSetter?
SmartSetter is a real estate recruiting company that books recruiting appointments for brokerages. Its site says it has spent 10 years and more than $10 million building its recruiting system, and that it makes more than 110,000 recruiting introductions a year.
Here’s how it works, according to their site. A data team builds prospect lists from competing brokerages near your office, and you can add your own call list on top. Their recruiting team reaches out by phone, screens hundreds of local prospects a month, and books the agents who want to learn more straight onto your calendar through a calendar sync. You control the script and the qualifying questions, and an assigned campaign strategist works with you. SmartSetter says that once a prospect is assigned to you, no one else contacts them.
SmartSetter serves US and Canadian metro areas with at least 1,000 licensed agents, and says some major markets have waitlists. It doesn’t publish prices. Its site says many contracts are month-to-month and can be canceled anytime, and that it guarantees the work, not a number of appointments or hires.
What is BrokerStaffer?
BrokerStaffer is agent recruiting you only pay for when it works. We build a list of the agents you want from your MLS data vendor (Courted, Relitix, MarketView or BrokerMetrics) or our own agent database, then take out your current agents and anyone on your Do-Not-Contact list.
We email each agent at their personal inbox, follow up, and nurture the “not right now” agents until they’re ready. When an agent says they’re open to a conversation about joining you, they go to your team right away with their MLS production and the full conversation, in a recruiting CRM that syncs with Follow Up Boss. Across our campaigns, 5 to 10% of the agents we email reply.
The details, side by side
Who does the work, what you pay, what you get and how fast, line by line. Where SmartSetter doesn’t publish something, we say so.
SmartSetter pricing vs BrokerStaffer pricing
SmartSetter doesn’t publish its prices. Its site describes a monthly subscription, with lead sourcing included, and sends you to a demo for a quote. That means you pay each month for the service, whether a given month brings you five appointments or none.
BrokerStaffer has no retainer and no monthly fee. You pick what you pay for:
- $150 per interested agent
- $250 per interested agent who matches your production filters
- $500 per call the agent shows up to, or $1,000 with production filters
- $5,000 per salaried hire, paid upfront, with a one-year money-back guarantee
There’s a one-time $500 infrastructure fee and a deposit that’s refunded after your first bill. We bill every two weeks for what we delivered, and you can pause or cancel anytime.
Cold calls vs personal email
Phone outreach has a real strength: a good caller can handle objections live and book a time in the same conversation. SmartSetter has built its whole model around that, with scripts you control and a team trained to do it.
The weakness is who picks up. The producers most brokers want to hire are busy, and they screen unknown numbers, especially during showings and closings. A personal email waits in the inbox they actually check, and they answer when it suits them. That’s why we only use personal email: short, personal messages built around the agent’s own production, followed up on our own until they reply.
Email also lets us reach your whole target list at the same pace, instead of working through it one call at a time.
Who gets reached, and what you know about them
SmartSetter’s data team builds lists from competing brokerages near your office, and you can add your own list. That works well if your goal is to recruit from the offices down the street.
With BrokerStaffer, you decide the market and the filters with us: location, sales volume, transactions, years licensed. We pull every agent who matches from your MLS data vendor or our own database. Every interested agent then reaches your team with their MLS production attached, so you know before the first call whether they’re a $2M agent or a $20M one. On pay per qualified lead, you only pay for the producers who match your filters.
Follow-up and nurture
Most agents won’t move the first time someone asks. SmartSetter’s testimonials mention reminders and follow-up, and its callers can try again by phone.
BrokerStaffer follows up on every agent until they reply, and keeps nurturing the ones who say “not right now.” When the timing changes, they come back to you, and you only pay when they’re ready to talk about joining you.
How fast you see results
SmartSetter doesn’t publish a launch timeline, and some major markets have a waitlist.
With BrokerStaffer, you’ll see your first interested agents within 48 hours of launch, and each one goes to your team the moment they reply.
Proof: what each one can show you
SmartSetter shows testimonials from brokers and recruiters, including one who says they added over $100M in sales volume and one whose whole office of 30+ agents signed, plus the logos of the brands its clients come from.
BrokerStaffer publishes case studies with named clients and real numbers:
Clients close 5 to 15% of the opportunities we generate. We don’t guarantee interviews or hires on our lead and call plans.
SmartSetter alternative: which one should you choose?
- You want callers booking appointments on your calendar
- You mainly want to recruit from competing offices near you
- You prefer a monthly subscription to paying per result
- Your market has 1,000+ agents and no waitlist
- You want no retainer and no monthly fee
- You want to reach producers who don’t pick up the phone
- You want MLS production on every interested agent
- You want a recruiting CRM that syncs with Follow Up Boss
- You want results you can check: named clients, real numbers
Still want booked calls? Our pay per call plan gives you the same outcome as an appointment setter, and you only pay for calls the agent shows up to.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SmartSetter cost?
SmartSetter doesn’t publish its prices. Its site describes a monthly subscription and asks you to book a demo for a quote. BrokerStaffer has no monthly fee: $150 per interested agent, $500 per call that shows up, or $5,000 per salaried hire.
Does SmartSetter guarantee appointments?
No. SmartSetter’s site says it guarantees the work, not a number of appointments or hires. BrokerStaffer doesn’t guarantee hires on its lead and call plans either, but you only pay for results.
Does BrokerStaffer make cold calls?
No. We reach agents by personal email and follow up until they’re ready. If you want interested agents on your calendar, our pay per call plan is $500 per call that shows up.
Is SmartSetter worth it?
It can be if you want phone appointments, recruit from nearby competing offices, and are comfortable paying a monthly subscription. If you’d rather only pay when an agent is ready to talk about joining you, BrokerStaffer is built for that.
What is the best SmartSetter alternative?
If you want results-based pricing, BrokerStaffer is the closest alternative: done-for-you outreach, no monthly fee, MLS production on every agent and a CRM that syncs with Follow Up Boss.
Can I use BrokerStaffer with my MLS data tool?
Yes. We pull your target list from Courted, Relitix, MarketView or BrokerMetrics, or use our own agent database.
