November 12, 2026 · 6 min read
When an Agent Leaves: The Marketing Offboarding Checklist for Brokers
A departing agent leaves a trail: a live web page, bylines, shared logins, scheduled posts and lead routing that still points at their name. Here is the week-of checklist.
When an agent leaves, a brokerage must change five marketing things that week: the website roster and agent page, every bio and byline carrying the agent's name, the shared accounts and scheduled posts they can still reach, each Follow Up Boss path that routes leads to them, and what past clients hear. Do them in that order.
Most offices treat a departure as an HR task and a goodbye email. The marketing stays live for months, and the contact form still sends a seller's inquiry to an inbox nobody reads. Our page on why agents quit a brokerage covers why they go. This post covers the week after.
One boundary first. Your agent agreement and your state's rules decide who owns which listing and client. This checklist covers marketing only.
Start with a one page departure sheet
Do not begin by deleting things. Begin by writing down what exists, on the day you hear.
The last day and the agreed announcement date.
The listings that stay, and the new listing agent for each.
Every page and profile with the agent's name: site, directories, social, Google, email signature.
Every tool where the agent has a login, and who owns the account.
Every scheduled post, email and ad that names or shows the agent.
Every Follow Up Boss source, rule and provider that sends leads to the agent.
An owner and a due date beside each line.
Give the sheet to one person. Three people each assuming another did the roster is how a departed agent's face stays on the site.
Website: roster, agent page and forms
Roster and sliders. Remove the agent's card from the team page, the homepage and any footer list.
The agent page. Redirect it to the team page and confirm the redirect works.
Listing pages. Update each contact block so the inquiry button reaches whoever now holds the listing.
Forms. If a form emails the agent directly, change the recipient. Submit a test from an email address you own.
Directories and Google. Send update requests to any directory that lists the agent under your office, and remove the agent from your Google Business Profile if they appear there.
Bios and bylines: what stays, what changes
A bio is easy to fix. A byline takes a decision. Many offices publish blog posts and market updates under the agent who wrote them, and those posts stay after the agent goes.
Google Search Central's page on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content says it strongly encourages accurate authorship information, such as bylines on content where readers might expect them. It also says to avoid deceptive authorship information, and calls fabricating creator profiles a form of deception.
Read that as a rule for the cleanup. Never put another name on a post the person did not write, and never invent a house author to fill the gap. For each post, pick one path.
Keep it, with the agent's consent. Leave the byline, remove links to the old agent page and point readers to the team page.
Revise it and credit honestly. Whoever rewrites the post is the one named.
Retire it. Redirect outdated posts to the nearest current page.
Then sweep the bios hiding elsewhere: social profiles, the LinkedIn company page, speaker bios, listing presentations and printed brochures. A printed brochure outlives every web fix.
Shared accounts, files and scheduled posts
Check each of these on the last day, not the following month.
Files and design tools. Move anything the agent made in a personal account into brokerage folders, then remove access.
Scheduler and social logins. Remove the agent from your posting tool and from any brokerage page where they hold a role.
Email and text templates. Check newsletters, drips and texts signed by the agent.
Scheduled content. Filter the calendar for the agent's name, face and listings and review the next two months. Posts about listings that stay get the new listing agent. Posts that promote the agent personally come out.
Co-branded templates. Retire any template with the agent's headshot or logo.
Follow Up Boss: where a lead can still reach a departed agent
A lead that lands with someone who no longer checks the inbox is a lead you paid for. Check four spots.
Direct routing from a lead provider
Follow Up Boss's help page on direct team lead routing by lead providers says that when a provider routes a lead directly to a team member, the lead bypasses your Lead Flow rules and goes to that agent. Removing the agent from your rules does nothing for those leads. Ask each provider whom it routes to by name, and have it change the recipient.
Rules that name the agent
The help page on Advanced Lead Flow Rules says rules are processed from top to bottom. Open every rule from the top. Re-point each one that assigns to the agent or to a group the agent belongs to.
The default rule
The same page says a lead that meets none of the rules is assigned by the default rule. If that rule names the departing agent, every unmatched lead goes to someone who has gone. Check it first.
Leads already in the database
Follow Up Boss's Lead Flow versus Automations page says Lead Flow is for future brand-new contacts. Contacts already assigned to the agent are a separate decision, made by the broker under the agent agreement. Give the new owner a task to call each active lead that week.
Those pages describe routing and rules. They are not a guide to removing a user, so ask Follow Up Boss support before you deactivate a seat that holds active leads. Reassign first, remove second, then test with a new contact from each form.
By the numbers
28%, up from 20%. NAR's 2026 Member Profile, reported in NAR REALTOR News, found the typical member earned 28% of their business from past clients and customers, up from 20% the year before. Past clients matter, so their goodbye message deserves as much care as the website.
7. Follow Up Boss's Automations 2.0 Lead Flow Overview lists seven things an assignment can be configured on: tags, price, city, state, ZIP code, MLS numbers and phone number. None is "the agent still works here," so somebody must check by hand.
A worked example: a Friday departure at a small office
Take an invented office, Harbor Row Realty. On Monday agent Marcus Hale tells the broker, Dana, that Friday is his last day. She hands the departure sheet to her operations lead, Priya.
Monday. Priya lists every page with Marcus's name: his page, several listings, his blog posts and a few directory profiles.
Tuesday. In Follow Up Boss she finds two rules naming Marcus and a default rule pointing at him. A paid provider routes to him by name. She re-points the rules and writes to the provider.
Wednesday. She tests every web form. The seller form still emails Marcus directly. She fixes it and tests again.
Thursday. His page is redirected. Dana and Marcus agree a short note to his past clients naming their new contact, and Priya pulls his scheduled posts.
Friday. Files move to the shared drive, access ends and the log is filed.
Each task was small and had a name beside it.
How Urban Marketing Edge handles this
When a client office tells us an agent is leaving, we work down the sheet above: roster and agent page, bios and signatures in the brokerage brand, scheduled posts and the request queue. On plans with the dashboard, a leaving agent's open requests sit in one place, so they can be reassigned or closed.
We do not run your CRM or your lead routing. Your team and Follow Up Boss do that, and the broker decides who gets what. See our Follow Up Boss page, how retention is marketing, and why agents quit.
Questions brokers ask
How soon should we remove a departing agent from the website?
On the last day, or just before it if the agent agrees. Remove the roster card, redirect the agent page and update listing contact blocks so no inquiry goes to someone who has left.
Do Follow Up Boss routing rules update when an agent leaves?
No. Rules assign to whoever they name, and Follow Up Boss says leads that match nothing go to the default rule. Open every rule and the default, re-point them, and test with a new contact from each form.
What about leads a provider routes straight to the agent?
According to Follow Up Boss, those bypass your Lead Flow rules and go directly to that agent. Ask each provider to change the named recipient. Editing your own rules will not reach them.
Can we keep blog posts the agent wrote?
Often yes, with the agent's consent. Google encourages accurate bylines, so keep the original name on text the agent wrote. Never swap in another person's name or an invented author.
Who tells past clients that an agent is leaving?
Agree the wording with the agent in writing, within your agreement and state rules. Keep it short and name the person to call. The broker or the agent can send it.
Book a 30-minute strategy call
If an agent just gave notice, or you suspect one will, bring your departure sheet to a call. We will go through your roster, bios, scheduled posts and request queue, and say plainly what to fix first. No pitch deck, no pressure.
Book a 30-minute strategy call and we will map the simplest plan. Or see how we work month to month on our plans page first.
