Keep your email address when you change brokerages

Updated

Switching brokerages is stressful enough without losing your inbox. If your email address ends in your brokerage's domain, it usually stays behind when you go. This guide covers why that happens, what to do about it, and how to set up an address that follows you from one office to the next.

Why brokerage email does not travel

A brokerage-issued address such as [email protected] belongs to the brokerage. They own the domain, and they can close your account when you leave. Policies vary. Some forward mail for a short time, some do not, and some will not give you your old messages. Ask your office what theirs is before you rely on it.

The result is a familiar mess: years of clients, past buyers, lenders and title contacts attached to an address you can no longer read.

What you stand to lose

  • Every contact who emails the old address after you leave
  • Your past client list, if it lives in that mailbox
  • Logins and notifications on the MLS, lockbox apps, forms platforms and social accounts that use that email
  • Business cards, yard signs and listings with the address printed on them

The fix: your own address, not your office's

Pick an address that belongs to you and has nothing to do with whose name is on the sign. Then use it everywhere from day one. You can still have your brokerage address for office business; just do not make it the one on your cards.

Options:

  1. Your own domain, such as yourname.com, with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. You own it and it follows you anywhere. It takes more setup and costs a domain fee plus a per-user fee.
  2. A short local address on one of our Colorado city .co domains, like [email protected] or [email protected]. There is no domain to buy and no DNS to configure, and setup takes about five minutes. Personal names are $19 a month ($190 a year) in every city.

The tradeoff with ours: you do not own the domain. You rent the address, and if you cancel it is held for 90 days and then released. For many agents that is a fair deal for a clean address in the market they work. If you want a full brand domain with many staff seats, buying your own and using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is the better choice.

How to move a client list without a mess

  1. Export your contacts from your brokerage account or CRM before your last day, as far as your agreement and your brokerage's rules allow. Check your agreement first, and ask your broker if unsure.
  2. Set up the new address and send a test message to yourself.
  3. Switch your logins. Update the email on the MLS, your forms platform, your social accounts and your Google profile.
  4. Send a short note to people who should know. Keep it plain and personal. Do not mass-blast people who have not agreed to hear from you.
  5. Ask your old office to forward mail to the new address for a period of time, if they will.
  6. Update every printed thing at the next reprint.

A signature helps people spot the new address. The email signature tool builds one, and you can change the brokerage line when you move without changing the address.

Taking your mail with you

Whichever route you take, make sure you can get your mail out. For ours, here is how to export it, so your history is never locked in. You can also add forwarding addresses to a mailbox, which is handy when you want mail to land in a second inbox for a while.

Picking the address itself

Short and plain wins. Examples of patterns that work for agents:

More ideas and a list of patterns are in Email address ideas for real estate agents. To check whether a name is still open, use the home page, since availability changes.

A few cautions

  • Follow your state's and your brokerage's advertising and disclosure rules. A personal address does not remove your obligation to show your brokerage on marketing where required. Your broker can tell you what applies.
  • Do not use someone else's trademarked brand in your address.
  • Keep your professional address professional, since it will be on contracts and showing requests.

An address that stays with you through every move is a small thing, until the day you change offices and nothing breaks.

Check a name or try the email address ideas tool.