Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the occupational life cycle of Swedish real estate brokers. Design/methodology/approach Voluntary turnover among real estate brokers could lead to occupational turnover and/or employee turnover and has been described as problematic by both practitioners and researchers alike. Most previous studies focusing on this issue have explored connections between real estate brokers' personality, economic and market conditions and turnover. Employee turnover involves shifting jobs within the profession (real estate brokerage), whereas occupational turnover concerns movement to a job not related to the real estate brokerage profession. Both perspectives on turnover are however lacking data about the average time spent as a broker. This study fills this gap by exploring real estate brokers' life cycle through data analysis using a cohort study consisting of a sample of 5,304 real estate brokers registered and/or deregistered over a ten-year period from 2010 to 2019. Findings The analysis show that the decline is almost linear, resulting in 50% of the newly registered real estate brokers remain in the occupation eight years after registration. These findings are not in line with previous assumptions as the real estate brokers' life cycle is substantially longer. The results also reveal that there are differences in life cycles due to gender and year of registration. Originality/value The analysis of longitudinal, aggregated data on the life cycle of real estate brokers is highly relevant as it serves as a point of reference for future longitudinal studies analyzing the motives for leaving the occupation.

Purpose - Intrinsic motivation affects job satisfaction and turnover intention. Still, previous motivational studies among real estate brokers (brokers) have primarily focused on extrinsic rewards leaving intrinsic rewards/motivation practically unexplored. The purpose of this study is therefore to evaluate the role of both satisfaction with intrinsic rewards (SIR) and satisfaction with extrinsic rewards (SER) on job satisfaction and turnover intention among Swedish brokers.

Design/methodology/approach - This article is an empirical generalization and extension of Mosquera et al.’s (2020) article conducted among brokers in Portugal. Using a sample of 910 Swedish brokers, the study analyzes a conceptual framework and tests hypotheses by using partial least squares (PLS).

Findings - Results indicate that SIR has a very strong impact on job satisfaction, which is not the case in the Portuguese sample. On the other hand, SER does not have an impact on job satisfaction, which is the case in the Portuguese sample. SIR does not have an impact on turnover intention in the Swedish sample, whereas SER does. Job satisfaction has twice the positive impact on turnover intention in the Swedish sample compared to the Portuguese. Furthermore, job satisfaction mediates the relationship between SIR/SER and turnover intention.

Research limitations/implications - Findings of this study extend the existing literature of satisfaction with extrinsic and in particular intrinsic rewards on job satisfaction and turnover intention in the context of the brokerage industry. The most interesting difference between the samples is that Swedish brokers display much higher levels of satisfaction with intrinsic rewards. On the other hand, Swedish brokers appear to be less driven by extrinsic rewards, which is not in line with prior studies within brokerage.

Practical implications - Both managers and students planning to become brokers should consider that SIR has a stronger impact on job satisfaction than SER. What are perceived as intrinsic rewards, however, is highly subjective, which is troublesome from a managerial perspective, even more so as SIR is much harder to influence than SER. Given that intrinsic motivation is primarily a consequence of needs fulfillment, screening of applicants for person-job fit ought to increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover given its focus on the congruence between job demands and worker’s needs, respectively what a job provides and the worker’s needs.

Originality/value - This study contributes to the brokerage research field by indicating that being a broker differs substantially between countries and that intrinsic rewards matter for Swedish brokers.

The purpose of this exploratory case study is to analyze the role of relational motivation for high-performing real estate brokers in Sweden. The concept of relational motivation, or relatedness, is explored through both affective and calculative commitment. The data in this study come from in-depth interviews with real estate brokers. The results show that the brokers are committed to their clients, in an affective and a calculative way. All of the participants expressed signs of being emotionally involved in their customer relations, often in terms of genuine interest in, and caring for, their clients. The existence of relatedness toward customers in a brokerage context contributes to the discussion on what motivates high-performing real estate brokers. By viewing relatedness as a trigger to engage in more customer relationships, the intrinsic motivation can be seen as a strong antecedent to individual performance. 

This study explores if received trust is intrinsically motivating and if it is associated with subjective person-job fit and occupational turnover intentions in the Swedish brokerage setting. Results from 397 real estate brokers showed that brokers are driven by the gained trust from their sellers and that gained trust is a vital part of person-job fit within brokerage. Furthermore, increased levels of person-job fit strongly reduce occupational turnover intentions within brokerage. This study offers further insights into intrinsic motivation in professional service settings and indicates that certain types of customer interactions help to fulfill the basic psychological needs of competence and relatedness.