What happens to my website when I switch brokerages?

What happens to your website when you switch brokerages depends on one question settled long before moving day: who owns it. Own the domain and the site subscription yourself, and the website travels with you — you update the brokerage identification, re-paper the MLS feed under the new firm, and your web presence doesn’t miss a day. If the brokerage owns either, you are negotiating for scraps or rebuilding from zero, in the same week you’re moving your entire business.

Run the ownership test first

Three checks, five minutes: whose registrar account holds the domain, whose name is on the website subscription or hosting, and whose agreement governs the contact database. The full ownership breakdown is worth reading before any move, and the mirror-image view — how brokerages handle departing agents’ sites, and what a fair policy looks like — is covered in what happens to agent websites when they leave. If the answers are all “me,” proceed to logistics. If not, your first move is a conversation about export and transfer terms — ideally before resigning, while goodwill still exists.

The moving-day checklist for a site you own

Four workstreams, in order. Identity: replace the old brokerage’s registered name everywhere it appears — site chrome, bios, listings pages, legal pages — promptly after the transfer; accuracy rules don’t offer a grace period. Data feed: MLS display agreements are brokerage-level paperwork, so your IDX/VOW access re-papers under the new firm; sequence the approvals so the new feed is ready as the old one dies. Email and forms: update sender identities, signatures, and any address on capture forms. Announcements: your site is your own channel for the news — past clients should hear it from you, not from a sign change.

Keep the SEO you spent years earning

The domain is the asset search engines trust; keep it and the move is invisible to Google. Same URLs, same content, updated identification — rankings carry on. What burns SEO is the rebuild path: a new domain, new URLs, and a vendor change all at once. If the move forces a platform change too, do it as a deliberate migration — switching providers without losing SEO covers redirects and content moves — rather than a fresh start. The years of local search equity in your domain are worth more than any feature a new vendor demos.

The database moves under its own rules

Contacts are personal information under privacy law and usually the subject of your agreement with the old brokerage, so the website’s address book doesn’t simply follow the website. Sort what the agreement grants you, export it cleanly, and re-ground your email footing with contacts you take. Nothing about the domain transfer settles this — a site you own can still have a database you partly don’t.

Structure it once, move freely forever

Agents who glide through brokerage changes made the same choices early: own domain, own subscription, brokerage identity as a setting. That’s the shape BrokerFold is built around — your account is yours, the custom domain connects under your ownership, and the brokerage identification renders sitewide from configuration, so a switch is one settings change plus the feed re-papering. The move is stressful enough; the website shouldn’t be part of the stress.

A timeline that keeps the site live throughout

Sequence the move backwards from announcement day. Two to three weeks out: quietly confirm ownership facts, inventory every page carrying the old brokerage’s identity, and ask the new brokerage to begin the feed approvals. Move week: transfer your registration, flip the brokerage identification the same day, and switch the feed as the new approval lands. The week after: verify forms, senders, and signatures; announce through your own channels; and spot-check the site as a visitor rather than an owner. Agents who improvise this in one frantic afternoon usually miss a page or an email footer — and the old brokerage’s name lingering on your site is the kind of loose end both firms notice.