Are you a realtor with more workload than you can handle? Now might be a good time to consider hiring a real estate team.
But do you have what it takes to lead a team?
There is more to hiring than posting job ads and conducting interviews. It takes a strong leader with a sense of purpose to build a leading real estate team. We’ve mined through the leading industry resources to bring you this step-by-step guide to building a leading real estate team.
1. Audit Your Current Operations
The temptations to build a real estate team may overwhelm you.
But, do you have the business to justify it?
As a real estate agent, you have many responsibilities on your plate. You need to spend time prospecting for new leads, nurturing relationships, meeting with clients, conducting open houses, preparing marketing materials, and seeing the deals through to closure.
But just because your responsibilities are growing doesn’t mean you need to assemble an 8-person team. You’ll want to analyze the pros and cons of working as a solo agent vs. a team to determine if hiring is a viable option.
Before you opt to hire a team, audit your current operations to make sure you have the business and the resources to support additional members.
2. Get Your Systems in Order
Before you start hiring, it’s important to first ensure you’ve got the right systems in place. Review your existing systems to ensure everything is as full-proof and scalable as possible. Systems you need to get in order include, but not limited to:
- Real estate CRM
- Transaction management systems
- Database management systems
- Referral systems
If you don’t have the right systems in place, your new team will suffer from unnecessary slowdowns, confusion, and reduced productivity.
3. Set Team Goals
Once you get your systems in order, you will want to consider the goals and objectives of assembling a real estate team. Make sure to set goals that are measurable and achievable. For example, you could set goals that aim to.
- Grow revenue by 10% each month
- Close 20% more deals each month
- Respond to leads within 1 hour of reach
Having these figures at hand will help you determine how many staff you need. It will also help you budget accordingly.
4. Hire Team Members
Now that everything is in place, it’s time to get to the fun part.
Hiring individual team members!
Your goal is to not just hire talented people, but people who naturally fit in your business. As such, it’s a great idea to do DISC testing to ensure potential candidates have the skills you’re looking for. It’s also important to know when to hire and who to hire first.
Successful realtors start with an administrative assistant early in the process before hiring the buyer’s agent. Once they have the paperwork off their plate, they hire a buyer’s agents followed by the listing agent. As your business grows, you may want to hire other specialists such as a transaction coordinator, listing manager, etc.
5. Leading the Team
Now that you have your house in order, you’ll need to exercise your role as a leader. Motivate the team and steer them in the right direction.
Make sure every individual team member has a clear understanding of what’s expected of them and their roles in the team. That said, you’ll want to define some performance metrics that will enable you to hold them accountable.
Typical real estate agent performance metrics to track include monthly production, sales volume, and the number of calls or contacts made. Some of these metrics, like monthly production, are critical to your business success as they’re directly related to your bottom line.
We hope this guide will help you build a leading real estate team for your business. Feel free to comment and share!
