{"id":13702,"date":"2020-01-21T16:31:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T00:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=13702"},"modified":"2021-06-29T07:31:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T14:31:14","slug":"agent-start-a-real-estate-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/agent-start-a-real-estate-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Start a Real Estate Team Without Asking Yourself These 8 Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron West<\/a>, a top agent in Modesto, California, and founder of The West Experience Real Estate Group, says the decision to start a real estate team came down to one question.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I going to continue to kill myself or am I going to branch out and maybe form a team?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

West brought on his first team member 12 years ago \u2014 a transaction coordinator<\/a> \u2014 and learned that they could close about 85 sides per year together. But like many successful solo agents, West reached the limit of what one agent could do alone.<\/p>\n

He added a buyer\u2019s agent five years ago, and slowly expanded to what\u2019s now a team of eight: himself, three buyers\u2019 agents, two full-time admins, a part-time transaction coordinator, and a full-time virtual assistant<\/a>. In 2019, the team closed 163 transactions.<\/p>\n

If West\u2019s death-by-real-estate scenario touches a nerve, you\u2019re probably thinking that 2020 is the year to start your own real estate team. Before you do, ask yourself these eight questions to go deeper and decide if starting a team is the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/a>
Source: (You X Ventures \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Am I starting a team for the right reason?<\/h3>\n

West says there\u2019s only one reason an agent should even think about forming a team: you have more leads than you can handle alone.<\/p>\n

You might know of agents who did it for emotional reasons \u2014 they think it\u2019ll be fun to work together with good friends in the office. They think it\u2019s the thing to do.<\/p>\n

Others might start a team out of a sense of pride, as in Look at me, I have my own team now <\/i>\u2014 I\u2019m important!<\/i> But that\u2019s a recipe for failure. \u201cEgo is one of the reasons that a lot of people form a team,\u201d West says, \u201cBecause they just want to be able to say they’re the team leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking about starting a real estate team, make sure it\u2019s the right business decision.<\/p>\n

2. Am I ready to be a leader?<\/h3>\n

Robert Greenblatt<\/a>, a top agent in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who formed his team way back in 2000, says he\u2019s seen agents wrongly assume they should start a team because they sell a lot of homes.<\/p>\n

But even the most successful solo agent may not have the right skills; starting a team demands leadership, not sales skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because you’re a really good real estate agent, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a really good manager or leader,\u201d Greenblatt says. \u201cIt’s like the really good school teacher isn’t necessarily going to make a great principal of the school, but oftentimes they get promoted to principal.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Two<\/a>
Source: (Muhammad Faiz Zulkeflee \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Do I have the right systems and processes in place to run a team?<\/h3>\n

Your team\u2019s success will depend as much as anything on the systems and processes you put in place \u2014 marketing systems, lead generation systems, systems for tracking progress and measuring success, processes for following up with leads, processes for launching new listings, and on, and on, and on. Team success depends on consistent behaviors and actions; systems and processes create that consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you grow a team, it’s all about systems. The whole basis and success of your team is the systems that you have in place,\u201d West says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than what CRM (customer relationship management software) you use or what commission split you establish for your agents. Something as simple as not having a system in place for how you\u2019ll distribute new leads can sink a team from the start. (Greenblatt says he often hears agents on other teams complain that their team leader \u201ckeeps all the good leads for himself.\u201d Yikes.)<\/p>\n

Systems are so important to your team\u2019s success that, as you read through the rest of this article, most of the questions you\u2019ll be asking yourself are about the systems you\u2019ll need to get right. That starts with\u2026<\/p>\n

4. Do I have a plan for hiring and team expansion?<\/h3>\n

Both Greenblatt and West went through a number of team members in the early days because they didn\u2019t have a plan, a system in place, that defined what roles they needed to fill and what kind of person would best fit those roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought in the wrong person or I wasn’t clear in the early days of what the role was. And it’s painful,\u201d Greenblatt recalls.<\/p>\n

West says his earliest hiring lesson happened because he rushed to plug a hole, when he should\u2019ve taken time to fill a position. \u201cGive hiring the honor and the time that it deserves. Once I started doing that, the business really took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both agree that your team\u2019s hiring plan must begin with a fantastic administrative assistant \u2014 someone who\u2019s organized and detail-oriented \u2014 not another agent. It sounds counterintuitive, because we\u2019ve already established that having too many leads is the only reason to start a team. And when you have too many leads, you think, I need another agent!<\/i> Nope. You need an assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re truly a really good real estate agent,\u201d Greenblatt says, \u201cYou’re probably not really good at the paperwork and administrative tasks. If you hire a buyer’s agent, then you’re going to be working for them, trying to make sure that their transactions are moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

By hiring a great admin to handle all the paperwork and transaction management tasks, you free yourself up to service the leads that you couldn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n

Your hiring plan needs to address adding agent(s), too. How and when will you expand? And who \u2014 i.e., what kind of people and what kind of agents \u2014 will you add? All-star agents may not be great team players. Your closest friends might be good agents, but might not be a good fit for your team culture (more on culture below).<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Two<\/a>
Source: (Jonathan Borba \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. How will I train and onboard new staff and agents?<\/h3>\n

Even if you add experienced admins and agents, you can\u2019t put them to work without training. If you do, it won\u2019t be long before they\u2019re unhappy with you, you\u2019re unhappy with them, or both! The result? A lot of turnover. A good onboarding system is your job as team leader, and a big part of the value you offer the team.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s onboarding system requires new buyer\u2019s agents to work with an experienced team member during their first four months on the team. Every client meeting, every offer they write \u2014 it\u2019s all done in tandem with another agent so that the new agent can learn the ropes.<\/p>\n

Greenblatt\u2019s onboarding system combines three training areas: cultural, technical, and systems.<\/p>\n

“When we bring in an agent, they spend some time with me early on going over mindset and servicing clients.\u201d That\u2019s the cultural element. Then it\u2019s on to the systems and technical aspects. \u201cThey spend time with one of my senior team members going through the nuts and bolts of our CRM, [learning] what our expectations are as far as managing our clients to our CRM so we can keep accountability in place. They’ll also spend some time with our transaction manager understanding the [details] of a transaction and what happens once we go under contract.”<\/p>\n

For both Greenblatt and West, the training process continues with regular meetings that both new and veteran team members have to attend. West and his team have two meetings each week, including a training meeting on Thursdays. Greenblatt\u2019s team has one group meeting per week, and he also does one-on-one meetings with each team member. \u201cWe review the nuts and bolts of some clients,\u201d Greenblatt says about the individual meetings. \u201cBut then it usually segues into a teaching point or a mindset exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: (Felipe Furtado \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6. Am I ready and able to delegate?<\/h3>\n

Greenblatt admits that he wrestled big time with this when his team was new \u2014 it was hard to let go and trust others to get the work done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was part of a learning curve in trying to develop a team,\u201d he says. \u201cYou just can’t do everything yourself. You have to leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

West\u2019s solution to the delegation question was to figure out what he was earning per hour \u2014 and what he wanted<\/i> to be earning per hour \u2014 and delegate everything that paid less.<\/p>\n

His system goes like this: An agent who nets $200,000 in earnings (gross commission minus expenses) and works 2000 hours per year (40 hours per week x 50 weeks per year), has a $100 hourly wage. If that\u2019s what you want to earn, all tasks that are worth less get delegated to the team.<\/p>\n

A system like this \u201callows you to focus on more things that are within your hourly wage,\u201d West says. By attaching a dollar figure to all the work involved in running a team, it\u2019s easier for a team leader to delegate work to the right people.<\/p>\n

Bonus: It also helps you understand when it\u2019s time to expand (question No. 3 above). \u201cAs your business grows and your hourly wage increases, bringing on a buyer’s agent makes sense because you want an agent to represent all of the buyers that are under your hourly wage,\u201d West says. \u201cMy business is now to the point where I no longer help buyers at all. My hourly wage is such that it only makes sense for me to do listings.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. What level of production and accountability will I expect from my team agents?<\/h3>\n

Agents need to know your expectations for how productive they are, and how accountable they are to their work, each other, and you.<\/p>\n

Some teams, like West\u2019s, have a systemized approach to setting goals and expectations, and discipline when agents don\u2019t perform to those expectations. His agents have a minimum number of contacts that they need to make each week. If they don’t hit that goal, they don\u2019t get new leads the following week until they\u2019re caught up.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery week at the team meeting, everybody goes over their numbers of how many people they are working with, how many contacts they made, how many attempts that they made, if they did open houses, all the feedback, all that kind of stuff so that I know what’s going on,\u201d West says. The team\u2019s operations manager meets with each agent daily to review numbers and help the agents stay accountable to these goals.<\/p>\n

Rather than spelling out specific goals and expectations in the team contract, Greenblatt takes a looser approach. \u201cI want my team members to take this to whatever level works for them in their lives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Greenblatt has one agent on the team who sets ambitious goals and recently grew her business from 30 deals one year to 50 the next. But there\u2019s another agent on the team who has a young family at home, helps with some admin work at the office, and does 20-25 deals per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can’t do more than that,\u201d he says. \u201cEven with our infrastructure, there’s just not enough hours in her day to do more. But she’s happy with that. So if she’s happy with that, I’m happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no right or wrong approach to production and accountability, but you do need a system in place for this. West and Greenblatt have very different approaches, but each system works for their team<\/i>. And each system is also part of their team\u2019s culture, which is the perfect segue into the last \u2014 and possibly most important \u2014 question you need to ask before starting a real estate team.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/a>
Source: (Scott Winterroth \/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8. What team culture do I want to create?<\/h3>\n

The left-brained among you might be tempted to roll your eyes about the idea of creating a team culture, but please don\u2019t. If you\u2019re thinking about starting a team, the culture you create will determine your success as much as anything in this article. Get it right and you\u2019ll be able to attract agents that become happy and productive team members; get it wrong and team members will be miserable, you\u2019ll struggle to attract and keep agents, and productivity will suffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA team should be a group of people in flow and everybody’s going in the same direction,\u201d West says.<\/p>\n

The first time we mentioned culture in this article was above in the hiring section, and for good reason. West says culture should be the guide as your team grows. \u201cAs a team leader, one of your goals when you start a team is bringing people on that have the same values that you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenblatt describes his team culture as one of problem-solving, not finger-pointing, and says it defines how they treat each other. \u201cThere is no room on this team for an attitude or snippiness or impatience with each other,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause the business lends itself to tremendous stresses. There’s no reason why we should add to that stress amongst each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culture also defines how the team treats buyers and sellers. \u201cEvery single lead is super important, and regardless of price point, everybody gets service to that same level,\u201d Greenblatt says. \u201cI don’t care if it’s a $50,000 condo or an $850,000 house, they all need to feel special and they all need to be followed up with the same way and with the same intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think of it this way: the systems you have in place will help the team do what<\/i> it needs to do \u2014 connect with new leads, follow-up after an open house, etc. But the culture you instill will determine how<\/i> those things get done. It may sound vague or nebulous to some, but you can\u2019t underestimate the importance of culture when forming a real estate team and nurturing its success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you build a team around a culture and people who are all going in the same direction,\u201d West says, \u201cthen you’re able to build something sustainable that lasts and that people want to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: (CoWomen \/ Unsplash)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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