What is a real estate team?<\/h2>\n
A real estate team is a collection of real estate professionals<\/a> who work together to help clients list, sell, and\/or purchase real estate. Teams can consist of both licensed real estate agents<\/a> and non-licensed professionals who work in a more specialized way, such as transaction coordinators, home stagers<\/a>, and photographers<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an increasingly common option for buyers and sellers who want an entire posse of agents and other home-selling professions by their side.<\/p>\n \u201cTeams come in different models,\u201d explains Mitchell, \u201cThey are part of, but independent from, the brokerage and come together as independent contractors under a business entity.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 28%<\/a> of Realtors\u00ae work on teams, and of those that weren\u2019t currently on a team, 16% had previously worked on a team<\/p>\n Sometimes, real estate teams are also referred to as groups. \u201cMy team is technically called a group in its name, but here there\u2019s no difference. There may be some state regulations about that, but typically the terms are interchangeable\u201d states Mitchell.<\/p>\n Real estate teams<\/a> operate for the purpose of making real estate transactions smoother by having people on the team who specialize in individual aspects of the transaction.<\/p>\n A more experienced agent or multiple experienced agents serve as listing agents<\/a> and lead generators. You can think of them as the rainmakers. They are supported by other agents, operations staff, and marketers who are tasked with other responsibilities, including transaction coordination, hosting open houses, managing the office, promoting listings, and working with buyers.<\/p>\n For the most part, real estate teams are pretty small, with an average number of four on a team and 30% of teams consisting of only two agents, according to the same NAR report referenced above. But they can be much larger.<\/p>\n \n\n\n\n\n Some of the highest-performing agents in the country are part of a real estate team. HomeLight\u2019s Agent Match tool analyzes over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.<\/p>\n \n If you hire a team, you do not pay more commission.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same amount of money for you, just split among more people. Depending on the team, some non-agent staff may be on salary while agents likely earn a percentage of each sale or divide each commission based on each team member\u2019s role in the sale.<\/p>\n There are different types of teams and different structures of teams. Many teams start with a successful but busy agent<\/a> who no longer has the time to do it all. They are at a growth tipping point and unable to keep juggling additional responsibilities such as marketing, paperwork, lead generation, maintaining databases, and hosting open houses.<\/p>\n They often start by hiring an assistant or administrative staff member to help with the workload. Then, they may add another agent to free up time to work with a particular type of client. Or they may hire a transaction coordinator to help with documents and paperwork as well as inputting listings on the Multiple Listings Service<\/a> (MLS).<\/p>\n Key to the success of any functioning team is a clear division and understanding of each team member\u2019s roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n Most real estate teams have the following roles:<\/p>\n One aspect of the composition of real estate teams that may be changing is whether agents within the team specialize on either listings or purchases.<\/p>\n Mitchell explains, \u201cIn the early stages of teams, there were agents that were just focused on buyers or listings, but it\u2019s much more common now for agents that work with both. That way they can work with the same client when they are a seller, and then right afterward a buyer for a new home.\u201d<\/p>\n In some cases, teams will have a whole bevy of brokers, a long list of buyers and seller\u2019s agents. And in other cases, it may just be a couple of agents and an administrative assistant. It just depends on the size and structure of the team.<\/p>\n There are some additional roles and responsibilities in larger teams that specialize even further.<\/p>\n If a team has enough listings, it may hire a specialist within the team to stage homes instead of contracting with a third party<\/a>. Weintraub argues that home stagers are an essential part of a team, stating \u201cHome staging is\u2026magical\u2026 the art of creating moods. Professional stagers are highly skilled artists\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n When the Real Estate Staging Association\u00ae (RESA)<\/a> studied staging results in 2021, they found that homes staged before listing sold on average $40K<\/a> over list price.<\/p>\n Similarly, some large teams hire an in-house photographer to take professional photos for each website listing to make sure they give prospective buyers the best vision of the value of the home. Groccia calls great real estate photos \u201cinspirational.\u201d And necessary: \u201cThat was it \u2013 right there \u2013 that was your opportunity to grab that buyer\u2019s attention, and if they clicked back, you\u2019ve lost them forever.\u201d<\/p>\n The main benefit of hiring a real estate team is the synergy and specialized care of a collection of highly skilled individuals to ensure your transaction goes smoothly.<\/p>\n Real estate team leaders delegate a specific subset of responsibilities<\/a> in a real estate transaction to individual roles within the team. This means that each aspect of the transaction is handled by a specialist that is more highly skilled in that area than a professional who is more of a \u201cjack of all trades.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell explains, \u201cWhen you have an agent who\u2019s part of a team, you get people who specialize in all parts of the transaction. Each person is where they need to be, in their lane.\u201d<\/p>\n Individual agents wear a ton of different hats, and in some cases, an agent may be exceptional at marketing<\/a> and negotiating<\/a>, but miserable at \u201ccrossing their t\u2019s and dotting their i\u2019s.\u201d Within a team structure, there is someone detail-oriented who specializes in handling the particulars of a listing, the transaction, and the contract.<\/p>\n Cohen hires team members based on their skills as well as how they fit in with the team and if they can see the vision. \u201cI need people who are obsessed with making sure that not one red paperclip makes its way into the blue paperclip bin,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are the kind of people who read the terms and conditions of any contract.\u201d<\/p>\n Clients get better service when they have access to professionals who can respond at a moment\u2019s notice, especially in hot markets<\/a>, to not miss opportunities that are time sensitive<\/a>.<\/p>\n The agents work in their areas of specialty, but they also work together to handle a client\u2019s every need. If a buyer wants to see a home \u201cas soon as possible!\u201d and the agent is on vacation, another agent or team member will step in.<\/p>\n \u201cYou win more when you have more resources,\u201d described Mitchell. \u201cIf you are a buyer, there will always be an agent who is available to step in to not lose out on an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, when things go wrong<\/a>, a team has the bandwidth to provide better support for less-than-ideal situations.<\/p>\n A recent study called \u201cReal Estate Team Risks and Rewards<\/a>\u201d surveyed nearly a thousand agents asking about real estate teams. While there are some positive outcomes from this research, 61% of respondents reported, \u201cConfusion about who does what is the biggest issue clients face while working with a team.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are other ways that agents reported team dynamics negatively impacting the client experience:<\/p>\n If the team is not put together carefully, and if the team does not have a strong leader and strong members, the transaction process can get messy.<\/p>\n So, how do you get a feel for how well the team is functioning? Cohen suggests asking a lot of questions during the interview<\/a>, such as the functions of each member of the team, their experience, and their track record. \u201cThere is always the power of questions,\u201d he says. \u201cAsk questions that allow you to discover how intentionally the team has been created.\u201d<\/p>\n People range on a spectrum in terms of the type of personalization and care they prefer when going through a real estate transaction. If you are someone who doesn\u2019t value personalization or the relational aspects of these types of transactions over getting the best value<\/a> with a streamlined, efficient process, then a team may be for you.<\/p>\nHow do real estate teams work?<\/h2>\n
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Does it cost more to hire a real estate team?<\/h2>\n
How do real estate teams typically set responsibilities?<\/h2>\n
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When you have an agent who\u2019s part of a team, you get people who specialize in all parts of the transaction. Each person is where they need to be, in their lane.<\/q>\n
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What are the benefits of hiring a real estate team over a solo agent?<\/h2>\n
1. Better outcomes due to specialized roles and effective delegation<\/h3>\n
2. Access to more resources for more availability \u2013 at the same cost<\/h3>\n
What are the drawbacks of hiring a real estate team over a solo agent?<\/h2>\n
1. The team may struggle with teamwork<\/h3>\n
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2. You won\u2019t have one person\u2019s sole attention<\/h3>\n