Building a Real Estate Team? Here’s What You Need to Do

Maybe you’ve considered expanding your real estate business, but you’re concerned that hiring staff would diminish the personal touch you deliver to your clients. Perhaps you’re afraid there won’t be enough sales activity to justify hiring. Or maybe you never wanted to manage people. But at this point in the life of your real estate business, the time has come for you to start building your team — or expanding your current one.

Here’s what you need to do to start building a real estate team.

Evaluate your needs

When you think about building a real estate team, first consider your needs. Are you trying to grow your business? Do you want more customer support so that you can take time away from the office? Whatever the goal, your staff choices should support your objectives.

Here are suggested staff members — in logical order — that you should bring on board to build your real estate team.

1. Team assistant — licensed or unlicensed

Also known as a transaction coordinator, the team assistant pulls non-selling tasks off your plate so that you can focus on customer-facing tasks. Whether you opt for a licensed or unlicensed team assistant will depend on your area of greatest need. Either position can be salaried.

A licensed assistant might be a person who has a real estate license, but doesn’t want to sell. This person can show homes, answer property-related questions and perform property-specific tasks. You might make this position eligible for a piece of the commission in addition to a base pay.

An unlicensed assistant can’t show homes, answer property-related questions or perform any property-specific tasks. This person focuses more on tasks such as transaction paperwork, scheduling home repairs and inspections, and helping with open houses.

2. Buyer’s agent

Buyers generally require more of your time, effort and attention than sellers do, so it makes sense to include a buyer’s agent on your real estate team. All a buyer’s agent does is show houses and convert clients into sales. It’s typically a commissioned position, but it can be salaried or salaried plus a piece of the commission.

3. Lead coordinator

A lead coordinator might also be referred to as a listing coordinator or listing specialist. This person works solely on finding, qualifying, cultivating and tracking leads. It’s a relatively new position in the industry, but it will likely grow in popularity because this person can save you untold time and effort on lead coordination tasks.

4. Buyer’s agent #2 or a seller’s agent?

By the time you’re ready to hire again, you should have a very good idea of the types of clients you have — or the types of clients you’d like to attract more of — and can decide what position you should fill next to grow your real estate business.

Determine your compensation model

Candidates for your open positions want to know how you plan to pay them: Will it be task- or project-based, salaried, commission-based, or a 50/50 combination of base pay and commission? What about bonuses? Before you hold the first interview, hash out what model is reasonable and competitive for each position; remember that compensation and bonuses come after you take expenses off the top.

Take it slow

Fill one position at a time and consider hiring your team members on a trial basis. It will give you time to evaluate the person’s productivity and personality. A new hire who doesn’t have the right skills or is mismatched to your work ethic, professional goals and temperament can wreak havoc on your business. In addition to evaluating the new hire’s performance over the trial period, revisit your objectives for the position to determine if you still need a body there or if you should tweak the responsibilities. Decisions about your next hire might very well depend on how the previous one worked out.

Share your business goals

When you build your real estate team, you’re seeking people whose goals align with yours: Make sure you share those goals with job candidates so they understand what you’re trying to do and can decide if they want to be part of it. Communicate regularly with your team members, sharing your objectives, strategies and tactics, so that you’re all striving for the same outcome and everyone is clear on how to proceed. Giving your team ownership of their roles will help them feel invested in your collective success.

Remember: YOU are the leader

When you make the move from solo agent to real estate team leader, keep in mind that you will set the gold standard for your staff — from how they answer the phone to how they service clients. Everything they do will represent your business, so it’s your job to make sure the team is acting according to your vision.

Be clear on what the tasks are, who is responsible for them and how performance will be measured. Seek to hire people whose personalities complement yours, and share your passion for the industry. Don’t be afraid to pass on candidates who don’t fit the bill, or to part ways with hires who didn’t turn out to be what you expected.

The idea of moving from managing only yourself to being responsible for an entire real estate team might be daunting, but this is your business. The whole point in building your team is to grow and thrive without sacrificing the quality of your service. Success is what you decide it will be; the best way to make sure your team members know how to help you achieve it is to be clear, be organized, be inspirational and be present.