The real estate market is a revolving door of changes. However, there is one trend that is increasingly popular year over year; working on a real estate team. In the last thirty years, many more agents have joined teams. Real estate teams provide a real benefit for both agents, and their clients; as a real estate team gives clients not one, but many experienced agents working on their behalf. Some real estate agents prefer working solo, while others favor a real estate team with the benefit of shared responsibility. Are you one that values the team mentality? Then you need to know where to start, and what steps to take to succeed. You will soon learn the basics of a real estate team, that has the potential to grow your business.
The Basics
Real estate teams may be as different as snowflakes, but they’re all made of the same things. All real estate team members should pitch in for each other and share the team spirit. A team relies on each other. This allows clients to contact any other member of the team for assistance when one particular agent isn’t available. The client is the number one priority and should be taken care of, regardless of their assigned agent’s absence. Roles can depend on each agent’s strengths, expertise, and duties can (and often do) overlap. Teams also provide significant ease to new agents as they learn the industry. They are given the opportunity to shadow more experienced real estate agents.
Advantages for Agents
As a newly licensed agent, joining an existing real estate team can provide significant opportunities for increased skill improvement. As well as gain valuable experience in the real estate world. A team has the potential to provide inventory to hold open houses, create buyer leads, and gain more listing opportunities. Teams can expose you to a plethora of experiences you can use to build your skills. Sales skills, time management, and negotiating skills are learned faster through application with actual buyers and sellers. The best method to build real estate skills is through actual sales opportunities.
The Great Work/Life Balancing Act
Learning new skills from experienced agents is a great way to further your career, but that is not the only way a real estate team can help. One of the biggest positives to joining a real estate team is achieving a better balance between work and your personal life. Prospective buyers and sellers have constant access to real estate information and properties. This equates to agents being expected to always be gorilla glued to their phones and emails. Most agents face the unfortunate reality of family time interruptions, with inquiries coming in at all hours. As your response time will determine a majority of your success, agents must be ready. Failing to tend to a lead, will dramatically lower your sales rate. Agents, like anyone else, need down time to recharge and step away. A team can help achieve a better quality of life, due to the coverage they have from their squad. Within a team, an agent may have the ability to create their own schedule, and know that their clients will be taken care of while they are off the clock.
Culture
Because a majority of agents work remotely, they don’t come into the office for a traditional work schedule. When you join, or build a team, you are opening a door to a community. Other people share the same vision. Humans enjoy being part of a community. A real estate team can create that community and atmosphere that some may seek. By having a team of real estate agents, you also have the ability to delegate roles and responsibilities.Give people with a higher level of competency your relatively weak areas. Having people specialize in, and working specific roles, can yield better results in the long run.
Show me the Money
From a financial standpoint, joining a real estate team may be a realistic option for some agents to provide more income stability. Being a part of a team, may buff out the income swings that happen within real estate sales. While one agent might be having a lower level month, another team member could be having a really strong month. If you have a group of sales-producing team members, your income will likely be more consistent from month to month.
Advantages for Clients
Hiring a real estate team, rather than a single agent, provides the flexibility of two or more experienced agents working on your behalf. That means, clients are receiving twice the number of agents for the same price. The client has the opportunity to gain collective knowledge and wisdom, from a team of agents, who often brainstorm strategies further than a single agent might. In an instant, any team member can provide service for the client when another may be unavailable. Someone is always there, even if the client has been assigned to the care of a particular agent. No client should ever feel neglected, which is why the coverage of a real estate team is often favored.
Disadvantages for Agents
While real estate teams have many benefits, there are also things that come with the team that aren’t as favorable. One of the major benefits of a real estate team is that it will allow your business to make more money, there will also be an increase in expenses. Expenses will vary, depending on how your team is run. With a bit of evaluation, you should be able to determine the added expenses. Some teams may even experience negative cash flow in the beginning.
The Split
Not all bananas and whipped cream, this split is something you must carefully evaluate. As an individual real estate agent, if you have not yet reached the maximum amount of transactions you can handle on your own, then forming a real estate team may not be the right path for you. You are probably capable of competing individually, without needing to split compensation. If this is the case, you should focus on working on your personal real estate agent career. Bringing on a team would not be a financially smart move. Despite the fact that a real estate team can help you generate more leads, a team would first need leads to work with. When working with others, you must be generating enough leads, where splitting commission on them, would be worth it financially.
Teamwork
Usually this is followed by, say it with me, “MAKES THE DREAM WORK”. However, joining a real estate team does come with the possibility of joining a poorly run team. The team’s overall workflow can make or break the team element, which can affect the client’s experience. While working with multiple agents can have it’s advantages, it can also be cattywampus, depending on the team’s performance. Clients tend to get confused when interacting with several people, as opposed to dealing with just one agent. When there are too many cooks in the kitchen, confusion can arise. The question of who does what, leaves the client not knowing who to contact. These issues can make the team appear to have poor communication and a lack of personalized service.
How to Build the Perfect Team
When building your team, it is crucial to find individuals whose values align with yours and your other agents. When choosing team members, leaders should focus on skill sets, personality profiles, experience and productivity. Every team member you bring on will need to be informed, and have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them. Each team member should be committed to learning, and should possess a team mindset.
If the Glove Fits
As you look for prospects, avoid rushing into hiring just any real estate agent. Many teams rely on different personality tests and characteristics to decide who to hire. Even if they possess an impressive track record, that doesn’t always mean they will be the right fit for your team’s culture. An incorrect hire can cost your team a significant amount of money and time.
Roles of a Real Estate Team
The first step when building a real estate team, is to set your goals. Determine how many team members you’ll need in order to achieve them. As the one building the team, you will most likely hold the role of the team leader. To be a successful team leader, one must be a strong communicator, have a clear vision, and possess solid delegation skills. The team leader usually handles the listings for the team, while the team members work directly with the buyers. In some team formats, all members are encouraged to pursue listings, but most often the leader is the individual to bring in the business.
- The Coordinator-Once establishing a vision for how you plan to run your team, you can hire a real estate assistant or transaction coordinator. This person ensures the real estate team leader has support. The coordinator will be responsible for carrying contracts to closing, freeing the buyer’s agent from paperwork and allowing the agent more time to close deals.
- The Buyer Agent– Once your administrative support system is in place, you should be able to generate even more leads. The next step to growing your team is to hire a buyer’s agent. This agent’s main job will consist of lead conversions, showing properties, taking care of buyer needs, making offers, and prospecting for both buyer and seller leads.
- BizDev– Due to an increased amount of leads generated by both you and the buyer’s agent, there will come a point when you will need to bring on your next hire. You will then hire an inside sales agent who will be responsible for generating new leads, taking care of inbound leads, and lead conversion.
- The Co-Listing Agent– Once reaching the point where you have all the listings you can handle, you can then move on to hire a listing agent. As your business grows, you can add more buyer’s agents or inside sales agents to your team. You can also consider other roles like a transaction coordinator, marketing director, showing assistants, and personal assistants.
Great Tools for Real Estate Teams
There are many great advanced technological tools developed to make the lives of real estate agents easier. These tools allow you to be efficient, while implementing new techniques and tactics that you and your clients will love. Pro Agent Solutions has a suite of products that can assist in managing and building your customer relationships. Digital Flyer its real estate text message marketing app captures curbside leads and immediately notifies the listing agent by text and email. Sellers love to hear you are pulling out all the stops to sell their home. Having tools like Digital Flyer moves the needle.
Automate Automate Automate
Stepping away from tools primarily used for marketing purposes, Pro Agent Solutions tool, Showing Pro, allows you to gain instant feedback on home showings. Automated showing feedback software can provide constructive feedback for the listing agent and seller. A good real estate showing feedback form will focus on topics like the best features of a home, showing experience, and if the home is appropriately priced. Receiving constructive answers to these questions gives you the opportunity to improve your skills as an agent, and give your clients the best experience possible. Try a free trial of this software today, and see how it can improve your business.
Project Management Skills
Project management skills (In some team formats, all members are encouraged to pursue listings, but most often the leader is the individual to bring in the business. It is highly recommended that leaders hone their project management skills.)
Recruiting Tools
Broker Kit is another tool that is innovative in its design and function. This site allows you, the team lead, to use a CRM specifically designed for agent recruiting. Just like a broker, you are seeking agents to join your team and you need a system that helps you with agent engagement. There are many job opportunities for real estate managers.
How Compensation Works
As a team consists of multiple agents working together, a common concern may be how compensation is split between team members. It is important to make sure every team member understands why (and how) they make money. They also want to know how they can make more. It is best to base your commission plan on performance, to make it fair among all team members. Every team runs a bit differently, but there are a few specific ways to handle commission splits for your business.
Graduated
The graduated commission split entails an agent’s commission starting out at a 50/50 split. As they reach certain sales goals, set by the leader, the commission will be increased. This method provides an incentive for team members to meet specific goals needed to grow the real estate business.
Keeping it 100
As for the 100% commission split, every real estate agent on the team gets 100% commission on their lead conversions. This method promotes individual goal setting.
For the best results, you should begin with a graduated commission split to keep the team mentality. As the team grows and hits certain revenue goals, you may want to move to a 100% commission split.
So, a real estate team. Is it for you?
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