If you’ve been successful as a real estate agent, you may start wondering if you should build a real estate team. Building a team isn’t for everyone. Many agents who try aren’t successful because they haven’t done the homework to determine if they’re a good fit for leading a team. If you’re considering leading a team, here are some questions to ask yourself.
Why Do I Want to Start Building a Real Estate Team?
People build teams for all kinds of reasons. Some agents get tired of working alone and like the idea of a team for backup and comradery. Some agents think a team will give them more time for friends and family. Still others think a team will help them make more money. Those may be the results of having a team, but they aren’t good reasons to start a team.
If you want to create a successful real estate team, you need to have consistently more leads than you can handle. The reason for that is simple. Think about the type of people you’ll attract to a newly formed team.
If a highly successful agent decides to join a team, it’s typically because the team offers a dynamic environment that operates as a well-oiled machine with a busy pipeline of prospects. When you first start a team, you can’t expect that team members will start generating leads immediately.
Can I Afford to Hire an Assistant?
Before you do anything else related to building a team, you need to hire an assistant. Agents who hire a buyer’s agent first will have a much more difficult path to a successful team.
The reason is that you need to get your business systems in place while it’s just you and your administrator. You need to experiment to find the best ways to generate leads, onboard new clients, publish listings, manage showing solutions, implement real estate agent software such as real estate crm software, manage transactions and much more.
You need an assistant/administrator in order to get all those systems in place. If you can’t afford to hire one, you’re probably not ready to start building a team.
Do I Have the Patience to Grow a Team?
Done right, you’ll grow your real estate team in stages. You’ll start with an assistant, then expand the team as demand for your services grows. Initially, you’ll probably need a buyer’s agent since you’ll take the lead in terms of working with sellers.
After that, you can add to your team in a number of ways. You’ll need to decide which team roles you need to fill as time goes on.
However, if you’re expecting immediate results, and want to grow at a rate that you can’t support, you’ll find your team dying a slow death. Careful planning and adding to the team only as demand requires is the only way to be successful.
Next Steps
Do you think you’re ready to start building a team? Keep in mind that you’ll be the leader and you’ll need to be comfortable working through others and delegating without hovering. The true sign of a leader is someone whose main interest is to maximize the strengths of every team member. When you do that, you’ll provide the best service to your clients, and you’ll be able to guide your team to achieve success.