So you're wondering how to put together a real estate team to lead your hyperlocal market. After a few years in the real estate sector, many agents find themselves in this position. It might be time to set your sights higher and grow your business with your own real estate team.

But you must first question yourself if you are actually prepared to start a real estate company. Are there any dangers you should avoid? And where do you even begin?

 

What Qualifies As A Great Real Estate Team?

A real estate team can be formed by any licensed real estate professional. Most new teams are formed by agents or brokers who have exhausted their ability to handle real estate work on their own. A real estate team's size might range from a small duet to multiple licensed and unlicensed professionals working together on everything from administration to marketing and selling properties.

A real estate team's success is determined by selecting members with complementary skill sets and working together to achieve the shared goal of closing deals. Each team member should be invested in the success of their teammates as well as the success of the group as a whole. This way, if a team member faces a problem, they have an ally on hand to help them sort it out.

 

Let's take a look at the nine stages of building a successful real estate team.

 

1. Begin With You

Examine yourself and your work history. Do you have what it takes to be a strong leader? You will set the tone for your team as a team leader. It is critical to be able to inspire and encourage your team in order to steer them in the proper way.

Of course, leadership skills may be acquired over time, but it never hurts to consider your deficiencies and work to improve them before taking on a new, hefty role.

If you're not sure where to begin, consider these 9 ways real estate salespeople may boost their confidence.

 

2. Make Certain You Have The Company

When is the best time to consider forming a real estate team? In a nutshell, when you have the business to back it up.

Real estate agents are responsible for a wide range of tasks. You must devote time to prospecting for new leads, running marketing campaigns, visiting with clients, working with mortgage brokers, escorting clients on property tours, and so on.

All of these actions are critical to your real estate business and should not be overlooked. The more your company expands, the more difficult it is to meet all of your real estate obligations. You'll eventually reach a point where it's physically impossible to service any more clients, and you'll have to turn them away.

Of course, this is a good problem to have. However, just because you've arrived at this point doesn't imply you have to instantly form a multi-person team structure.

Knowing how to construct a real estate team necessitates some planning. For it to succeed, you must be intellectually, professionally, and (particularly) financially prepared.

Unfortunately, there is no secret formula that will tell you when it is the best time to start a real estate team. It all depends on your specific situation.

 

3. Organize Your Systems

Before you begin hiring, make sure that all of your real estate processes and systems are running like a finely tuned engine. That way, when you hire new real estate agents, you'll provide them with a solid structure to work from, and you'll be able to plug the agent in and get them producing as soon as possible.

The following systems are required (but are not limited to):

• Color palettes, typefaces, slogans, and logos - What colors, fonts, slogans, and logos will your real estate team use? How are you going to create your business cards, website, signage, and listing packages? With our branding and logo integration, our designers at AgentFire can assist you in developing a distinct brand identity for your real estate company.
• Tools and software - What tools and software for productivity will you require? There are a million different ways to plan your workday, but how will you keep your team on track? Tools like ClickTime assists real estate workers in staying accountable and keeping track of work completed inside the agency.
• Plans for client database maintenance and growth - How will you expand and maintain your client base? What is your follow-up procedure? What software do you use to keep track of your contacts? Every real estate company requires a dependable and active CRM. Your CRM is the core of your customer contact information management, and it should be organized in such a way that following up and reaching out is simple and natural. For example, you can organize warm prospects into a marketing funnel and assign prospecting groups to different team members using your CRM. AgentFire websites provide CRM connection, which instantly combines each online lead into your CRM.
• Transaction management systems - How are you going to handle all of your real estate transactions? Software like BrokerMint or Paperless Pipeline automates reminders, tasks, and financial records. However, as your company expands, you'll need to hire a genuine transaction coordinator.

Do you have an online presence and a content marketing strategy? Do you have a real estate website? How would you promote your properties on the internet? What kind of material are you planning to create? What plans do you have for expanding your web presence in the future? Before you begin any form of digital marketing, you must first develop a digital marketing strategy tailored to your real estate firm and customers. Your real estate website will serve as the foundation for this strategy. Reach out to our expert web designers at AgentFire for a website designed to generate leads and nurture overall real estate business success, and we'll get you on the right track.

Baird & Warner's blog does an excellent job of integrating content marketing on their website.

• Referral systems - How much are you ready to pay for a referral, both within and between brokerages?
• Splitting commissions - How will you share commissions with your agents? Will you provide your agents with leads? And how would the split change if they bring in their own leads?

Remember that when you become a team leader, you also become a manager. That means your team members will look to you for guidance on the practices they must follow.

If you don't have your home in order BEFORE you hire agents, your team will suffer from avoidable slowdowns, productivity losses, and confusion.

 

4. To Find Excellent Team Members, Use A Personality Assessment Tool

When you're at your peak productivity and moving at breakneck speed from one closing to the next, or you suddenly find yourself with 30,000 tasks that need to be completed by tomorrow, it's all too tempting to hire the first real estate agent who walks into your office interested in joining your brokerage. But don't be taken in by it.

It is critical that you pick real estate agents that have the correct mindset and demeanor for the job, rather than merely eager rookies who recently obtained his or her license. Long-term success requires a team that is fully committed and shares your beliefs.

Poor hiring decisions will cost you time and mental energy. Someone with the wrong attitude could become an energy vampire, demoralizing your entire staff. Disruptive people will start unneeded fights and participate in sloppy or inefficient company procedures.

When you're first starting out, it's frequently advised not to hire any new agents with less than 6 months of experience. These agents may require further advice and coaching that you will not be able to supply if you are busy creating a new firm. Instead, wait until you've employed some senior agents who can serve as mentors if necessary.

Use personality evaluation tools to ensure that you have the correct employees with the proper personalities for the task.

There are numerous tools available to assist you locate real estate team members with the correct personality for the work, including the standard Myer-Briggs personality test, the DiSC model, Belbin's team roles, and even Keller Williams' Keller Personality Assessment.

It is critical to realize that, while these tools will assist you in finding people with the correct mindset for the job, they are not ideal. Because the human mind is so complicated, it is impossible to entirely distill someone's personality into a single type.

There can be occasions when these personality tests show that you have chosen the right individual, but that agent simply does not work. Before you let someone go, consider whether you've been a great leader by offering all of the essential tools and support. If the response is yes, but that member is still not contributing, don't wait too long. Take bold action early on, and replace any problematic agents on your squad as soon as possible.

 

5. Learn About Your Team

When you've selected the right team members, the next step is to learn how to create a positive team environment. Investigate which personality types complement one other and which types of clients. A gregarious ESFJ agent, for example, can teach an introverted INTJ how to relax during tough client discussions. An ENTJ that enjoys being around people would excel at generating leads through community outreach and local activities. An ISFJ, on the other hand, is depleted by excessive socializing and should concentrate on developing a website that doubles as a lead-generation machine.

The common goal of all of these personality types should be to represent the brand and create the same great customer experiences across the board. When hiring each team member, make it clear that being on a team involves working together. Avoid agents looking for a moment in the spotlight by implementing a system that rewards great performers for their accomplishments.

 

6. Choose Your Team Structure

As previously said, teams come in many shapes and sizes. We can't tell you how to form a real estate team exactly, but most teams examine the following four primary structures:

• Mentee and Mentor
• Two Agent Associates
• Structure of Team Leaders (Pyramid 0)
• Structure of the Lead Team

Having a clear understanding of the team structure you'll use will make future onboarding easier and more fluid. From there, you can create an onboarding plan and new agent guide, including necessary documents, handbooks, style guides, systems guides (such as your CRM, socials, etc.), web access, and how to collaborate with other employees.

 

7. Set Measurable Goals And Clarify Your Team's 'Why'

A lot goes into purposefully defining, monitoring, and attaining goals. Running out the door without a defined plan of action is a sure recipe for disaster. Before you consider adding more team members, decide how many transactions you want to complete each year and how much revenue you want to make. Then consider how many new members you would need to achieve that target. Once you have those figures, go into greater detail and ask yourself, "How will our team achieve these objectives?" What characteristics motivate our company? Begin developing a precise plan and seek the advice of successful real estate professionals you know

Your team will play a significant role in putting this plan into effect. Encourage individuals and teams to set personal and collective goals to keep everyone on track. Some team leaders begin their days with a group call to get everyone energized and in the correct frame of mind. This is an excellent chance to offer words of encouragement and praise if required, as well as to address team issues.

 

8. Create A Lead Generation Strategy

The first step in developing an effective lead-generation strategy for your team is consistency. Every team member should have a well-designed and customized website, access to a high-quality CRM, and be knowledgeable about a variety of lead-generation tactics. Cold calling, email marketing, lead forms, lead magnets, and other methods may be used. To ensure that your real estate website is capturing every lead, read this article: How to Rake In Leads With Your Real Estate Website.

Consider how you'll scale your lead generation tactics as your team grows in order to continue generating leads swiftly and efficiently.

 

9. Select The Best Team Members

It's now time to start hiring. Depending on the size of your new team, you may choose to hire a couple of agents to coach or a full administration team, marketing staff, and workers. The positions listed here are the most critical to hire for when your company expands in size.

 

Administrative Assistant

There is a lot of dispute among real estate team leaders over who to employ initially. Some think that it is advisable to engage a buyer's agent initially because they are paid on a commission split rather than a salary. As a result, a buyer's agent would not cost you any money and would assist you in converting leads that you don't have time to follow up on.

On the other hand, it might be prudent to initially hire an assistant.

To begin with, an assistant can be employed early in the process, long before you are ready to hire a buyer's agent. By doing so, you can ensure that all of your real estate systems are operational and ready for the arrival of your new real estate agents.

Your administrative assistant will also assist you in scheduling showings, managing your correspondence while you are away, cleaning the office space, and performing other clerical duties. This assistance will save you and your buyer's agent numerous hours spent on minor tasks that don't contribute to the bottom line.

While an administrative assistant is generally someone who works in the office, you can also hire a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants can do almost everything a regular assistant can. However, if you hire one from another country, you may be able to receive an unbelievable deal due to exchange rates.

If you're worried about the cost of hiring a full-time administrative assistant, you may not be financially ready to establish a real estate company.

 

A Buyer's Representative

When you have all of your real estate processes in place and an administrative assistant to support them, you will be able to devote more of your time to generating more leads than ever before.

When you begin to generate more leads than you can handle, it's time to engage a buyer's agent.

This agent's primary responsibilities will include lead conversion, property showings, buyer needs, making offers, negotiating, and prospecting for both buyer and seller leads.

While it may be tempting to engage inexperienced real estate agents who are prepared to accept a lesser commission split and can be taught and molded into your image, hiring an experienced and established real estate agent is a better choice.

An expert real estate agent will be productive straight away and will be able to begin implementing your real estate processes right away.

Every successful real estate team begins with a successful and skilled real estate agent. And, in order for the team to remain successful and grow, it must attract other successful and talented agents.

 

An Inside Sales Representative

Because you and your buyer's agent will be so busy closing deals, you may eventually find yourself too busy to prospect, answer calls, and follow up with prospective new leads.

You should bring in an inside sales agent at this time. This agent would be in charge of generating new leads by contacting expired listings and FSBOs, prior clients in your database, persons in your collective sphere of influence, and so on.

This agent can also nurture and follow up on those leads, assisting in the conversion of those leads into scheduled appointments.

 

A Listing Representative

One of your primary obligations as a real estate team leader is to ensure that your buyer's agents are always busy closing deals.

When you have so many customers that you can't handle any more listings, it may be time to engage a seller's agent to help you with listings.

This agent will be helpful in handling listings that you are too busy to handle and will be able to add more properties to your team's inventory.

The listing agent can also handle some of your marketing responsibilities, such as open houses and prospecting.

 

Coordination Of Transactions

Your transaction coordinator is the person who works on behalf of your agents to expedite transactions. This team member does not need to be licensed. If they were, however, it would be much easier to teach them in the process of getting to the finish line after a contract was signed.

A transaction coordinator's day-to-day duties may include submitting purchase documents, acquiring extra information, communicating with other real estate agents, and more. A transaction coordinator isn't required, but it does provide real estate brokers more time to interact directly with customers.

 

Specialists

Congratulations if you've made it this far! All of your important responsibilities have been filled at this time. But that doesn't imply you should stop here. You may wish to hire more buyers' and sellers' agents as your real estate firm grows.

Consider adding additional professionals such as a listing manager, marketing director, photographers, showing assistants, rental agents, a success coach, and so on.

However, once you reach that stage, you will be able to rely on your own judgment and expertise to determine who and when to hire.

 

Conclusion

Building a real estate team is the next step in your profession. It demonstrates your level of accomplishment and experience, allowing you to boost your revenue, delegate duties that are not in your skill set, and build and manage something you are proud of. It's also incredibly satisfying and something that can be accomplished very easily if you follow a well-designed system.