Tim and Julie Harris

By Tim and Julie Harris

3 Takeways:

• Make sure starting a team is a necessary business move.
• Your first hire should be an administrative assistant to help ensure your real estate systems are functioning smoothly.
• This is the first post in a series on best practices for developing rock star teams.

Many brokers and agents fall in love with the concept or dream of putting together a rock star team in order to maximize their revenue, profits, leads, and closings. But you must first take a good, honest look at how much volume you have and whether it justifies the time you’ll spend building a team or teams within your brokerage.

Doing 40 transactions per year is a good benchmark—any number over 40 deals a year (one deal per week or more) would likely justify looking around for some help.

If you’re a new agent not yet doing much business, starting a team is not something you should consider at this time. You need to ensure you have enough business to support yourself and business to support additional people (and their families).

Are You Ready to Become Team Leader?

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As a top solo agent, look at the strengths and weaknesses within yourself to assess whether you have the leadership qualities—or if you’re willing to develop the skills necessary—to become a team leader.

Rock star team leaders have two jobs: One job is to be the chief lead generator for the team, and two, is to cultivate the best levels of excellence and productivity within the team.

If you come to the conclusion that you’re ready and able to start a real estate team, start by setting your revenue goals and then work backward in terms of the minimum number of leads and systems you’ll need to achieve those goals.

As we write in our book and discuss in our daily podcast, lead generation is the bottom line for revenue generation. Here are some systems you should consider creating:

• Specific business plan and goals
• Vision, purpose, and branding
• Lead generation and follow-up systems
• Marketing and advertising
• Database and referral system
• Listing inventory and farming system
• Buyer, escrow, and transaction management system
• Internet, social media, blog marketing
• Financial, productivity, profitability reports and forecasts

Key Roles and Timeliness of Hiring

First, hire an administrative whiz who can get your crucially important real estate systems functioning as highly-tuned Swiss watches. Remember, administrative personnel must contribute to the bottom line of the team as a whole by maximizing your productivity, lead generation, and revenue. As we write in our book, no team member gets a “free ride.”

After hiring an administrative whiz then it’s time to look for productive agents, including a buyer’s agents who can handle at least four transactions a month and ensure that no lead slips through the cracks.

Then consider hiring an inside sales agent who is able to make, track, and measure incoming and outgoing phone calls, texts, and emails to and from leads. Lastly, consider hiring a listing agent or specialist.

Keep in mind that fast and consistent follow-up will generate more leads. Make sure your team’s systems and all your team members are working together efficiently and consistently, and are ready to hit the ground running as those leads continue to grow.

Tim and Julie Harris have been leaders in the real estate industry for more than 20 years, first as top producing agents, and now as sought-after business coaches. Their latest book, Harris Rules: Your No-BS Practical Step By Step Guide to Finally Become Rich and Free, is an international bestseller. Learn more at timandjulieharris.com.