5 Steps to Build an Elite Real Estate Team

Real Estate Team

Like football, baseball, soccer and lacrosse, real estate has evolved into the ultimate team sport. In fact, according to Forbes, both buyers and sellers now prefer real estate teams because it gives them “more access to expertise.” With teams, agents can provide better customer service, optimize marketing and nurture leads, all while benefiting from the camaraderie and support that motivates people to perform at their best. However, in order to ensure improved efficiency, it’s important that a team is recruited strategically and properly managed.

Are you ready to recruit your own real estate dream team? Here are five simple steps to get you started.

Step #1: ESTABLISH GOALS: Before you recruit your real estate team, it’s important to set a foundation – meaning you need to know where you want to take your business. Do this by consciously sitting down and asking yourself:

•What are my short-term goals?
•What are my long-term goals?
•What do I want my business to look like in 1 year, 3 years or 5 years?

Most importantly, make sure to quantify your goals so that you can track your progress over time. Add benchmarks around total transactions, total income and revenue, team size, market share, geography, awards/recognition, designations accomplished and anything else that you want to accomplish. Moving forward, keep your goals at the forefront of your mind during the recruiting process. This will ensure that you are enlisting real estate team members who share in your vision and who have the skillsets to help you succeed.

#2: ALIGN YOUR VALUES AND RULES: Inspired by your goals and vision, it’s now time to set your rules and values. Why? Rules and values provide the base for your organizational culture, which is more important today than ever before. In fact, according to the nonprofit Talent Board, 41% of job candidates research company culture before applying for a job.

With today’s workforce, it’s much easier to teach hard skills than it is to impart core values. Therefore, the success of a real estate team depends on your ability to bring people to your team who share your values and will follow your rules from the start. Furthermore, never shy away from your values. Instead, shout them to the rooftop as they are what make your real estate vision and business, unique. Plus, they can be used as a competitive advantage for both recruiting new team members and clients.

#3: IDENTIFY NECESSARY QUALITIES OF YOUR HIRE: We’re willing to bet that there is a part of your business that you strongly dislike, or certain tasks that are bogging down your workload. Chances are this is the first position you’re going to want to fill. For some, this might be an ISA or a buyer’s agent. For others, a listing coordinator or a social media manager might be the priority.

No matter what your need is, look for people who possess ‘unteachable’ skills and qualities, such as strong interpersonal skills, organization, and multi-tasking. Supplement that with the person who embodies the skills and characteristics that balance your weaknesses the most.

#4 RECRUIT YOUR TEAM: When you’re ready to hire, start by creating your job description. This should be simple, compelling and concise, as the average job seeker will only spend 77 seconds reading it. Make sure to discuss your vision and values and highlight all of the benefits of being a real estate team member: compensation, flexibility, resources, tools, and perks. Remember, culture is critical!

Next, share your job description with your sphere of influence first. These people know your personality and business vision and can help identify the best candidates. Plus, referred candidates have a 25% higher retention rate. Follow this up by organically sharing your job description link via your personal social media accounts as well as your team’s corporate accounts. You’ll get exposure to your first-level friends and followers, plus if you encourage them to share, you can reach their contacts as well. Also use paid Facebook, Linkedin and Indeed.com posts to maximize the reach while still remaining highly targeted.

It’s important to remember that recruiting an ideal candidate is a two-way street – meaning that you can’t just sit back and wait for the top employee to come to you; you may have to find them.

5: TRAIN and NURTURE: As the real estate team leader, showing interest in your team and their development helps improve morale and, as a result, overall productivity.

One way to maximize productivity is through the use of technology, which if used properly, is frequently one of the most important factors of successful real estate teams.
Traditionally, real estate technology has been notorious for being high on promises, but low on ROI. But recently, new technologies built to streamline processes, automate activities and target prospects have shown promise.

From pipeline tracking, lead scoring and email automation to task management and team administration, there are choices for functional real estate technology to help support teams of all sizes. When looking for the tech solution that’s best for your business, however, make sure it has all the features and functions you need, and nothing more.

By following these five steps, starting, building, and maintaining a premier real estate team is easier than ever before.

By Jason Hoback President of CINC