6 Career-Defining Options Every Agent Faces Today
If you don’t have a transaction coordinator, you ARE your transaction coordinator.
Similarly, if you don’t have a social media specialist, you ARE your social media specialist.
Same goes for your videographer, your IT specialist, your marketing coordinator, and so on.
See where I’m going with this?
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As a real estate agent, the more roles and responsibilities you try to tackle yourself, the less time you leave to get face-to-face with consumers – which should be your REAL role. After all, that’s where your money is made.
Which is why it’s abundantly clear to me that teams are the future of our industry. I’ve been saying it for years, and I’m more convinced of it now than ever before.
It’s time for you to make an important decision about your future. Read on to discover six real estate team options I see possible…
Real Estate Team Roles & 6 Career-Defining Options for Agents
Option 1: Declare Yourself an Artisan Agent
Even if you’re resistant to building a team, you’ve got to admit that having a division of labor can help free you up for more dollar-productive activities.
Right?
If that sounds like you, I’d advise you to become an “artisan agent” – intentionally focused on providing a higher quality of service to a small, select group of people. (Think Seth Godin’s “smallest viable audience” if you were with us at this year’s Summit.)
Then surround yourself with hand-selected team members – either part-time or full-time, depending on your needs – to let you excel in your role working face-to-face with clients… a transaction coordinator, marketing specialist, an assistant or a VA.
Real Estate Team Option 2: Build an Intentionally Small Team
The next option would be to connect with a few like-minded agents to build a small, tight-knit team of no more than five salespeople and a few key admin roles.
These intentionally smaller teams typically mean everyone knows how to do everything and they take responsibility for their own actions and production, but with the luxury of having team members to rely on for advice, support and encouragement.
Just like being an artisan agent, you’ll want to staff depending on your needs – a TC, possibly a receptionist/assistant, etc.
Real Estate Team Option 3: Embrace Your Role as a Dominant Listing Agent & Build a Mid-Size Team Around You
Some agents thrive when they realize exactly what it is they want to do, and then they delegate everything else to others.
Let’s say you want to specialize in high-end listings in your market, but you tend to attract additional leads outside your area of expertise.
Then perhaps it’s time to hire some buyer’s agents, listing agents and admin staff to build a mid-size team of 6-15 agents around you… while you embrace that role as the dominant listing agent working in the exact niche you desire.
Once you get to this size, however, you’ll want to bring in someone to lead your operations, or else… yep, you guessed it – YOU will be head of operations. And then you’ll have no time to take those high-end listings.
Real Estate Team Option 4: Build a Large Team & Move Out of Production
If your long-term aspirations are more about becoming a CEO and less about working directly with clients, you may want to explore building a “mega” team of 16-600 agents and eventually moving yourself out of production.
Building a large team can be extremely gratifying, but you need all the right parts in place for it to run smoothly and achieve profitability. (I’ll save that for another blog.)
It’s definitely an option to consider, depending mostly on the size of your ambitions. If planning to go this route, let’s talk beforehand. Text me at 949-216-5466.
Option 5: Join an Existing Team
Not everyone is a builder. You may not want that responsibility of assembling a real estate team or even creating the vision for where the team is headed.
You just want to do your thing… meet people, solve their problems, help them move on to the next stage of their lives… rinse, repeat.
If that sounds like you, join a team for the support it provides while maintaining your freedom as a sales agent rather than taking on the role of a partner or pseudo-manager. It’s really the best of both worlds!
Option 6: Lower Your Ambitions
The flight to quality is real… today’s consumer wants things quicker and easier with less friction. They want that Amazon-like experience – click a button, problem solved.
And in my opinion, those solo agents unwilling to build the support system around them simply cannot compete on that level AND consistently scale their businesses.
So if you want nothing to do with a team, the natural conclusion is you’ve got to lower your ambitions. You can’t do it all yourself and compete with the marketing budget or service level of teams who have operationalized those game-changing facets of business.
Choose Your Hard
I hope this blog has been helpful, and I also hope that I haven’t made it sound easy to build a team.
Team building is yet another “choose your hard” scenario in the life of a real estate professional.
It’s extremely difficult to build a successful team, requiring tons of dedication, discipline and the willingness to start over when you realize things aren’t taking the shape you desire.
It’s also extremely difficult to fly solo and do everything yourself in this business. And ultimately, I don’t foresee a bright future for those who try to go this route. I’ve talked about “the end of the solo agent as we know it” at several recent events, because it’s simply not feasible for anyone to play every role required of today’s successful agent.
Here’s what I know… the longer you wait to make one of these six choices, the less you’ll be able to compete.
Which way are you leaning and when will you act on your decision? Let me know in the comments below.
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