Finding the Right Teammates

Hiring the right person can be a tremendous boon. The right hire will likely be a complementary personality, someone with whom the agent feels he or she can easily interact and trust.

Peter Lake of Lake Real Estate is in the process of forming a team and has brought in a pair of licensed Realtors after working as a solo practitioner for 17 years. “They’re people I already knew,” Lake said. “Both of them are licensed and they have a terrific real estate interest, one in rehabbing and flipping properties and the other in acquiring properties for investors. These people would never join a franchise on their own. They were interested in working with me, and I’m done with being a solo practitioner. “The game is changing, and it’s time to start thinking of ourselves as a marketing company that sells real estate, not a real estate company that markets its services.”

Determining the right size for the team is really up to the agent and what his or her needs might be. Technically, a team could consist of just the Realtor and a personal assistant. Many agent teams hire marketing professionals to take care of their social media presence as well as their traditional advertising. Designated staff members may handle the details of openings and closings.

“If you want to start a team, you have to be someone who is committed to a path of growth,” Cohen said. “Everyone in the real estate business has to change in order to remain competitive. When you’re a team of people working together, you’re like a living, breathing organism as a company and you have to adapt more quickly. You have not only the demands of the industry to consider, but also the requirements of personal growth for yourself and your best people, and you want to be able to facilitate that growth.”

Pay structures for team members vary, as well. Many firms handle it by giving the agents a set percentage of each sale. Some offer a package that consists of salary plus commission. Front end office staff is typically salaried, while temporary and part-time workers might work at an hourly rate, with or without commission.