Read Transcript
When it comes to your real estate career, you really only have three choices—be an agent ON a team, be an agent who GROWS a team or be a SOLO agent who does their own thing.
There are pros and cons to each option and there is no one-sized-fits-all “right” answer for every real estate agent, despite what you may be seeing or hearing elsewhere.
So, how do you know which is the right choice for YOU?
Grow a real estate team
Oftentimes growing a team is seen as a mark of success in the real estate industry, but is it the right move for YOU?
Be on a real estate team
Being on a team can be a great way for new agents to get clients quickly and also a great way for seasoned agents to get help with the parts of being a real estate agent they may not love.
Be a solo agent
I’ll be the first to tell you, there ain’t no shame in the solo agent game, but it’s crucial you get the help you need as your business grows so you don’t get burned out.
On today’s episode
On today’s episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent, learn more about what it means to be ON a team, what to keep in mind if you have decided to GROW a team, and how being a SOLO agent can still mean growing your business without growing a team.
I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each option, when to know when it’s time to change from one to another, and how to make the best decision for YOU no matter how long you’ve been in the business.
Listen in to today’s free training episode and decide once and for all “to be or not to be”…on a team.
To your success,
Jennifer
Links mentioned in this episode:
Learn more about Agent Grad School and become a student here.
Episode Transcript
To Be Or Not To Be. That is the question. Shakespeare famously said those words. And on today’s episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent we’re asking the question To Be or not to be on a team. Should do you grow a team? Should you be an agent on a team? Should you be a solo agent and doing your own thing? We’ll talk through the pros and cons of each option. And when the right time is for you to do one of those three things in your real estate business on today’s episode, Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent I’m your host, Jennifer Myers, listen in. As I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the US to even opening my own brokerage full of agents, help me serve all of their clients that are coming my way.
I taught those agents. The same strategies I used in day two became the top producing agents. Now through this Podcast and Agent rod School dot com. I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside of the real estate industry, no fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads, just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted. And the life outside of your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. When it comes to your real estate career, you really only have three choices when it comes to teams, you either can be an agent on a team.
You can be an agent who grows a team, or you could be a solo agent who does their own thing, and just kind of skip the whole team thing altogether. So today’s episode, we’re going to be talking all about teams. Should you Grow one, should you be On one, should you just skip the whole thing? How to know which option is right for you? The goal of today’s episode is to help you decide which of those three options as the right choice, based on where you are in your business, your personal goals, your business goals, your personality, and what you want your life to be like outside of your real estate business, as well as other factors that you need to consider and know whether a team is a good idea for you.
So we’re going to talk through how to make that decision, because you’ve got to pick one of those three. You either got to be an agent on a team. You’ve got to grow a team, or you’ve got to do your own thing and be your own agent and not do anything with teams. So for each one of those options, I’m going to break down the decision points. So you can make the best decision for you and your business. And specifically I’ll discuss really the definition of what each one of those means and what each one looks like for clarity sake, and then all to talk through what type of agent is best suited for each one of those options. Then I’ll talk through the pros and cons of each, and then the questions that you need to really be asking yourself to know whether or not that option is best for where you are right now in your business, or how to know when it’s time to maybe make a change in your business and switch from either being on a team, to being a solo agent, or maybe you have switching from being a solo agent to being on a team or growing a team, depending on where you are in your career and what your goals are.
You may or may make different decisions along the way. And so how to know when it might be the right time to switch from one to the other is also what we’ll be covering today. But before we dive into how to decide whether a team has the right decision for you, either being an agent on one or growing one yourself, I’m being the leader of a team, I want to make one thing super clear. Before we dive into this conversation of teams, I am either pro team or against teams, and it really makes no difference to me whether you have a team or not. What I’m trying to do it in this episode is help you decide what’s best for you. You see one reason that I want to do this episode is I see some people in the real estate industry, making it seem like having a team and especially having a big team is some sort of marker of success or some kind of like I’ve made it a type of a moment in your career or type a sentence or a symbol.
It’s a lot of agents without really thinking it through automatically assume when they get to a certain point in their career, they’re gonna grow a team or they think that’s kind of like the next echelon. And it doesn’t always have to be just because you have a big team, doesn’t mean you’re more successful. And it’s not always the case. In fact, being on a team or growing a team really is not for everyone. So don’t fall into this trap of looking around and see what other agents are doing or saying or telling you what is the quote-unquote right thing to do. Its not a one size fits all thing just because you’re successful doesn’t mean you have to have a team and we’ll talk through what that looks like on today’s episode.
And when it comes to anything in your business, in today’s episodes about teams, but anything in your business, but especially when it comes to this huge decision about whether or not you should have a team or be on a team there, I really want you to take away that there is no right answer. There is no like you must do this or that. Or when you get to a certain point, you have to have a team or anything like that. So I really want you to stop looking around at what everyone else is doing or saying what you should do or you know, just cause your friend who was an agent wants a Team doesn’t mean you don’t have to run a team and I want you to make decisions for your business and for your life outside of your business, based on your goals, what you want for your life and what you want your future to look like and be like, So one of these options Team or no Team does.
It does not mean more or less success. And that’s what I really hope you take away from today’s episode. In fact, you even may change your mind. Mid-career midcourse on whether a team make sense for you or not. As your life changes, you may see that being on a Team or having a Team or being a solo agent has its pros and cons. So it might not be the same answer to your whole career and that’s okay to be willing, to be flexible and change as your needs change both inside your business and in your personal life who you see. I see a lot of agents fall into this trap thinking they have to have this goal of, of having a team like it’s this next echelon of success. It doesn’t have to be that way.
It might be, but let’s make that decision consciously and methodically knowing what the decision points are to make sure that this decision is the right one for you and your business. So your answer may be completely different from your other Agent friends or other agents in your office. So just don’t think that like this has to be one there’s one way that it has to be. So I’m going to break down each one of these options, being on a team, growing a team or being a solo agent. And I’m going to talk through what to expect in the things that you need to think about so that you know, which option is the right decision for you. And again, be prepared that it could change as time goes on. So what I love most about this career that we’ve all chosen real estate is that we get to decide, we are in control.
We have about what works for us and who we want to work with him, but what we want our business to look like or what we don’t want to do with our business. And we get to change our mind when our life changes and whatever way is that may come along. And we can’t even think about right now. I just think that it was so awesome. I love it. That’s what I just love about being a real estate agent and having chosen this profession is that you and me have complete autonomy and control over our results or whatever those look like and choosing are choosing to have a team or B on a team and deciding to change your mind at whatever point it makes sense for our lives is so awesome.
So given that because you know, with big responsibility comes big decisions. So we have to be especially careful about making that decision on teams and every really aspect of your business. We have to be really careful and calculated and thinking about the decisions that we’re making and whether they’re the right thing for, for, for you or for you or for me at this time. And they’ll be willing to take a hard look at the time. What do you want your life to be like? And why do you want your business to be like, and know that you can create what it is never it is that you want? I truly believe that when it comes to being a real estate agent and I have experienced that I have experienced the lowest of the lows and I have experienced the highest, have the highest when it comes to being a real estate agent and just know that you truly are the one that holds the key to how your real estate business looks.
You are the one that holds the key to how your business looks, how much money you make, who you work with, how you grow, whether that includes a team or not. What success looks like for you is all in your hands. So let’s dive in and talk about how to make the right decision for your life and your business and put your blinders on and make the best decisions for you no matter who else is doing whatever else around you. So let’s be clear when it comes to a team you’ve really got when it comes to the concept of teams and real estate for real estate agents, you got it. You have three options, grow a team, be on a team or be a solo agent.
That is it. So let’s start with the concept or have whether or not you should be on a team. And I want my newer agents or my agents who are looking to kind of peel back some of their time invested in their work. I want you guys to do, especially Listen here. So should you be on a Team for the sake of this conversation? I am talking to agents who are thinking about being a member on a real estate team, not really an admin. I mean like a sales member of a real estate team. Those are the agents that I’m talking to here. I’m not talking about To agents who want to form a team. I’m actually going to walk through that aspect of a Team a little later in this episode.
So stay tuned specifically. What I’m talking about here is joining an already existing established team. No. What does being on a team look like depending on the team that you join, which we’ll talk about here in a minute, how to pick the right team, but depending on the team that you do, you choose, this could look many different ways, but essentially being on a team, it means that you’re getting some benefit that you wouldn’t be getting as a solo agent from that team. Those benefits typically include leads and some kind of operational or a system like system structure, some agents join teams to have strictly just like comradery, having people around, like in a corporate job and having kind of this feeling like you’re in this together, that could be a reason to join a team.
Being a real estate agent can sometimes feel really lonely or like you just are kind of operating on your own in this dark cave. And so for some agents, the benefit of joining a team is to have colleagues again and have kind of this workplace environment. So when you joined the team, it typically looks one of two ways. Some teams have specific roles they’re hiring for. So for example, they may specifically be hiring for a buyer’s agent and you only work with buyer leads. Other, you know, another role might be a listing agent on that team or showing assistant, but your main function on that team has to service the clients that other people on the team are bringing in, while other teams operate more as a group of agents who are kind of all doing their own thing, but they share some kind of like, maybe you get some leads, but there are some, there are sharing of resources like transaction coordinators, some type of system that you’re plugging into operations or something like that, or again, that comradery or mentorship from the team leader, that kind of thing.
So we really think about whether a team make sense for you, because it really comes down to three things. Whether you should join a team comes down to whether you need help getting leads and making sure that team can get, can provide that for you and or some kind of operational support or system support, transactional support that may be, you just don’t want to do that part of the function or marketing that you just don’t want to do on your own or three that camaraderie mentorship, those that, that a feeling of kind of being in a workplace environment and all that, that brings with it. So those are kind of the three big reasons for joining a team. So which agents are best to be team members or how do you know if joining a team is right for you by being on a team is something I recommend often to a lot of the newer agents that I talked to because that’s a really great way, again, depending on the team you join.
So you have to be really careful about this to plugin quickly to a career in real estate, because you’re essentially plugging into a business that’s already up and running and successful and has other people involved who can support you in the ways that you need as a new agent. And so hopefully again, as a new agent who is not guaranteed, don’t go in assuming that every, every team is going to give you leads. You’ve got to ask the questions and we’re going to get to that in just a second, but hopefully as a new agent, especially if you’re getting some form of leads from the team more quickly than you might be able to get leads on your own, you’re getting support in ways that you could, you perhaps couldn’t as a solo agent, whether that’s through team support like a marketing team that you don’t have to like manage or pay for, or there are some operations or system transaction coordinating that you’re tapping into. No, are there types of agents that teams are really good for is maybe you’re not just a new age of it.
Maybe you’ve been an agent for a long time and maybe you’ve moved to a new city where you don’t know anybody. This is a great way of having being a member of a team is a great way to get up and running in a new location fairly quickly and again, plug an already existing business. So you can get to know the players in your market like home inspectors, title companies, things like that. So if you need income quickly, again, you gotta be careful on which team you join, but this could joining a team, could get you get more clients or more income, a little bit more quickly than being a sole. So Agent, if you’re new or new to an area, another type of agent who makes a great candidate for joining a team is maybe you have been a successful agent on your own for a while.
And maybe you could still be like if you wanted, but you don’t really wanna spend as much time working as maybe I used to, I know there’s agents in my marketplace, for example, who are really successful and even have a team of their own for a while and their life outside, their business changed pretty dramatically. And they just wanted to work less and just kind of have it be easier. And they didn’t want to manage people anymore as a team leader. And so they joined the team so they could still help clients and just do less of the things they didn’t really want to spend time doing and rely on their team to do that part of the business for them like marketing or transaction coordinating all that paperwork.
So being on the team is fine for successful agents too, who are successful agents who just don’t want to do as much as they would do on their own or on their own team. So the big thing, if you are someone who’s thinking about joining a team is to be sure you are joining the right team for what you are looking for in a team. So here are some questions that will help you with making sure you join the right team. First and foremost, this is a question you need to ask yourself. What are your specific reasons for wanting to join a team? Get really honest with yourself. Like, do you want leads? Do you want someone to do all your marketing for you? Or do you want just to have people around to talk to, do you want to plug into an operations system so that you don’t have to do all that kind of operation stuff that a lot of agents don’t like, like really write down, what are your reasons for wanting to join a team and that make sure that the team you’re joining you can provide those benefits to you.
So I would highly recommend interviewing at least three teams before joining one and be really blunt with them about why you are looking to join a team instead of growing your own business and specifically ask that team leader, if you will get the things that you were looking for by joining their team. Also, I recommended talking to other members on the team and specifically ask how, what your looking for on the team works on this team. So asked the team leader, and then actually as team members and don’t be willing to accept kind of non-answers are kind of like not specific right answers if you want leads, for example, specifically ask how often do you give leads, asked the team member, how it was, how often do you get leads?
What kind of leads are they, how often do they convert? What support are you going to convert them and really dig down into the details and make sure that you’re going to your needs for joining a team are being met by that particular Team. And if they can’t know that, as long as you’re being pretty reasonable, like specific about what it is that you’re looking for, if there is a team out there that can, can, can give you what you’re looking for, or it may just not be that team that you’re talking to. So keep looking for what you’re looking for, but first I know what you’re looking for in a team. Next thing about your growth strategy. Like we, do you imagine being on a team for forever or is it like a year and what is your commission split look like is another great question.
As, especially as if you’re thinking of growing your business as you sell more. And the other thing to ask is who owns the leader, if you were willing to, if you were going to leave. I know, unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to think about having a, having to leave a team when you’re just thinking about joining, but really think about what you want for the next few years. And how long are you imagining being on a team and kind of what your exit strategy or your growth strategy or your kind of next steps look like. And how does that work on this team? Some teams, for example, require a certain number, a number of sales, for example, or your off the team, you know, you know, think about what you are looking to do and whether or not there is a win-win and even exchange and it’s clear what they expect from you.
Can you meet that? Can you give that to them? And what do you expect from them and are they willing and able to give that to you next, if you’re joining a team, I really want you to understand a compensation package and what you are getting from the team for your split, because most likely with most teams, if you’re a member on a team and you’re usually getting 50%, sometimes as low as 30% take home, like from the commission. So there should be some sort of even exchange if you’re having that much of your commission away, which sometimes is warranted as long as you’re getting a lot back forward, or if you’re getting a lot of leads or getting a lot of support or you don’t have to pay for any marketing or any signage or all sorts of things.
So you’ve got to get something out of that cost that your car, that you’re invoking by being on a team, but be willing to accept a low split. So the more you’re getting from the Team the last, you have to handle it on your own boats, time and expenses, Y Y is expect for your split to be a little bit lower and that’s okay as long as there is that even exchanged between what you give and what you get. So really understand what that exchange looks like for each team. And it’s going to be drastically different depending on the team that you are doing. So ask these kinds of questions last but not least really understand before you joining a team like what’s, their vibe team has worked so no differently than each other.
And they’re really like friends of groups or families, or excuse me, a friend groups or families each kind of has its own vibe, its own environment in which it kind of operates. Some teams are really helpful to other team members, some hang out all the time and party and all this stuff, and some are competitive among other among team members. And so, you know, really decide what kind of vibe you’re looking for and ask questions or do whatever it takes to get a sense of what is that environment? What does that ecosystem on this team and make sure that you were a good fit for it and that’s what you were looking for.
So if you’re somebody who just like, kind of wants to work and you’re not looking for all of these parties and you know, benefit’s in that way, you know, there is some times a lot of like, I see Team it was like, have these parties on boats and stuff, right? Like if that’s of no interest to you, then don’t join that team. Cause your paying for it one way or another being a team member. So just know that things, these things that I’m mentioning here really matter and are hugely different depending on which team you join. So know what you’re walking into, asked the questions, get the answers and no what you’re getting, what you are giving usually financially and what that environment looks like now, once you decide to joining a team is right for you.
The most important piece is making sure you join a team that’s best for what you want out of that team. Otherwise you could kind of get turned off or not meet your needs if you join the wrong team. So when it’s crucial, crucially important to make sure that your joining the right team. So just to finish it off the conversation about whether or not you should join a team, just some takeaways. It’s really great for new agents. It’s great for agents who don’t want to spend so much time working so they can kind of get a few things off their place, usually systems operation’s transaction, coordinating marketing. If you are not interested in any of those things, join a team that can do it for you because there’s a ton of teens out there that are really good at those things.
And then just make sure that you are getting help for the parts of the business that you don’t want to do and make sure that you make this the biggest decision is what team to join. Make sure you do your due diligence to make sure you asked the right questions and made sure that your getting out of the team, what you want and be willing to give something in return in usually in the form of your commission. So get really clear and honest about why you are joining a team, what you’re looking for specifically out of that team, and then make sure that that team can give you what you’re looking for. And if it’s not, don’t what you’re looking for.
W instead, find a team as long as you’re being reasonable, like don’t expect to get a ton of leads and then get like a huge commission. If you’re getting leads expect under 50% as a commission split, usually closer to 30. So as long as you’re being a reasonable, keep looking for the right team. So the goal here is definitely have a win-win for both of you and the team. There should be that even exchange, you’re getting things. You’re giving things in the form of your commission. The pro’s of joining a team is again, if you joined the right team, you’re getting the help with the parts of the business that you don’t want to do, or maybe you’re not sure how to do if you’re a newer agent or a new tool, a certain area, things like leads, operation, transaction, coordinator marketing, but another probe having a team.
If you want to have people around, this is a great way to have other agents, a team leader, or a mentor around who can direct you and guide you as you are, as your business grows. And it can really help with that loneliness, that many agents who are used to a corporate environment sometimes miss when becoming a real estate agent. Now the cons of joining a team, obviously this comes down to cost. So that’s why it’s so important that you join the right Team. Cause if your, if you are getting things from that, Team that you want, YOU, we’ll have to give up a large majority of your commission. So expect your split to be pretty low, typically under 50% for a well-oiled team, a well-oiled machine team.
And if you’re getting leads, definitely if you are getting operations and systems and people support, you have anybody do anything for you expect your or your split to be 50% or lower, depending on what services are provided by that team. So the more you do the higher your split, the less you do the lower your split. And so make sure it’s really clear what that exchange looks like. So the biggest piece joined the right team, asked the right questions, make sure it’s crystal clear what you’re looking for and whether that team can meet it. So let’s move on to the next segment, the next group of agents and that’s whether or not you should grow a team.
So this one is going to be probably a little hot topic, and I may send it to say some things to hear that many of you don’t like it that’s okay. Because I really want you to think about having a team growing a team. And I want you to think about it a long and hard about whether that’s the right move for you. Why? Because I don’t know why there’s this. I don’t even know what the right word is exactly, but it’s, I just personally feel it there’s this like push from the real estate industry that growing as a team is some sort of like end game or marker of success. And the more people you have in the team photo on the Team website, it means you’re like more successful. And so for some reason, and I just want you to know that you do not have to have a team if you don’t want to.
And in fact, there are many agents that are highly successful, successful, who never wants a team and never had a team. And that is okay. So first and foremost, when it comes to having a team, I want you to know that it is not the only end game. It’s not the only marker of success, and it’s not the only next echelon in your real estate career. You don’t have to aspire to grow a team. If it doesn’t interest you. And more importantly, you don’t need to have a big team or a bunch of agents to manage. If you don’t want to, the bigger the team doesn’t necessarily mean the more successful you are, the less you have to do a lot.
Like people, sometimes they growing a team is passive income. No, it is not at all, all passive, believe me. So sometimes it can mean more headaches or more overhead and more expensive or more drama depending on your skill and managing that team. And there’s this myth that many agents have because I talked to them that having a team, somehow it means you are doing less or not true. You will not be as busy as you as a, as a kind of a solo Asian. If you run a good team, it is just a different job. It’s just a different, different set of skills than being a solo agent or being on a team. But it doesn’t mean you’re not going to work as hard.
So let’s really dig in here and talk about whether or not you should have a team grow as a team. And if that answer is yes, what that team could look like. So just so we’re clear, let’s define what we’re talking about for this conversation when it comes to a team, just so it’s clear where we’re drawing lines, a team in, in for this conversation is anything from To agents, joining together on a partnership to a full team of like 10, 20 are more people and truly everything in between. It’s essentially when you have more than two agents working together in a real estate business.
So just to be clear, this doesn’t mean an agent who has administrative people supporting them like you and an assistant. I wouldn’t call that a team. And we’ll talk about that. When we talk about SOLO agents in just a few minutes here. So similar to what I said about being on a team earlier, what’s super cool is there is no one right answer about the type of team or what it should look like. So if you decide that having a team is right for you, it doesn’t have to be one particular way that you read about it in a book, you can create whatever team you envision, whatever rules. There’s not one way to do it. There’s not one type of how you must do. First, second, third, there are many, many different ways that your team can look.
So you get to define it and like any small you as the business person determine what the company’s growth strategy looks like. You define the roles you define the compensation, packages, everything you decide when you hire, when you fire all that kinds of things. Sometimes that could be really scary. But before we get into what your team could look like, the question I hear most of the most from agents is how will I know when I’m ready to start a team or grow a team. And that answer is a very simple, when your cup runneth over the only agents who should be thinking about having a team is if you have too much business on your plate, you are too busy and you have your operation system down, Pat, a great time to start a team.
So when your cup runneth over and you have so much business that is just overflowing and it’s consistent, and it’s constant. I want you to, at that moment, pause and say to yourself, okay, now’s the time for me to start thinking about my next step. I have two options as my next step. I can start to grow a team. I can start giving away this business to team members, or I can continue being a solo agent and hire assistant to help me do all of these things. And we’re going to talk about that option next in, when we talk about SOLO agents. So if that interests, you stay with me through this Team conversation, and then we’ll get to you. And just a second So if you’ve gotten to the point where you have so much business, that you need help handling it all, then you can either hire assistants.
So you can have more FaceTime with your clients and have people do it and everything else for you. I do not call that a team. We’ll talk about that in a second one is SOLO agents, or you can start and grow a team of agents, which is what we’re talking about now. So let’s decide, let’s just say that you have decided to grow a team. You have so much business, you have too many leads to handle on your own. And even with the ad admin straight of help, that you’ve hired, you have still more clients coming to you than you can handle. That is, that is the marker of having a great team. I see so many agents and start talking about teams and start forming teams when they are not even busy, when they actually need more clients, don’t be that kind of Agent because you have, if you’re going to grow a good stable Team, you have to give something to those team members.
And typically it’s in the form of leads for operations or guidance or something. Your team will not work well, unless you are offering something to team members that they need and what agents typically need or leads and clients. And so you need somebody or they want somebody to do all the things that they either don’t know how to do or can’t do. Like we talked earlier, I see many agents grow a team before they’re ready. Don’t that kind of Agent I don’t know why it is, but I see it all the time. And I don’t know why it’s probably, because again, I think the real estate industry is pushing teams and that that’s what success looks like.
Or maybe there was this notion. I don’t know, because I, I hear, this is what I hear. I’m not making this up. Its like what I hear from talking to agents every day is there’s also this feeling like there’s going to be this passive income or you don’t have to work as hard do you can make money off of the other agents. But those things are not accurate. Agents who want to join a team, be leery of joining this type of team because you don’t want something. You don’t want to join a team where the team leader hardly gets any clients. It does exist. So be very, very careful and make sure that it’s not the team who are joining. So you were thinking of being head of the team. I highly recommend that you come from a place you’re a mentality as the leader of that team should be.
How can I give, what is it that I’m capable of giving to the agents that joined my team versus thinking more about what you’re going to get from agents who join your team. You know how we always hear an agent grad school. Talk about answering that question. Why should somebody choose you as their agent? Well, if you’re growing a team of agents, not only do you have to answer that question for your clients, why should somebody choose your team as to help them buy or sell a home versus all the other options out there. But you also have to answer that question for agents. Why should an agent choose to be on your team among all the other options out there, all the other teams being a solo agent and really come from that place of being willing to add value to the agents that join your team.
Not just being, thinking, not just thinking about what you can get from them as part of their commission split. So be very clear with them and to yourself about what you are able to provide them and what you aren’t able to provide them. What are you giving them? Are you giving them leads, operational support, an amazing system? What strength do you have as a real estate agent that got you, the success that you have and what do you expect and return from those agents? What type of agents do you want on your team? If you want a full time, part, time, ones that are S S fill certain positions like a buyers agent, or do you kinda want a group of agents that are kinda doing their own thing, but you share resources like marketing and transaction coordinating in a system to really define as the ti team leader, what is the exchange that you are offering and focus more on the benefits you are providing agents who will join your team versus doing the math about how much you can make from agents who your team.
So, okay. Let’s say you’ve defined, but let’s think about when you should start thinking about a Team we’ve already talked about that. So now let’s talk about what your team could look like. I highly recommend being very methodical when it comes to growing a team and being super conscious about the choices you’re making the first is what is your organizational chart look like? Is it an equal partnership between you and another agent and one admin person is at you at the top. Is there a leadership group of agents at the Top? Who exactly is the team to really understand who’s doing one on your team and what the hierarchy is and who’s doing, who’s doing what role, but that’s number one.
And again, for the sake of this conversation, if you are a solo agent hiring admin help, I’m not considering that a Team for this conversation. And I’ll get to that in just a minute. So clearly defined what is everybody’s role? What are you going to do? What are they going to do? Where are you going to keep selling? How do you know when you’re going to pass out leads? Who do those leads go to all of those kinds of things. I want you to see that when you start, when you think about growing a team, your role relief changes from that of an agent. Two more of a behind the scenes behind the scenes business person who just so happens to be in the business of growing a real estate team, because there’s so many ways to grow your team like branches on a tree and so many decisions along the way to grow a successful team.
I want your takeaway from this conversation, To, Be, don’t just start hiring a bunch of agents, Willy nilly, who are doing their own thing, just so you guys can all hang out together. That’s really not the point of a team. Think about what you’re offering them and what you expect of them and make sure there’s that even exchange. I make sure you’re adding a lot of benefit to the agents. And you know, what that benefit is, who joined your team and just know that you’re essentially giving yourself a new job when you’re growing a team beyond kind of a two Agent partnership type of Team, you become a head of an organization in all of that brings with it. The pros and cons specifically, let’s talk about pros and cons.
Some of the pros are that some agents who want to Grow a teammate actually like their new role, better than interacting with clients all the time. You can get out of that day to day client work. If that’s your goal and still be in real estate and grow a successful company, not necessarily a brokerage, a successful real estate company, that is a team of real estate agents that you are in charge of, and that you grow like any business would grow. And that is a skill and a kind of a certain skills that certain agents have that really can run successful teams. And all the cons are at least in my opinion, these are some cons, but some agents love this kind of work is that you really have to be the one to do things like, you know, you kind of have to level up, you’ve got to have policies and procedures.
You’ve got to do accounting, got a higher bookkeepers. You’ve got to have some human resources. What are the pay scales? What is the holiday schedule? How are you tracking sick leave and all that kind of stuff. So I’m agents love that. Others like me. I hated it. I hated the admin. I hated worrying about insurance and 401k and like thinking about growing this team and having to do all that kind of stuff. Another con is if you don’t build a strong foundation and by that, I mean having enough business to come in and you aren’t clear on the team that you’re building, you’re going to have a lot of heartbreak and headache when it comes to kinda your team and uploading are members leaving. And so if a team is really only going to work, if you grow consciously hired the right people at the right time in the right roles and just know that there are no right way to grow a team, you were in complete control and only start building a team.
If you have too much business or you’re really good at the system’s and the hiring of support, the support staff piece of it, or the marketing piece, if you are really good at those systems and bringing in clients, then it starts out. Then it’s time to think about growing your team with very clear lines, specifically, an especially if you’re going to a small team with one or two other agents who is doing what, where are the lines I’ve seen so many times agents getting into a Team situation with another agent and things don’t work out and they are trying to divest. And there was this huge fight about who’s leads and who’s doing what and whose, you know, assistant goes with who, and it’s a nightmare.
So make sure that if you’re entering into that kind of a team with another agent, you have it all clearly spelled out what would happen if one of you wants to leave the Team. So my biggest kind of a piece of advice when it comes to growing a team do not start a team too early. I know why you’re growing a team. I know what role do you want to grow on your team and to be very methodical and conscious every step of the way and know that if this idea of a team doesn’t interest, you, you do have another option. You can continue to be a solo agent, but I know that that doesn’t necessarily mean doing everything yourself.
Let me explain if you don’t want to be on a team and you don’t want to build a team, there’s only one other option you have to choose from. And that is to be a solo agent. Remember there’s only three choices, right? Be on a team, be it grow a team or be a solo agent, that’s it. And so, yes, being on a team can make me look many different ways. Having a team can look in many different ways and being a solo agent can also look many different ways. So let’s move on to this conversation about whether being a solo Agent is right for you. So what does the definition of a SOLO Agent it’s a one person operation, let’s just say, and that’s a great way to start as a solo agent.
That’s how many agents started out as a solo agents, but it was so Agent can also be an agent who was for him and facing with their clients, the only agent who’s front facing to their client, and who knows. It has a team of behind the scenes Team of admin support doing everything behind the scenes so that the agent can be the one in front of their clients. So that’s what I did for most of my real estate career. And I loved it. I wanted to be the one in front of my clients because I really liked that part of the job. So I hired admin people to support me in doing everything else that needed to get done, marketing, admin, bookkeeping, even a showing assistant, or a runner to drop things off, make keys in all, things like that.
So that I could be the one in front of my clients. That was what I did. You know, however many days or hours a day and a week I was with clients constantly. And everything else was getting by my quote unquote team, but it didn’t look like a Team to my clients, right? So it wasn’t me with all my assistant’s in the picture. It was me, my clients were getting me and everything got done by my team behind the scenes. And so I can tell you firsthand that you can make over a million dollars per year and sell a house are two a week being a solo agent and being perfectly happy. And so with this team of support, there was a lot of pros to this way of doing things.
So let’s talk about the type of agent that this decision is good for being a solo agent, right? If you feel like you don’t really fit in with being on a team, because maybe you don’t need the benefits of being on a team and maybe growing a team, doesn’t interest you for all that brings with it. Or maybe you just don’t have more business than you can handle it yet. You’re not ready for a team yet to grow your own team then than just be happy and stick with being a solo agent. You’re, you know, I’ll always say it I’ll be the first one to tell you there, ain’t no shame in the SOLO Agent game, like being a solo agent. Isn’t a bad thing. And I know, but like there was like this bad rap, like if you’re a solo agent, you’re not like successful enough, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.
So, you know, for me, the reason I chose to be a kind of a solo agent for so long in my career was that I, again, I wanted to be front and center with my clients. I didn’t want to Del like give my clients out to other agents as far as long as I could. So I waited on the hiring team members until I had my systems and my admin, all that structure and all that support. And even then I couldn’t like there was literally not enough time in the day to be with all the clients that I wanted to work with only then did I start adding people and having people joined me and share those clients with me. So as your business grows, you can get the support you need, but you are still front and center with your clients as a solo agent.
So you can hire a transaction coordinator to do all the paperwork. You can hire a marketing assistant to put all your marketing together. You can hire a runner to do all the dropping up and dropping off and picking up and hanging in a locked box and making the keys and hanging signs and all that stuff. You can hire showing assistants to do things like open houses for you, or last minute appointments, second showings, or even to help you stand in at home inspections are for piece parts of home inspections. And by the way, if you have the right CRM, which I’m working on a CRM episode, you can actually eliminate a lot of admin support by having the right CRM. And we’re going to talk about that. So stay tuned in a couple of weeks here, you can have bookkeepers CPA’s in fact, you know, one of our, one of the bookkeepers that I recommend, the only bookkeeping system I recommend is an online company called bench.
And it is who I used for my bookkeeping. And they are amazing. I spend about 15 minutes a week, excuse me, in a month on my own bookkeeping. And if you’re in a friends of Agent grad school, we actually have a discount for you. So you can go to Agent Grad School dot com forward slash bench, and learn more about their bookkeeping services. But these are the kinds of things that you can hire out. So you are truly not spending any of your time doing anything other than servicing your clients. So that’s What my business looks like for years and years. And most of those people that I hired were contractors part time and kind of could work on their own schedule, which I love it because I don’t want to micromanage people every single day.
And, you know, I might say something like do do, do, you can do X thing any time before X date and time. And they just kept track of their hours. So I know a lot of agents think that this might sound like a Team, but I really wanted to make sure that the line is drawn on a team is when you present the team to your agents and to your clients, and you most likely will not be the one working with your clients, that you have team members who do that for you. This is you are in front of the client. And then how has your business grows? You hide it behind the scenes, admin people. There’s a difference there. So I don’t want to make sure I don’t want to call this a team.
This is a solo agent you’re in front of your clients and you get the admin help. You need to grow as your business grows. You can sell a house are two a week. You can make over a million dollars a year of doing it this way, if you want. So the pros of this is that you have a lot less overhead and the headaches of running a team and managing people. I mean, yes, you have to manage people, but now agents, you just manage the admin help, which is a lot easier. So you have less overhead then running a team and you have a lot of hourly contractors in Azure. You know, the seasonality of your business goes ups up and down. They expanded can track accordingly.
You don’t necessarily have to spend time on things like hiring agents, training agents, mentoring, these agents, you know, that kind of thing you don’t have to do. And you can keep more of your, more of your commission than being on a team. And you have more control over who does what and why it gets done and how it looks in, in your marketing, which was nice to know the cons of having this is, yeah, everything does rely on you. It’s hard to take long periods of time off. But what I did was kind of had a buddy Agent and that would cover for me, and then I would do it for them, vice versa. So I personally think being a solo agent is good for agents that are doing like a couple million dollars a year and more, and it kind of both for growing your own team.
I think this is a really great step to kind of squeeze all the juice out and set up your system and really kind of put your training wheels on, to grow in your own team. So if you’re a brand new agent and you’re really needing to get up and running quickly, thinking about joining a team, once you kind of have a couple million under your belt per year, think about maybe going on in your own. And it started to create your own systems and, and kind of your own team of people behind the scenes. And then once you grow beyond that, then you can maybe change your mind if you want, or keep growing into growing a team and having agents. And you’ve already built this really solid foundation with your system and with the people who can support those other agents that you might grow into further down the line.
So I really think that this is a great way to grow as your business grows. I just really want to make sure it’s clear that you don’t necessarily have to jump into hiring agents for a really long time. I mean, I waited to, like, I literally couldn’t wait any longer to add agents cause that, and adding the agents, it does add a lot of time and energy that you’ll have to provide for them. Okay. So let’s wrap up this episode and make sure you have what you need to decide what your path looks like, what it comes to teams. So do you want to join a team it’s great for new agents or agents who don’t want to do everything that’s involved with being a solo real estate agent.
And that is totally fine. Joining a team has a lot of great benefits as we’ve discussed on this episode. Do you want to grow a team agents who have so much business that your cup runneth over, this is one of the two options you have to choose from. And if you’re going to grow a team, ask yourself and come from the place of what can you give your team members who join your team rather than what can you get from agents on your team, be prepared to change your role and what you do every day as your team grows, you’ll likely move out of selling and kind of be more of this CEO mindset, where you’re worrying about compensation, packages and numbers and bookkeeping and all those kinds of things, which is great.
Just ask yourself, is that the job that you want? And then third option is, do you want to be a solo agent? Do you want to be the one in front and center with your clients all the time? And do you want the freedom to create your own branding and not grow a team of agents? You have to kind of get leads two and train and nurture and keep in mind as a solo agent and your business grows. You can still stay as a solo agent if you choose just to get a and then just to get behind the scenes, admin help from showing assistant to marketing assistants, to runners, whatever you need as your business grows or give. What I always did is like what I have listed out. Like what are the 10 things I don’t like doing that?
That’s a new role. Last time I would hire for so that I can say in front of my clients and produce a big amount of sales every year of, from all the help that I was able to get behind the scenes and still be at the front and center with my clients. So those are your three choices. Things through the options are the pros and cons of each, whether you want to be on the team, grow a team or stick with just being a solo agent. All the choices are good, just twos, which one is best for you and your business. And it can change as your life changes along the way. I know that your answer to this question too, Team or not to Team can change over time as your life outside your business changes.
And that’s totally okay. Last but not least don’t feel like the only choice to be successful is to grow a team. It’s not always the end goal. It doesn’t have to be. So each of these options is great depending on what you’re wanting for your life and your business at the time, kind of all over the next few years to always be thinking a few years out. So put your blinders on. Don’t worry about what everybody else around you is doing your sag and make methodical and conscious choices that work for you and you alone. So there is so much more that we can get into when it comes to teams and how to create a good, a successful team.
What your first hire looks like, what your next hire. It looks like what Team to join, making sure your on the right team, that it really is something that is such an individual choice. And it’s such an individual conversation that if you, that kind of help, we are opening Agent, Grad, School up again for new students to enroll. And that’s exactly the kind of support and help that you can get as a student enrolled in Agent grad school. And we can help you make those decisions every step of the way. So if you’re interested in becoming an Agent grad school student, we are starting to enroll students again. Soon you can join the wait list. So you’re the first to know about it. And you can go to Agent Grad School dot com forward slash Wait list.
Also, If you would be so kind, if you like listening to this podcast, I would love for you to review us on iTunes. Give us a couple stars, give us the thumbs up, tell us why you love it. Tell us what you want to hear more about. We’d love your support on iTunes So. So the other real estate agents can learn about our little show and learn something to as always, if you can go to Agent Grad School dot com. You can go to the podcast page and you can get more notes in links that have been mentioned in this Episode. So thanks For being here. Thanks for listening and see you next week. On another episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent see you then.