The One Thing That Kills Nearly All Real Estate Teams

Last week, I was talking to someone who leads a real estate team. On the surface, it seems like her organization is in pretty great shape—at least, that’s what you would think if you look at their overall production.

But looking under the hood, I saw a different picture.

Of the agents on her team, about half are relatively good producers, and the other half don’t produce much at all. The team leader is still the rainmaker, and her production is far-and-away higher than anyone else’s.

She wants to retire in five years, which means she has that amount of time to build an organization that can thrive without her. That means spending a LOT of time building processes, training people, and creating a succession plan…but how can she do that when the team is still so dependent on her production?

This is the central problem that kills virtually every real estate team: LACK OF PRODUCTION.

The whole purpose of building a team is to create productivity that doesn’t require you, the leader. Otherwise you might as well just be a solo rainmaker (with some support staff) and make as much as you can that way.

If you have a team and want them to be productive, you need to ask yourself one question…

Do I have a system in place that will increase the productivity of my team agents?

If you think that by simply hiring agents and letting them do their own thing, you’ll get the production levels you want, you’re going to be extremely disappointed. No one is going to work as hard as you. No one is going to be as effective as you…

Especially not if you don’t teach them how. 

You need a SYSTEM that fosters the right actions, the right habits, and the right effort on a consistent basis. Without structure, training, support, and accountability in place, do NOT expect your agents to produce at the level you want.

It’s just not going to happen.

For an agent to be productive, they need the right mindset, good time management, proficiency in CRM, and proficiency in Tactical Empathy.

Sound familiar? That’s 4 of the 6 Building Blocks.

(And the only reason they don’t need the other two—process management and knowing your numbers—is because you should be doing those things for the whole team.)

Without those Building Block skills, most team agents are going to struggle…and the only way for them to acquire those skills is for you to train them.

How on earth are you going to do that AND be a rainmaker AND have any kind of life?

You’re NOT…and this is why teams break down.

So, how do you start to fix this?

Step one is the simple realization that you can’t do everything.

You can’t be a team leader AND rainmaker—both are full time jobs!

Most “team leaders” have almost no time set aside in their schedule for building and leading their team, apart from maybe one team meeting a week. All their time is taken up with production.

That’s never going to work. Real leaders HAVE to spend significant time every day creating and maintaining team systems, training and supporting team members, and holding everyone accountable. 

Step two is getting a manager—putting someone other than you in charge of day-to-day operations.

This is the person who will help you create the systems and processes that need to be in place, ideally before you bring on more people. 

Bringing people into chaos only creates more chaos…and the people who are attracted to chaos aren’t the high-performing people you want on your team.

Step three is recruiting and training, which NEVER stops.

Always be looking for new talent for your team, and always be developing the talent you already have.

Even if you think you have everyone you need, and they’re all wonderful…

(which, by the way, I’ve never heard any team leader say, ever…)

Life change is happening all the time. Sooner or later, someone is going to leave, and if you don’t have substitutes ready to take their place, your team will suddenly be operating at a deficit. Everyone will get overloaded and start being reactive instead of proactive, and then you’re no longer functioning as a team.

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Always be focused on getting better—that challenge never ends.

And remember: your team agents are NOT going to get better on their own.

It is YOUR responsibility to provide the systems, training, support, and accountability that will make them better.

If you don’t, you’ll end up stuck in the same place as the agent I just told you about: leading a “team” that’s entirely dependent on you and will fall apart the moment you step away.

If that’s not what you want, here’s a great place to start: The Real Estate Team Playbook. 

I wrote this book with Dana Green, one of the few true real estate team leaders out there, and Jonathan Lack, a veteran strategy consultant who specializes in turning around failing teams. It gives you a step-by-step blueprint for building and leading an elite real estate team…

And when you want help implementing that blueprint, I’m here for you.

Until next time,

Steve