You have a successful real estate career and are ready to expand your business by building a powerhouse real estate team. How do you put yourself in the room with agents you want to partner with? How do you provide a partnership structure that makes them want to stay with you for the long term?
To help you move from a successful agent to the leader of a highly profitable real estate team, we sat down with PLACE Partner Travis Bard of Legacy Real Estate Network in Arizona. Travis joined PLACE in 2019, and within two years, he experienced massive growth, opening additional offices in the Greater Phoenix area and nearly tripling revenue from $1.1 million to $3.2 million. As he transitioned from a full-time producing agent to a successful team leader, he’s discovered four surefire ways you can build lasting relationships with agents on your real estate team.
1. Communicate openly and consistently
While it might be tempting to sidestep challenges or uncomfortable situations, never shy away from a tough conversation. As a leader building relationships with agents on your team, you must show up for the good and the bad. Before you bring on your first real estate partner, you’ll need to commit to a few healthy habits for better communication:
- Be open and available to talk through anything that comes your way.
- Create a line of communication in your business model to ensure everyone can connect with you easily.
- Ensure the best ways to contact you (email, phone message, text) and the best times to talk are clear.
- Stay ahead of any problems by following up and scheduling regular one-on-one meetings.
Having an effective system for communicating with your real estate team right from the start gives you an edge as a team leader.
As you expand your real estate business, you will make good and bad hires. There are many reasons hires move on; some are for reasons beyond your control, and others aren’t. Focus on what you can control — communicating openly and consistently. As you get more experience growing your team, you’ll figure out what works for you, and eventually, building relationships with agents will become easier and more natural.
2. Embrace a mentorship mindset
When developing long-lasting partnerships with real estate agents, embracing a mentorship mindset is essential. You are no longer a solo agent; you are a team, and more business happens when you grow beyond yourself and share opportunities with others.
Establish a core value that prioritizes the sharing of knowledge, enabling everyone to achieve their personal and professional goals. As a real estate professional with a mentorship mindset, you’ll want to put this value into action by devoting your energy to helping your team members. Share new information, like a mindset hack that improves your life or a marketing tip that enhances your operations. You’ll find that when you lead through the lens of abundance, you’ll foster an environment that encourages everyone to win the day together.
3. Building trust and stability
As a real estate industry leader who thinks of the agents on their team as business partners, you’ll want to take the time to celebrate the big and small wins. When you show you are invested in their successes and available to help them overcome real estate market challenges, you’ll build trust, and stability, nurturing business partners for long-term success.
To work effectively with other real estate professionals, you’ll need to:
- Hone your listening skills
- Offer constructive feedback
- Be patient
- Take the lead
- Ask straightforward questions
You’ll find that setting the tone of behaving like a true business partner with simple things like asking, “What do you need from me today?” takes the guesswork out of the equation. It’s up to you to show agents you are ready to slow down, show up, and be there when they need you.
Initially, being the driver of your team’s success may feel awkward, but with more experience, you’ll naturally lead when guidance is needed and challenge the status quo when growth is just around the corner. Actively helping agents achieve their goals, whether motivating them or working together, strengthens your partnerships and helps you both succeed in your business relationship.
4. Knowing when to let agents grow
Giving agents the chance to build their own real estate business within your company is a great way to foster long-term loyalty. When you create an environment that encourages agents to tap into your expertise and resources instead of reinventing the wheel, they are less likely to leave when they get too big.
Make agent growth an essential part of your business plan and use it in your real estate agent recruiting toolkit. Establish what active partnerships look like with educational opportunities, coaching, networking, and resources for establishing business operations, marketing plans, and additional services.
The real estate business is changing, and PLACE understands that to remain competitive and keep top agents with you long-term, it is essential to build supportive business partnerships that create success for everyone. That’s why we created an Opportunity Model, allowing PLACE Partners to expand their teams and plug into all of PLACE’s real estate services, technology, resources, and tools to create win-win scenarios with their real estate partners.
Discover how PLACE Partnerships help you grow your real estate team.
To learn more about PLACE and its Opportunity Model, fill out this form to tell us more about your real estate business, or check out our partner success stories to see how top real estate team owners are finding success with PLACE.
