Category: Human Resources

How to Create Accurate Real Estate Job Descriptions

Anne Hartnett Leave a comment

As you plan to bring on new people, evaluate which job responsibilities you should delegate, share and keep in your care. It’s best to start slow, adding one role at a time, while learning what you really need operationally and financially.

In this blog, we will review three of the most common team member titles, job descriptions, and compensation models. This is to help you compare your needs with the current industry standards and hire appropriately.

Team Assistant

Role Responsibilities

This administrative position will help you organize, track, manage and coordinate any area of your business. Your assistant can be licensed or unlicensed, depending on your needs. A licensed assistant can answer questions for clients and even show homes.

An assistant is often suggested as a good first hire because they can free up the time you currently spend on administrative work, allowing you to focus more on profit-building tasks. A team assistant will not directly generate income for your business but may indirectly help you grow by allowing you to serve more clients.Compensation

Compensation

A full-time assistant will require an hourly wage or salary, plus benefits, and will require a larger investment than . Real estate assistants often make between $30,000-$45,000 a year, plus bonuses and benefits, depending on your market. You’ll need to withhold income tax, state taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes.

These payments can add up to 15 percent or more to the cost of their total salary. You’ll also have to report all of this to the IRS. Additionally, you may need to provide office space, workers’ compensation, errors and omission insurance and health care benefits. You may be required to include them on your auto insurance policy.

Buyer’s Agent

Role Responsibilities

Some agents prefer to focus their own work on listings, and need help representing buyers. Since buyers often require more of your time and attention than sellers, hiring someone to manage the buyer side of your business could make a lot of sense.

Buyer’s agents show houses to clients and convert showings to sales on properties of interest to the buyer. A buyer’s agent will also understand the current marketplace and financial implications of investing in various neighborhoods. They will help buyers narrow their search based on needs and lifestyles and can bring new perspectives to your clients.

And though the buyer’s agent only focuses on buyers, the right hire can bring a more diverse understanding to your business as a whole. He or she can serve as an advisor to you and other agents.

Compensation

A buyer’s agent is typically paid a small salary plus commission. The commission for buyer’s agents is typically up to 50 percent, after expenses are paid. Splits may be adjusted to differentiate between team-generated leads, which may generate a 40/60 split, and agent-generated leads, which could be a 60/40 split. The selling point for this position is that a buyer’s agent is more likely to make more money in a team setting while handling the side of the transaction that they prefer.

In order for a buyer’s agent to be successful on a team, the team must have a high-producing buyer’s agent. Buyer’s agents should show properties and close deals, with the help of the team’s lead generating marketing efforts and administrative assistance. Your compensation models should hold agents accountable for their productivity.

Listing Specialist

Role Responsibilities

A listing specialist can either bring in the listing or step in once the listing agreement has been signed. A listing specialist will represent the seller and oversees all aspects of the seller’s transactions, from initial contact through closing.

The listing specialist may prepare all materials and documents for the listing as well, including marketing materials, listing agreements, disclosure statements, market analyses and online property profiles. The specialist will also conduct the necessary research to advise on the sale price of the property, and work with the sellers to take photos, stage the property and make repairs.

Compensation

Like a buyer’s agent, listing specialists may be paid a small salary, but the role is largely based on commission, up to 40 percent of the net profit. Base salaries for your listing specialist should depend on the experience level of the agent and your local market. Salary compensation should be strategic to inspire productivity.

Like the buyer’s agent, generating their own leads and closing deals is a main priority. They should be held accountable for their productivity and compensated appropriately.

Grow Your Team

Plan to start slow as you hire new team members, and grow your team by one position at a time. Pay your team members competitively and based on their productivity to retain them and support your financial success. To learn more about how to fill out your roster and create accurate and useful job descriptions, start your seven-day free trial of AgentEDU today and watch the full course, Team Members Job Description and Compensation.

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AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a 7-day free trial sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.

Manage Your Real Estate Team with Tuckman Stages

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

You should not expect your team to function as a well-oiled machine from the start. Teams go through stages as they learn to work together, an understanding of the growth patterns of a typical team will help you implement best practices to help them achieve.

“Tuckman’s Stages” summarizes the research Bruce Tuckman did on team dynamics back in the 1960s. This team research is a classic model of understanding. The five stages Tuckman identified are called forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

In this blog post, we’ll walk through each stage so you can recognize it in your own teams and teach as it happens.

Stage 1: Forming

In the forming stage, team members are introduced, and they share information about themselves and form first impressions about each other. They learn about the project they will be working on, discuss objectives and goals and start to think about what role they will play on the team.

As the team leader, this stage provides you an opportunity to be very clear about your goals and provide direction about the work the team will do. You can help the team determine roles and responsibilities and guide initial interactions and preparations.

Stage 2: Storming

The second stage, storming, is an unavoidable transitional stage as team members begin to work together. Team members may compete with each other and varying opinions may cause conflict within the team. The team leader’s guidance is still important in this stage – you can help your hires solve problems, stick to roles and remind them how to function independently and as a team.

Your leadership in this stage can also help team members remain respectful and ensure that all voices are heard. As the team becomes more accepting of their own and recognizes the value of individual contributions, your involvement can lessen. Keep in mind that if you have younger team members or professionally immature hires, this stage can last longer.

Stage 3: Norming

In the norming stage, team members begin to work more effectively together. Individual goals are left behind for the good of the project. Each team member’s ideas should be heard and valued.

As roles are accepted and plans are implemented, working together feels more natural. Minor conflicts can be resolved and team members seek out each other’s opinions. The work gets done and the project moves forward, without as much participation from you.

Stage 4: Performing

In the performing stage, teams are functioning at a very high level. The focus is on collaboration to reach the team goal. Team members trust each other. As a team leader, your goal is to help your team get to the performing stage, a key plateau for a high functioning team. Teams in this stage can make decisions together and solve conflicts easily and effectively.

The team will be able to agree on changing processes if needed and won’t need to rely on the team leader for day-to-day work. As the team leader, you’ll continue to monitor productivity and team functionality, spotting breaks in the workflow if someone starts to work independently or if a new member joins the team.

Stage 5: Adjourning

In the adjourning stage the project goal comes to an end and the cycle gets ready to start with new goals and maybe new people. Your team members may move on to new projects together or with different team members.

This stage is an opportunity for you as the team leader to evaluate the team as you move into new collaborative stages. Review lessons learned as a way to introduce new projects and contribute to organizational growth. This stage also provides an opportunity to celebrate the team’s success.

Managing a team comes more intuitively to some than to others. To reach your goals and avoid problems, take management seriously and understand that what you do as team leader sets the tone for productivity and success. And to learn more about how to effectively and efficiently manage your real estate team this year and beyond, start your seven-day free trial of AgentEDU® today and begin with the Team Building track.

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AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a 7-day free trial sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.