The Growth of Real Estate Teams: Achieving Work-Life Balance and Success

Dedication. Customer-focused. Neighborhood expert. Master negotiator. Just a few things that come to a consumer's mind when thinking of real estate professionals. But what about everything behind the scenes that they don't see? The lead management, never ending admin duties, and the need to be everything and everywhere for the business. With days that start at 6 am and sometimes never end, work-life balance is often a distant dream.

So how do you commit to exceeding your yearly transaction goals without sacrificing your personal life? You can reduce your level of commitment or you can get help. For real estate pros with high ambitions, one solution may be to form a team.

Achieving Work-Life Balance with a Real Estate Team

Being a jack of all trades can be exhausting and sacrificing all of your free time for work can affect your life on many levels. In working with a team, many see the opportunity to exceed client expectations without forfeiting work-life balance. In a recent report by REAL Trends, Mike Brown of The Mike Brown Group stated that his team of 30 provided "a balanced life while still performing at a high-level in sales."

This is just one of the reasons that real estate teams continue to see year-over-year success and growth. According to REAL Trends data, 70,873 transactions were completed by the top 250 real estate teams in 2015. This is a 16 percent increase from the 61,321 transactions in 2011, while the top 250 individual agents saw a 20 percent decrease, having completed 45,074 transactions in 2011 and only 35,833 transactions in 2015.

Achieving Success with a Real Estate Team

In 2015, 30 percent of brokerages had teams that produced over 45 percent of their company's total sales volume. Reaching long term success with a real estate team takes clear direction, a systematic approach, smart goal setting and great leadership. The leader must hold team members accountable and have a willingness to motivate, educate and drive them. Without full participation from leadership, the team will be dysfunctional and ultimately crumble.

In addition to strong leadership, a successful real estate team must focus on lead generation and management, have a welcoming culture, and a system that enables scalable and profitable growth.

Building a strong team

The number of real estate teams in the US was estimated between 35,000 to 50,000 in 2016, according to a survey by real estate coach Tom Ferry. With the groundwork set, great leadership, sources for leads, welcoming culture, and a system that flows, the next step in creating a successful real estate team is choosing the right talent. A strong real estate team needs the right people to fuel the business and meet its demands. According to REAL Trends, it's imperative to "have a strategic plan for how the team will grow and hire to those roles specifically. Understanding the pain points or needs of the team before adding members allows for teams to maximize the potential of each new member." Here are a few roles to consider:

• Administrative assistant
• Sales manager
• Operations manager
• Buyer's agent
• Transaction coordinator
• Listing agent
• Marketing specialist
• Graphic designer
• Inside sales agent
• Showing assistant
• Client care service rep

Creating a successful team also takes time! Sixty-three percent of teams are three years old or less, and closed an average of 60 transactions. Teams with eight years or more of experience closed an average of 158 transactions per year.

For further insights into real estate teams, check out our infographic:

In a profession where work hours do not start and stop at a specific time each day, real estate teams are able to provide an opportunity for true work-life balance without risking success. Click here to learn how you can leverage technology to streamline the transaction process and make it more collaborative, while reducing risk and room for error.