Hiring the right team is, without question, the key to growing a successful real estate investment business. However, that is easier said than done.
Many real estate investors know how to buy and sell properties, but hiring and managing employees is an entirely different story.
Traditional hiring funnels might result in relevant talent, but you are more likely to end up with just that: a traditional employee. To get the most out of your business, you need to hire the best employees.
Real success lies in hiring the right team, training them well and empowering them to make their own decisions.
The best employees will come complete with a lofty price tag and a slew of other businesses competing for their attention. However, despite their availability (or lack thereof), good executives should remain your priority.
The time and money you allocate toward finding top talent will be well worth it. When it comes time to make decisive moves in your business, you will be glad you have competent team members in your corner.
Let’s look at what it takes to hire the best employees for your real estate business:
1. A well-written job ad that captures the attention of prospects
Hiring is a bit of a numbers game: If you want to attract the top talent, you need to make sure you get as many people responding to your job ad as possible.
Depending on where it’s posted, your job ad could be competing with hundreds or thousands of others. When you are competing for people’s attention, you have to make sure you stand out from the crowd somehow.
Unless you are a professional copywriter, I would suggest formulating a rough draft of your job ad, then hiring a freelance copywriter to improve on what you have already laid out.
Enlisting the help of a copywriter should have one goal: improving response rates. Whenever I have done this, I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of responses that come in.
2. Look beyond traditional job websites
For the most part, excellent employees — and I mean truly exceptional individuals — are hard to find. Those who are capable of making an impact in their respective industries are likely already employed and probably not perusing job websites.
It’s entirely possible to find your next employee by enlisting the help of your personal and professional networks. In other words, if you want to find someone that is the right fit for your company, don’t be afraid to do a little legwork and spread the word.
Get a little creative and use all of your resources. There is no reason you couldn’t send an email to your contact list with the job ad.
I also suggest picking up the phone and calling a few key influencers you know to see if they would have any referrals.
3. Utilize an executive search firm
In today’s competitive business environment, it isn’t enough to simply draw from the same pool as everyone else.
If you have the appropriate funds at your disposal, executive search firms warrant consideration. Although they will certainly charge a premium for their services, the results will reward you accordingly. Perhaps even more importantly, however, is the access they have to an exceptional pool of talent you are most likely unaware of.
4. Conduct a thorough interview
As I’m sure you are aware, attracting job applicants is only the beginning. Once you have a good number of applications and resumes, you must have a thorough hiring process to select the most qualified candidate.
This is one of the single biggest mistakes new real estate investors make. Through no fault of their own, most have never been trained or educated on how to identify top talent.
Hiring the wrong person can be costly to a real estate investor’s business and result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost opportunity costs.
If you want to improve your hiring process immediately, I highly recommend reading “Topgrading,” by Brad Smart. The book will change the way you think about hiring, and it’s one of the best books I have read on the subject of how to put hiring systems into place.
5. Find a core value match
When hiring, look for people that fit in with the company’s culture. Office morale benefits immensely when everyone buys into the same vision.
With everyone on the same page, even the worst of days is made that much better. You can’t underestimate the power of a truly cohesive team.
If you want to have an immediate, positive impact on your company’s culture, I would recommend developing a set of core values. Your core values should convey what you stand for and help guide all the decisions you make within the business.
Establishing core values and constantly reminding everyone in your company about them will help you improve your company’s culture.
Once you establish these core values, be sure to utilize them in your job ad and throughout the interview process to attract people who will resonate with your company culture.
In doing so, you will find team members who have a higher probability of being a long-term fit.
Here is an example of the core values at my company:
- Ethics and integrity
- Educate
- Lead
- Inspire
- Crush it
It’s relatively safe to assume that a company’s fate is directly correlated to the strength of its employees. However, as an entrepreneur — and as the one doing the hiring — it’s entirely possible to build a management team virtually void of insufficiencies.
Respect the hiring process and, in doing so, you will build a team with limitless potential.
Than Merrill is the founder and CEO of FortuneBuilders Inc. and CT Homes; he’s a Yale grad, former NFL player, TV personality, businessman, real estate investor, entrepreneur, best-selling author, national speaker and avid philanthropist. Connect with Than on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @ThanMerrill.
