With nearly 150 posts on Inman, a successful podcast that interviews over 100 real estate pros per year and a 25-year real estate career, Pat Hiban knows the ins and outs of real estate. Catch his regular monthly column on Inman Select.
Whether you’re a rookie agent, a rising team leader or an established veteran broker, we can all benefit from sharpening our skills. Follow our “Back to Basics” series to learn fundamental strategies, tactics, philosophies and more from real estate pros across the industry.
Maintaining a decent profit margin is hard enough when building business as a solo agent. When growing a real estate team, additional expenses can really bring your bottom line down.
But providing your agents with the tools needed to succeed doesn’t have to hurt your business’ profitability.
If you’re looking for ways to run your team that won’t run up your day-to-day expenses, you’ll find them here.
Below, I’ve included 10 videos recorded with 10 different team leaders sharing the strategies they’ve implemented to cut costs, boost sales or both. Watch and learn what some of our industry’s most profitable teams are doing to keep their margins healthy in good markets and in bad.
1. Get agents to go organic
According to Terrence Murphy of TM5 Properties, 87 percent of agents don’t contact clients after the deal is done. Big mistake! Keep your team’s profit margin high by getting agents to focus their efforts on organic leads instead of the leads you have to pay for.
Find out how in this video with Murphy.
2. Run regular role-play sessions
If you want your agents to win more clients (and to keep the ones they already have), they must master their scripts.
To do this, Brendan Bartic of The Bartic Group suggests regular role-play sessions. Get details on how his agents master their scripts in this video.
3. Hold them accountable for expenses
You may hold your agents accountable, but are you really holding yourself accountable when it comes to managing your team’s expenses?
Watch this video with Lars Hedenborg, and learn about the numbers every broker and team leader must know to ensure profitability.
4. Charge more for better service
According to broker Erik Hatch, there are three primary ways to increase a real estate team’s profitability. One way is to simply sell more homes. Another is to cut expenses. Hatch drove his profitability through the roof with the third way: charging more. Find out how to do the same in this video.
5. Take a look at your admin
A larger admin staff gives agents the bandwidth needed to spend more time selling, but it also increases overhead. Learn another way to boost agent productivity without increasing costs in this video with the founder of Pearson Smith Realty, Eric Pearson.
6. Get your expenses covered
Building a team caused Karen Cooper’s expenses to go down, not up. In this video, Cooper describes how she leverages her team’s earnings to minimize business expenses.
7. Don’t be afraid to delegate
The more time you spend with clients, the more money you’ll make. That’s what Matt Bauscher believes, and that’s why he delegates whenever possible.
Watch this video to learn who you should hire first when growing your business.
8. Get leads for less
Most real estate teams pay too much for leads, especially as they grow. Don’t make the same mistake.
Watch this video with Kevin Kauffman for three ideas that will help you cut costs with lead acquisition to boost your bottom line.
9. Manage your sellers’ properties
Does your team have a database full of potential sellers who aren’t ready to list yet? No problem! If you offer property management services, these listing leads can generate cash for your business until they’re converted into commissions.
Find out how Mike Bjorkman made it work for his team in the video below.
10. Use marketing service agreements
Real estate leads are expensive, so why pay for them on your own? In this video, Jeff Cohn of Omaha’s Elite Real Estate Group explains exactly how to get lead expenses covered via marketing service agreements.
As an added bonus, Cohn shares another easy way for brokers to boost overall profit.
Have a unique strategy for boosting a real estate business’ bottom line? Share your big profit idea in the comments below along with how it has helped make your business more profitable.
How do you stay ahead in a changing market? Inman Connect Las Vegas — Featuring 250+ experts from across the industry sharing insight and tactics to navigate threat and seize opportunity in tomorrow’s real estate. Join over 4,000 top producers, brokers and industry leaders to network and discover what’s next, July 23-26 at the Aria Resort. Hurry! Tickets are going fast, register today!
Thinking of bringing your team? There are special onsite perks and discounts when you buy tickets together. Contact us to find out more.
Pat Hiban sold more than 7,000 homes over the course of his 25-year career in real estate. Now, he dedicates his time to helping others succeed as agents and investors. As host of the Real Estate Rockstars Podcast, Pat interviews real estate experts to explore what works in today’s markets. He also founded Rebus University, an online training platform for real estate agents and sales professionals.
