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We have experienced our fair share of challenges as a team over the years. When we came to Los Angeles from the U.K., we faced numerous obstacles as we entered a completely different market with no contacts or listings on our roster.
Through a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance, we have had the opportunity to grow our business and experience enormous success by always keeping our eye on the prize and working toward a common goal.
The most important thing we have learned as a team is to always look toward the future, and when faced with a challenge, we address it and find the best possible solution. Here are a few of the challenges we faced when forming our team.
1. Landing listings
When we arrived in Los Angeles, we had no contacts, no listings and no track record to lean on. We both set out to make a name for ourselves by door-knocking and networking any which way we could.
From scouting new neighborhoods to going door-to-door and introducing ourselves to homeowners and encouraging them to list with us, to attending open houses and broker events whenever possible, we really had to hustle to establish our team in a new market.
After a lot of hard work and patience, we were able to land our first development listing for nearly $6 million in Bel Air, which gave us a significant sale under our belt and helped us develop a strategy to gain more business.
2. The need for help
The busier we became, the more we realized we needed to bring on assistants to help with paperwork and administrative tasks so we can focus our efforts on being out in the field and garnering new business.
While we were experiencing more success and landing more listings, we became short-handed with staffing at open houses and showings.
This became a huge challenge for us as we were — and still are — very active behind the scenes with regard to escrow management and ensuring the deals get done properly. We tried juggling this for a long time but ultimately decided we needed to bring on two assistants to help round out our team.
3. Expanding our team
We operated as a small team of four for about five years before our business grew and then plateaued. Although we enjoyed the quality control afforded with a small team, we realized we could only handle so much business, and if we wanted to take our team to the next level, we needed to expand further.
In 2021, we decided to grow and restructure our team. We hired a full-time marketing director, administrative assistant and brought on three additional agents who are mentored by our existing buyer’s agent who has become our agent team leader.
Choosing to grow our team has given us the opportunity to also expand into different markets and utilize different tools and technology to reach potential clients, which was not an option for us prior to our expansion as we needed the manpower and resources.
To conclude, we have experienced many challenges as a team since we began our business. One of the biggest challenges we faced was our team’s expansion and creating a name for ourselves in a new market.
Our motto has always been to divide and conquer. We believe that building a team of like-minded individuals who have an independent role and yet are working toward a common goal is the key to achieving a high level of success in this business.
David Parnes is a director at The Agency in Los Angeles. Connect with him on Instagram. James Harris is a director at The Agency in Los Angeles. Connect with him on Instagram.
