Click here for the freebie >>>>> Guide to Writing Your Mission Statement

You’re ready to take the next step in your real estate career. You’re at your capacity for taking on clients and you really want to be a mentor to agents around you. You want to increase your revenue potential and also have a hand at the success of other agents. You’re ready to help more clients achieve their homeownership dreams, and you know bringing an agent or two under your wing is the way to do that. 

Or maybe you’re already an established team leader but you want to build up your organization to even higher levels. You’ve got the agents, but you need a little insight on keeping them accountable. You know how to recruit them, but your training needs a little improvement.

But where do you start?

Let’s go through it together.

STEP ONE: Define Your Mission, Vision, and Values

Obviously, the goal is to get the leads, convert them to clients, close the deal, and get the referrals. Right? But what else? Do you have a mission statement? Does everyone in your organization know it? And are they aligned with it? By clarifying the purpose of your real estate team, you are answering the question, “Why do we do what we do?” It’s the first step of the legacy you are wanting to leave in the real estate industry.

Your vision statement tells everyone within your organization what success looks like for the business. It’s used as an inspiration as you go through the ups and downs of this industry. The vision gives your team a reference point as they’re running the marathon toward achieving goals. It also helps you adapt to the ever-changing circumstances in real estate, while staying true to your long-term objectives.

And now, your values are the core principles and beliefs that you have for your real estate team. They are going to help you create the culture that your team is built upon. And, simply put, if you do not have your values defined, you cannot have a culture that thrives. 

Defining your mission, vision, and values isn’t just a fun saying that business coaches, owners, entrepreneurs, etc. like to throw around. It’s truly the foundation that aligns, inspires, and guides your team through all aspects of your growth process. By taking the time to not only clarify what they are for yourself, but also communicating them to your current and future team members and clients, you’re setting your organization up for success.

STEP TWO: Know Your Value Proposition

Simply put: what makes you special? It’s no secret that real estate is fiercely competitive. And there’s quite a few agents out there – like 1.4 million “few.” So these days, with agents being a dime a dozen, it’s not enough to offer the standard real estate team offerings. You need to know what makes you stand out from the crowd. Seriously, what makes your real estate team so special?

Is it the mentorship you provide? Is it the amount of leads? Do you have the state-of-the-art technology in a CRM that’s built out beautifully to nurture and convert leads off a super-strong drip campaign? Are you immensely connected to the local community and you’re willing to bring a new agent into those connections?

These days, your value proposition goes beyond the standard “We have good splits.” It’s the combination of your strengths, unique offerings, and the client-centric focus that defines your team’s identity. Understanding and communicating this proposition not only helps you stand out to real estate agents looking to join a team, but it can also be the driving force on what keeps them on your team for years to come.

STEP THREE: Define Your Growth Goals

Once again, this isn’t just one of those things that people throw around for fun. You actually do need to set goals, or else no one will know what they’re working toward. Think about what you want to achieve and when you aim to achieve it. Are you looking to grow from a solo agent to a small team within the next year? Sooner? Or perhaps you’re an established team leader already, aiming to double your team’s size and revenue in the next two years?

Whatever your goals are, it’s a really good idea to make them SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, setting a goal to increase your team’s annual revenue by 20% within the next 12 months provides a clear target to work towards. Make that big goal more manageable by breaking it down into smaller, actionable steps. 

Don’t forget to track your progress on them, too!

STEP FOUR: Build a Strong Foundation

I cannot stress this enough: You need a strong foundation for your real estate team or it will crumble. What makes up a strong foundation? So glad you asked. It’s the systems, processes, and organizational structure that make up your team’s daily operations. 

This will be an ongoing process, as updates, market changes, new technology advances, and a change in needs arise. But building the foundation to scale properly, without having to “burn it down and start over” every time one of those changes happens, is crucial for not only your business’s health, but your (and your operations team’s) sanity.

Fun fact: this right here is where CoreOps Collective thrives. Our Strategy to Scale Program is a 12 week done-with-you service that takes you from the “where do I start” to that “oh wow, we do know what we’re doing” feeling. Together, we’ll go through (and CoreOps will create):

• A customized business hub where all data, metrics, client and transaction information, agent and admin profiles, and financial data lives
• A team portal: A one-stop shop for all training materials, accountability measures, team resources, literally everything that your agents will need
• Growth initiatives for future scalability for your team
• Standard operating procedures that are specific to your goals and needs 
• Roles and responsibilities defined for each team member
• And a heck of a lot more

But the most important parts of having a strong foundation is communication and operational transparency. Like I said before, it will crumble if you don’t build a foundation that can withstand the turbulence that real estate brings while also providing the adaptability to go with the flow when needed.

STEP FIVE: Assemble the Right Team

Who are you going to have by your side? What administrative roles do you need? What does your ideal agent look like? And how are you going to find them? Let’s break it down:

1. Identify the key roles that are essential to have. This is dependent on your goals. For example, if your value proposition is that you provide all marketing, operations, client care, transaction management, and lead management services for your agent, you probably need an operations manager, a transaction coordinator, and possibly a CRM manager depending on the volume that you are producing. If you provide all of that but your team is only producing a handful of transactions a month, you may be able to have one person in charge of all of that. 
2. Recruiting those team members is next. Make sure that they have the qualifications you’re looking for. My biggest piece of advice: take the time to find a hole in your business. Where could you use an extra person? What would that role look like? Create the role, and interview to find the best fit for the role, and your business. Ensure that their skills and expertise compliment the team’s needs.
3. Bring them on to the team. And then keep them on the team. It’s not enough to get them in the door; you want to keep them too. Provide development opportunities to enhance their skills, confidence, and knowledge of the real estate industry. Recognize that your team members are valuable assets and invest in their growth and well-being.
4. Continuously enhance your team’s culture. Cultivate a positive and collaborative work environment, one where everyone emphasizes those shared values that you’ve defined already. Encourage your team to have open communication and give them a place where they have a sense of belonging. You want to have a team culture that not only improves morale but also contributes to overall productivity.
5. As the team leader, your role is now evolving from doing everything yourself to one where you’re effectively leading and delegating tasks. Establish trust with your team members with their responsibilities, providing them clear guidance, and foster a sense of ownership in their roles. Remember, clear communication is kind communication. By leading effectively and delegating with clear expectations, you are freed up to focus on strategic planning and the growth of your team.

Now that you have the team members, their roles and responsibilities, and what you’re needing to do in order, let’s move on to the next step.

STEP SIX: Invest in Your Training Program

You want your team to know what they’re doing, right? Unless you want to hold their hand forever, you need to have a training program to get them to learn some independence. And I’m not talking about the initial onboarding or the occasional workshop kind of training. You need a well-structured training program equipping them with the tools, techniques, and industry insights that they’re coming to you to learn in the first place. 

My favorite way to create a training program is to pre-record videos and put them in a location that can be easily accessed (hello, team portal!) by the agent at any time. Create worksheets, guides, powerpoint presentations… whatever your best method of teaching is! Afterwards, have a debrief where they can ask questions. This saves you time and allows the agent to revisit the training while also doing it on their own time.

STEP SEVEN: Have Accountability

Remember when I said clear communication is kind communication? Well, this can also be said for expectations as well. How do agents know they’re “successful” if they don’t know what standard they’re being held to? 

Having accountability with your agents (and operations!) allows for everyone to be aligned with the goals and objectives. When people are held accountable for their tasks and responsibilities, they’re more likely to work towards achieving those goals. Which, obviously, is going to drive your team’s success and growth higher.

It also gives opportunities for problem solving, performance improvement, personal responsibility, trust, and respect. A personal favorite for holding an agent accountable is by making a check in form, through Google Forms or the like, and having a set of questions that each agent is required to answer on a daily/weekly basis. I personally think a daily basis is best, but it’s entirely up to you (duh, you’re the owner!)

STEP EIGHT: Measure Success

Okay, so you’re doing all of this, but how do you know it’s working? You can’t base it off of whether or not it “feels right.” This is business, afterall. You gotta have the proof. Measuring your success can be done through tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs), analyzing them, and assessing the outcomes. 

Doing this allows you to make data-driven decision-making. Simply put, when you “go with your gut” you are essentially “Giving Up Thinking” – see what I did there? It helps you evaluate your progress toward achieving your goals, how each agent is doing individually, ensuring that you have a good return on investment for any marketing campaigns or other expenditures. It also helps you pull out data such as whether or not you have a high recurring client rate, or whether or not you can pay your admin’s salary based on the amount of agent-to-agent referrals they help bring in. 

Regardless of what you’re tracking or how you’re tracking it, measuring success allows you to have the confidence that you’re doing all the right things in your business, or tells you that you need to pivot in some areas, because it’s giving you the proof that you need.

Conclusion

Building and growing a thriving real estate team requires more than a good idea. It requires dedication, strategic planning, and a commitment to continuous improvement. By following these steps (and enrolling in our Strategy to Scale program!) you can have the confidence that your team will be able to adapt, succeed, and continue to scale in this dynamic and competitive world of real estate.

To get you going, I’ve linked the CoreOps Collective Guide to Writing Your Mission Statement – completely free!