Having an efficient real estate team is critical for any investor to realize sustainable success. Here are a few tips t could help maximize your team’s efficiency:
1. Retaining Great Team Members: As the head of an organization, it is easy to become detached from your customer base, and even your own team. Before long, everyone just becomes a role, an HR file, and a line item in the expenses column. That’s a dangerous place to arrive at. Do you know how long your top ten employees or freelancers have been helping your company? What is their work anniversary date? When was the last time they received a raise? What’s going on in their lives? Maybe you are completely unaware that one of your most important team members has been with you for five years, and despite adding to their workload each year, they have never received a raise. In fact, they may be doing more for less. Maybe they haven’t even had a vacation, or asked for a day off during their tenure.
Savvy leaders know that these things are important. Not just to the team members themselves, but for maximizing productivity, quality of work, loyalty, brand love, and net operational profit. Don’t assume they’ll ask before they leave either. There are so many jobs in this industry today, and so many competitors looking to poach your team, that it is far more likely that they’ll just float off to the next gig. If you don’t know, and haven’t been on top of rewarding them for their loyalty and great work, all you’ll see from them is a potential lag in performance figures. Do yourself a favor and keep up with your employees. Maintain a working rapport, but also give them the credit they deserve. A little appreciation can go a long way.
2. Attracting Great Staff: We haven’t even begun to see the tip of the iceberg of the furious competition for talent in the new real estate boom. Your current staff and the way you treat and reward them is one of the most powerful tools for attracting great new talent. What’s your reputation? Are your team members raving fans that are out recruiting for you? If not, you’ll have to compete with big sign-on bonuses, higher splits, unlimited time off, free company BMWs, and more in order to find talent. How big is your war chest to go up against the likes of Zillow and Trulia? Do your best to remain attractive to the outside world and it will pay off internally.
3. Protecting the Brand: How are your team members talking about your brand to vendors and clients? How are they representing the brand when they think you aren’t watching? Your real estate brand is far more valuable than any single deal, or quarter, or single stream of cash flow. If you are building a real estate business, there are many millions at stake. Even one-off slips have cost big brands billions to repair. The more you take care of your staff, the more they will be willing to paint your business in a better light.
4. Staying Connected Where it Counts Most: One of the most valuable parts of maximizing staff efficiency is staying connected to the real challenges and trends on the front line. Nothing takes down a real estate company faster and harder than losing touch with customers, the market, and what staff is dealing with on the front line. A disconnect can turn off customers and referral agents, and makes staff unhappy. If you’ve been hiding in the corner office or at your beach retreat too long, the positioning of ‘yes men’ managers can be sabotaging your business. Get out there every month, keep your own skills sharp, and stay ahead of the curve.
