Real estate teams, when properly constituted, provide some real advantages for dealing with individual strengths and weaknesses. When the work load is properly structured so that each team member is dealing in areas that constitute their strengths, and when others can provide cover for areas of weakness, a broad and seamless range of services can be delivered to clients and work can proceed efficiently.
Mary and I have been working together for 19 years now. Very early on in our partnership, we did everything together and the lines of responsibility were pretty blurred. As would be expected, the inefficiency of that arrangement led to a variety of conflicts, including confusion about assignments, time constaints, mixed signals to clients and some occasional hurt feelings.
We had reasonable conflict management tools as well as strong respect for each other, so things never got too out of whack, but after a sometimes chaotic and frustrating first six months, we realized that we didn't need to do everything together and that we'd be much better focusing on our strengths and covering for each other on our weaknesses.
The real luck for us came from three facts:
Our strengths were complementary and pretty much covered what needed to be covered;
We shared a philosophy about what our business should be and how it should operate;
And we trusted each other without reservation.
Our strengths, where not shared, are divided nicely. I'm the managing broker of our little operation. I'm analytic and detail-oriented, good with technology, and comfortable with conceptual and big picture stuff. I like to write and I'm decent with graphic design. And when someone needs to deal with difficult or obnoxious people, I'm the designated hard guy (we use a slightly different expression among ourselves).
Mary is the owner of our brokerage. She is a people person, outgoing, easy to engage with, and extremely patient. She's awesome at showing, and has a knack for figuring out and explaining to buyers how to deal with perceived problems or shortcomings of a home - she has a real talent for interior design too. And she's a wizard at pulling comps, and I don't think she's ever come up with a list price that was more that 2-3% off of a sale price, at least on the low end (on the high end lately, with our low inventory market, it's anyone's guess).
And without going into detail about weaknesses, it's fair to state that we're less competent in exactly those areas in which the other is strong. But our division of responsibilities isn't rigid - when we get jammed up, we can adequately cover for each other, with maybe the exception of some of the technology.
It's an extremely fortunate situation for us - the business runs smoothly, there is little personal tension, and our ability to work together as a team has spilled over into our personal lives as well. The real challenge for us is communication. We can each get wrapped up in our own work and neglect to keep the other informed, so we have taken steps like frequent reviews to go over everything and make sure each of us is fully briefed on what's happening. But after 19 years, we're very comfortable working together and delivering the home buying and selling experience our clients desire and deserve.
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