The Journey From Me to We, (The SMART-ER way to Hire a Real Estate Assistant)

The Journey From Me to We, (The SMART-ER way to Hire a Real Estate Assistant)

From time to time I work with and teach aspiring professional real estate assistants, with their basic and advanced training to work for a REALTOR® or a Team of REALTORS®. In doing so we always receive some very interesting questions from our students, some of which and their answers, I hope to share with you in some posts over the coming days and weeks. This with the purpose to share with Agents, “The Smarter Way to Hire an Assistant”. Let’s kick off our journey with the Number one and most commonly question asked by our students after we have completed a general overview of the tasks and work of a REALTOR®, it is…….    

Why would any active REALTOR® not have a full time or at least part time assistant working with them to delegate work,

so that the REALTOR® can focus on the things they need their real estate license for?

To be totally honest, its a question I ask my self (and other agents) on a regular base as well.

I typically get the following answers, when I talk to agents that have had assistants before or are thinking about hiring one….

• I can’t afford an assistant (really, that’s your answer…. wow, that’s creative, what do you think my answer to that might be, stay tuned…)
• I don’t know any good assistants.
• I tried an assistant, and they learned the trade and left to work on their own, and I won’t do that again.
• I hired an assistant, and I was totally lost in my own office.
• I wasted much time on hiring an assistant, and it did not work out.
• I don’t know what to get the assistant to do.

If you have been there, of have hired an assistant to “FIX” you and your office, but did not get anywhere with it, you may have to start by …… Looking in the mirror to find the reasons why it did not work out, or why you have never had the great benefits a great assistant will bring to your business and life.

In my experience, agents teaching assistants about the business of real estate is somewhat like the blind leading the blind……. No offense intended, but most of the formal and even additional training available in and around real estate does not include much if anything about creating and operating a proper business, administration , accounting and R&D departments, and even the essential skills like lead generation, marketing and sales skills are lacking in most of the provided training to agents.

We use a slogan that goes like this….

If You Don’t Have An Assistant……

You Are One!

In response to the above agent concerns, it really is a matter of proper preparation, planning, creating a real “business plan” and analysis about your real estate practice to determine how and where an assistant can and will make a huge difference to your life and business.

In our 6 day Professional Real Estate Assistant course we talk about all the benefits an assistant will (over time) add to a REALTORS® practice, but it all starts with the Agent establishing (by him /herself or with the assistant) exactly how to create a proper set of systems, operations, job descriptions etc. in order for each member of the team to always know exactly what is the highest and best use of their respective time at all times.

As we move along our journey, describing the many different activities and tasks that take place in a real estate practice, we will try to offer you insight, tips and suggestions how to grow and evolve your real estate practice from responsive to pro-active and from intuitive to systemized and efficient…

Stay tuned and we are looking forward to share with you and receive your thoughts and feedback, as we explore a journey from Me to WE by answering the most commonly asked questions by agents and assistants to grow their practice from a single agent to a highly effective team.