When Do I Know It’s Time To Hire My First Assistant?

By Jacqueline Smith

Jacqueline Smith started in real estate in 2015 and sold 52 homes her first year in the business as a solo agent. After considering growing her own team, and exploring different team models, she decided to partner with Place in 2017. The partnership allowed her to fast track her growth, and provide better systems and models to her agent partners. Her and her team in Vancouver Washington now close over $165M in annual sales volume, while keeping the quality of the agent and client experience at the forefront.

Are you using your time as efficiently as possible? Most agents can’t honestly answer “yes.” The truth is that once you separate yourself from the pack of average agents, your time is probably best spent on money-making activities, not busy work. The obvious solution to the problem might seem to be to hire full-time help, but is that really the answer? Full-time hires are a guaranteed cost for your business that are hard to get rid of. Do you really need someone to help you around the clock, or do you just need a little leverage? To help you find the answer, here are three things you should consider:

1. Do you have enough leverage? You don’t need to hire full-time help to give yourself more time. For example, you can leverage gig workers and part-time services to free up time without committing to a fixed cost. You can hire someone to pick up your groceries for you, clean your car, and take care of other busywork activities not necessarily related to real estate so you have more time to follow up on transactions.

2. Is busywork costing you money? If you could quantify your hourly rate as a real estate agent, what would it be? For established real estate agents, that number is probably a lot higher than the cost of hiring an assistant. Hiring a transaction manager or listing manager on a per-transaction basis could free up your time and end up helping you make more money in the long run. However, it’s important to keep track of your bottom line. These assistants don’t scale, so they might not make financial sense as your business grows.

3. Spend some time training your assistant. Your assistant won’t be of any help if you don’t set them up for success. I’ve seen it too many times: People hire an assistant, throw them to the wolves, and get frustrated when it doesn’t work out. Make sure you have enough leverage to take time out of your day and properly train your assistant, or it won’t be worth it in the long run.

If you’re looking for a mentor to help you leverage your time and make more money, please call or email me. My team provides necessary tools to teach you how to get the most out of your business. Plus, we have full-time back-of-house support staff ready to back you up. I look forward to hearing from you!