Real Estate Agents: The First 3 Hires You Need to Scale Your Business and Reclaim Your Time
Welcome back to another episode of The Agent Goldmine! We are right around the corner from our three-year anniversary of helping real estate agents double and triple their businesses, and today's guide is all about getting your sanity back.
Too many newly licensed agents fall into the trap of thinking they have to do absolutely everything themselves. They try to wear every single hat, get completely overwhelmed, give bad service, and ultimately drop out of the industry entirely.
If you want to treat your real estate career like a real business, you need leverage. Whether you are running a busy solo operation or balancing real estate with other obligations like I did when I was active duty Air Force, these are the first three hires you need to make.
Hire #1: The Transaction Coordinator (TC)
I have a highly controversial opinion on when you should hire a transaction coordinator: you should do it immediately. The moment you get your real estate license, you should be shopping for a TC.
Too many teams and brokerages put you through the motions of learning the administrative paperwork first. While you absolutely must know what every single line of the contract means, you do not need to waste hours figuring out where to upload files, dragging-and-dropping signature blocks, and chasing clients down for signatures.
"Passing off paperwork duty is not about ignoring the contract. You must be an expert on the legal terms. But managing the manual execution of those files is a colossal waste of your revenue-generating time."
My first solo transaction without a TC took me over two and a half hours just to locate and assemble the correct documents from different platforms. That is time that should have been spent prospecting, negotiating, or simply enjoying a break.
How to Find and Pay a Professional TC
When you are new, you should never hire an amateur. Avoid hiring a friend's cousin who "dabbled" in real estate; instead, seek out an established, third-party transaction coordinating business.
We recommend going into your brokerage's community forums (like Slack, Workplace, or eXp's Hub) and searching for "Transaction Coordinator" or "TC." Ask the high-producing agents in your local market who handles their paperwork—they definitely aren't doing it themselves.
- The Cost: A standard TC fee ranges between $400 and $500 per transaction.
- Zero-Risk Payment: You only pay your TC when the transaction closes. If you don't make money, they don't make money.
- The Full-Service Upgrade: I pay my TCs an extra $100 on the buyer side and $150 on the listing side to handle the entire file from "client agreement" to close, keeping me completely out of the software systems.
Additionally, a great TC will handle tedious coordination tasks like scheduling multiple inspections. In our Tucson market, we routinely schedule five or six different inspections (roof, pool, sewer, HVAC, electric, termite), and outsourcing that coordination to our TCs saves us upwards of 15 hours per transaction.
Hire #2: The Showing Assistant
The second hire that can dramatically transform your daily life is a showing assistant. I had to implement this model very early in my career because the Air Force would frequently send me out of the state or country on short notice.
I set expectations with my military buyers early, explaining that while I was their primary advisor and expert negotiator, I used showing agents to physically open doors so they would never miss out on seeing a house. They loved the flexibility, and I kept my focus on high-level strategy.
Identify Your Superpower Before You Outsource
Before you outsource your showings, you need to know where your true value lies. Because of my background as a federal investigator and negotiator, my clients value my contract strategy and aggressive negotiating tactics more than my physical presence at an open house.
However, if your primary value proposition is structural expertise—such as renovations, construction, or flipping—showing the homes yourself might be your core relationship-builder. In that scenario, keep the showings and outsource the administrative scheduling instead.
How to Structure and Pay a Showing Assistant
We do not recommend paying showing assistants by the hour. Instead, pay them per property completed to keep incentives aligned.
- Use On-Demand Platforms: Services like Showami allow you to hire local licensed agents to open doors for your clients on demand.
- Flat-Fee Compensation: We typically pay between $40 to $50 per home shown, adjusting upwards for long travel distances or highly expensive regions.
- Route Planning: A massive benefit of this hire is that the showing agent (or your assistant) is responsible for mapping the route, contacting the listing agents, and managing seller occupancy schedules.
Hire #3: The Virtual Assistant (VA)
A Virtual Assistant is your ultimate, all-encompassing administrative leverage. Once you have cleared your transactions and showings, you will quickly identify the administrative tasks you dread doing and start to avoid.
For me, that task was managing my email inbox. Even with tools like Superhuman, I hated handling the constant clutter, so I hired a dedicated VA to give me back ten hours of my week just by managing my communications.
"Write down every single repetitive, annoying task you perform throughout the day. If it can be done on a computer, it can be handled by a highly-trained virtual assistant."
Where to Source and Hire World-Class VAs
We highly recommend looking overseas to find skilled professionals who want stable, work-from-home opportunities. Platforms like Onlinejobs.ph (for finding talent in the Philippines), Fiverr, or Upwork are incredible resources.
Just like with your transaction coordinator, do not hire a rookie virtual assistant if you don't have the time to train them. If you do not have a robust administrative training system in place, pay a premium to hire an experienced VA who can build the systems for you.
Reclaim Your Freedom and Scale Your Business
Building a successful real estate business isn't about working 80 hours a week until you burn out. It is about identifying your highest and best use, and leveraging systems and professionals to handle the rest.
If you are tired of giving up your weekends, running around showing properties, and getting buried under transaction paperwork, it is time to take action. Start by sourcing your first transaction coordinator this week.
Are you looking to build a real, asset-backed business with direct, personal mentorship from top producers? We would love to help you build your roadmap to financial freedom. Join our community at the Five Pillars Nation, tune into more tactical episodes of The Agent Goldmine podcast, and book a call with us today at theagentgoldmine.com!
