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There’s a lot to consider when determining what the best route for you is in real estate. Here are the pros and cons of three directions you can take in building a real estate business or career. 

You’ve decided you want to start a career in real estate… Great! You’ve obtained your license. You’ve started researching lead generation tactics to find clients to build a strong sales pipeline. You’ve dabbled in Canva to learn how to create social media graphics announcing your entrance into the world of real estate. You created a MailChimp account for your monthly sphere of influence newsletters, chose a real estate CRM for scaling an automation of your lead conversion communications, and figured out how to use Zapier to zap leads from one lead portal to your central database. You are studying contracts and learning what to double-check for contract compliance, all while researching scripts to use for converting FSBOs, expireds, and your neighborhood farm. You’re barely finding time in the day to eat, much less sleep since your livelihood depends on getting into production – and doing it fast. 

Like any new industry, there’s a lot to learn, research, and begin executing on to be a successful real estate agent. There can be a strong dilution of focus in starting your real estate business, as you’re it—the one person who handles sales, customer care, marketing, lead generation, technology, systems, training, and client support.

Some agents thrive by having control over all facets of the business and enjoy the diversification of tasks and responsibilities. Others, however, get bogged down in the minutia of running the business rather than focusing on income-producing activities, and never get to the level of monetary success they desire. Still others find quick success on their own and quickly determine they want to show other agents how to do the same and find success through others.

All this begs the question – Should you be a single agent, join a real estate team, or start your own team? 

As a real estate and business coach, I talk to a lot of real estate agents who want to grow a team and then realize they don’t love holding others accountable or being available 24/7 to answer contract questions or help with an inspection negotiation. I also coach a number of highly successful team leaders who are largely out of production and focusing on growing leaders within their team for more passive income from real estate. 

As the President of Livian™, a leading expansion team within Keller Williams, I have the privilege of leading 275 real estate agents who decided the community, culture, camaraderie, training, leverage, and leads were the right path for them to find acceleration in their real estate career.

There’s no right or wrong answer or a path that is one-size-fits all here. Like anything, there are pros and cons to consider in all paths your real estate career can take…

Should You Be a Single Real Estate Agent? 

Single Agent Pros

  • As a single real estate agent, you have complete control over your business to pursue your own ideas. That means you are responsible for every good and bad move you make! This can be a pro or a con if you are prone to indecision or decision fatigue.

  • Over time, you will have a thorough understanding of every nuance of real estate and real estate transactions. This takes dedication, and continuing education.

  • You will have complete control over the branding and marketing of your business. 

  • You keep your whole split (after brokerage fees), yet you also assume full fiscal responsibility for the tools, systems, and technology needed to grow your business.

  • You can work as a buyers’ agent, listing agent or both – you have complete control over the clients you work with.

  • Some clients prefer to work with a single agent as opposed to a team, as they want one sole point person for all communication.

Single Agent Cons

  • Being a single agent requires more ramp up time to understand the nuances of the real estate business. You need to spend time reading, attending classes, and gaining overall knowledge to be a well-rounded agent.

  • Being a single agent requires financial investment. Investing in a CRM, lead sources, leverage, a dialer, etc. can be costly. Most single agents don’t see a paycheck for 60-120 days, so you need to have the financial security to dive into a commission-only role.

  • You need to make all of the decisions, which can lead to decision fatigue and procrastination.

  • You probably aren’t the best marketer, lead generator, transaction manager, and contractor compliance expert out there. As a solo agent, you wear all hats and need to learn to excel in all areas of the business – many you might not enjoy.

  • Time (or lack thereof) becomes scarce. Being a solo agent means you don’t have someone to leverage the workload when you’re on a family vacation or want to go on a date night sans your phone. You might also need to work 70-80 hours a week since you are covering multiple roles. 

  • You need to hold yourself accountable. Don’t feel like getting out of bed? Want to prioritize Netflix today? No one is going to stop you, and you don’t have team members for sideways accountability. You need to show up for yourself daily, which can be hard for some people.

  • It’s lonely at the top. Often single agents miss the camaraderie, culture, and community of teams and having other, likeminded and equally driven people around.

Who is most likely to succeed as a Single Real Estate Agent?

Not everyone has the behavioral profile and skill set to be a sole business owner. Here are some traits of agents who typically succeed most on their own:

  1. Someone with a robust and already established local network or sphere of influence. This person lives in the community where they were raised, volunteers extensively locally, and can’t walk into a grocery store without seeing three people they know.

  1. Someone with a proven track record in a similar commission-only industry. Pharmaceutical sales? Car sales? If you understand the language of sales from another industry, transitioning into real estate will be easier.

  1. Someone who uses their license largely for their own personal investments or home flips.

  1. Someone who enjoys having their hands in a lot of different tasks at once and thrives switching gears all day long from sales calls to CRM data entry to writing contracts, creating marketing materials, and exploring new lead gen tools.

  1. Someone who doesn’t enjoy leveraging to others and wants to control the whole process from start to finish.

Should You Start a Real Estate Team?

Real Estate Team Pros

Many real estate agents who have found quick success in real estate decide to grow a team – for the challenge, the leverage, the control, and the ability to earn more passive income through agents’ deals.

  • The ability to pour into others and help them grow in business and life. The ultimate satisfaction for some becomes succeeding through others and helping other real estate agents become more successful.
  • The ability to focus solely on taking listings, while leveraging buyer clients to agents on the team. Listings = leverage.
  • More passive income through agents on the team – without you having to show homes on nights or weekends, negotiate repairs, or show a buyer 17 homes before writing an offer.
  • Have complete control over your systems and tools, along with your staff that is hired to do a particular job you no longer want to do.
  • With more revenue, you can hire more leverage in the forms of an Executive or Personal Assistant, a Listing Manager, a Transaction Coordinator, a Marketing Manager or a Director of Operations or Sales Manager.
  • Having a team forces you to grow exponentially as a leader to grow your leadership lid and keep evolving personally and professionally in order to pave a path forward for your team members’ growth, along with your own.

Real Estate Team Cons

Starting a team and succeeding through others is not without its challenges, however.

  • Success through others is challenging and time-consuming. You need to enjoy teaching, training, and mentoring, along with having hard conversations and helping some non-talent decide to exit the industry on occasion.
  • You are no longer just responsible for yourself and your success. There’s added pressure to create a world big enough for others to hit their goals within your team.
  • There’s financial risk – you need to hire staff, generate leads, and employ new systems and tools that are not cheap.
  • It may take a few months, even a year, before you start turning a profit, especially if you are starting with new agents you need to train into production. What level of savings can you invest in the business? How long can you afford your life without turning a profit?
  • Recruiting can be a challenge for a new team leader, if you haven’t spent time honing in on your unique value proposition. How are you special, unique, different? How do you get agents into production more quickly and help them live a better life in the process as well?
  • There will be turnover. Agents come and go on real estate teams, which can be hurtful, frustrating, costly, and a waste of time. It’s important to get into business with the right agents from the start – although this takes time and failing forward to determine who the best matches are for your team.
  • Spending more time helping agents succeed can be less time for you, your family, your personal business, and your hobbies. Just like with any business, starting your own real estate team is an investment of time and resources.

Who Succeeds the Most as a Rainmaker of a Real Estate Team?

  1. Someone who is inherently entrepreneurial with strong business acumen. Someone who can glance at a P&L and understand the larger picture and also has the resources to invest in talent, systems, and tools.
  1. Someone who is willing to take the financial risk and invest in building a business that may take time to become profitable.
  1. Someone who cares deeply about helping others succeed and wants the challenge of succeeding through others.
  1. Someone who enjoys teaching, coaching, and mentoring offers, and finds more satisfaction in their success than their own.
  1. Someone who likes creating systems, workflows, processes, and hiring talent for specific roles.

Should You Join a Real Estate Team?

Joining a Team Pros

  • You can develop your real estate skills at a faster pace and be more successful more quickly through the training, leverage, and leads provided by a team.
  • You have operational leverage on the back-end of a transaction, along with someone reviewing your contracts (or writing your contracts!) to give you peace of mind that an important inspection contingency date won’t be missed.
  • You will be supplied with diversified leads, given scripts, templates, and drip campaigns to engage with them, and taught to convert them at a high level – no matter the source.
  • You will be held accountable to the activities that will help you reach your goals through prescriptive action plans and coaching. Many agents struggle with being structured and habitual when it comes to things like daily lead generation and follow-up.
  • You have fewer expenses (depending on the team, often just Realtor Association dues, MLS dues, continuing education costs, mileage, and fuel) and really no financial risk.
  • You get access to a large database of shared knowledge. Interested in commercial, luxury, flips, working with investors? Aligning yourself with a team of experts can help you break into different facets of real estate faster.

Joining a Team Cons

  • You don’t have complete control over every facet of your business.
  • You won’t be involved in every part of the transaction or every decision that needs to be made.
  • You will split your commission with the team for the leverage, leads, and learning you receive.
  • You might not be able to use your own branding / team name, as you might be branding the team, not yourself. 
  • Not all teams are created equally and have a positive team culture and working environment.

Who Succeeds the Most as Part of a Real Estate Team?

  • Someone who values showing up as part of something larger than themselves and having team members for support and to cheer them on.
  • Someone who loves to leverage! Having a transaction coordinator, listing manager, marketing team, operations team, and more helps agents focus on cultivating relationships with clients and selling more homes.
  • Someone who realizes they’re not the best at everything – and they don’t want to be responsible for all contract compliance, transaction management, lead generation and conversion strategies, etc. There is value in having experts for every role!
  • Someone who wants more training and accountability. A real estate team can provide opportunities for learning about diverse paths forward in real estate, such as flips, commercial, luxury real estate, and more.
  • Someone who doesn’t want a lot of financial risk. A team provides leverage and leads without an agent having to take on costly lead sources, tools, and technology that may or may not have an ROI.

 

Erin Torres, President of HergGroupAbout the Author

Erin Torres, President of Livian™, joined Adam Hergenrother Companies after 10 years of leading digital marketing teams in the food, health, and education markets, as Director of Marketing & Lead Generation. Having experience in both consumer and business-to-business markets, Erin is a leader who enjoys setting a strategic vision, while also rolling up her sleeves to analyze and optimize systems, tools, and models on a daily basis. As Chief Operating Officer for Livian, Erin oversaw Listing Management, Transaction Coordination, Finance, Marketing, Client Care, and Agent Services. Outside her current role as President, Erin is also a licensed Realtor, runs the popular Vermont blog Travel Like a Local: Vermont, recently published her first book, and enjoys consulting with Vermont businesses on marketing, branding, and audience acquisition strategies. She is also a coach and trainer through Achieve Freedom Coaching. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and resides in Colchester with her husband Nick and their two rescue dogs. 

An entrepreneur at heart, Adam Hergenrother is the Founder & CEO of the thriving organization Adam Hergenrother Companies.

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