By Stephanie Sims

There are many ways to compose a team – some are a team of two agents, some have a team leader and some have licensed or non-licensed personnel who work on admin, IT, social presence, transaction coordination and other functions necessary to assist those working with clients. But since partnerships and teams mean splitting tasks and sometimes money, and allocating money for people’s salaries, are they a good idea?

Most agents would argue yes, that there are significant advantages to forming a team or partnership:

• Train your team to work your way. If you form a team, you can help train your admin staff and agents to work at their most efficient, and more importantly, you can train them to work how you want them to. With a system in place, team members will be exposed to the way you multitask and handle challenges, and learn to do these things automatically.
• Clients get more care. Especially for busy agents, partners and teams can help answer all clients’ questions in a timely manner, balance closings, showings, listing presentations and other appointments. Someone should always be available to help a client; there’s no reason to cut your showing time short to hurry back to the office for a task because your team members can do that. Even in a partnership, if clients are “split” between the two agents
• and time is managed efficiently, one agent remains in control of the transaction from initial
• contact, previewing, showing, writing the offer, presenting the offer and following up right through to closing.
• Time to focus on the payoff. Putting more focus on more important tasks – like attracting potential buyers – allows you and your agents to cultivate an intimate knowledge of the housing market in your area much more quickly.
• Support. With a partner, you have a good person to bounce ideas off, offer opinions and help with business. With a team, if you feel like you’re drowning amidst following up on leads and appointments, you can ask a team member or your team leader for help.
• More resources. If there’s a good communication strategy in place, you should always be on your smartphones texting, emailing and communicating with each other. If you don’t know something about a property or client, someone else should know.