When It’s Time To Hire

There are many motivations to hire. Some teams or agents need the extra support to expand into a new niche, or fill a gap associated with a certain skillset or property type. Beth Wexler and Joey Gault, senior sales associates and leaders of the Wexler Gault Team with @properties, realized they needed a team manager to run the administrative side of the business so that sales associates could focus on their growing client base.

“Our hiring depends on our current and long-term needs,” says Liz Salinas, a broker associate with the Wexler Gault Team. “Several years ago, Beth decided we really needed someone to manage our day-to-day business. We now have a have a full-time team member who handles and expedites all listing, contract coordination and marketing, so we are available to handle other client requests. It helped us build our business efficiently.”

Many agents look to their existing networks when they decide to add a new addition to the team. Top agents have an advantage, as an agent or team’s reputation can be a powerful recruiting tool. “Beth knew she and Joey shared a similar work ethic, and the partnership evolved,” says Salinas of the Wexler Gault Team. “Beth had a successful business and Joey knew aligning herself with Beth would be a great way to really dive into the business.”

Because reputation and trust are so important in residential real estate, many agents turn to family and friends first when building their team. The Wexler Gault team has hired several friends of team members. “Everyone on our team has been referred by someone in our network or we knew them personally,” says Salinas.  Defining roles clearly and setting boundaries have been key to keeping those relationships strong. “We try to keep our personal and professional relationships separate. We are focused, and when we work, we work,” says Salinas.

Cast A Wider Net

If agents want to look outside personal relationships, they often look next to agents they’ve worked with before, or met at an industry event. According to LinkedIn’s most recent U.S. Recruiting Survey, social professional networks have become the leading source of talent for recruiters, and are projected to account for an even greater share of leads in coming years. No matter where real estate team leaders find their prospects, the flexibility offered by having multiple platforms at one’s disposal to stay in touch makes follow up easy and instantaneous.

Careful review of an applicant’s resume and contact with references are two crucial steps in the vetting and hiring process, but hiring agents who are used to doing business on a more personal level may not be used to those formalities. A candidate’s reputation is important, but a verifiable, proven track record and the recommendations of past colleagues can help give team leads the concrete information they need to evaluate a recruit.