Managing a real estate team can be a difficult endeavor. With a number of human and analytical factors, there is a lot of information to keep organized and act on. That’s why we put together this article to help you focus on the key items critical to raising capital, valuing time, and making deals work.
People tend to treat all time the same, but the most successful entrepreneurs understand the true value of time.
When it comes to health and family, time is priceless, and you can never outsource the role of being a member of the family. There are ways to outsource tasks that make these roles easier, but at the end of the day no one else can be you.
I often see entrepreneurs shifting from doing $10 per hour work to $500 per hour work to $10,000 per hour work as if it is all the same. The wise entrepreneur maximizes returns by focusing as much as possible on the highest value tasks.
Guide your real estate team to make decisions on their own. Employees like clear criteria that allow them to execute tasks independently. The more your team can answer on their own, the more time you have to focus on high level tasks.
When it comes to analyzing real estate deals, I use “if, then” decision making models that allow the employees to come to conclusions on their own. The quicker they can find a reason why the deal will not work, the better.
At Maven, we teach each other by example. Whenever I find myself doing a task that can be outsourced, I use Google Meet to record myself executing the task while talking through the details of each step. I then store that video recording in our shared Google Drive as a training video for team members. This process has proven to be beneficial in the following ways:
1. Hire A Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Hiring your first real estate virtual assistant (VA) can be a game changer. It moves you from the “do it yourself” role into a management role. For years I delayed hiring a VA. I thought I didn’t have enough work to outsource and wasn’t sure what would fill their day. Eventually, I realized I just needed to make the hire for the tasks I needed help with. Afterward, the hours filled in fast. In fact, hiring forced me to shift my thinking and delegate tasks. You will soon realize your VA is quite capable of taking tasks off your plate that you previously thought only you could do, and that’s where the real value comes in.How To Hire A Real Estate Virtual Assistant?
Thanks to freelancing websites such as Upwork and Fiverr, you can easily hire around the world. Moreover, I recommend hiring for 20 hours per week to start. In the beginning you may find yourself struggling to fill these hours. You might think you’re paying for more hours than you need. I encourage you to stay the course as you will continually delegate more tasks and find yourself easily filling the time. Better yet, the VA will be more efficient over time, and gain experience in the field which allows them to take on more tasks.2.Value Your Time
People tend to treat all time the same, but the most successful entrepreneurs understand the true value of time.
When it comes to health and family, time is priceless, and you can never outsource the role of being a member of the family. There are ways to outsource tasks that make these roles easier, but at the end of the day no one else can be you.
I often see entrepreneurs shifting from doing $10 per hour work to $500 per hour work to $10,000 per hour work as if it is all the same. The wise entrepreneur maximizes returns by focusing as much as possible on the highest value tasks.
Work More Efficiently With A Real Estate Team
As a real estate entrepreneur, your goal should be to continuously improve efficiency. As a result, you can spend time on priceless activities (health, family, etc.) or on your highest value tasks. Let’s say you have the opportunity to go to a networking event. It’s easy to skip that networking event because you have dozens of emails to get through. Consider the case that going to the networking event might be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars simply by the connections you make. Think long term, and spend more time on the work no one else can do for you and less on the tasks that can be outsourced.3. Empower Your Real Estate Team
Guide your real estate team to make decisions on their own. Employees like clear criteria that allow them to execute tasks independently. The more your team can answer on their own, the more time you have to focus on high level tasks.
When it comes to analyzing real estate deals, I use “if, then” decision making models that allow the employees to come to conclusions on their own. The quicker they can find a reason why the deal will not work, the better.
Recognize Bad Deals Faster
When I first started Maven, I found myself spending too much time on real estate deals that I thought were a sure thing only to find out the location was in a flood zone, the traffic count wasn’t high enough, or incomes were too low. Had I found those things out in the beginning, I would have saved myself and my team dozens of hours of work. We now have a strong checklist in the beginning that my team completes before beginning any financial analysis. This allows us to eliminate properties quickly and focus on deals that meet our criteria. Our processes are continuously improving so we can be more efficient by getting to “no” quicker.4.Tech Platforms For Real Estate
If you are building your business from the bottom up, build to scale and delegate. In the beginning of my journey with Maven, I was doing everything myself. However, I also knew I would be building a team who would gradually take over tasks and departments so organization and the ability to outsource were vital to me. There are dozens of business technologies and tools, but I chose to use Google Workspace as my technology foundation. Before my first hire, I laid the foundation for my team by using Google Workspace for:- Google Gmail for business email
- Google Drive for cloud based file sharing
- Google Meet for video conferencing
- Google Voice for phone numbers
- Google Calendar for meetings
5. Record And Delegate
At Maven, we teach each other by example. Whenever I find myself doing a task that can be outsourced, I use Google Meet to record myself executing the task while talking through the details of each step. I then store that video recording in our shared Google Drive as a training video for team members. This process has proven to be beneficial in the following ways:
- It allows team members to learn at their own pace and reference the training video as often as needed.
- It saves me the time of explaining how to do a task more than once.
- It empowers your employees to make decisions and execute tasks on their own.
6. Track KPIs and Monitor Progress
After reading Traction by Gino Wickman, we implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to manage our team through data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Simply put, each team member has weekly and quarterly goals that are derived from our company’s three year vision. Each week we have a team meeting to review the status of the goals, which are all based on data. The beauty of data is that it is black and white. KPIs are either met or not met. For example, if the goal is to call 100 self-storage owners in a week and only 96 are called, then the goal is not met. We don’t get into the specifics of the goals during the team meetings, rather we simply review the data. Specifics are reviewed with each team member during our weekly one-on-one meetings. Overall, KPI based goals keep our team on the same page, hold everyone accountable, and make job performance easy to review. When setting goals, begin with the end in mind. Take your company’s vision and work backwards to create the plan needed to reach the vision. Break that plan down into annual, quarterly, and weekly goals. Delegate those goals to your team and track them. Before you know it, your team will be on its way to achieving that vision.*Disclaimer: The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or financial advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This website contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; Maven Equities and its members do not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.
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