Building Your Real Estate Team

Somehow, over the past few years, the noun “partner” has turned into a very common verb in the business world. It definitely sounds better than the stuffy old, “form a strategic alliance.” But either way you put it, it’s a great way to do business. Partnering with someone who has a different skill set and background is almost mandatory for an entrepreneur. It just makes sense. You can’t do everything alone.

From a real estate investing perspective, we’ve learned that there are huge benefits from thinking like a team leader – even if you’re the only one who works in your office. Partnering in this context doesn’t mean you take on an actual business partner. Rather, you’re working to get to know people that may be able to fill in the blanks for you on certain projects, and you’re trying to build a cooperative mentality between the people you already know.

Think of yourself as a football coach, if you like. Obviously, you have to bring the players together as a team, but you’re also coordinating the efforts of the rest of the coaching staff to bring those plays together. You’re working with your team owner and their staff on the administrative stuff, you’re teaming up with the media to manage the publicity – you’re building a network of relationships with one common goal: encouraging the players to win games.

The same goes for completing a real estate deal. Get to know a good real estate attorney to help with the contracts and legal problems. Choose an accountant with experience in real estate so you can have someone to go to with financial issues. Start networking with lending professionals so you can find seed money more quickly. Now, who else should you have on your team?

Your first step is to find a go-to person who has been around in the real estate game for a while. This is your partner for those trouble spots you’re going to find in almost every deal. Even better, find someone with experience in coaching new real estate investors. Now, that may sound like an opinion rather than fact – especially since I’m a real estate coach – but I promised to tell you what I know about making more money than you ever dreamed, and this is the way to go. Think of it as an extremely cost-effective continuing education program.

Don’t forget to partner with your own employees! You may only have one assistant in your office, but that one assistant can be your greatest ally. Make sure they know everything about how to help you best and how to help the deals flow. You never know when they’ll need to be the one to keep a deal from blowing up.

You’ll also need to build a relationship with someone who knows how to solve title problems. You never know when you’ll run into an issue with one of your properties, and you’ll need to be able to untwist those situations before the deal closes. Get to know an attorney or a title expert who knows the system, and save yourself a lot of grief down the road.

Partner with people who give you referrals and keep in touch with them to make sure your leads keep coming in. Give them incentives in the form of referral fees or commissions, encouraging them to tell you when they find someone who might need your help. If you’re a coach, these are your talent scouts. If you don’t have the big deals, you can’t make the big money.

We’ve learned that the best referral source of them all is the real estate agent. According to the statistics, they’re involved in at least 75 percent of all real estate transactions. They have to complete hours and hours of training before they can obtain and keep a license, so you know they’re committed to the business. And, if you think about it, they know just about everyone in town!

Don’t forget that you can offer your new partnerships opportunities besides referral fees and paychecks. If you’re going to ask for help, you have to be willing to give it. As the local short sale expert, your advice may save a few of their deals, which in turn motivates them to save more of yours, and the mutual appreciation just keeps growing from there!

When you partner with other people in your community, you’re doing more than just furthering your own business interests. You are becoming a part of that community. You become someone that other people want to partner with. You are perpetuating the idea that it really does take a group effort to accomplish something important – in this case, helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.

If you need to learn more about developing real estate partnerships, check our our blog post about building your real estate business on our Strategic Real Estate Coach website!

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