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The company that Jon Yacovetta works for was pretty new in 2020, with a lot of growth due to an influx of new agents coming on board.
“I have a background in education and leadership, and I had phenomenal mentorship myself from Bret Weinstein, our founder and CEO,” says the Director of Mentoring at Guide Real Estate, in Aurora, Colo. “So, as we were taking on these new agents, Bret thought it would be a good idea for me to put those skills and what I learned from him to use, and to teach these new agents how to do real estate and provide the supervision all new agents require.”
After the initiative proved successful, Yacovetta and Weinstein decided to implement a formal mentorship program, which took off and became a magnet for attracting talent. When executed well, a mentorship program can make a huge difference for agents and the brokerage, helping agents gain confidence and clients and thus bringing in more money.
He adds that it also becomes a point for recruitment and growth, plus it creates new opportunities for producing agents to earn and to add to their experience and expertise.
Mentorship Makes a Difference
Ahmed Islam grew up in Dubai but came to New York City when he was 16. After getting his real estate license and working for several years in the industry, he entered a mentorship program offered through the National Association of REALTORS® as a mentee. His main reason was that he felt he needed more guidance and basic advice to enter the world of commercial real estate.
“I’d go to commercial brokerages, and they’d tell I just wasn’t ready for it,” he adds. “I had a lack of experience in it.”
He’d identified a California agent in the commercial sector who he wanted to learn from. “The good thing about him was he went above and beyond. He taught me a lot of motivational stuff, not just work. I hit the jackpot,” he states.
“Being mentored helped me bridge the gap from residential to commercial. I had tried to get into commercial for seven years,” says Islam, who is now a commercial real estate specialist and partner at Prime Realty Services in Camp Hill, Pa.
Because of his great experience as a mentee, Islam became a mentor and has served as one for the past three years.
“Being a mentor is giving back like all the people that paved the way for me,” he adds. “They took time out of their schedule to help me. They were selfless. No one was paying them.”
Considerations for a Mentorship Program
“There are many benefits to having a mentorship program, like more successful agents and fostering a feeling of giving back for mentors,” says Yacovetta. “It just has to be done right, and that’s the most difficult part.”
He explains what’s helped his brokerage create and maintain a successful mentorship program:
Assign someone to run it
“A mentorship program will not get off the ground without dedicated personnel,” he says. In order to implement a formalized program, someone must have the time and capacity to run it. Consider hiring a staff member or making the mentorship program the main focus of an associate broker’s job.
Leaders need to invest in the program
Simply deciding to create a mentorship program isn’t enough. You have to be willing to see the initiative through and make clear your investment in it. “At the leadership level, the leaders have to be passionate about agent quality and growth. They have to be patient enough to understand the plight of new agents and be willing to endure those plights.”
Bring in agents who want to be mentored
A motivated agent will be more successful in a mentorship program than one who’s uninterested,” Yacovetta says. “That’s why it’s important to consider offering mentorship to a dedicated few who really want to be mentored. “We recruit like-minded individuals who want to learn and who want to be led. So, being careful about who we bring on certainly plays a part in the longevity of the program. We’ve had 35 agents make it through the program.”
Let potential mentors voice their interest
“If they want to be a mentor, they’re already on board,” he adds. The ones who are interested come to him to help out, and no one is ever required to do it. “They’ve already had the experience in real estate to know that new agents need help in order to survive.” They also want to provide that help to better the agent and the industry.
Guide the trainers
Meeting with the mentors once a week to check on their mindset, their process and how their mentees are doing keeps the program running smoothly. To be a mentor, agents must agree to provide supervision as stipulated per their regulatory agency, and have closed a minimum of 75 transactions.
Guide the mentees
Those who are interested in the program meet with Yacovetta in-person, and they go over the mentorship agreement, which outlines the entire program, expectations, and criteria for graduation.
Require time together
At Guide Real Estate, mentors must meet with their mentees at least once per week for accountability purposes, goal tracking and general support. The mentoring, however, is highly variable, Yacovetta says. Mentees are enrolled in the program for their first five transactions and must complete a series of classes and practical application tasks to graduate. The mentors can tailor their process based on what the mentee needs.
Offer the right resources
Mentors need to ensure that mentees have access to as many educational and systematic resources as possible, Yacovetta advises. For example, they need a CRM. Also, they should know where to seek out classes to build their skill set and to stay up on their continuing education credits. A mentee also needs to know who their network is within the program. “There should be a clear phone tree in place in the event the mentee has an emergency and that mentor is not immediately available,” he adds.
The Benefits of Mentorship for the Brokerage
Islam believes if the agent advances in their business, the brokerage grows as a result.
“A brokerage should have a lot of interest in strengthening their agents, which helps them. How will they succeed if we don’t help them?” he asks.
He also feels that those connections between mentors and mentees can flourish friendships throughout the industry, strengthening the industry.
“I have remained friends with my mentor. He knows a lot of people. He’s the connector with somebody that I want to connect with. He always introduces me to people all the time,” Islam says.
He also believes that the new agents can teach the experienced agents things they never knew before or encourage them to try something they wouldn’t have attempted previously, like social media and new technologies. It’s a win-win for a brokerage for the different generations to learn from one another and benefit from each other’s skill sets.
Yacovetta’s brokerage chooses to keep costs low for agents, which means they rely on agents to make sales in order to bring in money. Since that’s the case, their agents need to feel confident in the field and they need to produce. This makes a mentorship program a natural fit to boost agent—and thus, brokerage—success.
“We only make money if they’re making money. So, it is certainly a mutually beneficial situation. We put in the time and the resources up front,” he states. “If the agent finds success, the investment pays off for everyone.”
Successful mentorship programs aren’t just a boon for the mentees, either. A good one offers incentives for the mentor as well.
“I’ve certainly grown as an agent, a mentor and a leader,” Yacovetta says.
