ShareThere are currently between 35,000 and 50,000 real estate teams in the U.S., according to research by Tom Ferry — Your Coach, an international training company for real estate professionals. And Ferry, the firm’s CEO, predicts that in three years, there could be up to 100,000 teams nationwide.
In February, Ferry’s company surveyed 3,300 industry professionals about their real estate practices and found that 68 percent of respondents had what they defined as a team, while 54 percent of solo agents planned to build a team in the near future.
Of those who currently work on a team, 61 percent said the team structure helped add up to 10 transactions to their annual sales production; 12 percent reported gaining 40 or more transactions annually. However, accountability was found to be an issue, with nearly 23 percent of team leaders saying they lack formal methods to hold team members accountable.
In a recent episode of his YouTube series #TomFerryShow, Ferry provides an analysis and commentary on four types of team structures.
- He describes the “illegitimate team” as a group of salespeople working together without back-end support staff.
- The “family team,” he says, involves spouses and various generations of family members working together. This is historically the largest segment of teams in real estate.
- The “hero with minions team” is an unhealthy structure, Ferry says, because it involves a single high-producing agent who can’t keep other salespeople on the team and has trouble giving up responsibilities to others.
- Then there’s the “team builder” team, which is a healthy structure because team members are brought on to fulfill specific tasks based on their skill set.
“Teams can be very productive when team members specialize and play to their strengths,” says Ferry.
Get Ferry’s full analysis of teams in the video below. And if you are interested in building a team or finding solutions for your existing teams, visit tomferry.com/unstoppable and download the free CEO systems manual.
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