When to hire a buyers agent

Question

I'm a big fan of Gary Keller's books / models / systems (although I'm not a KW agent). I know he is a big advocate of hiring on help when you need it. I am reaching out to RE agents who have started a team for their services, or hired on a buyers agent.

The reason I ask is that I have more leads that I can handle / manage. I probably have enough leads for 2-3 buyers agents right now.

How does the pay split typically work between me and them? Also, since I am not a broker, how does this work out?

Ideally I would like to only work with lead generation and listing appointments, and higher commercial deals. I'm thinking a buyers agent might be a good investment to my RE business.

Thoughts?

J Scott · Answer

Shay -

This is the second post from you in the past hour where your response had absolutely nothing to do with the original question asked.  This thread is about hiring buyers agents to join existing brokerage teams, not for the purposes of finding specific investments.

Please read the threads before responding...

Scott Grace · Answer

As an office manager, having seen many of these situations I would advise you to put into writing any deal that you make with another agent regarding a team situation to avoid hardship down the road. Good luck!

Shay W · Answer

im not going to even start getting into all the reasons "why" unless a real buyer wants to PM me to ask.

The easy, short and 100% honest answer to "when should you hire a buyer agent" is NEVER!!!!! the soul and only reason for signing a buyer agency agreement with a realtor is to protect that realtors commission and "lock" the buyers *** up with a ball and chain!

Jamie Cox · Answer

The honest answer is she does just about everything. I want to focus on nothing but lead generation. Everything from creating files, database management, lead tracking, even assists in short sale negotiation.

Danny Day · Answer

Conventional ways (besides referral from previous clients, friends, etc) to create leads are out the window in this market.

Print ads, monthly random mailers wasted my money last year. My direct mail did not get my phone to ring one time.

I went back and looked at where my leads were coming from the past year, on deals that I closed.

My main source of leads in 2011 was an internet web forum, kind of like biggerpockets. It is used mostly by Houston residents and I answer real estate questions. I got a TON of business of that site for free. Another good site to use I've found is www.city-data.com.

Zach, I don't want to publicly post where I'm generating everything from right now. Since we are in seprate markets, message me and I will share details.

Danny

Zach Sikes · Answer

Danny Day 
-I'm sure you have a mix of marketing that brings you in your leads. What areas do you focus in and how did you determine that?

Jamie Cox
- Thanks for the info.  I hope to have on hired by the middle of summer and a buyer's agent shortly thereafter.  What are some of the things your assistant does?  Does she manage active files only or do some marketing for you as well?  Is she a licensed assistant?

Zach Sikes · Answer

Danny Day 
-I'm sure you have a mix of marketing that brings you in your leads. What areas do you focus in and how did you determine that.

Jamie Cox
- Thanks for the info.  I hope to have on hired by the middle of summer and a buyer's agent shortly thereafter.  What are some of the things your assistant does?  Does she manage active files only or do some marketing for you as well?  Is she a licensed assistant?

Jamie Cox · Answer

I've been licensed for a little over 3 years. My assistant is paid hourly and 1099'd. I have "recommended work hours" for her. Since she technically is an independent contractor I can't require her to work certain times.  It hasn't been an issue.

Zach Sikes · Answer

How long have both of you guys been in the business?

So as tempting as it might be I need to ad an assistant.  Did you hire a licensed assistant? or one to just cover paperwork?  How did you structure pay? salary or commission? 1099 or w-2?

Sorry for all the questions guys - it's great to learn from people that have and are doing exactly what I want to do.

Jamie Cox · Answer

My first attempt at putting a team together I went straight for the buyer's agent. My thought process was I could use the income added to the bottom line to hire admin help. I was wrong and failed horribly. I was passing out leads to an agent with no tracking system in place no solid plan to set these leads up into a database etc. There was no accountablility to the agent because I had no idea how many leads they were given vs how many they were closing.  Eventually I decided to start over. I hired an assistant, put systems in place, and then began adding buyers agents again. What a world of difference it made. Not only did having admin staff in place to help them help me justify the 50/50 split but the systems we created shortened the learning curve for the agents joining us. In short I would absolutely do admin first.

I like the idea of "divisions" I have a friend that runs a big team here in Vegas that has a military division, short sale division, investment division, new homes division, etc and she's doing really well. My set up is a little different I work with each person to figure out where they want to be in the business and to figure out ways to generate leads within that area.

When to hire a buyers agent

Most Popular Reply