Running a successful real estate brokerage requires a well-oiled machine behind the scenes. As a business owner, it is important to ensure your office has the right resources in place for it to run well. This often starts with hiring the right people. Office administrators play a pivotal role in ensuring that agents, clients, and operations run smoothly. As a team leader or broker-owner, it is critical that you ensure your team have what they need to stay productive during both busy and downtimes.
Here are some tips to help real estate brokerages and their admin teams boost productivity while staying organized and efficient.
Leverage Technology to Streamline Tasks
Administrative tasks like managing schedules, updating listings, and tracking client communications can take up significant time. One way to assist your administrative staff or team is to utilize tools like:
- CRM Systems: A real estate-focused CRM can help track client interactions, automate follow-ups, and organize contact lists.
- Transaction Management Platforms: Tools like Dotloop or Brokermint can simplify contract creation, approvals, and compliance tracking.
- Scheduling Tools: Apps like Calendly can eliminate back-and-forth when booking showings or meetings.
By automating repetitive tasks, admins can focus more on activities that drive growth and support agents.
Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
Documenting workflows and creating SOPs for routine processes like onboarding new agents, scheduling showings, or organizing client files helps ensure consistency.
- Why it Works: SOPs reduce errors, save time, and make training new staff more efficient.
- Pro Tip: Review and update these procedures quarterly to ensure they align with changing market needs and technologies.
Prioritize Communication
Clear communication is the backbone of any successful brokerage. Ensure that all team members are aligned by:
- Hosting weekly meetings to review goals and upcoming tasks. Ensure that you administrator has the opportunity to voice opportunities and any concerns they may have.
- Using team collaboration tools like Monday.com or Slack to manage tasks and maintain transparency. Monday.com is one of the most efficient and effective tools to help manage an office, including keeping leadership and vendors informed and tracked in one tool. (I am a big supporter of this platform!)
- Setting boundaries around communication (e.g., avoiding after-hours messages) to prevent burnout.
Delegate and Empower
Admins often wear multiple hats, but attempting to do everything can lead to inefficiency.
- Delegate Tasks: Assign routine tasks to agents or junior staff where possible. While admin are there to support, they are not there to babysit!
- Empower Agents: Provide agents with self-serve tools for accessing documents, marketing materials, or training resources. It is important that they are able to manage key tasks in the event a staff member leaves.
By distributing responsibilities, admins can focus on more strategic initiatives and protect your agents and business long term. Unfortunately, admins in real estate often burn out or leave due to heavy workloads.
Focus on Time Management
The unpredictable nature of real estate means admin teams need to make the most of their time. Some strategies include:
- Time Blocking: Dedicate specific times for emails, meetings, and daily work activities.
- Avoiding Multitasking: Focus on one task at a time to ensure quality and efficiency.
- Using Deadlines: Set realistic deadlines to stay on track without overloading the team. It is important to allow all tasks to become high priority and rush jobs. These should be the exception, not the everyday!
Recognition
Productivity isn’t just about efficiency—it’s also about fostering a positive work environment. As the company leaders, it is critical that you recognize the hard work of your admins and retain them by:
- Paying them what they are worth. Admins are often the heart of a real estate business. It is important to compensate them for their hard work.
- Planning events or team-building activities.
- Creating a welcoming atmosphere for new recruits.
- Offering the opportunity to share feedback and provide training opportunities.
Happy staff typically means a well managed office, happy and productive agents, which ultimately benefits the entire brokerage.
Real estate brokerages thrive when their administrative teams are empowered, organized, and supported. By adopting tools, prioritizing communication, and focusing on training and retention, office admins can make a significant impact on productivity and the overall success of the brokerage.
Need support in addressing challenges in your company’s operations? At The Real Estate Source, we specialize in helping brokerages streamline processes and improve efficiency. Contact us today to learn how we can support your team’s productivity goals.
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