The question for you brokerage owners and team leaders out there:

Do you know your numbers?

And when I ask this question, people say, “Oh yeah, I know my numbers.” And then we test it and see if they really do know the numbers.

I'm going to test you right now. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions about your market, and I want you to be able to tell me if you know your numbers.

When I say your market, I'm talking about your agents that work within your company. That is your local market, by the way.

And here are the questions:

1. What is your average pending price with your agent body? What is your average listing price with your agent body? What is your average close price with the agents that work for you today?

2. How does that compete with the rest of the market versus the MLS? Are you higher or are you lower? Where are you at?

And then I'm going to go deeper than that. I'm going to ask you this really tough question:

3. What's your average agent's productivity based ...

One of the things I'm asked as somebody that specializes in recruiting is how does it impact your recruiting strategy when A) you're going after an office where there's a competing broker, and B) what if you’re the competing broker in your market?

So let's start with a question: what if I'm going after an office where there's a broker that's out there still selling real estate? And that's very, very common. In fact, the vast majority of brokerage owners in the country still sell.

So here's the trick. When you're looking at those companies, when you're looking at the overall agent productivity of that office, you've got to break out the leader, because the leader is inevitably the top producer in the office.

And when I break their production out, it will bring all those other agents' production down. So I'm having a meeting or a conversation with somebody, I can say”

“Hey, I took a minute and I looked at your overall office productivity. Looks like you had a pretty good year. But wh...

Hey guys, a really interesting study just came out, and it showed that 21% of agents that are 25 years plus in the business are actively looking for an exit strategy.

So two things here.

Number one, if you own a real estate company and you've got a lot of people that fit that category, your business could be at risk: What if they suddenly all retire en masse?

Second thing about this is: We have a massive opportunity in our market to take advantage of these people that are thinking about leaving the industry.

Here's how:

What if you partnered with one of your agents in your office to go out and target these folks in the industry?

You say, “Hey, there's four or five agents at this company and that company and that company that fit that category.”

And then say to one of your agents, “Why don't we go out there in tandem, you and I together, and let's try to recruit them in?”

You can actually maybe buy their book of business and come up with a succession plan. A recruiting strategy ...

Hey guys, for brokerage owners and team leaders out there, sometimes you hear that you should be recruiting nonstop every day, really intensely.

As a company that focuses on recruiting and coaching, we will tell you yes — you need to invest at least one hour a day in active recruiting if you want a real trajectory change in your business and to take it to the next level.

But here’s the thing:

What’s more important than the intensity of what you’re doing is the consistency of what you’re doing.

Consistency beats intensity every day of the week. The fortune is in the follow-up.

I want you to think about the runway for the top agents in your community. Maybe you moved companies at some point in your career. How long did it take you to work up to that decision?

As an experienced agent, it probably didn’t happen overnight. It likely took weeks, maybe months, maybe even years to pull the trigger.

What we have to understand is that it’s not about our timing — it’s about the timing of t...

Hey guys, did you know that in the last 12 months there’s been an average 7% increase in homeowners insurance rates? When people are homeowners and paying insurance, premiums on average have gone up 7%. In a lot of markets, it’s probably much higher than that.

When we hear this, we might say, “That doesn’t impact me. I’m a REALTOR. I’m not selling insurance.”

But this is actually an opportunity.

Everyone in our database has homeowners insurance. Why don’t you reach out to our database today and say, “Hey guys, you’ve probably noticed your homeowners insurance rates have gone up. I just want to be a resource for you. I’ve got a great contact—an insurance professional here in town. If you’re looking to shop your rate or get a different quote, I’d love to refer you to them. Just give me a quick call. I’ll make sure they put you at the top of the list and give you exceptional five-star service.”

Now, why don’t you just give them the name of the person to call?

The reason is you want t...

If you’re a real estate broker or team leader, I’m sure you’re experiencing what I’m about to describe. I call it the 80/20 rule, and it’s not the 80/20 rule you’re thinking about.

The 80/20 rule we usually think of is that 20% of the agents do 80% of the business. It’s probably closer to a 90/10 rule now, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

What I’m talking about is the 80/20 rule when it comes to the deployment of the technologies, tools, and services you provide to your agents.

As a brokerage owner or team leader, you invest in all this tech and all these tools, and then 80% of your agents don’t use them. You’re spending thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of dollars, and you’re thinking, “This is crazy. Maybe I should just stop providing this stuff.”

That’s a mistake.

First, you have 20% of your people who are actually using these tools, and those are usually the people producing. If you stop providing the tools, you’re hurting that group.

But there’s another reason you shou...

What is your real estate company worth right now? What would you sell it for?

I ask because many people tell me, “I don’t want to do this forever. At some point, I want to escape. I want to sit on a beach with a margarita in my hand. I don’t want to die with a pen in my hand at a desk.”

My answer is always the same: Your company is not worth what it should be today.

Here’s why:

For a company to be truly profitable, it needs experienced agents. The more experienced agents you have, the more sales you generate and the more profit you create.

So, what is a real estate company worth? The answer depends on market conditions, how long your agents have been with you, your brand, and other factors. But in general, companies are valued at two to five times net income.

Now, what if you don’t have net income? Then your company is worthless. In fact, 70-90% of real estate companies in America today fall into that category.

How do I know? Because the brokerage owner still has to sell real es...

If you're a broker, owner, or manager, here’s a key question for you:

Are you benchmarking your agents?

What do we mean by benchmarking? It means drawing a line in the sand—looking at what an agent has done over the past 12 months and what they want to accomplish in the next 12 months.

We call this Per Agent Productivity.

Start by measuring your entire office: What is your average per agent productivity?

Let’s say the average agent in your office is closing 6 transactions per year and doing $3 million in production. Once you know that number, and you must know that number, you can set a growth goal.

Now, based on that, figure out how you can push the envelope and go from 6 to 7, 8, 9, even 10 transactions per agent? What’s it going to take to make that happen?

It comes down to two things: recruiting and retention.

From a recruiting standpoint, your goal should be to help new agents outperform where they came from. This is another layer of benchmarking.

When an experienced agen...