Building Your Real Estate Team

How many people do you partner with each day in your business? Or do you call it “collaborating”? Either way, you know by now that you can’t do business in a vacuum. At some point, you have to work with people who have different skill sets or connections that you need to get things done. It doesn’t make sense any other way. Partnering is an effective way to do business.

From a real estate investing perspective, we’ve learned that there are huge benefits from thinking like a team leader – even if you’re the only one who works in your office. Partnering in this context doesn’t mean you take on an actual business partner. Rather, you’re working to get to know people that may be able to fill in the blanks for you on certain projects, and you’re trying to build a cooperative mentality between the people you already know.

Remember the coach you liked so much in school? That coach used partnering and relationship-building to win games. A high school coach has to not only work with the players, but with the principal and the cheerleading sponsor and the people in charge of the gym. There are press releases and state sports associations and school boards to deal with. Managing a team is bigger than just calling the plays during the game.

The same goes for completing a real estate deal. Get to know a good real estate attorney to help with the contracts and legal problems. Choose an accountant with experience in real estate so you can have someone to go to with financial issues. Start networking with lending professionals so you can find seed money more quickly. Now, who else should you have on your team?

Your first step is to find a go-to person who has been around in the real estate game for a while. This is your partner for those trouble spots you’re going to find in almost every deal. Even better, find someone with experience in coaching new real estate investors. Now, that may sound like an opinion rather than fact – especially since I’m a real estate coach – but I promised to tell you what I know about making more money than you ever dreamed, and this is the way to go. Think of it as an extremely cost-effective continuing education program.

Your in-house team is your next big partnership. Get advice from your guru on what skill sets to look for and how to structure the office duties. Then train your new people extremely well. The more they know about what you’re doing and why, the better partners they can become – just in case you need a pinch-hitter someday.

You’ll also need to build a relationship with someone who knows how to solve title problems. You never know when you’ll run into an issue with one of your properties, and you’ll need to be able to untwist those situations before the deal closes. Get to know an attorney or a title expert who knows the system, and save yourself a lot of grief down the road.

Partner with people who give you referrals and keep in touch with them to make sure your leads keep coming in. Give them incentives in the form of referral fees or commissions, encouraging them to tell you when they find someone who might need your help. If you’re a coach, these are your talent scouts. If you don’t have the big deals, you can’t make the big money.

You may find that real estate agents make the best referral sources. They are the first contact for most homeowners who need to sell, and there are limits to how many of those homeowners they are able to help. Maybe they’re just looking for someone to take over dealing with all the problem properties they find. Maybe they know enough people that they hear things others don’t. Get to know a few of the busiest Realtors and make sure they remember what you can do to help.

When you’re building partnerships in your local market, never forget that the benefits of knowing these people are mutual. The real estate market is rough all over, and there may be a time when they’ll need a short sale expert on their speed dial as well. Once you’re able to establish yourself as the go-to person for problem properties, their trust in you will increase to the point where they introduce you to other people you may never have met without them.

Your quest for great partnerships will be an organically cultivated adventure. It really does take a collaborative mindset to function as part of the real estate scene in any area, especially in a struggling market. Build the best real estate team you can, become a part of your community, and invest in these partnerships to get the most profitable results for you and for every homeowner you meet.

If you need to know more about building partnerships in your real estate business, check our our blog post about building your ideal business on our real estate coaching website!