When Should an Agent Hire a Transaction Coordinator?

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I hear some version of this all the time:

"I'll hire a transaction coordinator when I get busier."

Okay.

But, how busy is busy enough?

30 transactions?

40?

50?

Do you need to be running a team?

Do you need to be drowning first?

I think we're asking the wrong question.

The question isn't:

"Am I doing enough transactions to justify a TC?"

It's:

"Is transaction coordination still the best use of my time?"

Those are VERY different questions.

There seems to be this idea in real estate that leverage is something you earn once you become a huge producer.

I don't agree.

Let's say you're selling 18 homes a year.

That's only 1.5 transactions per month on average.

Maybe you're thinking:

"Why would I need a transaction coordinator? I can handle 1.5 transactions a month."

Of course you can.

That's not the point.

The question is whether handling those transactions yourself is helping you build the business you actually want.

Because there is a big difference between:

I CAN do this.

and

I SHOULD be doing this.

Real estate agents are capable of doing a LOT of things themselves.

That doesn't mean they should.

I think this is a much better way to determine whether you're ready for transaction coordination.

How much time are you spending on administrative work?

Not just the obvious stuff.

All of it.

Opening the file.

Sending introductions.

Tracking deadlines.

Following up with title.

Following up with lenders.

Checking documents.

Sending routine client updates.

Coordinating inspections.

Confirming closing information.

Checking email.

Following up again.

And again.

And probably again.

One email takes three minutes.

One deadline takes two minutes.

One follow-up takes five minutes.

None of it feels like much.

But, stack hundreds of those little tasks together across a transaction and suddenly a significant portion of your week is gone.

This is another trap.

An agent tells me:

"I'm keeping up just fine."

Great.

What does "keeping up" look like?

Are you answering emails at 8:30 at night?

Are you working every weekend?

Are you doing transaction work between showings?

Are you checking email during dinner?

Are you bringing your laptop on vacation?

Are you doing your administrative work after your kids go to bed because that's the only quiet time you have?

Because technically, you ARE keeping up.

But, that doesn't necessarily mean the business is working well.

It might just mean you've gotten really good at absorbing the workload yourself.

This one is important.

Agents often wait until they're completely overwhelmed before they look for help.

And, that's probably the hardest possible time to do it.

You're busy.

You're behind.

You're stressed.

You don't have time to explain anything.

And now you're trying to bring someone new into the middle of it.

That's a rough way to learn how to delegate.

If you know you want your business to grow, there's an argument for building the infrastructure BEFORE you desperately need it.

Then, when three new clients call in the same week, your first thought isn't:

"How am I going to handle all of this?"

The capacity already exists.

This is one of my favorite tests.

Imagine three new buyers or sellers call you tomorrow.

What's your reaction?

YES. Let's go.

Or:

Ohhhhh boy.

If more business immediately creates anxiety about your workload, that's information.

Your business might not need more leads yet.

It might need more capacity.

And, creating that capacity can be exactly what allows you to confidently go after more business.

I think business owners sometimes make every leverage decision based on whether it produces more revenue.

If I hire this person, will I sell more?

If I outsource this, will I make more?

If I spend $500, what's my ROI?

Those are important questions.

But, they're not the only questions.

What would it be worth to you to stop working at night?

What would it be worth to take a Saturday off?

What would it be worth to go on vacation and actually be on vacation?

What would it be worth to be at your kid's game and not be refreshing your email?

You don't have to turn every hour you get back into another dollar.

Sometimes, the return on leverage is your life.

That counts.

Could transaction coordination still make sense?

Potentially.

Again, I wouldn't make the decision based entirely on transaction count.

Maybe you're selling 12 homes because real estate is one piece of your business.

Maybe you're a parent who intentionally wants to work fewer hours.

Maybe your average sales price is high.

Maybe you have another role inside your brokerage.

Maybe you have another business.

Maybe you simply hate transaction management and would rather spend your time doing almost anything else.

Your business doesn't need to look like someone else's business before you're allowed to delegate.

This is where the math gets particularly interesting.

Let's say you're selling 24 homes annually at an average sales price of $400,000 and earning a 3% commission.

That's $288,000 in GCI.

At Home Free TC's current new-client rate of $500 per successfully closed transaction, you'd spend $12,000 on transaction coordination across those 24 closings.

That's just over 4% of your GCI in this example.

If transaction coordination gives you back even 14 to 15 hours per transaction, that's 336 to 360 hours per year.

Eight to nine full 40-hour workweeks.

What could you do with eight to nine weeks of your time?

That's a much more interesting question than:

"Am I big enough for a TC?"

You might be ready for a transaction coordinator if you're consistently doing administrative work outside the hours you actually want to work.

You might be ready if new business makes you excited AND stressed because you're wondering how you'll handle it.

You might be ready if prospecting and follow-up keep getting pushed aside because current transactions always feel more urgent.

You might be ready if you're spending time on tasks someone else could handle while the activities only YOU can do aren't getting enough attention.

You might be ready if you haven't taken a real vacation in years.

And, you might simply be ready because you don't want to manage transactions anymore.

That's allowed, too.

Not when you hit some magical number of transactions.

Not when another agent tells you you're finally successful enough.

And, preferably, not when you're already completely drowning.

Hire a transaction coordinator when you realize that personally managing every administrative detail of every transaction is no longer how you want to spend your time.

For one agent, that might happen at 12 transactions.

For another, it's 24.

For another, it's 50.

There's no universal number.

But, there is one question I'd keep coming back to:

If someone capable could take this work off your plate, what would you do with the time?

If you immediately know the answer, you might be closer to needing leverage than you think.

Home Free TC has provided transaction coordination support to real estate agents and teams throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin since 2015, and MLS listing management is available for Minnesota and Wisconsin listings that go through Northstar MLS. After coordinating more than 15,000 real estate transactions, we've seen agents use leverage in very different ways.

Some use it to grow.

Some use it to provide an even better client experience.

Some use it to get their evenings back.

And, some want all three.

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