Shorten Your Real Estate To-do List and Increase Profit

When most real estate agents start, they tend to take on every task independently. But as business starts to grow, there will be a point at which it’s overwhelming to handle everything on your own and work/life balance becomes a real challenge. 

While it’s nice to keep all of your commission, money is time (meaning you’re sacrificing time in order to make a bit more cash). The last thing you want is to put loads of work into building your business, only to call it quits because you’ve burnt out from work overload.

Outside of prospecting, negotiations, and listing or buyer presentations, most real estate tasks can be taken off your real estate to-do list and given to other staff members. 

Tasks such as those below are often a good idea to hand off:

• Marketing management
• Listing descriptions and updates
• Social Media posting
• Managing Rental Properties  
• Financial account management

Real estate business owners that are overloaded with work often cite a few specific reasons why. The most common are loss of control, the required mentorship and that accountability ultimately falls on the leader anyways (that’s you). However, every growing business needs an efficient and reliable team. 

Delegation can significantly decrease your workload, while increasing your overall earnings. Plus, the better your work/life balance is, the easier it will be to stay focused during your dedicated work hours. Think about it like this: An admin assistant at $20 – $30 an hour is well worth the investment, when it opens up the opportunity to take on another $500,000 listing. 

Delegation

What is delegation?

Delegation refers to sharing or offloading responsibilities to another staff member. Delegation is crucial when working in a team, but it’s not always an easy skill to master. 

How to become a better delegator?

If you’re not used to having other people help you with your work or even work under you, It can be a challenge to naturally introduce delegated tasks. 

Here’s how to get started with delegation:

Learn to let go

Just because you’re not completing a task yourself, doesn’t mean that it won’t be done well. 

Start by delegating small tasks to new staff and observe how they do. Remember that you hired them for a reason, and even if they don’t know how to do everything, they have the ability to learn. 

Take the time to teach new skills

It may take a moment to teach staff a new skill, but think of it as a time investment. Once they’ve got that responsibility down, you’ll be able to trust them with managing that task in future work. 

For larger tasks that require additional training and industry knowledge, consider covering the cost. Again, once they’ve learned how to perfect a task (ideally better than you would), you can rely on them confidently going forward. 

Here’s a general outline of how agents should approach delegation with other staff:

1. Start by clarifying your goals so that you can work out the necessary roles needed to complete that goal. 
2. Speak to your team about what they’d like to improve and take that into account during planning. 
3. Sign up for the necessary programs that will help others complete their work to their best ability. 
4. Meet with your team and express that you would like to start delegating tasks in order to keep everything and everyone (including yourselves) on track.
5. Finally, note down what strategies worked and which could be improved, so that you’re extra prepared the next time you hand out a new challenge. 

With some tasks off your plate, it’s easier to take on more business. You can be confident that you have a team and strategies to take on the extra pressure. New leads? Listing specialists can take over the paperwork so that  you can focus on the hands on work and client relationship building. Want to let your future clients know about your success? Your marketing manager can spread the word on social media. 

A team with designated tasks, flow smoothly with a system in place that makes task easy to accomplish.

Guiding Delegation

As team members begin to take on their given roles, there are a few ways you can make sure they do their best work. 

1. Make sure that objectives are clearly outlined and the necessary tools are provided. 
2. Stay open to suggestions and concerns. 
3. For new tasks that will be managed long term, check in to make sure everything is running smoothly. 
4. Lean into each staff member’s strengths and delegate tasks that they are likely to excel in. 

As you begin to shorten your real estate to-do list, it’s only good taste to communicate this clearly with prospective and active clients. It’s best to have a few scripts prepared in advance, so that you know exactly what to say to those clients who may not handle change very well. 

Scripts:

Transition Clients to Administrative Assistant Script

“Hello, (Client’s Name)

I’ve recently hired administrative assistant named (Assistant’s Name) who will help me provide the best level of customer service to my clients as our business grows.  Rest assured that, (Assistant’s Name) is dedicated to your needs and will be there for you throughout the entire process. They will also be available by phone or email while I am out of office. I am confident that you will just adore him/her. Afterall, that’s why I hired them! it seems that all of my other clients like him/her more than me! (jokingly). (Assistant’s Name) will get in contact with you to take care of some preliminary details. How does that sound? 

Best, 

(Assistant’s name)”

Administrative Assistant to Return Messages Left by Clients for Lead Agent Script

“Hi, (Client’s Name)

This is (Assistant’s Name), and I’m reaching out because (Agent’s Name) is currently away from the phone, but we wanted to make sure to get back to you quickly. If there are any questions I can answer for you at this time, I’d be happy to. In fact, you should always feel comfortable calling me, as I am dedicated to your needs and concerns throughout this exciting process. Around this time of day, (Agent’s Name) is typically out locating and marketing properties, he/she typically gets back to me right after he/she frees up. Afterall, I’m the real brains of the operation! (kidding) 

You can get in contact with me by phone (provide phone number), email (provide email), or in person (provide address) during our office hours. 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Best, 

(Assistant’s name)”

After getting a firm grip on delegation within your team, it’s time to consider automation. 

Automation

When your workload is too high, it can also mean that the quality of your work is slipping. Some responsibilities are so dynamic and intricate that hiring staff to take them on could be another money suck (client information management, anyone?). Tracking your team’s work becomes more and more challenging. Who is free to take on the next task? Where did the last person leave off?

This is where automation comes in. 

Automation is about speeding up redundant processes without losing effectiveness and quality; making better use of manual labor and letting some handy tech tools take on some of the work. 

These are the first areas most successful agents start automating:

Follow Up

Lead Generation strategies should funnel into an easy follow-up strategy. For example, contact information sourced from open houses can be automated using a tool like Spacio. From there, clients will automatically be sent follow up emails and check-ins to continue nurturing leads in the long term. 

Client contact information gathered from your real estate websites, PPC ads, and other digital methods, should funnel directly into a high-quality CRM such as Follow Up Boss. Within your CRM you can organize leads based on zone, stage in the buying process, interests and more. No memorization needed; the right time and method to follow up, who to follow up with, and what to say, can all be programmed within your CRM. 

When it’s time to reach out to a client, anyone on your team who has access to your CRM account can take over the responsibility. 

Web forms and powerful CTAs 

Luckily, with a great real estate website, plenty of features are already automatic to create the most comfortable experience for you. CTAs (call to actions) work wonders at pulling in leads without the need to badger them to get their attention. In your CTAs, you may offer a lead magnet like a useful home guide or industry tips in exchange for the prospective client’s contact information. 

CRMs

Synch your lead generation sources to your CRM to save loads of time sorting and organizing client info. Your CRM is the crucial blackbook of your real estate website, and one of the single most important automated resources at your disposal. Every lead should have their information stored in your CRM. Whether you are sending out a large newsletter following up with clients, or networking with other professionals, the necessary information will be in your CRM. Keep this resource organized and easily accessible. 

Content Creation

SEO content is a large part of overall digital marketing strategy, but it doesn’t have to take up loads of time. With tools such as Blog Assist, offered by AgentFire, you can receive professionally written, customizable web pages and blog content every single week. The process of researching topics, writing a blog, then editing and publishing it, is a full-time job on its own, why not hand it over!

Newsletters

Once your content is developed and sent to you, it’s easy to make sure that your written content is getting in front of the right eyes at the right time. Our MailChimp addon automatically transforms blogs into well-formatted newsletter emails that your clients will love. From blog development to sending them out, there is very little hands-on work for agents to do. 

Lead Activity Tracking

If you haven’t been using pixel tracking in your PPC strategy, you’re missing out. Web pixels seek out visitors that may have left your real estate website earlier than you would like. Then, your most relevant ad is placed on an unconnected page that they are currently visiting. It’s an easy and low-effort way to find clients where they are. 

Scheduling and Accountability

In 2023, this one is a no-brainer, yet it’s easy to miss. Before stepping away from the office or packing your schedule to the brim, make sure that the correct notifications are put in place for those attempting to contact you. For example, if you find yourself absolutely crammed with work, program an automatic out of office reply to explain longer than usual wait times for call backs. Alternatively, while on vacation, notify people of when you will be back with a detailed out of office message. The flip side to looking busy? People believe that you are in high demand!

Tracking Analytics

This task is nearly impossible to take over on your own without making it a full time job. Analytics inform us of how well our digital platforms are doing, whether it is our website, snapchat account, Youtube channel views etc… Many online resources allow you to track insights including many social media apps and your AgentFire website. 

Chatbots

Unfortunately, real estate agents can’t be everywhere all the time. However, prospective clients are often unavailable until after work hours and may have a few questions. This is the magic of chatbots. Chatbots are programmed to respond to common questions that are non-urgent, but important enough to be asked. 

Social Media Posting

Nowadays, there are tens of automated social media posting platforms that make social media activity easier, faster, and most effective. Many programs offer suggestions on trending topics and songs etc. Some programs to get started with include Hootsuite or L. oomly

Plus, you can automatically post to every platform all of once.

Wrapping Up…

No single real estate agent can do it all. As much as reality T.V. agents have informed our culture, most real estate agents are not  chauffeured around the city and will more than likely need a few helpful tools along the way to simplify their day. The tools that you’ve read about in this article can cut your real estate to-do list by hours or even days, so why not give it a try! 

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