When & How Realtors Should Make their First Administrative Hire

JoMarie Armillio was a Realtor for 35 years before hiring her administrative assistant Jenni Pearson. After just 4 months of working together they were able to close 26 transactions in a single month. For the first time in her career JoMarie had the support in place to allow her to consistently focus on getting more business each day without being distracted by the very same business she was regularly generating. Here’s how they did it:

Its An Investment Not a Cost

Most real estate professionals are resistant to hiring administrative support due to the monetary cost and time associated with interviewing, training and paying the individual. However, top producing agents know it’s essential to view your new hire as an investment, and never a cost. They employ a growth-orientated mindset that expects a new hire to produce a return on investment in multiples of the actual cost. Therefore, lead agents must utilize the new time that administrative assistants free up by consistently performing activities that create new business. Typically, the increased amount of business generated outweighs the cost of the hire multiple times over.

Force Yourself to Let Go

Realtors always seem to believe that no one can service their clients better than themselves. Yet doctors have nurses, dentists have hygenists and lawyers have paralegals. A lead agent must become more of a chief than a warrior. A leadership mentality must take hold, and a good leader will allow a new hire to fail forward in order to grow within a new role. It is also important for the new hire to be empowered to gradually take the job away from the agent. So despite frequent resistance from the lead agent, the administrative assistant must be continually encouraged to pry specific tasks and duties from the agent on an ongoing basis.

Empower Your New Hire for Accountability

There is no better accountability partner than an administrative assistant. To ensure that a Realtor’s first hire becomes an investment and not just a cost, it is in the assistant’s best interest to hold the lead agent accountable in performing regular activities to generate new business. Top agents empower their assistants to force them to lead generate each day. An effective administrative assistant will often take the lead agent’s cell phone and block the door from other possible interruptions during a Realtor’s designated lead generation time. It is not uncommon for agents to turn in business generation activity tracking sheets to their assistants at the end of each week as well. It takes both the agent and the assistant to buy into the process for a true atmosphere of accountability to take hold and drive the business to the next level.