Real Estate Team Onboarding Checklist

Use this real estate team onboarding checklist to help new real estate agents transition into the business and get into production fast.

Do you use a real estate team onboarding checklist to build your training calendar?

We already talked about how crucial your onboarding system is to the success of your organization, and the agents at your team or brokerage.

As much as I’ve talked about the negative aspects of checklists, and how crucial a “by-when” date is, I do think it is important to have a checklist.

A checklist can be ran alongside an onboarding calendar. We must have a “by-when,” and that is why you must have an onboarding calendar, too. The calendar not only specifies what needs to happen each day, but it breaks it down into timeblocks to make it as time-specific as possible. (And, this concept of time blocking is a great mindset to instill in new agents!)

VIDEO: Real Estate Team Onboarding Checklist

What is your real estate team onboarding checklist?

At ICC, we give our clients access to an awesome First Quarter Checklist template. It’s fully editable, and sets you up with a structure, as well as content ideas, for your own real estate team onboarding checklist.

Be sure to subscribe to our blog, below, to get this First Quarter Checklist template today, for free!

This real estate team onboarding checklist spans about 3 months. It breaks down the list into 30-day chunks, and then even further into daily activities. The only difference between this and the onboarding calendar is that there are no specific times for when these activities need to be accomplished.

It breaks down the important activities that need to be done each day.

Real estate team onboarding checklist: check in with testing

You may designate testing at the end of each week or each month. This is a good way to make sure they are actually doing the training and not skipping over any essential tasks.

They can also record how many shadows they have done, how many trainings they’ve completed, etc. This is very customizable, of course.

This real estate team onboarding checklist carries on through 90 days of daily activities and training.

Suddenly, you are in a position where you can hold them accountable for completing the items on the checklist.

Make sure they are actually doing the training and not skipping over any essential tasks. Check in with weekly testing to promote accountability.
Brian Icenhower

When to use a real estate team onboarding checklist vs. a calendar

How can you best onboard agents who are new to the team/brokerage, but not new to real estate?

There will be some agents (especially seasoned agents) who may be onboarding with a new company or team, that already have bad habits. Or, they may already have their CRM set up. They may have already taken training courses. Their schedule may be different, and they may be unwilling to conform to a fully delegated and highly regimented schedule, like an onboarding calendar.

In that case, something like a real estate team onboarding checklist may be more appropriate, or more palatable. But – you will still need to meet with the agent regularly to ensure that they are doing the essential tasks.

Less than 1% of agents will follow a checklist on their own. You need to hold them accountable if you want them to do it.

Real estate team onboarding checklist: still not as effective as a calendar

Again, I want to make sure you understand that with seasoned agents, the checklist can be helpful, but it is not as powerful as the calendar.

I’ve seen people really latch on to these checklists, but unless you meet with them regularly and hold them accountable, even seasoned agents just plain won’t complete them. If you can, push to the onboarding calendar.

The “by-when” of having a specific time block for each activity each day is so crucial, and the success rate is so much higher.

I love the idea of a to-do list working, but it simply doesn’t on its own.

Try to push the calendar, especially with new agents. Be selective with when you use a checklist, and ensure that you have an element of accountability to help increase the chances of success.

I’ve seen people really latch on to these checklists, but unless you meet with them regularly and hold them accountable, even seasoned agents just plain won’t complete them.
Brian Icenhower

FREE DOWNLOAD: First Quarter Checklist

Today’s subscribers will receive a free download of our First Quarter Checklist. Use it to build your own real estate team onboarding checklist, and hold them accountable, for a higher rate of success for your agents.