093: Why a Real Estate Team will make you more Successful and Happier

I have 19 flips in progress right now, which is the most I have ever had. There is no way I complete that many flips, write for the blog, do podcasts, and manage the other parts of my business without an awesome team. In fact I work less than 40 hours a week. I make sure the tasks I work on are things I enjoy doing and delegate everything else. Having a team has made me much more successful than I could ever be on my own.

I am also much happier and less stressed out because of my team. I hear people say they don’t want a team because of all the work it takes managing people and they can do the job better themselves anyway. Even if you like working non-stop by yourself, it is not smart and usually not maintainable. What happens if you get sick, get in an accident, or cannot work?

What should be your ultimate goal when starting a business?

Many people start a business because they want to make a lot of money, have more control of their lives, or both. But most business owners spend way too much time working in their business instead of on it. The goal of a business should be for it to run without you. If you have to constantly be present and working for your business to succeed, you just created a job for yourself. Except owning a business where you have to constantly be present is worse than a job, because there is no one else who can fill in for you.

When I first started listing a lot of REO properties for banks, I was working 10 to 12 hour days. I was completing BPOs, driving by houses, and completing a ton of tasks. It was fun in the beginning, but when I went on vacation I was still working. It drove my wife crazy because I had to spend two hours a day working in the hotel information center so that I got everything done. When I got sick I still had to work because there was no one else who could fill in for me. I knew I had to change something, because doing all the work myself was not sustainable.

How did I start to build my real estate team?

I hired a part-time assistant to help me with my REO and BPO tasks. It took some time to train her, but it was well worth the effort. All of a sudden I had more time to think about my business, and not constantly work in it. I could go after new business, and I could flip more houses. Eventually my assistant Nikki became a full-time employee and I had even more time to work on my business.

Hiring help was not a hassle, it was the best thing I ever did. Not only did I have more time to work on my business, but the work was done better! She had more time to dedicate to certain tasks, which she perfected. I could complete those tasks, but I was doing so many things at once, and I was in such a hurry that I did not do them well. I could go on vacation without working the entire time! I could get sick and not be stressed out about late tasks and work not being done.

If you are worried about hiring people because you think you cannot afford them, they won’t do as good of a job, or you like doing it all yourself, what happens if you can’t work? A lot of business owners are the sole provider for their families, and they are the core of their business. Without the owner working, the business falls apart and no money comes in. Having a team and people who run your business is necessary in case something happens to the owner. We all assume we will be healthy all the time, but you never know what could happen.

How hard is it to hire people and create a team?

I bought my dad’s business in 2013. I should have bought it much sooner, but I was scared to take it over. I did not know anything about payroll, taxes, or workers’ compensation. Guess what? I still have almost no idea how any of that works. I ended up hiring Justin to manage the team for me and take care of all of those things. It may not be possible to hire someone to run a team for you right away, but there are thousands of companies who will help with hiring and paying staff. You do not have to learn it all yourself!

It is not always expensive to hire help either. Justin and Nikki on my team are both real estate agents. While I pay them for the things they help me with, I also get a cut of their commissions when they sell houses. Nikki is now the project manager on my flips and because she sells quite a few houses every year, she is almost free help. The split of the commissions I get from her sales are usually more than what I pay her! If you are a real estate agent and looking for help, hiring someone who becomes an agent on your team is a great way to start. They can help you with tasks and sell houses as well.

Many business owners try to be a one man show, but it usually does not work out well in the end. If you are dead set against hiring employees, you can still hire others to help with your business. You can hire a property manger, you can hire contractors to make repairs on houses, you can hire marketing companies to send out mailers, you can hire people to build a website for you. You do not have to do it all yourself!