Introduction

Carey was a top-producing agent in one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets, doing $50 million to $60 million a year in volume. By any measure, she was a success.

She had a “team,” sort of—an assistant and a buyer’s agent who had one foot out the door. Effectively, though, she was operating alone . . . and she was reaching the limit of what a solo agent could do.

Like many top agents, Carey had sacrificed a great deal to get where she was. She often put in more than twelve hours a day, seven days a week. The only way to grow her business, she believed, was to work even harder. But how hard and how long can one person work?

And honestly, she didn’twant to work harder—she wanted more balance in her life. She wanted to remember what a weekend was, to have predictable hours, and to not spend her evenings talking nervous clients off the ledge. She loved working out, taking long hikes, and doing fun things with her three grown daughters. She had no desire to make her life all about work. She was definitely in the camp of wanting to work to live andnot live to work. This was getting harder and harder.

Yet, like most agents, Carey was competitive. It was hard not to compare her production to other top performers and think,If they can do it, so can I. She was deeply motivated and driven to keep reaching for more and better.

To reconcile those two conflicting urges—to grow her businessand reclaim her life—she needed help.

Times Have Changed

Carey hit the wall that all successful agents hit eventually: it’s impossible to do everything yourself. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do what it takes to get the best outcomes for your clients. Ironically, it’s a problem that grows worse with success.

Sure, if you do only a handful of transactions per year (the industry average is less than four), the workload is sustainable. The money is not though. That’s why the attrition rate of real estate agents is so high—most new agents leave the business within five years. To make this career work, you’ve got to sell more homes than the industry average . . . a lot more.

But even if you’re a rock star, you’ll find that about fifty transactions per year is the absolute most you can handle. And if you’re selling one or more homes a week, what kind of life do you have? For most agents, the answer is zero personal life plus endless professional stress. The financial side of this equation doesn’t look a whole lot better. Yes, the gross income is high, but what you take home after taxes and expenses will probably not create the financial security you are hoping for.

It wasn’t always this hard. Even just a decade ago, timelines were longer and expectations were lower. A solo agent working with a cadre of trusted professionals—stagers, photographers, lenders, and so on—might have sufficient time and bandwidth to do it all and wow their clients.

But the technology explosion has changed that. Agents are at the mercy of the supercomputer in their pocket, and clients demand the same instantaneous attention and service in real estate that they get in everything else.

Now, it takes a team to get all the work done.

An