Summertime is an interesting time for real estate. Many agents refer to the time directly before the summer start as the “selling season” and year over year, this time of year tends to be one of the most profitable for those agents who fully embrace spring and watch their summer numbers fall off slightly.

Is there really a selling season?

Well, yes and no. Do many people transact real estate (or at least put their homes on the market) during the spring time?

Yes, year over year we do see an uptick in this activity. However, what is interesting is why “summer” tends to be a time in most agents years when things slow down.

As with any business, cycles happen and it can be expected that cycles in real estate happen as well. But why do these cycles tend to happen? Well, it comes down to the way most agents set up their businesses. You see, over the past few years we have seen an uptick in agents and brokers signing on “teams.” What this has translated to is the sheer fact that it allows agents to continue to do business 52 weeks a year, without having to work ‘in’ their business, but instead work ‘on’ it.

How have teams changed the game?

Real estate teams have allowed those individuals to surround themselves with people who work the same systems they do, and delegate important and specific tasks to getting done. For team leaders? This has translated into them having more time to do what they want to do, like vacation, spend time with family, and in the long term actually generate more commission dollars by setting up their teams to do much of the heavy lifting.

By team leaders leveraging other people’s time, this has meant that for many agents the “summer slump” never actually happens. But, it also means that individuals on the team are able to go ahead and do the things they want to during the summer, without it overly affecting their bottom line.

What do teams do differently? 

Real estate teams are set up in a way that allows the individual members of that team to focus on individual tasks. This means for instance, if a buyers agent gets a call about a listing, typically they would hand that to the listing agent on their team. If a listing agent got a call about a buyer, then they would typically hand that over to the buyers agent. 

Typically, teams also consist of Inside Sales Agents (those that field phone calls and make calls from leads that come in), transaction coordinators (the people who handle the setting up of inspections, appraisals, paperwork necessary, and anything that may be paperwork or vendor driven), and a rain maker.

The rain makers’ job is to “bring in the rain” as they say. This means they are the “face” of the team. The person who everyone around town knows, that goes to all the networking events, that meets all the vendors that can help expand their network. This is the person that, in a sense, makes it all happen. Teams are generally built around this rain maker, and everyone on that team is then responsible to help this person conduct more business. 

If you want to start a real estate team, what should you do first?

Well, first and foremost, make sure you have more business coming in than you can currently handle. If you find yourself wanting more time with the family, friends, vacations, or just maybe a day or two off a week, but simply can’t because the time for you to do so isn’t available, then it’s probably time to at least START thinking about building a team.

Making sure you hire the right real estate team member first, is always a good place to start as well. You may find a need for a transaction coordinator or a buyers agent before any other type of team member. But each and every person’s business will be different. Talk to colleagues about what they did first, and some of the things they wish they did differently before starting their very own team.

I’ve always said that learning from other people’s mistakes is the best way to avoid wasting any time or money in the short term, and ensuring that you get your best foot forward as quickly as possible.

Is building a real estate team something you have in your future? Let us know down in the comments below! If you already have a team, let us know how long it’s been, and how your life has changed since starting it!