If you want them, get off the sidelines and start
your search early
By Bridget McCrea
Rory Hoelker has hired 20 new agents in the last 12 months, and
thinks he’s landed on a successful formula for finding and retaining those new
recruits. As broker-owner of Avalar Real Estate in Las Vegas, which has two
California offices, Hoelker focuses on both brand-new agents, and those who
have been in the business for six to 18 months, knowing that 80 percent of new
agents will switch offices within 18 months, according to the NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. By combining his own industry experience, a couple of
screening tools (see article on page B14), a degree of patience, and a focused
recruiting effort that often starts while he’s talking to cooperating agents at
the closing table, Hoelker has been able to develop a stable of productive
agents.
“After closing, we’ll talk to the other agent about how things went, and use
thattime to tell them about what we’re doing here at our company,” says
Hoelker, who believes face-to-face, persistent contact with prospective agents
is the best approach. “We focus on laying the groundwork for weeks, or even
months, of recruiting for prospects.”
And where it used to be enough to simply dangle a fishing line out the door of
a real estate office and hook potentially good agents looking for their piece
of the “hot” real estate market, California brokers knowthat the stabilizing
real estate market will require a more honed, focused recruiting approach that
targets only those agents who will truly produce in a “normalized”
market.
“The agents who are getting into the business now are really going to have to
be serious about functions like prospecting,” says Steven Friedman, president
of Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Recruiting Services, Inc. “Whereas in the
past someone could come in and generate business without much effort,the focus
now has to be on those recruits who can really dig in and differentiate
themselves.”
Brokers are also looking at their bottom lines, and realizing that it costs
money to hire, train and retain new agents—from the basic brick-and-mortar
costs, to the utilities and technology, and right down to the bottled water and
paper towels. “It costs money to have people on your premises,” says Allan
Bernardi, president and broker, RE/MAX Dolphin Real Estate in San Mateo, “so
they really have to be productive.”
CEO Mentality
Bernardi says he and his managers look for recruits who have a “CEO mentality”
and who clearly understand the parallels between business ownership and real
estate. “They have to know that they’re doing more than just performing a job
and getting paid for it,” says Bernardi, who recently put “prior financial
success” on his criteria list for new agents, having previously overlooked that
point.
“Where we used to consider agents with traditional backgrounds—such as retired
policemen and teachers—we now focus on those who have already been productive
managers or businesspeople,” says Bernardi.
To find the best candidates, Bernardi and his team conduct presentations at
local real estate schools, and get referrals from existing agents and through
the RE/MAX International Web site. When talking to those candidates, Bernardi
prefers to listen, in lieu of giving lengthy presentations on the merits of
working for his company. He asks them what their expectations are, and tries to
feel out whether they’re looking to excel, or simply make an “adequate”
living.
“I’m not looking for people who think that they’re going to get to ride around
in fancy cars, go to lunch, and tour homes on Tuesdays,” says Bernardi, who
estimates his firm’s agent turnover rate to be about 4 percent annually
(compared with an industry average of 23 to 40 percent).“I want agents who are
precise, who have an education, and who have done background research to find
out what it really takes to succeed in this business.”
Asking the Right Questions
Don Faught, vice president and manager at Alain Pinel, REALTORS® in Pleasanton,
says he looks for recruits who are good at resolving conflicts, who are
organized and those who have close ties to the community. “The last criteria
are particularly vital for brand-new agents,” says Faught, who overseestwo
offices and 80 agents.Before hiring new agents, Faught asks them the following
questions, then factors their responses into his hiring decision:
• What are you looking for in an office?
• What do you like about your current office?
• What do you not like about your current office? What are you looking for in a
manager?
• What are you looking for in a company?
• How do you handle adversity?
• What are your personal and business goals?
Hoelker uses a 5-point interview process to get into the minds of his new
recruits, focusing on these questions: Who the person is, where they came from
and where they see themselves in 12 to 18 months; whether they have a business
plan for the comingyear; an example of a difficult challenge they’ve endured
and how they’ve overcome it (to gain information about emotional resilience);
their greatest strength and greatest weakness; and what they’re looking for in
a real estate career.
And while sales experience is helpful, it’s not a deal-breaker for Hoelker, who
acknowledges that a brand-new agent without any sales background does require
more work and training to get up to speed. “There are a lot of great candidates
out there who will make excellent real estate agents, and brokers shouldn’t
overlook them just because they’re inexperienced,” he says. “Brokers just have
to keep in mind that it will take a lot more time to bring those new agents up
tospeed.”
At Montclair Better Homes Realty in Oakland, Michael Thompson, managing broker,
says he sends postcards out to mailing lists of new licensees, as well as to
those who have been in the business for one or two years. “We’re lookingat the
newer agents who need to be taught how to sell real estate, or who have a
fledgling background and who want to get to the next level,” says Thompson, who
oversees three offices and 48 agents.
Many times, Thompson says his new recruits come from offices where they felt
“constrained” by bureaucracy and other issues that kept them from being as
productive as possible. “We often sell them on the fact that we can make quick
decisions around here,” says Thompson, who makes apoint of getting out into the
field to meet agents face-to-face (at broker tours, for example) as a way to
lure in top talent. “The broker who sits up in the ivory tower waiting for good
recruits,” he says, “isn’t going to get very far.”
Schooling Them
Recruiting new agents while they’re still in school is an age-old broker tool,
but Steve Roberson took the strategy a step further a few years ago when he
opened a pre-licensing school as a division of Downey-based Century21 My Real
Estate Company. With one office and 125 agents, broker-owner Roberson teaches
the school himself, and says about 85 percent of his new recruits come through
the school, with the rest coming through local newspaper ads and want ads on
sites like Monster.com.
Roberson says he goes beyond principles and theory, and shares “real life”
information on the realities of being a real estate agent in today’s
competitive market. When the time comes to sit down face-to-face with
individuals to discuss job opportunities, Roberson says he doesn’t even try to
guess who will “make it” and who won’t.
Instead, he looks for people who have good attitudes, a willingness to learn,
and a legitimate interest in helping buyersand sellers transact real estate.
New recruits with no track record in the business aren’t always easy to read,
he says, but the picture usually becomes clearer after a few months. “You can’t
always get a good gauge on this from that first interview,” says Roberson, “but
after one to three months you can get a good feel for whether someone is going
to make it or not.”
Proactive Searching
Waiting around for those who will pan out isn’t an option in today’smarket,
says Hoelker, who advises brokers to take a proactive recruiting stance for
both brand-new and seasoned agents. Rather than waiting for them to walk into
your office, for example, take the time to visit with them (even over a cup of
coffee, or ata networking function) outside of the work environment, and find
out what their “hot buttons” are when it comes to their careers.
“If good talent is what you’re looking for, the courting process may take weeks
or months,” says Hoelker, who also advises brokers to keep in mind the high
percentage of brand-new agents who switch companies within 18 months of hanging
their licenses. “Try to keep track of those people coming into the business,
and try to get interviews withthem.”
And remember, says Friedman, that the broker who takes a proactive stance to
finding top talent will always have a leg up on the competition. “Most of the
time the reason brokers can’t find agents is because they’re not really
looking,” he adds. “They wait for what swims by the door into the pond, and
then throw out a line in hopes that someone catches it.”
Screening Talent
Background checks and personality tests assess agents’
potential
At Avalar Real Estate, all new recruits are evaluated not only by the company’s
brokers and/or managers, but also by two different screening tools that the
firm has been using with good results for several years. And where seasoned
agents are typically evaluated on the work they’ve done in the past, new ones
are ranked with a program called the Real Estate Simulator™, and are then asked
to complete a DiSC profile.
The Real Estate Simulator™ (which is required of any brand-new agent who wants
asecond interview with Avalar) is an assessment tool that uses simulation
technology to re-create the real-life challenges that real estate agents
encounter on a daily basis. It then evaluates selling skills, intelligence, and
personality to provide comprehensive information about a person’s strengths and
weaknesses in real estate sales.
The person being assessed plays the role of a real estate agent and must
“interact” with virtual clients who are interested in buying or selling
property. The “real estate agents” are taken through the entire sales cycle
from building rapport to closing and must demonstrate their ability to handle
objections, negotiate price, understand client needs, deal with personality
clashes, and even handle periodic rejection.
To complement this industry-specific tool, Rory Hoelker, broker-owner of Avalar
Real Estate in Las Vegas, also uses the DiSC (which stands for dominance,
influence, steadiness and conscientiousness) assessment tool to explore
recruits’ personal styles, including their approach to home and work life,
communication style and motivation, and strengths.
Hoelker says the Web-based Real Estate Simulator™ takes about an hour to
complete, and helps him analyze the recruit’sability to handle a real estate
career–from sales ability to closing skills to cognitive ability. “It puts the
recruit right in a ‘real life’ situation on screen,” he says, “and provides
them the opportunity to give different responses to that question.”
The DiSC profile serves as a personality measure for Hoelker, who uses the test
to see if the person is more suited to a desk job versus a road-warrior-like
real estate career. “We wouldn’t necessarilyrule someone out because of their
test results, but we do look at a combination of the Real Estate Simulator™ and
the DiSC before going to a second interview,” explains Hoelker, who
acknowledges that there’s no such thing as a fool-proof screening tool.
“You can test someone all you want, but you don’t know how they’ll really
perform until you put them into the field,” says Hoelker. “
The idea is not to use these tests as an end-all, but as part of your overall
screening process.”
Like any employer, brokers should also consider incorporating background checks
and other tools into their recruiting plan. At Century 21 My Real Estate
Company in Downey, Steve Roberson says he relies on the state’s Department of
Real Estate to handle the background checks for new and existing licensees. “We
should probably be doing it too, but we don’t,” says Roberson. “It might be
something we add in the future.”
Brokers interested in learning more about screening tools, evaluation tests and
background checks can check out the following online resources:
BestHire
LLC www.besthire.com
Offers pre-employment background checks for employers. Get
instant criminal reports for 44-plus states, and also find aliases, driving
records, and other pertinent information.
B.R. Garrison Software
Group
www.brgarrison.com
Developer of the Plus-32 Employment Testing System with 18
employment tests consolidated into one.
DiSC
www.discprofile.com
Used by many recruiters and job placement professionals,
DiSC provides insight into individual styles that helps employers predict the
likely trends of potential employees in the future.
eTest.net
www.etest.net
Online testing company specializing in pre-employment
testing and assessment.
Hire-Safe
www.hire-safe.com
Employment background screening, drug testing and integrity
assessments.
InfoLink Screening Services,
Inc.
www.infolinkscreening.com
Web-based software thatenables companies to request
searches, track work in progress and securely retrieve and archive completed
reports.
The Real Estate
Simulator™
www.realestatesimulator.com
A Web-based tool that uses simulation technology to
re-create the real-life challenges that real estate agents encounter on a daily
basis.
Bridget McCrea is a Florida-based freelance real estate writer.
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