Million Dollar Team Principle #77
Are you hiring $50k employees that cost you $75k in lost production?
In his book Uncontainable, Kip Tindell, the co-founder of The Container Store, revealed a secret that has shaped some of the most successful organizations in the world: hire 3-to-1 employees.
What does that mean?
If a “good” person costs $50,000 a year, then a great person might cost $75,000. On the surface, that looks like a 50% increase in expense. But here’s the truth:
👉 A great person isn’t 50% better.
👉 A great person produces 3x the results.
That $75,000 hire will generate the equivalent of $150,000 in value compared to their “good” counterpart.
The trap of cheap labor
There’s a dangerous trend in business—and especially in real estate—to hire the cheapest labor possible. On paper, it looks like savings. In reality, it’s costing you more than you realize.
What’s never calculated is the loss of production compared to hiring a great employee. When you think about it, you can actually do more with fewer people if you hire the very best people.
I’ve seen real estate teams with a 3-to-1 or 2-to-1 staff-to-agent ratio because they rely on average staff. But a great staff member can handle 10-to-1 productive agent-to-staff ratios. That’s the multiplier effect.
The hidden cost of management
The even bigger cost of average hires isn’t just in their lower output—it’s in the time, energy, and attention required to manage them.
Do you have VAs twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their next assignment? Do you end up inventing busywork just to keep them occupied? That work isn’t just useless—it’s expensive.
The moment you had to stop what you were doing to manage them, your “$7/hour VA” suddenly cost you $1007/hour in lost productivity.
Here’s the truth: a great person doesn’t require you to tell them what to do. They have the smarts, initiative, and awareness to see what needs to be done and go above and beyond to make things operate better.
Good hire vs. great hire in practice
Let’s put this into perspective.
A good hire at $50,000 will give you baseline output. They’ll need constant oversight, extra staff to cover their gaps, and they’ll spend time waiting for instructions. They often require you to create busywork just to keep them going. In reality, they look cheap but end up costing more in mistakes, management, and lost opportunities.
A great hire at $75,000, on the other hand, delivers the equivalent of $150,000 in value. They can handle ten agents instead of two or three, freeing you from endless supervision. They anticipate needs, solve problems, and improve systems on their own. Instead of dragging down culture, they elevate it—setting a higher standard and inspiring the rest of the team.
On paper, the great hire is 50% more expensive. In reality, their effective cost is lower because their productivity is three times greater.
Why this matters for real estate teams
Hiring for cost instead of capability creates drag.
- More people to manage.
- More mistakes to fix.
- More time wasted on low-value tasks.
But when you hire for impact, everything changes:
- A great operations manager doesn’t just process tasks—they run your back office like a machine.
- A great ISA doesn’t just call—they book three times more appointments than the average one.
- A great agent doesn’t just close homes—they raise the standard of the entire team.
The McLean Way
On my team, we look at every hire through this lens: “Will this person produce three times what we pay them?”
If the answer is no, we keep looking.
Because when you surround yourself with 3-to-1 employees, you don’t just grow—you multiply.
