September 21, 2024Tyler Blair, leader of a thriving real estate team with 88 agents, shares his strategic insights on scaling a real estate business. Tyler discusses the importance of getting back to basics, implementing sustainable training systems, and embracing constant adaptation to build a high-performing team. His practical advice on recruiting the right talent, setting up training platforms, and fostering leadership roles within a team offers invaluable guidance for anyone looking to grow their real estate business. Tune in to discover how Tyler’s “ready, fire, aim” mentality has helped him navigate the ups and downs of building a successful real estate team.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Getting Back to Basics: Key Strategies for Real Estate Success
- 00:00:51 – Welcome to the Reside Platform Podcast
- 00:01:10 – Tyler Blair’s Journey in Real Estate: From Property Management to Leading a Team
- 00:02:11 – How to Build and Scale a Successful Real Estate Team
- 00:03:24 – Recruitment Strategies: Growing Your Team the Right Way
- 00:06:00 – Hiring a Talent Director: Key to Efficient Recruitment
- 00:08:00 – Finding the Right Fit: What Makes a Successful Talent Director
- 00:11:28 – The Power of Training Systems: Ensuring Long-Term Success
- 00:16:55 – Staying Motivated While Keeping Production High
- 00:17:53 – Essential Advice for Real Estate Agents and Team Leaders
- 00:19:18 – Final Thoughts and How to Get in Touch with Tyler Blair
Links and Resources
- Website
- Tyler Blair on LinkedIn
- Tyler Blair on Instagram
- Reside Platform
- Suneet Agarwal on LinkedIn
- Reside Platform Website
Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to the Reside Platform Podcast? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube to leave us a review!
Episode breakdown: a recruiting system that scales past 80 agents
Tyler Blair started his team in Arizona in 2016, after two years in property management and a first year of selling in 2015. When he and Suneet Agarwal first met, the team had about 30 agents and had hit a ceiling. At the time of this episode it had 88. Tyler walks through the recruiting, leadership and training changes that got it there, and why he expects every one of them to break again.
Treat every recruit like a lead
The first fix was follow-up. Candidates were coming in, but nothing happened after the first contact. Tyler’s team now runs recruits through the same kind of follow-up process it uses for buyer and seller leads, and that is what lifted how many agents they convert.
They also stopped bringing everyone into the office. A phone call comes first to decide whether the person is worth an in-person meeting at all. Only then does a candidate get the 45-minute to one-hour office interview to test fit with the team. Those extra screening steps saved a lot of time, and the team didn’t have to lower its bar to keep the pipeline full. Suneet covers the conversations behind this kind of pipeline in his real estate recruiting scripts.
Hire a talent director early, and pivot fast
Tyler hired his first recruiter when the team had 30 to 35 agents. That hire didn’t work out, but it still brought in agents who are on the team today, and it convinced him he would never again run without someone in the seat. The team calls the role a talent director.
The person in the seat now was already one of the team’s agents, and he genuinely loves talking to agents every day. He spends 30 to 45 minutes on the phone with a candidate before they ever come in, which keeps his day from filling up with the wrong people. He still sells, too. Tyler calls his approach “ready, fire, aim.” In his view everyone is figuring it out as they go, so it pays to act with a plan instead of waiting until you know everything.
Use pod leaders once you can’t manage everyone yourself
Tyler brought on his first pod leader when the team had 20 agents and he couldn’t manage them all. That leader was the team’s top agent at the time. More pod leaders followed about a year and a half later, around 2020.
New agents start with an onboarder. If they turn out to be a good fit, they move to a pod leader, whose job is to help them hit their goals. Pod leaders take the agents’ calls, help them write offers and help them put deals together, which Tyler can’t do personally with so many agents. His aim is to pour into the pod leaders so they pour into the agents. Some pod leaders also stay in production.
Understanding that the infrastructure is going to break. You have to revamp, refix it, and then it’s going to break at another level.
Tyler Blair
Make training the condition of joining
Tyler calls the team’s training platform the biggest single thing behind its growth. New agents go through an 86-day program that mixes live and recorded work: videos, quizzes, tests, and assignments such as meeting with someone and reporting back. The name doubles as the rule. Candidates hear it in the interview, and every new agent has to complete it.
We call it the 86 day training. If you don’t go through it, then you’re 86.
Tyler Blair
Experienced agents get a separate three-week version. Tyler used to push veterans through the full program and review their offers, then realized he didn’t need to check the offers of someone who had closed 200 transactions. The ones who did it anyway saw value in it. He built the platform over nights and weekends, and he tells any team leader who hires agents without one to do the same.
You can bring on a million agents, but if you can’t train them, it doesn’t matter.
Tyler Blair
Stay close enough to production to keep your fire
Tyler tried to step out of production for about a year and lost touch. Closing with a buyer or seller reminds him why he got into the business, so he still sells, though he no longer goes on showings. He now tests whether the business can run without him. On a recent cruise he spent no time on the team, which Suneet pointed out was a bigger win than Tyler first realized.
His advice to agents is to get back to what already works for them. If that’s open houses, do three every weekend. If it’s dialing, stay on the phone. He believes the next 60 days set up the first and second quarter. For team leaders, the job is to pull agents away from social media tactics and back to how many people they talk to, how long those conversations last, and whether they’re having enough of them.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Put recruits through a real follow-up process, the same way you’d work a buyer or seller lead.
- Screen by phone before you spend an hour in the office with a candidate.
- Hire someone to own recruiting early. If the first hire misses, adjust quickly instead of going back to doing it yourself.
- Add pod leaders when you can no longer support every agent personally.
- Make your training program a requirement, with a shorter track for experienced agents.
- Expect each system to break as you grow, and plan to rebuild it.
