Jason Abrams is a founding member and principal owner of the largest Keller Williams conglomerate in Michigan, The Abrams Team

By Jason Abrams

Choosing one’s business partners and employees wisely is the single greatest challenge of a real estate “mega-team” owner. Those of us who own mega-teams know how to generate leads at a blistering pace. In fact, the only thing that separates us from the 1.2-plus million other Realtors in the country is our ability to generate so many leads that we can not possibly handle them all.

At some point, we finally leverage our abilities and bring aboard staff and partners to service all of the leads. So, if that’s what separates mega-team owners from all other real estate agents, then what separates the highest producing mega-teams from one another? It is the talent level of the service providers. Here’s what you should keep in mind when looking for talented team members.

How Many Do I Hire?

This speaks directly to the organization that you are creating and how you have addressed your firm’s growth chart. First, draw a circle at the top of a piece of paper and write your name in it. This is how your company looked the day you started it. Now, draw a circle for each member of your team. If you have no other circles on your page, then you have not grown your firm with talent, thus dooming you and your dreams to plateau at some point.

Now, draw a line straight down from your circle and write the word “administration” inside of it; this is who is going to be doing everything that you should not be doing from now on. What and who comes next depends on your goals and visions, but I can tell you that if you have three to five of the right people driving your dreams and ambitions in the single-minded pursuit of real estate greatness, you are well on your way to riches. Conversely, if you have three to five circles filled in today and you are not achieving your goals, then you have the wrong three to five people working for you.

Where Do I Find Them?

Everywhere! I make it a point to “interview” almost everyone that I come into contact with in some way. The vast majority of people I meet would leave their current job, move to a new state or otherwise change their life in a dramatic way if they truly believed that they were doing so for something that was going to offer them a positive life-changing experience. Try asking everyone you engage with a simple question: “Are you looking for more, or you have found what you want in life?” Everyone who is looking for more is a candidate for a follow-up question: “Do you want to get to know yourself better in five minutes?” Next, hand them a DISC test, which is a thorough personality test. This test
will take five minutes to complete. Review their answers and ask them, “Do you REALLY want to know more about yourself?”

Once they answer yes, email them a link to take the AVA Assessment (a very thorough personal profile awaits them when they finish). Ask them to email you the results so that the two of you can discuss them and offer to send them yours so that they can see what kind of person you are. Each of you will know more about the other than many of you know about your BFFs. Trust me, the CIA doesn’t use personality exams for new recruits because they merely help; they use them because this a sure-fire way to know a person on a deep level quickly.

What Do I Look For?

This is largely a function of what position you are hiring for within your organization. If you are hiring an administration person, you will want many of the opposite characteristics than those of you looking for a buyer’s agent are searching for. To some extent, the skills that make a person excel at his or her job are innate. It is not that the person doesn’t fit the job, it is that the job doesn’t fit the person. Knowing a candidate on a deep subconscious level, as you now do, allows you to better know before ever hiring them if they are a fit for that position. It’s science.

The Secret:

Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, once explained that no personality test tells you if a person is successful at life. He explained that people who are successes in life are those whom you want to hire to help drive your world. Understand that your world is filled with tons of backseat drivers who ultimately drive your world in various directions. Some will drive it to “Negativity Island” (where most Realtors have a second home); some will drive it to a “Positive Paradise;” others will drive it to a “Stagnant City.”

The secret is to find people who have driven their own lives in a successful direction. A successful life is not one dimensional; it may include wealth, love, education, family or hobbies. The person you are hiring does not have to even be in the real estate business currently, but if they have the personality profile synonymous with the position you are hiring for and they are successful within their own lives, then they are a perfect candidate to join your world.

With over 12 years experience and offices in Phoenix, Detroit, and Mclean, Virginia, Jason Abrams specializes in concierge-like real estate services, no matter whether his client is looking to rent, buy or sell. A former Keller Williams office manager of a 100-plus agent office, Abrams is a founding member and principal owner of the largest Keller Williams conglomerate in Michigan, The Abrams Team, as well as a former Chairman of their Agent Leadership Council. An expert in buying and selling homes worth millions of dollars for pro-athletes, Abrams is the subject and star of the upcoming HGTV program “Scoring the Deal,” Premiering this December. “Scoring the Deal” follows Abrams and his partner, Kristen Cook, in the behind-the-scenes world of pro-sports real estate. A dedicated, 24/7 working machine, Abrams is equal parts real estate agent, concierge and tour guide as well as marriage and credit counselor for his clients, which led him to be dubbed “the Jerry Maguire of Real Estate.”