KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Build a High-Performance Real Estate Team (Without the Chaos) with Lars Hedenborg

Starting point is 00:00:00 What if building a high-performance real estate team didn't mean more chaos? You earned the right to bring someone into your world and exit showing homes or exit working with buyers, but you're doing that out of an overflow business. This is KGCI Real Estate on Air Live, your weekly deep dive into the strategies, trends, and tools, shaping the real estate industry, from market updates to actionable strategies and exclusive interviews with top agents. We are here to unlock your full potential and help you thrive. Thousands of agents trust KGCI every week. Now it's your turn.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Let's go live. Here's Ian Wheatley. Hello and welcome to Real Estate on Air live. I'm Ian Wheatley. And today we're going underground, quite literally. There's a home out in Greenwich, Greenwich. I'm not sure how you say that. I'm going with Greenwich, Connecticut.

Starting point is 00:00:57 And it's gone viral for being what's called an iceberg mansion. There's 15,000 square feet above ground. If that wasn't enough, there's 12,000 more underground. They got secret tunnels, a Harley showroom, James Bond-themed movie room.

Starting point is 00:01:15 It is absolutely insane. But it got me thinking about something. How many agents are out here building teams that look like that house? Big presence above the surface, flashy branding, titles, hey, maybe even got that cool, slack channel, but below the surface. It's lacking structure, no systems, no accountability,

Starting point is 00:01:37 just a whole slew of chaos. Because what if building a high-performance real estate team didn't mean more chaos? What if it meant more clarity? So this week, I sat down with the only man I could think of, Lars Hedinborg, founder of the Real State B school, and we started talking about what it really takes to build a high-performance real estate team. You can hear his real-state business builders podcast streaming right here on KGCI real estate on air. And a spoiler, it's not about hiring fast, it's about building slow. Documented systems, clear expectations, and a culture that you define before anybody joins. So if you're thinking about growing a team or fixing one that maybe has gone a little sideways, this is the episode that you got to hear

Starting point is 00:02:21 because Lars breaks down the systems, the mindset, and the leadership habits behind scalable, sustainable team growth. And that's all coming your way in about five minutes here on real estate on air live. But first, it's time for housing headlines. Builder confidence is up by just a point this month, and that flat line has a whole lot to do with uncertainty around the broader economy. According to the latest report by the NIHB, builders may start pulling back on new starts, and new home inventory could start to tighten in the coming months. And that's a shift from the last couple of years where new construction picked up a lot of the slack in low resale inventory in markets all across the United States.

Starting point is 00:03:05 So agents don't assume that builders are going to continue to build. This is a time to try to get out ahead of where your market's at and start talking to the local builders now and find out what their six-month pipeline is looking like. And for your buyers who have been leaning on new construction for timeline flexibility or less competition, now is absolutely a time for action because if builders slow down,

Starting point is 00:03:31 the current options might be the best that they'll get all this year. And it'll ever to be keeping an eye on moving forward, zoning reforms. The former HUD Secretary Marsha Fudge dropped a truth bomb at a Harvard Housing Forum this week. But the biggest problem is most cities haven't even looked at their zoning for years and years. They don't know the impediments they are creating. So we want them to take a look at it and make a serious effort to try to change it. So agents, zoning reform may sound like some backroom policy issue, but it directly impacts what your buyers can buy. So here's a couple different ways that what I've used in my own business to try to stay ahead of this, right?

Starting point is 00:04:15 Set a Google alert for zoning changes in your city. In the past, I have followed local planning commissions on social media. If I have a geographic farm that I'm working, I will actually show up to those meetings. okay or if you can't necessarily show up to the meeting they have minutes available because here's the bottom line zoning changes equal development opportunities and the agents who know about it early when early so all this to say with some stalling builder confidence rising regulation tensions it could be the zoning changes that could unlock some inventory in your market so here's the play don't wait for this stuff to hit the news cycle because you've already heard

Starting point is 00:04:58 it here. Now's the time for action. As a check of your housing headlines here on real estate on air live, I'm Ian Wheatley. KGCI Real Estate on Air live. I'm Ian Wheatley and every solo agent certainly has thought about starting a team. What's it going to take to do it? But more importantly, what does it take to recruit and train high performance real estate team? So Lars Heddenborg, he's the host of Real Estate Builders podcast streaming right here on KGCI Real Estate on air. He's a top producing team leader, coach, founder of real estate B school. He's helped countless of agents scale from solo producers to business owners by building systems that are smart, hiring smart, and leading with vision. Lars, thanks for joining us today in Real Estate on air lives.

Starting point is 00:05:47 Yeah, man, if there's any topic I can share about and the pain and suffering I've been through and building, you know, a real estate business, a real estate team that ultimately allowed me to exit production and, you know, average agent on my team did three, four transactions per month pretty consistently. So, but I have suffered the trials and tribulations along the way. So I'm happy to get after with you here today. And I love it because you're honest and you share it. And I guess let me think about you've, you've done it yourself. You've coached hundreds and hundreds and hundreds about thousands and thousands at this point.

Starting point is 00:06:23 What is that number one trait that you're looking for when recruiting agents into a team? Yeah, so actually, the funny way to answer this is that I, the pain I suffered with mishires is how I created a list of the things to look for and avoid in the next hire. So there were like seven different things. The biggest, the biggest piece of advice and the most valuable piece of advice I can give anyone is, and this actually hit me, I was sitting in my church, Elevation Church, my pastor, Stephen Ferdick was it was the power, what was it called? The power of potential was the name of the sermon.

Starting point is 00:07:07 And essentially, he was giving relationship advice to the women in the auditorium. And he said, ladies, you know, you're looking for potential in guys that are like they're living at home. They're, you know, I've got gobs of credit card debt. they're addicted to porn, they're, you know, 32 years old and haven't launched yet. Like, you know, there is no pattern of success there. Yet you want to see all this potential. So the most pain that I've suffered is inviting someone into my world, into my real estate team that has not demonstrated a pattern of achievement prior to meeting me.

Starting point is 00:07:51 And I don't care if you're applying for a runner position or a courier position on my team. we still have a standard that you have to have achieved something in your life. And if you're coming out of college or I can still ask you questions about like, okay, so tell me, you know, the things that you've actually achieved. Like, let's just go through how you held down two jobs in college and how you were, you know, did this or this or this. But a lot of times people that come into real estate to get their license, they don't have a track record of achievement.

Starting point is 00:08:20 And they think it's going to be an easy path. And they realize that it's not an easy path. So they seek, you know, sort of cover inside a team environment. And some teams, many teams actually aren't run very well. And they don't have a cadence and structure. They don't have the proper tools and systems. They don't know how to launch agents. And basically agents just fizzle out.

Starting point is 00:08:41 But the number one thing we look for is a pattern of achievement, a pattern of success, a pattern of discipline, a pattern of hard work and not potential. All of a sudden, this 37-year-old person, who's never achieved anything is now going to come in and like have all these habits of success and it never works out. So in real estate, past success is a good indicator of future results? I don't care if you've never sold a home, but as long as you can demonstrate some success in some area of your life, then we can have a conversation. Got it. Lars Heidenborg founder of Real Estate B-School. He is the host of the Real Estate Business Builders podcast streaming here on

Starting point is 00:09:24 KGCI real estate on air. So you got a solo agent out there and they've decided, you know what, Lars, I want to build a team. They call up real estate B school. What should they be hiring for first? Should it be another agent? Should it be a transaction coordinator? What's their first move? Yeah, I'll take, well, I'll answer your question in a minute. The advice I would give someone, you know, we have people come into our world and they're like, you know, I want to start a team or I want to build a brokerage or I want to invite other agents into my world. And then I'll dig into their own business and I'll find out that they haven't even figured out how to build out, you know, sustainable inbound organic, you know, lead generation systems, all the conversion systems,

Starting point is 00:10:07 all the sales frameworks. Like they don't have a business that is completely dialed in and they want to let someone into their world. They're not time blocking themselves. They're not tracking their own numbers. They're not doing the basic bare minimum requirement to make sure that you're a highly productive, like working in the key, you know, basically the things that make you the most amount of money, those key performance activities, KPAs, as we call them. So that's the first word of advice. Get busy enough where you have an overflow of business. And then you earn the right to bring someone into your world and exit showing homes or exit working with buyers. But you're doing that out of an overflow of business, not just you don't feel like working

Starting point is 00:10:54 and you're just magically going to have these agents become busy or whatnot. And that's important, right? Because you have to earn it. You have to earn it. So how do you structure? So, all right, so let's just say you're doing 20, 30, 40 deals. You're absolutely drowning in it. how do you structure this onboarding, early training for this new agent coming in?

Starting point is 00:11:19 What does that look like on a granular level? Yeah, so the most likely scenario is that you're going to bring on a junior agent. Your first hire should be an administrator. So you can get to 50 transactions on your own with a single administrator, and you could do it if your system's driven and everything's documented, all the processes are documented and checklisted and all that. you can have one admin helping you do 50 transactions and you're not working a crazy workweek. So that's the first part is that you've got the system dialed in for client care and how you show homes, how you list homes and all of that, all the sales frameworks, the presentations, pre-list packets, all of that.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Once you've got all of that dialed in, it's most likely that you're going to bring a junior agent in to take yard sign calls to hold your listings open and show homes to your buyers. So you can, as the team leader, basically, you're going to pay this junior agent an hourly wage, not a guaranteed hourly wage, not salaried, but they're going to show homes for, let's say, my market, it would be like a $25 an hour plus a bonus if they get that buyer under contract. You could go out and look at the one home that they're going to purchase, not the 17 that they're not going to purchase. So it gives you a massive leverage point, and they can make, you know, guaranteed hourly money, even if that buyer doesn't close. and it's massive leverage for the team leader. So that's the first income opportunity for an agent. And then you should be listing focused as the team leader. And if you don't have an open house system, that's the lowest hanging fruit.

Starting point is 00:12:52 Like our open house system is pretty good for a couple of transactions per month. And you can bring in a junior agent, just run your open house system. And they can do a couple of transactions per month just from that. And then you can teach them how to do yard sign calls. So essentially make sure you have the opportunity ready before they come in. I'm answering the question with a different answer. But then it's a 30-day. They're earning, they're keeping their spot on the roster 30 days at a time.

Starting point is 00:13:22 So it's not this guarantee that they're going to be on your team forever. It's like, hey, we're going to work 30 days at a time. And by the end of 90 days, you will have, and this was our standard because our systems were so strong, you will have either penned or closed six transactions 90 days in. And that is sort of unheard of. And maybe that's a high bar. But you better make sure you have enough opportunity. And we call them lead gen levers.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Make sure you have the lead gen levers that they can just step into where, you know, open house for sure. Then we talk about yard sign calls. Teach them how to do their database. Teach them how to do social media. So there's four lead gen levers. Each of them ultimately could be good for one transaction per month. And so just make sure all of that is documented.

Starting point is 00:14:10 And then you are time blocking their calendars. So you actually have a time system that you follow that they're also following where the mornings are for new business development and a little break, then lead follow up, then appointments in the afternoon. They're time blocking, you know, two to three evenings. They're probably giving to their business. Saturdays are by appointment only and Sundays are generally we want to take Sundays off unless. us, there's a hot buyer or whatnot. We tend to hold our open houses on Saturdays. So, and then you're just tracking numbers daily.

Starting point is 00:14:43 So, you know, how many meaningful conversations did you have every day, Monday through Friday, the bare minimum, and you have to have the leads to support this, not paid leads. We're not talking about paid leads or cold calling. We're talking about lead gen systems that you've built out before this person comes into your world. But basically, they need to be able to have 25 conversations a day. Monday through Friday to set five consultations a week, four show, three sign, and you're off to the races in terms of being able to sell, you know, a third to maybe a little bit more of those, you know, buyers are generally pretty flaky, but you'll be selling three homes for a month if you follow that cadence. You know, that also is scalable. And there's another, the other, you know, you talk, there's a lot of time blocking. There's also a lot of documenting things. I'm thinking back to the brandy new agent Ian.

Starting point is 00:15:39 Lars, how does one get started documenting like what they're doing, right? I mean, not everybody is using a CRM. They should be. How do they even get started doing something like that? I mean, the total, like, selfish answer is that hire someone that can help you install the systems in your business and you can swipe into the place else's systems. So that's literally what we do. Outside of that, though, you have to be the one to build the open house system, document how you do it, get it to the point where each open house, you're getting one to two closed clients from it, either buyers or sellers.

Starting point is 00:16:17 And then you document that system and then you have a turnkey system that you can hand over to another agent. It is really hard to document systems and get a system working at a high level. But once you do it, then you can have agents come in and hold your listings open. Same thing with the database. If you haven't built your own database to the point where 10% of your inner circle no like trust database is turning into either a direct referral or direct piece of business, then you need to get that working in your own business and then document it and then you show an agent that comes into your world how to do that. Same thing with yard sign calls. Like if you're not, you know, you don't have a yard marketing system that's effectively generating inbound calls

Starting point is 00:16:59 and you suck at converting them, you can't expect to bring an agent. agent in. And so you have to document exactly what script you use and how you answer the call and how you organize those leads in the CRM, you know, if they don't transact or they're not ready to meet. And the ABC follow-up system or like all of that stuff, it's all systems. It's all pretty tedious. It's not necessarily what agents are good at. You know, agents are generally pretty extroverted and they're generally more like the S, well, like more I type D personality driver and influencer, so outgoing and more driven. But my personality has a lot of C, which is compliance and I can create processes and checklists and, you know, I love spreadsheets

Starting point is 00:17:45 and all that stuff. So I don't know if I answered your question, but it's making sure you have your own stuff in order because a new agent's not going to come in and figure it out. And a lot of times you just invite an agent in and there's literally no structure. And they don't know what to do. We're catching up with Lars Headdenborg. He is the host of the Real Estate Business Builders podcast. He is the founder of Real Estate B-School. You're on Real Estate on Air Live. And no, you did answer the question, right? Because it was a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek way of asking, gee, Lars, this sure is a hell of a lot of work to run a team. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not for, you know, it's definitely not for everyone. Most people that end up going the team building route, they, they have achieved at a

Starting point is 00:18:30 high level themselves and they're literally just buying their time back. You know, and they, they didn't become a top agent. They became a top agent because they love the business and they generally love people and they fell out of love at some point and they're just overwhelmed and they're completely burned out. You know, so that's like the perfect person to bring in a junior agent because agents struggle two year the two year median gCI for two year agent is around $10,000. So you're closing one deal in a whole year, your second year in the business, right? And 16 year veterans are only doing like 92K, you know, so the bar is like really low in

Starting point is 00:19:10 our industry in terms of what agents are actually producing. So Lars, what would be your best advice for? building a team culture that keeps people and performance strong. And what are those systems in making sure that that continues to execute at a high level and is scalable? Yeah, team culture starts with a determination of what you wanted to be before you bring someone on your team. So we had we have five core values and two, and I would repeat this every month at our state of the company when we would kind of lay out the vision and kind of talk about where we've been, where we're going. We go through the core values.

Starting point is 00:19:52 And the first two, and I'll repeat them here, and I'll ask you the question. So the first one is that we hustle and work hard. The second one is we embrace accountability and discipline. And every time I will ask the team, what percentage of the population of real estate agents do you think hustles and work hard? And what percentage would you say hustles and works hard? hustles and works hard. Yeah. I feel like I'm overshooting at 10%.

Starting point is 00:20:20 Yep. So 10%. What percentage of real estate agents embrace accountability and discipline? Again, I think I might be overshooting the market about 10%. Yeah. So if you happen to, those are like the two, you know, and then the next one is that we truly want a team player, someone that doesn't want to, you know, name on the billboard and they really want to be part of a team. That's our third one. And that may be a little bit higher. Maybe that's

Starting point is 00:20:48 25%. But when you products reference 10%, 10%, 25%, and we're looking for all five of our core values to be filled, it's like less than 1%. So there are very few agents because it's not all directly aligned. You could hustle and work hard, but you don't want someone like tracking your numbers and you don't want to embrace accountability. You don't want to have like a, like you don't leave the office until you have your 25 conversations, you know, and you don't want someone in your business listening to your calls and helping you get better. So many agents come into the industry because they think it's just an easy ticket to lots of commissions, you know, and it's just not because it's so hyper-competitive. And so I would say the answer to the question is make sure

Starting point is 00:21:32 you're clear on who you're going to surround yourself with. Make sure you're onboarding an interview process really does as good a job as you possibly can before you spend time with somebody, identifying if they even are those things, and then do that 30 days at a time where you legit earn your spot on the roster when you're 90 days in and you're buying 30 days at a time where you're getting better, you're getting better and we're just getting closer to marriage. We're dating for 90 days, essentially 30 days at a time. And when we give you the offer letter, that's just asking you on the first date, which is 30 days. Then it's a second date is 30 days, the third date, and then we get married at the end of it.

Starting point is 00:22:15 It was. Lars, this has been absolutely awesome. I appreciate your time. Lars Heddenborg. He is the founder of Real Estate B-School. He is the host of Real Estate Business Builders podcast streaming here on KGCI, Real Estate on air. One more for you before you go. If you would start it all over, starting to build a team, day one is today.

Starting point is 00:22:35 what's the first thing you're doing? Outside of getting busy myself, so that'd be the first thing. I'd spend 12 months getting super busy. I'd sell 52 plus homes in 12 months using just a couple of lead gen levers that we have. But the first thing, yeah, I would very quickly, I'd probably do it a little anti the way we teach it. I probably would identify a junior agent that could partner with me out of the gate. and I would just give them a percentage of every deal. So if you force me like in my current, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:12 two teenagers, three dogs, you know, a wife and lots of busyness going on, I would probably partner with a junior agent and they would basically handle every part of the transaction that I didn't want to handle, but they'd also hold open houses for me.

Starting point is 00:23:28 They'd do all the yard sign calls. And I would basically teach them the business for a couple years. And then they'd have the ability just, especially in this platform. All I need is two years from a junior agent. And then they'd know the whole business. And then in our rev share model, they just go on and, you know, they crush it on their own. So yeah, they're off to the races.

Starting point is 00:23:48 So that's what I would do is I would, you know, there's 80% of what a real estate agent does is administrative in nature. Critically important, but low dollar productive. So that 80% I would have to get off my plate as quickly as possible. if I were going to hit that one deal a week run rate, that would be my goal. My goal would be to sell 52 homes and 52 weeks, and I couldn't do any of the administrative stuff if I wanted to have a life. Noted. Lars Heddenbork, thanks for joining us today on Real Estate on Air Live. We appreciate you.

Starting point is 00:24:20 Awesome. Thanks, brother. Well, what can I say? When you've coached thousands and thousands of agents to build scalable systems and teams, there are some truth bombs that get dropped. So if you weren't taking notes, no shame. with you what my top five takeaways were from that conversation with Lars Hedenborg heard here on real estate on air live. Number one, don't hire on potential, hire on a proven pattern of success, right? So Lars's biggest recruiting lesson was that past success beats potential every single time.

Starting point is 00:24:49 He's looking for a documented pattern of discipline, achievement, or hard work, not basic enthusiasm. So agents looking to build a team. If that agent that you're talking with hasn't shown up consistently before, don't bet on a sudden change of behavior, and that's suddenly changing when you're the one paying for the leads and when it's your brand on the line. Number two, you earn the right to build a team. So agents, before you're bringing in on, bringing others in, okay? Your own business needs to be dialed in, leads, systems, conversion, and consistency. Lars said it that if you're not blocking or tracking your own KPIs, you're not ready to do it for others. So build a business first, then build the team. It's not an escape hatch from overwhelm. It's a structure that supports

Starting point is 00:25:42 scale. Number three, start with an admin, then add a junior agent. Your first hire shouldn't be another agent. It should be someone who helps you streamline. And once you're consistently busy, bringing in that junior agent to handle the showings, the open house, the yard sign calls, and you could start them up on a 30-day trial mindset, right? You earn your spot for the next 30 days. Number four, systems make the team, not the talent, right? If you want someone to follow your lead, then document what actually works first. From open houses to yard signs to social and CRM, if you haven't built the system yourself,

Starting point is 00:26:27 don't expect somebody else to. So great team leaders, they're not winging it. They're systemizing it and they're proving it and then they teach it. And number five, culture starts before you hire. Lars built his team culture around five core values and required all hires to align with them and the two he emphasized most. We hustle and work hard and we embrace accountability and discipline. So agents, if you're looking to build a team, don't create culture after someone's joined to find it early and hired a match.

Starting point is 00:27:08 And if you're listening live now on real estate onair.fm and you want to listen to all this again because I wouldn't blame you. Be sure to subscribe to KGCI on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Eyeheart, or wherever you're listening to podcasts. We will have this published in ours. And some of you are already listening on the always free KGCI Real Estate on Air. mobile app for iPhone and Android. If you haven't done so yet, head on over to the Apple App Store or Google Play and find it there

Starting point is 00:27:34 and get everything that you love about KGCI, Real Estate on Air all in one place, and it'll be with you wherever you go. Also, if you're thinking about building a team, don't do it until you've heard this. This week's Friday Focus is all about recruiting and training a real estate team that actually performs,

Starting point is 00:27:54 not just one that looks good on paper. We're going to be breaking down exactly how top team leaders are hiring with intention, training with systems, and building a culture that keeps agents producing. So whether you're on your own or you're already leading this six hours coming up on Friday, we'll show you what it takes to really scale without burnout. All right. Let's lighten things up. It's time for real estate confessions where the lockboxes jammed, the showings go sideways, and where where, No one's ever really as pre-approved as they say they are. But before we get started,

Starting point is 00:28:33 we've got to get one thing straight. Real estate confessions features stories from the wild world of real estate. Names and details may have been changed to protect the innocent, and occasionally the not-so-innocent. All confessions are shared in good humor and do not reflect the opinions of KGCI Real Estate on air, its hosts, or affiliates. No agent's licenses were harmed in the making of this segment. enjoy responsibly. All right, we're covered. Time for real estate confessions

Starting point is 00:29:01 because in real estate, truth is stranger than fiction. I was early to a showing, drank too much coffee, and figured I'd sneak into the half bath before the clients arrived. Flushed, nothing happened. 20 seconds later,

Starting point is 00:29:22 the water exploded out of the sink. I did what any seasoned professional would do. I cleaned it up. Only for the client to do it again. I was doing a very first. virtual tour and didn't realize there was a full-length mirror in the guest bathroom. My client got a 4K close-up of me in my showing day hoodie holding a bag of Doritos. I haven't gone live since.

Starting point is 00:29:47 I meant to text my lender. Client is nervous, but should be fine, just needs a little pep talk. Accidentally sent it to the client. They replied, glad we're being transparent. We still closed. But I sweat through that closing shirt. I was showing a smart home and I said, wow, this kitchen is amazing. Alexa responded, I'm not sure I understand.

Starting point is 00:30:10 Neither did my client, who now thinks the house is haunted. Ah, Barney once said sharing is caring. I may be showing my age a little bit with that one, but we've all been there and we all have at least one. Drop us a message of your real estate confession on Facebook and Instagram. We keep them anonymous, and while you're there, be sure to drop us a follow as well. Special thanks to Lars Hedenborg, the founder, Real Estate B School and host of the Real Estate Business Builders podcast.

Starting point is 00:30:37 That one's coming up later today right here, GCI Real Estate on Air. And don't forget to join Lars, John Kitchens, Stuart Hislop, and many more KGCI's top coaches as they share the systems and strategies to produce, recruit, and train a high-performance real estate team on this week's Friday Focus. I'm Ian Wheatley.

Starting point is 00:30:55 This is Real Estate on Air Live. Be good.

KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Build a High-Performance Real Estate Team (Without the Chaos) with Lars Hedenborg

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