If you’re thinking about hiring an assistant, you probably already have someone in mind.
They’re in your office. They’re licensed, so they can cover a showing or an open house and talk with your clients. They know the contracts and the company systems. They’ve had a slow year, so they’d welcome steady income. It feels like a win-win.
As a managing broker, I saw this scenario play out over and over, and it almost never ended well.
Hire an experienced executive assistant instead. They’ve never sold a house and don’t want to, but they know how to be an assistant. Below, I explain how to find one, how to handle the cost, what the first two weeks look like and what your days look like once they’re on board.
Why the obvious hire backfires
Most agents decide to hire when they feel overwhelmed. That’s understandable, but that feeling only tells you that you need help. It doesn’t tell you what kind.
A real estate agent’s work falls into three categories:
- “A” tasks produce a signature: listing appointments, buyer consultations, negotiating offers
- “B” tasks create A opportunities: prospecting, follow-up, past-client calls, events
- “C” tasks are what A and B create, plus what keeps the lights on: scheduling inspections, coordinating transactions, updating the CRM
The time to hire is when C tasks consistently crowd out your A and B work, not when a busy month leaves you feeling underwater.
When the feeling drives the decision, you reach for the nearest licensed person. Here’s what usually follows.
- Your weaknesses get multiplied. Salespeople tend to struggle with C tasks. Train one to be your assistant, and you end up back where you started, only worse. Now two people are avoiding the same tasks, and you’re paying for the privilege.
- Nothing gets written down. Documenting processes isn’t a salesperson’s strength, and it probably isn’t yours either. Soon your assistant is the only one who knows how parts of your business run. Without meaning to, you’ve given them leverage. Any request for a raise or a better split now competes with the cost of starting over.
- The lines blur. Because your assistant is licensed, you lean on them for showings, open houses and client conversations. They keep selling on the side, and their deals start running through you. It feels like a perk until your assistant claims one of your deals as their own.
As the managing broker, I had to rule on those claims. The working relationship rarely survived, and the assistant usually left the firm.
When your assistant leaves, they compete with you from another brokerage, running a business remarkably similar to yours.
Hiring the agent down the hall comes with a hidden cost: training time, commission disputes and rebuilt processes. And you pay it each time you hire. The problem isn’t the person. It’s hiring a salesperson to do an assistant’s job.
Bring in a professional
007 never needed a 008. He needed a Q. When it’s time to hire an assistant, look for your Q.
In real estate, your Q is an experienced executive assistant. EAs build their careers on supporting busy executives and have no interest in building their own sales business.
The easiest way to find an EA is through a staffing agency. The agency will also help write the job description, source candidates and prescreen them.
This route does cost more. Staffing agencies usually charge a one-time fee, most often 20 percent of the hire’s first-year salary. An experienced EA also earns more than the agent down the hall, and most EAs aren’t licensed, so there are things they can’t do for you.
What you get in return is immediate relief. With the agent down the hall, your workload spikes while you train them. An experienced EA doesn’t wait to be told what to do. They’ve solved problems like yours before.
The C tasks crowding your calendar come off your plate, and your processes get written down. That leaves the licensed work where it belongs: with you. And because your EA has no deals of their own, there’s never a commission dispute.
If the cost still feels too high, share. One EA can work for two or three agents, with each buying a set number of hours per week. Experienced EAs are comfortable with clear boundaries and confidential information.
Note: Pay your EA as a W2 employee, not a 1099 contractor. When you control their hours and how they work, the IRS likely considers them an employee. Confirm with your CPA or attorney.
The 1st 2 weeks
Your new EA’s first project is to put order to your chaos. They shadow you and document what you do and how you do it, taking tasks off your plate as they come up.
Bring your EA into as many meetings as you can. They’ll handle the follow-up faster than you could, and your clients will notice. Your EA will also learn your priorities and how you think. Over time, you can almost be in two places at once.
Imagine a world …
- Where you wake up to a finished agenda.
- Where the CMA for your listing appointment is in your inbox, ready for your review.
- Where a client reschedules and, instead of trading 17 text messages, the new time simply appears on your calendar.
- Where your call list is ready, so all you have to do is dial and be you.
- Where your calendar updates itself when your transaction coordinator moves an inspection or closing date.
- And where there’s always time to eat.
Imagine a world where you spend the day on ideas and relationships instead of tasks. That’s the world you live in with a great EA.
So before you offer the job to the agent down the hall, call a staffing agency and start building that world. You don’t need a 008. You need a Q.
