When NOT to Hire a Real Estate Recruiting Company

I previously wrote about when to hire a real estate recruiting company. But, there are also scenarios where you don’t want to hire a recruiting company. Here they are:

Scenario #1 – Your calendar is packed and you have little scheduling flexibility

In theory, opening up a handful of slots on your calendar each week for recruiting appointments sounds like it should work. But, in practice, it doesn’t.

When you hire a recruiting service, you want them to book appointments for you. The only way they can do that is if your availability matches the agents’ availability.

If you only have a handful of slots open and agents aren’t available at those times, the recruiting service won’t be able to book the appointments. That means you’re stuck chasing agents to try to get the appointments scheduled.

So, if your calendar is typically booked and you don’t have the flexibility to move things around, don’t hire a recruiting appointment setting service.

Scenario #2 – You’ve never recruited before or have limited experience recruiting

You don’t want to pay a real estate recruiting company to set appointments for you and then try to “learn on the job”. Yes, a good recruiting company should have articles or videos to help you recruit. But, they aren’t a substitute for training and/or coaching.

So, before you hire a company to help you grow, invest in recruiting-specific training and consider doing coaching as well (we don’t currently offer those services).

Scenario #3 – You don’t have buy-in from your team

I’ve seen it countless times. Leadership wants to increase their company’s agent count so they hire a real estate recruiting company. But, they don’t involve the managers/recruiters in the process of selecting the company nor do they involve them in the onboarding process.

So, the people handling the appointments don’t know what’s expected of them, don’t know what’s being said on the phone, and don’t know how the process works. That leads to a lack of buy-in which leads to wasted time and money on appointments that don’t convert to hires.

Before you hire a recruiting company, check with the people who are going to handle the appointments to make sure they’re on board. You might discover they don’t have the time or don’t feel comfortable handling the appointments. If that’s the case, you’ll want to address those issues before hiring a company.