Before You Build a Team, Consider These 10 Questions

Note: Does the image contain a typo? Sure, but then again, so do most business plans... have you one of those... a plan?

Thinking about building a team, or launching your own brokerage?

Hold up.

Before you launch, you need clear coordinates.
Not vibes. Not hope.
You need clarity. A reality check.
You need to understand what it will cost—not just in dollars, but in time, energy, and opportunity.

Rocket fuel is expensive.
And if you’re planning to scale a business built on other businesses, you’re building a rocket ship.

Otherwise you’re just creating a bigger, faster way to burn out.
IE: you’re building a very expensive box of fireworks.

Ever spent $300.00 on fireworks?

Can you believe how fast your money actually burns before your eyes?

Here are 10 direct questions every aspiring team/dream builder should ask themselves before trying to scale through recruiting agents:

1. Why?

Is this about my ego?
Is this personal, or is this business?
Is there a clear business opportunity I can actually exploit in the market?
Is something broken that needs the fix that only I can offer?

Am I willing to do whatever it takes to succeed?

Do I have sufficient resources to survive a prolonged slow start?
How sufficient?
How prolonged?

Do I have a plan to exit and shut down what I’ve started at a specific point if it's not on pace?
Have I marked that date, and several check-ins before it, on a calendar?

Will I stick with it as long as I should?

Will I stick to not sticking with it when that time arrives?

What are the risks to myself, my family, my team, my agents if I fail at this?

2. Do I know my numbers?

If you don’t have a fast, clear path to $500M in volume (with a trajectory toward $1B), the grind will grind you up.

Because here’s the truth: it’s simpler, cheaper, and vastly easier to run your own $50M solo shop from a home office—with micro-headaches and full control than to manage macro-headaches with less control. And you'd net more at the end of the year than many a Brokerage owner out there… and live a way calmer life.

Where do these numbers come from?

From a decade or more of conversations with brokerage owners who’ll tell you: staying solo would’ve been way easier.

And when it comes to recruiting agents? 

Same rules apply as with clients:

• The ones you think will work with you... don’t.

• The ones you’re unsure about associating with… want in.

• And the sales cycle from initial interest to production? Long. Very long.

Ask yourself:

• How many outbound calls to bring on $10M in agent volume?

• How many rookies can you train, support, and tolerate at once?

• How many mid-tier agents want underwriting support, and can you deliver?

• Are you building an underwriting desk?

• Do you know what that costs?

The math doesn’t lie.
But all too often, we lie - to ourselves mostly.

Do the math.
Do the deep dive.
Do the work.
Stop dreaming and be real.

3. Should I bring in partners?

A partnership is what?
It’s a marriage.

Already got one?
Want to add another?

What’s the success rate of marriages again?

And of the 45% that stay intact, what’s the actual happiness level of those that remain?

Think long and hard before bringing on a partner. And vet them!

Please run yourself, and them, through a DISC assessment at the very least.
Understand who you are. Understand who they are.

Understand how you each communicate (or don’t) and where the weaknesses, and the sticking points really are.

Very few partnerships last.
And even fewer avoid an epic blowout somewhere along the way.

Will yours be different? 

Oh of course it will - you will be fine.  

Fine.  

Fine I said.

4. Is the model sustainable?

If your agent model relies on unpaid mentorship (from you or others), you're not building a business, you’re building burnout.

Can you answer:

• When will a new agent close their first file?

• What’s their projected year-one volume?

• What’s your true revenue per agent?

• What’s your training budget?

Are you charging a monthly fee?
Or just hoping they generate volume?

Hope is not a business-plan.

It's a reasonable part of a plan - but not the entire thing.

5. Am I building something better than what they already have?

Why would a $15M–$35M producer leave their current setup for yours?

What's your edge—besides friendship, good vibes, and vague promises of 'what will be'?

Do you have a platform worth joining?
Or are you just asking people to roll the dice on your ‘vision’?

6. Are my systems plug-and-play, or held together with duct-tape?

If you don’t have documented, repeatable processes, you don’t have a team-ready model.

Lead intake, naming conventions, pre-approvals, follow-ups; every step should be mapped, templated, and transferable.

Newsflash: not everyone just knows to do it your way... or a remotely repeatable way.

You’ve had unusual success because you’re the exceptional exception to the rule.
You are.

And that's why you need to build a literal paint-by-numbers system.

Down to the most ridiculous of details.

And even then, you’ll still watch in horror as agents snatch defeat from the jaws of victory... over and over again.
Are you prepared for the disappointments?
There will be many.

7. Do I understand my actual burn rate?

Growth eats cash.

Every lunch, every Zoom, every rookie mistake, every unproductive month—costs.

Know your runway.
Or risk a crash landing.

8. Can I afford to build an actual ecosystem?

Are you ready to invest in:

• Marketing?

• Tech?

• Compliance?

• Training?

• Community?

• Events?

• And so much more!

Or are you hoping agents will bring their own systems and just 'plug in’ - the way a teenager flops into a corner chair and plugs into their headphones and smartphone and just ignores you?

Spoiler: they won’t.

Rookies are not ambivalent, distant, teenagers.
Rookies are terrible two's unaware of so much, and in need of constant attention.

They’ll look to you for intuitive systems that just work, the way you pick up a smartphone and instantly know what to do. All tech is expected to work intuitively these days. They will expect that you've made everything easy for them.

There are brokers out there who’ve moved through ten different brokerages.

Ten!

Why?

Because previous offices ‘just didn’t provide the support that was needed’

Ouch.

10 one star reviews from who?

From a one-star mortgage agent.

Can your ego take that abuse?

It’s coming.

9. Why would a top-producing agent choose my team?

If someone’s already doing $30M, $50M, or $100M - what are you offering that they can’t build (or buy) themselves?

Is it underwriting support?
Marketing?
Brand lift?
Culture?

Access?

And is it actually good enough that they’d pay for it?

10. Why did I write this post (back in 2021)?

Because I saw too many reluctant team leads... and far too many regretful brokerage owners.

Most, if not all of whom never asked all, if any, of the above questions.
Because Brokering came easy to them, they assumed it would come easy to the team they would build.
And they assumed agents would come to them as easily as clients did.
They assumed a lot.

In many cases, they assumed wrong.
Often the happiest Brokerage owner is the former Brokerage owner.

This is not a path for the faint of heart.
It's also not a path worth going down 'to prove you can do hard things'.
Sign up for a tough mudder instead.

Conclusion:

Launching a team without a clear plan, without clear targets, timelines, and truth - is like launching a rocket with no coordinates except ‘up’.

It might look cool at first.

But without the math, without the mission, and without the mechanics…
it’s just a very expensive box of fireworks.

Ask better questions.
Build a better brokerage.

DW