Transitioning from Real Estate Agent to Transaction Coordinator

Hi there and welcome back to the blog!

Today's post is a hot topic which is all about making the transition from real estate agent to transaction coordinator. I see a ton of agents in my coaching program who are looking to make the transition to become a transaction coordinator for a variety of reasons. Maybe they want to slow down and have more set hours. Maybe they're like me and just realize they really don't like the showing and negotiating, that's not their strength and skill set, but they are really good at the organizational paperwork and transaction management.  There are many different reasons you may want to transition to becoming a TC, but it's very common that we see people getting into this field from starting out as real estate agents. There are definitely some hurdles to this, so I want to highlight both the advantages and challenges of making this transition in today’s post!

My journey in real estate started back in 2018 when I became an agent. After a year of being an agent, I spent some time as an assistant in one of the largest brokerage offices in Texas. In my assistant role I was marketing and coordinating the transactions, but I wasn't a full­-time TC. That was a great opportunity for me to take a small step towards the transition. I still encountered some hurdles going from agent to assistant and eventually assistant to full-time, TC, so I wanted to share what I learned with you today. You can read more about my full journey here. 

I want to start off on a positive note, which is talking about what knowledge and skills you already have that are going to transition well into this role. I think it's important that unless you're going to a company that's really, really going to train you or you have a really solid mentor, to have some type of real estate experience before becoming a transaction coordinator. This is important because we want to have a general understanding of the process and the forms related to each deal.  (If you don’t - do not fret! I believe it is still possible and will be making another post about that topic soon!).

The first thing that's going to transfer is going to be your knowledge of the real estate process. This is huge. Just understanding the basic flow of the transaction, what are some of the hurdles, when does this typically happen, etc, is going to make your transition to TC a lot easier. Plus, you likely already have task lists if you are managing your transactions yourself. Because of this, you probably already have an idea of the workflow and maybe your own checklist that you've used, which you're going to be able to apply to your new checklist and that knowledge to your new transaction management business. 

The second biggest piece of knowledge you're going to take away is your understanding of the contracts and the forms. If you're brand new, you could study all the contracts and go to classes, but having that basic understanding or a deeper understanding of what all the forms mean, what are the key dates, where do I find this piece of information, etc, is really going to help you in your transaction coordinator business.

By knowing the processes of the real estate transaction and knowing the forms and the contracts you're already starting out at a great advantage, having that knowledge from your real estate business to apply your new TC business. So you're off to a great start! 

Some other small things you'll already be able to apply is going to be understanding the basics like who the parties are or what's the commonly used lingo. Small things that can really make a difference. When someone's brand new or doesn't have that real estate experience, they may not speak the lingo of your market area. They may not know this person gets this document, this person gets that. So you have a lot of small pieces of  knowledge you're going to be able to apply. 

Another big item will be software. You will have the knowledge of the current software you're using or used in the past in terms of e­-signature, broker compliance, etc. So you will have a little bit of leg up of at least knowing one or a couple systems, which is great. 

Now that we've covered everything you are going to be able to take from your current position in terms of knowledge and skillset, let's go into the transition of changing our role and understanding our new responsibilities as a transaction coordinator. You may think as an agent, “well I do all of this in the transaction so that's exactly what I'm going to do minus the showings or minus the open houses, the lead generation, etc.” Now it may seem simple, but I see a lot of people who make the transition from agent to TC struggle with this. The main reason is because you are going to have a different role within the transaction. If you're starting your own transaction coordinator business and you're deciding exactly what's included in your services, then you can decide how hands­-on or hands-off you're going to be with the transactions and what role you are going to play in the transaction. What are all the tasks you're going to do? If you don't know where to start, you can check out our website for our service offerings, research other TCs in your market area, or watch more of our videos.  I actually have a whole video about creating your own contract-to-close checklist, which can be a helpful resource for you. Linked here. If you're going to focus on your own market area first, you can take your checklist you have been using as a real estate agent and  tweak it to your transaction coordinator business.

As I mentioned, this is your business, you can decide whatever you want to do. But typically, we don't see transaction coordinators doing showings, doing buyer or seller lead generation type activities, real estate agent marketing activities, or negotiations, attending closings, etc. That's one of the biggest differences in going from agent to TC, is not doing those in-person activities. But also, even if you're working from home, you probably aren't writing contracts or you might not be negotiating. These things are things you'll need to figure out specifically in your business.

I would recommend, if you haven't yet, thinking, okay, what am I going to include in my TC services, looking over that list and figuring out how is this different than what I have been doing? And just knowing it might take you a little bit to adjust to not being so hands on with the buyer and seller. That's another one of the biggest differences outside of the in­-person activities. You might not be having all those same conversations with the buyer and seller, depending on how hands on you want to be and also how hands on your clients want you to be. 

Adjusting to taking a step back can be a little bit of a struggle. To help with this, you want to have a firm list and understanding of what services you are going to offer, have an idea of how much you will ideally communicate with the agents, and with the buyer and seller. This can change depending on agent’s preferences as well. We want to make sure we're holding steadfast in what we're doing. This will help make the transition easier and also set clear expectations with our agents. 

The other big part of this is making sure we have clear boundaries, which I have videos about creating boundaries with the agents you are working with. Watch here. But in this post, I want to talk about creating boundaries with ourselves. If you are a real estate agent, you're probably used to working 24/7, 365, right? But one of the reasons you may want to become a transaction coordinator is to have more set hours, maybe not work nights, not work weekends.

If that's something you're looking for, then you're going to have to make a transition to not answering the phone after hours, not responding to that email or text on the weekends. And it may sound silly because you're like, “no, I can't wait to turn my phone off at five o'clock. That's all I've been wanting. That's why I want to do this instead of being an agent.” But it can be hard to get out of that mindset and the urge to respond if that's what you're used to.

By thinking ahead on knowing what services you going to offer, making sure you are getting comfortable with that so you don't accidentally do too much just because you are used to being an agent, and making sure you're setting boundaries not only with the clients, but with yourself on what you're going to do, what your hours are going to be, and what your responsibilities are going to look like you will be able to set yourself up for a successful transition. 

Alright, so outside of understanding what skills are going to transfer and what our new responsibilities are, I actually want to talk next about the two biggest hurdles I see and talk with my coaching clients about when they're making this transition.

The first hurdle is the software. As I mentioned earlier, you are already bringing in your knowledge of the transaction process, knowledge of forms and you probably are familiar with your brokerages software for compliance, e-­signature, and maybe you've used a couple throughout your career. But one of the biggest things, if you are going to open up as an independent TC working with multiple agents, and multiple brokerages, is you're going to start encountering a lot of new software and things that people are going to ask you if you're proficient in.

I see a lot of real estate agents making this transition panic because, “oh my gosh, there's so much different software out there! I've never used this. I've never used that.” So accept this fact now and prepare yourself that probably one of the biggest hurdles and learning curves you're going to have to get through is learning all these different software. This applies if you aren't working inhouse with your current brokerage or with one brokerage. Still, I recommend getting a knowledge for more software,  not putting all of our eggs in one basket. But what's great is you can plan for this, right? Plan for these potential weaknesses.

Go ahead and start looking into popular softwares in your area. I mean, ZipForms is huge. DocuSign is huge. One thing I love about all the software is they're really similar. It may sound overwhelming, but a lot of them have similar features and workflows and are really user friendly. So getting in there and learning them may not be quite as hard as you think, but you'll want to account a little bit of time for that.

I would also recommend you go ahead and start to do some trainings on popular software as well. One great thing is most of these softwares have trainings within the platform where they will take you through how to do things and they have support if you have questions. Also there is a ton of great free resources on things like YouTube that will walk you through different items in the software. Maybe pick a couple systems that you're not familiar with already and see if you can start learning a little bit about those. So at least when someone calls and says, “hey, have you ever worked in this software?” You can say, “I have minimal experience with it, but yes.” It may sound like a small aspect of your overall business, but if you want to scale your business and work with multiple agents in various brokerages, you're going to have to learn these different software so that you can be proficient.

Also, you can market that you know these softwares. I would recommend going ahead, researching, starting to do some training, maybe making some accounts in these so you can do some free trials so you can at least be a little familiar with the systems. That is going to take you a long way and also help with your confidence. This way,  you don't get a brand new client who uses 10 systems and they have a new contract, we need to submit it, and we have to figure it all out in one day, right? Software is without a doubt the number one biggest hurdle I see people struggle with when they're used to being an agent because you may have been at one brokerage and used only one or two systems  your whole career.

The second biggest hurdle is going to be adjusting  who your main point of contact is in the transaction and getting used to working with multiple people.

As I mentioned earlier, now your main point of contact is going to be the real estate agent you're working with, not the buyer or seller. Depending on how your agents like to do things, I do communicate often with buyers and sellers directly, but it always refers back to the agent as that main point of contact because it is their transaction and they are in charge and we are there to support them. So making sure you assume your new role in the transaction and don’t overstep can be a little difficult. As a rule of thumb, if you aren’t sure about something, always refer back to the agent. 

Regarding working with multiple people, you may be like, “Allyson, I've worked with 10 buyers and sellers at once. What do you mean?” I mean working with different real estate agents as your clients. And ideally, these are repetitive clients that you're working with consistently. They're sending you deals over and over again. Now, getting used to not only all their different systems, but maybe how they all like to communicate. And also getting used to when you onboard a client, that's hopefully a client for life that we're dealing with every month doing transactions, not a one and done, they want to move in seven years, they'll hopefully call me again.

It is a different business model in terms of who you're contacting, who your main point of contact is, how you're dealing with them, learning all their different systems, their little things that make them tick or little specifics about their commission structures and things like that. Having plans in place of where to keep that information and the knowledge of, okay, this going to be a little different than just always doing my own deals with my own brokerage and buyers/sellers. 

Overall, those are the two biggest hurdles I see in agents making this transition to TC: Figuring out the different software and then making that transition of being a different part of the transaction and working with different agents who may have different systems and may have different preferences. However, we can plan for these weaknesses and we can prepare for them, which is great.  I want these to be things you're aware of and you're thinking about now in the early stages of planning your TC business. 

Next up, I want to talk about getting clients.

So, we are taking all this knowledge we have, we're planning ahead for things we may need to learn and improve on, and we also want to make sure we're figuring out how to market our new business. This is interesting because as a real estate agent, almost anybody is a home buyer and seller potentially, right? It's very different to make a shift from marketing to the whole world to marketing to a specific niche of people, which is real estate agents.

I’ve got a video all about marketing yourself as a transaction coordinator, check it out here. This video talks about agents and also people like inspectors or title companies or lenders, other people we can reach out to within the real estate sphere. We're going to be reaching out to only industry­ specific contacts, which is very different than when you're marketing yourself as a real estate agent. Make sure when you're thinking through your marketing plan, you're thinking not only who you're marketing to, but also how you might market a little differently to these industry­ specific contacts.

This is a big change to shift our marketing mindset. Even if you were marketing a specific niche like first time home buyers or a really specific community for listings, it's going to be a little different to not be able to market to such a big group of people. We have to get really specific about who we want our ideal clients to be and how we're going to market specifically to real estate agents and industry adjacent people that might be able to give us referrals. 

Just sharing stuff on Facebook with your friends and family, probably isn’t going to cut it. I think that's an important part of it, but it can't be your whole marketing strategy because we can't just have anyone as a client. We've got to connect specifically with agents.

The other item I want to touch on is that you are going to have a lot of contacts in the real estate world because you're coming from being an agent. Now, my thought on this is if I'm making this transition, I'm ideally transitioning to become a full­time TC and not still producing as an agent.

If you're still producing, then other agents you know and in your area may find that a little weird to have you TC’ing for them if you also might potenitally do a deal together or they may see you as competition. If that's the case, you may want to think about marketing outside of your direct contacts. I always recommend starting with people you know first, but if you have people in your area that may know you and they may think it's a little weird if you're still producing and TC’ing, then you may need to start reaching outside of your bubble.

Regarding working in multiple states, I always recommend starting with your home state, especially if you are a real estate agent because you're going to know those forms, you're going to know those processes, you're going to know the lingo better than anybody else. But states are big, so you may just want to start marketing outside of your current market area if you're worried about people knowing you're new or like I said, if you're still producing and afraid the agents may see you as competition. If you are not still producing as an agent, I wouldn’t have these concerns. I would potentially rely on your sphere for referrals, but all the other agents in your office may not be ready to hire you as your TC right when they know you've started this brand new business.

I think it's important to nourish those contacts, but it may not be the low hanging fruit that it might be for someone else. So those are things to be aware of. Now, you're like, I'm brand new, but I've been an agent. How should I market myself? As I said, reaching outside of your potential little bubble, but you have things you can market yourself with, which is great. Focus on highlighting your real estate experience., rather than worrying about your lack of TC experience. 

You can say “I have 10 years of experience in real estate.” You can focus on how many transactions you've closed. Example: “I closed over 350 transactions in XXXX years. I focus in this state. I focus in this market area. I've worked with 100 buyers and sellers, etc.” Stats like that are going to look impressive to people because it's going to show you have the know­how, right? And so when you're starting out brand new and you don't have all that TC specific experience, relying on your real estate experience for marketing is really going to help you!

If you are starting on this journey or considering making the transition, I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions or video requests, send us a message! 

Happy TC’ing!