How To Hire Your First Transaction Coordinator

You do all you can do. You go as far as you can go. You get all the results you can get, and when you can’t go any further, you look for help. This help should come in the form of a talented person.

– Gary Keller, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

Drowning in contracts and escrow paperwork? It may be time to hire your first transaction coordinator.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Step 1: Decide if you really need a transaction coordinator
• Step 2: Define your hiring criteria
• Step 3: Develop a job ad that attracts the right candidates

Step 1: Decide if you need a transaction coordinator

You’re a solo real estate agent building your business and paperwork is piling up. When you’re getting overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks, it’s time to hire an assistant. Your assistant will help you with organization and systems so you can focus on sales and growth.

But what happens when you grow even more and your assistant is overwhelmed?

According to the Millionaire Real Estate Agent organizational model, agents at the third level of business development should have two employees: a marketing/administrative manager and a transaction coordinator.

A transaction coordinator (TC) is not an administrative assistant— it’s a more specialized role. A TC is trained to handle every aspect of a transaction for the buyer and seller from contract to close. Some cover listing paperwork, as well.

As you grow your business, you may even need a listing coordinator who only handles the real estate process from listing to contract.

Nationally recognized real estate expert, Monica Reynolds recommends doing at least 50 transactions per year before you consider hiring a TC. (This is an estimation and should be based on your own economic model.)

Step 2: Define your hiring criteria

What defines a great transaction coordinator? You want someone with relevant experience, a real estate license (depending on the state), and a great personality who’s also a great culture fit for your business. However, you also have to factor in how soon you need to hire with the current conditions of your labor market.

Finding that right fit in the landscape of available workers will require some trade offs. The decisions you make about who you’re looking for will determine how long it will take to hire in your location.

Hire for Your Labor Market

To decrease your time to hire and maximize your applicant pool, use our applicant pool estimator to filter by job, city, and time range and find when is the right time to hire in your market.

This information can help you adjust your expectations about the available applicant pool in your current labor market and how long it will take to hire the right fit for your business.

Hire for Experience

It can take you almost twice as long to hire a licensed transaction coordinator, but your time to train will be shorter. You can decrease training time by hiring someone with admin experience looking to make a career transition like a paralegal, showing assistant, or executive assistant.

When you strategically expand your applicant pool, you’re more likely to find a candidate who fits in with your team and they’ll have transferable skills that’ll align with transaction coordinator responsibilities.

Hire for Personality

The ideal transaction coordinator has these behavior qualities:

Low D – Deliberate.
They make decisions carefully.

Low I – Sociable.
They like interacting with people, but also enjoy time alone.

High S – Predictable.
They thrive on routine.

High C – Meticulous.
They’re highly detail-oriented.

Learn more about DISC and how it can help you hire the right fit.

Once you understand your ideal candidate, you’ll need to get them to apply, and to do that you need a great job ad.

Step 3: Develop a job ad that attracts the right candidates

To find the best candidates for your TC position, you need to craft a job posting that attracts candidates that align with your business needs.

Pick the right job title

The job title has a huge impact on your applicant pool. Think about what an applicant would type into a job search engine. Job seekers will more likely search and receive job alerts for generic titles like “transaction coordinator” or “real estate transaction coordinator” instead of “rockstar transaction coordinator” or “licensed transaction closing coordinator.”

Sell the position

Top candidates apply to jobs that include:

• A great employer value proposition
• A compelling summary that factors in the ideal personality profile
• Attractive benefits (health insurance, 401k, holidays, positive team environment, etc.)

Use the personality profile above to tailor your job ad to your ideal applicant. For example, a candidate that is a low D, deliberate in their decision making, will be attracted to a job ad that details responsibilities that include organization and setting up systems. Make sure to also clearly outline any necessary job qualifications.

Hire faster with Wizehire’s industry-proven TC job template

You can customize Wizehire’s Real Estate Transaction Coordinator Job Template to hire your next TC. Approximately 400 real estate professionals have successfully hired a transaction coordinator using this template.

If you want to write your own, we break down how to write a killer job ad in:

• How to Write a Job Ad that Stands Out From Competition
• Boost Real Estate SEO in 6 Easy Steps

Ready to hire? Go here to create your job ad in 2 minutes.

Katherine Glidden