The Key Training Steps Most Busy Real Estate Agents Skip

The biggest problem in real estate team hiring isn't finding good people. It's that most agents skip the step that determines whether those people will succeed: defining the role before they start looking.

"What do you want this person to do?" That's the question Toby Levine asks every principal agent before they bring someone new onto the team. The answers are often vague. Help with listings. Support my buyers. Handle overflow. But vague expectations create vague results and often lead to frustration. Research from the National Association of Realtors shows that nearly 60% of agents cite unclear expectations and poor communication about role responsibilities as a primary reason for early departures from teams. Without a clear definition — cold leads versus warm referrals, maximizing their own network, working with first-time buyers versus investors, handling new development versus resale — the new hire spins their wheels guessing what success looks like and how to achieve it.

Toby Levine works with NYC real estate teams to build operational systems that prevent this kind of drift. As a fractional COO, she doesn't just advise on hiring. She designs the onboarding programs, writes the role descriptions, and sits in on early meetings to make sure both sides are aligned. What she's learned is that most agents assume clarity exists when it doesn't. They know what they want, but they haven't articulated it in a way another person can execute against.

WHY ONBOARDING CAN'T BE GENERIC

Most real estate onboarding follows a predictable script: attend brokerage training, get access to the CRM, shadow a few showings. That's fine for orientation, but it doesn't prepare someone to represent a specific agent's brand or work style.

Toby designs two-to-three-week onboarding schedules that go deeper. The first layer is foundational: brokerage systems, compliance requirements, technology platforms, printer access, who to ask for help. These are the basics that free up the hiring agent's time and ensure the new team member isn't bottlenecked by administrative confusion. Industry research from RealTrends validates the importance of systematic onboarding — teams with documented processes see new agents reach 50% productivity benchmarks three to four months faster than those without structured programs.

The second layer is more nuanced. It's about extracting what lives in the principal agent's head: how they like to show apartments, how to write up an offer, which pitch deck slides to emphasize, what tone to use with different buyer profiles, when to escalate a question versus handle it independently. "A lot of communication gets missed when you rush this process," she says. "The principal agent doesn't feel supported in the way they would like, but they don't always know how to verbalize what they're missing."

This is where onboarding either builds alignment or creates friction. If the new hire doesn't understand the agent's preferences early, small mismatches can compound. A showing with an important client gets run differently than the principal agent would have done it. A follow-up email uses the wrong tone. The agent starts to feel like they're micromanaging instead of delegating.

THE COMMUNICATION GAP NO ONE TALKS ABOUT

Here's the thing most principal agents don't realize: support staff need far more communication than agents think they do.

A recent study from T3 Sixty found that poor internal communication chains are cited in 52% of real estate team operational failures. Agents frequently underestimate how much detail their employees or junior agents require (especially in the beginning of a new working relationship) to execute effectively. ST³ Consulting specializes in building these communication systems — not just documenting workflows, but teaching agents how to share context in real time so their team doesn't stall waiting for direction.

"Agents don't know the degree to which they need to initially communicate with their support staff in order to keep things rolling," Toby observes. An agent assumes the transaction coordinator knows to send the contract. The TC assumes they're waiting for the green light from the principal agent first. No one checks in. The deal slows down.

The fix isn't more meetings, it's clearer protocols established during onboarding. Who initiates what? When does the agent need to be looped in? What decisions can support staff make independently? These aren't questions to figure out six months in. They're the foundation of a scalable team structure.

BUILDING CONFIDENCE, NOT JUST COMPETENCE

When a principal agent hires a junior agent, there's an additional layer: helping that person build their own book of business. The goal isn't just to offload showings. It's to develop someone who can eventually take on their own clients and generate independent revenue.

That requires understanding what gaps the new agent has when they join. Maybe they're strong with buyers but haven't listed a property. Maybe they're confident in person but haven't built a lead generation system. As a fractional COO, Toby works with the principal agent to identify those gaps early and structure the onboarding to fill them — not six months later when frustration has already set in, but in the first few weeks when the new hire is most receptive.

"You want that person to be fluid on how to build their own book of business and build the confidence they need," Toby says. That means shadowing isn't passive. It's paired with debrief conversations. What did you notice? What would you have done differently? How would you position this listing?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: What's the most common mistake agents make when hiring support staff or junior agents?

A: They post the job before defining what the role actually requires. Without a clear list of responsibilities and expectations, both sides end up frustrated because success was never defined.

Q: How long should onboarding take for a new real estate team memberA: A structured onboarding program typically runs two to three weeks and includes both foundational training (brokerage systems, tech, compliance) and agent-specific training (brand standards, communication preferences, working style). Rushing this process creates misalignment that's harder to fix later.

Q: How do you prevent communication breakdowns between a principal agent and their support staff?

A: Establish clear protocols during onboarding: who initiates what, when regularly scheduled meetings or calls should happen, when the agent needs to be looped in, and what decisions support staff can make independently. Most bottlenecks happen because agents underestimate how much context their team needs to execute without constant check-ins.