Should I Start a Real Estate Team? Run This Test First (2026)

The problem: Everyone at your level hears a team is the next step, but a team is the most expensive way to buy time, income, or something to sell someday.

The fix: Before you hire anyone, run a 90-day test that costs nothing and one piece of math that shows how many of your own deals a team is really worth.

What changes: You'll either build with real numbers behind you or skip it and keep the money and the hours. Either way you chose it, instead of drifting into it.

By D.J. Paris, president of sales and marketing at Kale Realty and host of the Keeping It Real Podcast. The fix is below. If you want to talk it through, there's a 10-minute option right after it.

What's really going on: you're shopping for one of three things

Everyone at your level hears that a team is the next step. But nobody really wants a team. They want what they think it buys: time, income, or something to sell someday. A team can buy any of those. It's also the most expensive way to do it, because it comes with people to train, leads to feed them and splits to pay.

So before you hire anyone, find out which of the three you're after. Then run a 90-day test that costs nothing, and one piece of math that turns the team into a number of your own deals. Build or skip, you'll have chosen it.

Move 1: name the problem

Go through last week's calendar and mark each working hour. P for paperwork. C for the work only you can do: appointments, negotiating, calling your own people. Then count the leads you never called back.

• Mostly P: you need admin help, paid per deal. Not agents.
• Mostly C, and leads going cold: you might need an agent. Run Move 2 first.
• Neither, but you want out someday: that's a team, and it takes years.

Ask your managing broker how any helper gets paid and what they can touch.

If I bring on help, how do they get paid, and what are they allowed to touch? Ask your managing broker

Use last week, not a "typical" week. A typical week is one you made up. Can't tell if an hour was P or C? Ask whether a client would notice somebody else doing it. The mistake is marking every hour C because it's your business. Be hard on yourself. The rest of the page rests on this count. Mostly P? The assistant page is your next read.

Move 2: test it with referrals before you hire

For 90 days, send your overflow to one agent you'd want on a team, for a referral fee paid through your brokerage. No team name, no payroll. Just your brokerage's referral form, and only people who haven't signed with you yet. Tell each one this.

I can't give you the time you deserve this month. [Agent] is who I'd trust with it. I'll check in with you in two weeks. To each person you hand off

Then make that call.

How's it going? Anything you wish I'd handled myself? Two weeks after the handoff

You'll learn whether they can close your people, and whether your people will take somebody who isn't you. Handed off less than you expected? You don't have a team's worth of business. You had a busy month.

Keep a tally: who you sent, who met with the agent, who closed. The mistake is keeping the sure things and handing off only the long shots. That tests nothing. Hand off by timing. Whoever comes in when you're full goes to the other agent.

Move 3: turn the team into a number of your own deals

Four steps, on paper.

• What would you keep on each deal they close, after their split?
• Multiply by a year of deals: your 90-day count from Move 2 times four.
• Subtract what those leads cost and what your training hours are worth.
• Now divide by what you net on one of your own deals.

If the answer is three, don't build a team for three deals. Get admin help and close three more. Before you name or print anything, ask your managing broker about team policy and Illinois' rules for team names and advertising.

What's our team policy, and what do I need to know about Illinois' rules for team names and advertising? Before you name or print anything

For training hours, write down how many hours you really spent on the other agent during the test, then put your own price on an hour. Only you know that number. The mistake is skipping the subtraction. Keep-per-deal times deals looks great right up until the costs come out. If the answer comes back big, good. Now you're building on numbers.

Do this today

Either answer is a good one

Agents who run this stop wondering. Some build a team with a tested agent, a real count and a broker who already knows the plan. Some find out the team was worth three deals, get admin help and keep their evenings. Both made a choice on purpose. The ones who drift into it are the ones I worry about.

Who this works for, and who should read something else

Frequently asked questions

Still stuck on this one? Book 10 minutes with D.J. No strings, not a recruiting call. I'll call you, and I won't bring up Kale unless you do.