This topic has been on my “to write about list”; but truthfully, having never sold a home – I’m not qualified to write this article from “scratch”.
So when I came across this “sponsored post” on Inman, I thought I’d post it up and see what you all think!
FYI: I have absolutely no financial or personal relationship with Transactly
Which is Better:
Hire a Transaction Coordinator, or Hire in-House?
BY BRYAN BOWLES for Transactly
It’s no secret a transaction coordinator can help agents get more done. In fact, a skilled coordinator can save an agent up to 16 hours per deal, and help that agent close twice as many deals per year.
The real question is whether it is better to outsource a transaction coordinator or bring one on as an employee.
We will evaluate these two options on three important factors.
1. Overall investment cost
2. Skill level assessment
3. Redundancy risks
Overall investment Cost of a Transaction Coordinator
Hiring any new employee can be costly. It starts with the expense of the ads to find the employee, and the administrative time spent interviewing and selecting the right candidate.
By the time you find the right transaction coordinator, you have probably spent between $100 and $500. That’s before you’ve brought them on board.
Then you need to invest the time & effort to train them, + handle everything else that goes into the cost of an employee i.e. as salary, benefits, & taxes.
After 12 months, you may have invested $35,000 – $60,000 for one ‘good’ transaction coordinator.
Outsourcing the transaction coordinator role has much lower upfront investment costs. The only upfront expense is the time you spend researching transaction coordinator services.
By the time you vet & select a service, you’ve invested just a couple of hours of your time. With the right “TC” service, your time investment ends there.
The actual services become a scalable, transactional expense, making it easier to demonstrate a return on your investment.
The service company spends the time and money hiring and training the most skilled coordinators & preparing them to do things your agency’s way.
You typically pay per transaction with a service. You can expect to spend less than $350 per transaction with the right provider.
That means you could use your outsourced coordinator for 100 deals before you even approached what you would spend to bring one in house.
Skill Level Assessment
A good transaction coordinator service provider ensures their coordinators have appropriate experience and are vetted by multiple administrative employees to guarantee their quality and professionalism.
The best providers offer coordinators who have passed a rigorous training program, including “test clients” before they can work with any real clients.
At Transactly, for example, fewer than 10% of the coordinators who apply make the cut to serve agents.
Hiring an in-house transaction coordinator can result in the same quality level that a service company is able to offer, but you will have to carefully oversee training and coach them to achieve that level.
Whereas with a service company, you will receive your desired level of excellence from the start with your dedicated coordinator.
Redundancy Risks
If you hire an in-house transaction coordinator, you will have one person to process your transactions.
What if they get sick, go on vacation, or have to care for a family member?
You are possibly out the salary while they are away, and have no one to handle the tasks associated with your deals; you are doing all the work again, and still paying someone.
With the right transaction coordinator service, redundancies are built into the structure.
The best service companies have a large network of coordinators ready to back up your dedicated coordinator and take on your work in their absence resulting in zero downtime.
For example, Transactly keeps notes regarding exact needs & processes that can be shared with backup coordinators in the event yours is away.
Hiring a TC service is a smaller investment of both time & $$, resulting in a more qualified person with guaranteed uptime for all of your deals.