Have you ever gone to hire and onboard a team member, only to find yourself even busier than before you hired them? Building a real estate operations manual filled with thorough Standard Operating Procedures solves this problem.
You probably have a ton of moving parts in your real estate business.
And if the ONLY thing keeping those parts moving and processes going is your own knowledge…
You’re going to be extremely limited when it comes to scaling your real estate business.
Instead, you need to get that knowledge out of your brain and into a repeatable process that anyone can follow!
In this post, you’ll learn about:
- What SOPs mean for your real estate business
- An easy-to-follow real estate SOP template
- How to create and organize your SOPs
- The biggest benefits of creating SOPs
So let’s get into it, shall we?
The Meaning Of SOPs in Business
SOP stands for “standard operating procedure”. SOPs act as guidelines for any process you must complete in your real estate business.
In the real estate industry, you might also hear SOPs referred to as your real estate operations manual or your real estate policies and procedures manual.
They contain detailed instructions so that any team member can learn to do what you do!
They are essential for getting information out of your brain – and turning that information into a repeatable, scalable system.
Standard Operating Procedures
When the time comes for you to outsource, you must have standard operating procedures (SOP) for everything you want that person to do.
The purpose of an SOP is to provide detailed instructions about how to carry out a task so that any team member can do it correctly every time. It is critical to have every one of these tasks documented because once you document them, other people can follow them.
Once you have your SOPs clearly and concisely documented, it is so much easier to train new employees and delegate or outsource tasks. If there’s ever any question about how to do a particular job, team members or vendors can pull up the SOP document and video to understand what needs to be done.
Having SOPs saves time and money, and creates better communication within your business.
Real Estate SOP Template
There is a very simple template for creating an SOP.
Basics
The SOP should have a title, date of creation, the department name, and the owner of the document. If the SOP is about commissions or finances, someone who deals with those areas of the business should own the document. Also include when the document was last updated, so that you always know if it’s out of date.
Resources
Be sure to also link to any resources required to do the task. This could include documents, media, or references associated with that task, including email templates and passwords.
Clear Action Steps
Include clear action steps that are accurate or that apply to 95 percent of cases. I can’t emphasize enough how important clarity is. It is incredibly inefficient for team members to come to you every single time they have a question about something they don’t understand.
When they come to you for everything, you just become an assistant to the rest of your team. Clear, actionable SOPs take that off your plate.
Understanding when the job is done
Include in your SOP how to know when a task is completed. You need to give your team members clarity so they can know exactly what constitutes a job well done. Give clear markers and checklists so they can know they’ve done everything needed to complete the process.
SOP Organization
Once you’ve created the SOP document, place it in an accessible location, and make sure your entire team knows where to find it. We have our SOPs in our project management software. You can also place it in a Google Drive accessible to the whole team.
Building Your Real Estate Operations Manual
To streamline your real estate operations and minimize the need for constant oversight, consider creating a comprehensive real estate operations manual that outlines all of your standard operating procedures (SOPs). Once you’ve developed your SOPs, you can organize them into a tracker or playbook that provides a clear table of contents for all of the procedures. This will allow your team members to quickly locate the SOP they need by searching by department or SOP title, saving time and reducing the need for you to answer procedural questions on a daily basis.
Benefits of SOPS For Your Real Estate Company
Having SOPs not only makes operations more efficient, but it also means that your training of new employees is consistently streamlined. If you experience churn on your team, you don’t have to keep personally training them.
That’s especially true if you’ve created a video overview of all tasks and procedures, along with a written document that lists the people who are involved in each task.
Tools For Building Out Your Real Estate Operations Manual & SOPs
To make the videos, use a screen recording software (I recommend Loom) so that when you’re creating a new SOP, you can go through the task on the computer and record what you’re doing so a trainee can easily follow along. This covers people who are visual learners or who need to review instructions a few times.
Yes, your SOPs will take time to set up, but once you’ve done them, you’ll be amazed at the amount of time you get back in your day to commit yourself to the tasks your business needs you—and only you—to do!
Want more support with setting up systems, automation, and building a high-performance team so you can scale to seven figures?
Check out our exclusive year-long mastermind for high-level agents, The 7-Figure Agent Collective.
