It’s a growing trend within the real estate industry. A decade ago, Real Estate Transaction Coordinators were barely heard of and a unique concept within real estate. Now, you hear “Transaction Coordinator” or “TC” constantly throughout the real estate industry. In some states, such as Texas, you might see a transaction coordinator working on every transaction
For example, check out this graph that shows the stable increase in Google searches for ‘Transaction Coordinator’ over the past decade. While interest certainly spikes during the busy summer months for real estate, it’s hard to deny the consistent increase in searches for TC’s.
Or, look at Compass. Arguably the most progressive brokerage out there, Compass has on-staff transaction coordinators.
While there are certainly many different explanations for this incredible growth, the primary reason for the growth of real estate transaction coordinators is quite simple: real estate is an incredibly competitive business. There’s a reason 87% of real estate agents end up leaving the business within 5 years.
A strong real estate transaction coordinator can be a complete game-changer for your business & allow you to thrive, despite the competitive climate in real estate. In fact, real estate agents with TC’s almost always close more transactions than real estate agents without. The reason why is simple: a good TC will simply handle the closing process on the agent’s behalf.
As any real estate agent knows, real estate transactions are complicated and involve multiple parties (buyer, seller, agents, lender, inspector(s), appraiser, at a minimum), significant compliance requirements, and incredible time investment. In fact, conversations with realtors show that most spend 15-20 hours per transaction during the closing process.
A real estate transaction coordinator, or TC, is dedicated to helping the real estate agent do their job efficiently by taking care of these contract-to-close administrative duties that take time and effort. For example, think of time-consuming tasks like scheduling inspections, documenting earnest money, and uploading documents to compliance systems like Skyslope or Docusign Rooms. With a good TC, agents can save the 15-20 hours spent on closing a transaction and instead focus on getting more deals under contract. Think of it this way: a good TC should handle everything in a real estate transaction for you
A good TC can handle work for either the buying and selling sides of a transaction, or dual agency, across any of the differences within a transaction. In short, a good TC will handle all of the closing process on behalf of the agent
As you can see, a good real estate transaction coordinator can handle dozens of different tasks within a file. To note: while none of these tasks are incredibly difficult to complete, they are extremely time intensive. That’s why real estate agents have increasingly looked to hire a transaction coordinator to help them complete these tasks.
The key takeaway here: this agent spends nearly half as much time on transaction coordination as they do on client work! With those numbers, it makes it harder for an agent to scale their real estate business to even more transactions per month.
As you can see in the graphic, the ROI of a transaction coordination (in this case Close Concierge) is significant and increases the more real estate transactions closed. If you want to customize this calculation specific to your business, we have a transaction coordinator ROI calculator for you to try.
Why it matters: A TC who misses something (such as letting a contingency date lapse without multiple reminders) can not only require your time to fix but could potentially impact whether or not the deal closes and you receive your commission.
The solution: A good TC should be detailed oriented by nature and thrive in careful checking of all documentation. Close Concierge, for example, often looks to hire former paralegals to ensure our transaction coordinators have are detail-oriented.
Why it matters: Many TC simply index on being ‘paper pushers.’ They are great at administrative tasks, like sending you calendar invites for an inspection. However, few TC’s are pro-actively thinking ahead to recognize potential issues and then course-correcting to ensure these issues don’t occur.
The solution: A good TC is highly intelligent and pro-active individuals who work to protect your close and ensure it happens. Close Concierge, for example, pays well above market rate to full-time employees (everyone else uses 1099’s), shares profits, and provides fantastic benefits to ensure our team is only the best.
Why it matters: A TC exists to make your life simpler. Anything less than a phenomenal customer experience does not accomplish this goal. Secondly, TC’s will end up communicating with your clients throughout the transaction. As such, leading customer service is expected.
The solution: Hire a TC from a company like Close Concierge that has the explicit goal of being the number one customer service company in the world, regardless of industry. We study companies like the Ritz Carlton and Chanel to model our own service off of theirs.
Why it matters: Real estate transactions involve legal contracts and the transfer of assets worth thousands, if not millions, of dollars. The best transaction coordinator has this experience.
The solution: The right TC should have spent years within the real estate industry, with hundreds or thousands of real estate transactions of experience
Why it matters: Your business is unique and your market is unique as well. As such, working with a different transaction coordinator for every transaction will complicate your business.
The solution: Work with TC or a company that is dedicated to you and will always be the one to work on your real estate transactions. Further, look for a company that keeps their transaction coordinators for years (see full-time with benefits section).
Why it matters: Many transaction coordinators and companies proudly advertise that they only work 9-4 and won’t return calls or emails at night or on the weekend. However, as any top realtor will know, nights and weekends are incredibly important times to be working within real estate.
The solution: Work with a real estate Transaction Coordinator or company who is available at nights and weekends. Close Concierge, for example, is the only company that advertises that we work at nights and weekends. We’re there for agents when agents need us.
Why it matters: Most transaction coordination companies only hire TC’s as 1099 employees with no benefits, like health care. This results in other companies struggling to attract the top talent & struggling to retain this talent. Often, it means agents who work with other companies will work with multiple transaction coordinators each year as their TC’s leave the company.
The solution: Close Concierge pays significantly more than market salary, provide fantastic benefits, and share profit between all employees. It enables us to attract the best, and ensure you get to work with the best.
One item you might be surprised to see not included in that list is a license. In fact, most transaction coordinators do not have a real estate license.
The items a transaction coordinator cannot do are items that agents would prefer to do themselves. Said plainly, a transaction coordinator cannot legally advise a client on what to do.
An in-house coordinator is always a valuable member of a team. If you work for a brokerage such as Compass or Redfin, you will already have access to an in-house coordinator or similar real estate professionals who can help you on your transactions. Let’s examine how to find them and their pros & cons.
Unfortunately, this often leads to many of the headaches typically associated with hiring. Namely, hundreds of unqualified applicants, significant time commitment to interviewing, and then training the individual after hiring.
To ensure Close Concierge has the best quality team members, we do everything we can to provide the best possible working environment to attract and retain the best:
If you agree and are looking for a phenomenal transaction coordinator, book a call with our team HERE to chat more.
Updated February 2022
Sean is CEO at Close Concierge and actively coordinates transactions for some clients. Sean took the agent license course at 18 and has been actively involved in real estate for over a decade, with experience across transactions, investing, and property management. Sean's professional career began at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where he consulted for senior leadership of Fortune 500 clients. Sean graduated with honors from Wharton Business school. Sean lives in Chicago with his wife and son
Updated February 2022