As soon as seller’s agents begin closing deals consistently and gaining traction with potential sellers on a regular basis the clock starts ticking toward a crucial tipping point: Hire an In-house ISA or outsource for ISA services?
As soon as seller’s agents begin closing deals consistently and gaining traction with potential sellers on a regular basis the clock starts ticking toward a crucial tipping point:
Hire an In-house ISA or outsource for ISA services?
It’s a classic catch 22 in the real estate world, especially for seller’s agents. The more client interactions you have, listings you attain, and deals you close the more business you get. It’s great for your brand, your career trajectory, and your bottom line. But it strains your time and your ability to get even more listings and close even more deals for clients selling their homes.
There’s only so much prospecting, list building, networking, AND deal closing you can do alone!
Once you reach this ceiling the easiest way to increase the number of listings you have at once and the number of deals you’re able to close is to hire an ISA to take care of the cold calling and list building side of your real estate hustle.
So which option will launch your real estate career to the next level? Hiring an In-house ISA or outsource it to a third party?
The choice is ultimately up to you, but we’ll give you 3 reasons why you shouldn’t hire an In-house ISA and should outsource instead.
If you’re looking to bring on an ISA in any capacity you know you’re already pressed for time. While hiring an aspiring agent, or a close friend as an ISA seems ideal, stop and think of how long it took you to learn the ins and outs of the real estate world.
On top of embedding yourself into the culture of your current brokerage.
On top of building rapport with your colleagues and office staff.
On top of familiarizing yourself with your firm’s MLS, CRM, and project management tools.
Now think of hand holding another person through that process while trying to maintain your current workload and listings. Onboarding a brand new ISA will likely take up even more of the time you’re trying to spend closing deals and building relationships with potential sellers.
Outsourcing your ISA services gives you the ability to plug and play an ISA who is already up to speed on how to build lists of qualified warm leads and make cold calls without the need to go through a drawn out onboarding process.
Cold calling sucks. Motivating these ISAs is a full-time job. Even agents who are good at it don’t necessarily love to do it. Aside from creating the bandwidth to spend less time calling and more time closing, a primary motivator for hiring an ISA is to get away from the grunt work.
But the turnover rate of dedicated ISAs is incredibly high. Unfortunately, there’s not an enormous amount of people willing to grind it out, cold calling strangers forty hours a week. And it would be one thing if you could promise an ISA a hefty salary, but more often than not ISAs do the grunt work for lower compensation with the promise of higher pay down the road.
Again, cold calling sucks.
On the other hand, an outsourced ISA works for a vendor whose sole purpose is to provide cold calling and list building services for you. ISAs who work for these vendors know what they’re signing up for, and are compensated generously so you’re far less likely to deal with a revolving door of ISAs!
Cold calling, prospecting, and list building can get a little shady, and oftentimes without the intent to do so! Having a dialer and data system that’s compliant with state and federal regulations is a little difficult.
Making sure your new ISA hire operates with total compliance is another level of difficulty. And you don’t want to be farming neighborhoods, hosting happy hours, and negotiating closing costs while worrying if your new leads were attained with 100% compliance or not.
You’re not only distracted, but you’re also opening yourself up to the risk of losing your license.
Outsourcing your ISA services to Phone Animal guarantees that your seller leads and nurture lists are built in compliance with the law. Companies that provide ISA services can't operate without maintaining 100% compliance.
Hiring your own ISA obviously comes with quite a few headaches. In the end, many seller agents end up in a worse spot than they started because hiring became a major distraction and disruption to their momentum.
At Phone Animal, we’ve helped thousands of agents grow their real estate business with qualified seller leads that are found and nurtured by our dedicated team of ISAs. If you’re interested in experiencing the same type of growth and avoiding the 3 scenarios we just laid out, schedule a consultation today.
Three More Reasons You Shouldn’t Hire an In-House ISA
Here are a few more reasons you should not hire your own ISA and you should outsource for ISA Services:
4. Less overhead costs.
Think about it. When you hire an ISA to cold call for you and screen homeowners, they must call hundreds of homeowners a week to make it worth their time and yours. You must pay them for their hourly services along with provide them with the right equipment either in their home office or in your real estate office.
When you hire a company for your ISA services, you only have one fee you pay each month, and you reduce the other overhead costs of hiring someone in house. The company you hire will already have their software and strategies in place, so you don’t have to pay extra expenses to hire an individual person.
5. Less stress for you!
Unless you plan to hire someone with ISA experience who knows and understands your area and agency, it will likely cause you some amount of stress to bring them up to speed and get them ready and confident in making the amount of calls they need to get you the number of new listings you desire each month.
When you work with an ISA service, their team is already geared up and ready to make the calls. If you choose to partner with the right ISA company, they will already have proven strategies in place and getting them up to speed won’t take long at all. You will not hear their calls every day or have to stay on top of them to get their work done. You simply get the nurturers sent to you each month along with detailed notes so you can be prepared for the close when they are ready. Less stress equals more business, more time and more joy!
6. Experience you can grow from.
When you hire someone to handle your ISA services in-house, it will likely be someone with little to no experience. Even if you were to hire someone with a long history of ISA experience, they will be looking to you to give them the answers, train them on how to make calls and what to say, and ultimately take time away from what you need to be doing.
When you hire an ISA service, however, they will likely have experience they can use to help you learn and grow. When you partner with the right company, they will be able to onboard you! They should be able to work with you to build the right foundation so you can have the most success with your screened seller nurturers. They will walk you through the systems they use and give you scripts that will help you during the close. When you work with an experienced ISA company, you will learn so much more and will learn how to be a successful closer when following up with the nurturers they send you.
As you are thinking about whether to hire an in-house ISA or outsource for ISA services, remember your ISA is an extension of your business. You want to make sure to hire the best to reflect your values and mission as a real estate.
