Top 5 Traits of a Great Real Estate Transaction Coordinator

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June 04, 2021 | comments

What Makes For a Great Transaction Coordinator? Industry Leaders Share Which Characteristics Matter Most.

+ 3 KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS BROKERS AND TEAM LEADERS SHOULD MONITOR

With the kinetic pace of today’s sellers market, many agents prefer to focus more of their time on relationships and less on the transaction. They’re in the driver’s seat, leaving real estate transaction coordinators to handle the navigation.

If you’re an agent, broker or team lead looking to hire a transaction coordinator, you too may be pondering the question, “What makes a great transaction coordinator?”

Recently, we polled transaction recruiters, top transaction coordinators and a broker to get their insights into these highly valued qualities and why they’re so important.

1. Great Customer Service

For Alexandra Marsolais, owner/founder of Minnesota Transaction Coordinators, a third-party independent transaction coordination company that’s on track to do 2,500 transactions this year, a customer-oriented mindset is the most important personality quality to seek in an admin or transaction coordinator.

“This person understands how important the transaction coordinator role is in the transaction process and is going to make sure that, at the end of the day, buyers and sellers are happy. They take lots of ownership in the process and make sure everyone is moving forward,” says Marsolais.

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2. Detail-Oriented

The transaction coordinator must be able to multi-task and often juggle multiple deals a month while paying attention to the smallest details. This key team member often serves as the last barrier to missed deadlines that could sabotage a hard-fought deal.

“Transaction coordinators generally have lots on their plate, so they have to move at a really fast pace while being detail-oriented and maintaining a great customer focus,” says Marsolais.

Brent Davies, a real estate transaction coordinator for David Dorman, Century 21 Professional Group, Ocoee, FL, finds a transaction coordinator’s attention to detail often complements many agents, who tend to be great salespeople but not always the most organized. “It requires an editor’s attention to detail,” he says.

Because such personality traits can be hard to measure, many recruiters look to DISC and other personality profiles as a way of predicting how detail-oriented a candidate may be. For example, someone who tests high as a Dominant type is typically direct and strong-willed, while a Steady type tends to be gentle, accommodating and soft-hearted. An Influencer type is sociable, fast-paced and accepting; whereas, a Conscientious type leans more toward being private, analytical and logical.

It’s important to keep in mind that, while personality typing can help predict someone’s typical behavior, not everyone’s personality fits the same peg.

Matt Vigh, CEO of Prospect Boomerang, a real estate recruiting company focused on coaching brokers to create a quality pipeline of agents, says any attempt at personality profiling the best transaction coordinators is definitely “not one size fits all.” “Some transaction coordinators are more ‘solopreneurs’ and enjoy working with different agents who may have different compliance needs based on the agent or brokerage they’re working with on a specific transaction. But that may give other transaction coordinators nightmares to have to keep up with different brokerage compliance needs. Both may be meticulous in nature and enjoy being nurturing, but how they generate their business may be completely different,” says Vigh.

That said, he says a few traits stand out as the hallmarks of great transaction coordinators: detail oriented, organized, nurturing and being comfortable behind a desk.

3. Flexibility

When Davies started as a real estate transaction coordinator, he remembers thinking that every transaction must begin a certain way. “I thought, ‘Certainly, there must be a baseline. I was laughed at. Every transaction is unique.”

Now, he knows that flexibility is critical to what makes a successful transaction. “You may not always get all the pieces of the file you need at the same time and somewhere in the middle, it all might fall apart or change lenders. Or you might have to drop that file and work on another one because the clients are at the signing table. You need that flexibility,” he says.

A flexible person will also be able to multi-task and toggle between repetitive tasks and processes and interfacing with customers.

“Some transaction coordinators want to pick up the phone and talk to people,” says Clint Muhlenberg, owner and founder of Level, an Austin, TX-based recruiting and staffing company focused on helping agents hire remote transaction coordinators. “And others will never pick up the phone and text or email. It doesn’t matter which way; what’s important is that they remember there’s a human on the other side of everything they do. The biggest thing is, ‘Can they balance many things at once?’ Some transaction coordinators handle 100 files at once, and it’s because they have the systems and the tools to do so.”.

4. Great Systems

Sometimes, having a great real estate transaction management software can compensate for shortcomings in the transaction coordinator pool of talent. Details, for instance, are not the greatest strong point for Marsolais who ranks as an “IS” on the DISC personality profile; yet, she closed more than 470 files in one year as an independent transaction coordinator.

By leaning on her strengths — customer service and being able to work at a fast pace — and using the right tech has helped “bulletproof” her business.

“Everyone says ‘Hire talent,’ but, in reality, everyone’s talented in some way. If you have phenomenal systems in place, you can get into business with people who share the same values but maybe aren’t as fully experienced in all areas. To the contrary, you can have a great person who’s super nice and detail-oriented and fast-paced, but if they have less than mediocre systems, you’re not going to end the transaction with happy buyers and sellers or real estate agents,” says Marsolais. “They’re going to be dropping dates and deadlines without the systems. A good system is the key foundation for making the magic and sales happen.”

The best transaction management systems can help automate tasks and assign people according to deadlines. Dotloop, for instance, offers a fully automated suite of Tasks, Templates and Custom Workflows to help transaction coordinators and admins move the folders into the next review stage and submit for review quickly and easily. When agents submit for review, admins can easily and quickly review files via the mobile app or desktop.

Another favorite feature among transaction coordinators is dotloop’s Act on Behalf functionality, which allows admins and transaction coordinators to assume control of their agents’ profiles in their dotloop for Teams account and edit, share and move documents forward as if they are the agent. This enables a smooth, seamless client experience, while the activity log accurately tracks everything done by the admin on behalf of the agent.

Muhlenberg used dotloop for the 3-4 offers he and his agent recently negotiated on his own house. The auto-populated offer packages containing 12-15 documents each were “ready to go in minutes,” he says.

5. Communication

With so much emotion wrapped up in residential real estate deals, transaction coordinators have to be great communicators. They must be responsive and, at times, over-communicate. An uber-busy luxury client, for instance, may rarely respond but still expect and appreciate when their agent and transaction coordinator keeps them in the loop on all progress and hindrances that may shape the deal.

A good transaction coordinator will keep everyone apprised, constantly updating the client and the agent on the progress of their deal. “There’s nothing that leaves my desk that my agent has not been copied on,” says Davies.

Most of all, no matter how busy things get, Muhlenberg says, a great transaction coordinator should make sure each customer feels like they’re getting that person’s full attention.

“Do I want to know that my transaction coordinator is handling 100 files at one time?” he asks. “No, I want to think I’m the only one they’re helping.”

How To Measure Performance of a Real Estate Admin or Transaction Coordinator

While great customer service may seem like a difficult behavior to measure, certain metrics can help recruiters, team leads and brokers measure performance. Here are a few to consider when determining a transaction coordinator’s true value to the team or brokerage:

Reviews and Referrals

So much of the overall client experience is contingent upon the transaction coordinator’s level of customer service.

For Clint Muhlenberg, reviews and referrals are the ultimate measure of a transaction coordinator’s performance.

“How well is this person helping the 3 Rs: Repeats, Referrals and Reviews. Typically, the agent is bringing in the business, but the transaction coordinator is handling the rest of it,” he says. “How likely is that client or agent to give a referral or review? Repeat business is huge.”

Check social media channels and Yelp, to identify any patterns of good or poor customer service that might be associated with your transaction coordinators.

“Are your customers sending you referrals and are they likely to be repeat clients?” asks Alexandra Marsolais, owner/founder of Minnesota Transaction Coordinators. “Those are the greatest measures of success.”

Fall-Through Rate

Matt Vigh, CEO of the recruiting and broker coaching business Prospect Boomerang, asks, “Are you writing more transactions that are terminated when you use a certain transaction coordinator?” Obviously, there could be a negative pattern at play here. Perhaps, some coaching is needed or, at a minimum, more research should be conducted to delve into the cause and effect.

Real Estate Transactions Closed

Quantitative metrics also make great indicators of the volume a transaction coordinator is able to tackle; however, managers should consider the quality of customer service attached to those transactions.

“Are they getting all their daily tasks completed? Are all key items hit on a daily basis? How much are they taking off the agent’s plate, and how confident are you in that consistency?” Marsolais asks.

At the end of the day, the number of transactions closed plus the lower the fall-through rate and the more positive reviews a transaction coordinator is tied to will provide a great picture of your transaction coordinator’s performance.

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