Most agency principals I coach come to the conversation with a revenue or people problem. Sometimes that's a genuine part of the picture. But more than often, they’re symptoms of deeper issues.
Take a director I spoke to recently who is running a small agency in a competitive regional market. Revenue has plateaued, the property management book is growing but slowly, and some staff are effectively outearning the owner.
We’ve all been there. I certainly have.
There’s an instinct to look outward to chase a bigger database and deals. While that is the solution for some leaders, often the issue is what happens to opportunities once they land in front of a team.
I’ve observed some commonalities from chatting with agency leaders. The good news is most of this is fixable.
Incentive mismatch: Salaried or retainer-based agents, by design, don't carry the same risk as the owner. This is an incentive structure that can be redesigned. The solution is redesigning the economics so self-generated business is meaningfully more rewarding than leads given.
I’ve heard this time and time again: An underperforming team member, once finally placed on notice, suddenly starts generating appraisals and calling old contacts within weeks. That capability was there the whole time.
Doing everything personally: Principals in this position have usually already pulled the internal levers available to them (restructuring, renegotiating, tightening the belt etc). What tends to be missing is delegated growth.
Property management growth in particular gets treated as something the principal personally drives on top of everything else, rather than a KPI'd function owned by someone junior (with scripts, appraisal lists, and a bonus tied to signed results).
No built-in accountability: When KPIs exist but performance still stalls, the default response is micromanagement. This is how burnout happens. Tiered lead distribution, where quality leads go to stronger performers, tends to shift behaviour fast.
Isolation compounds: Principals in smaller agencies often have nobody senior to sense-check decisions against. Without an outside perspective from someone who is a few steps ahead, actively running an agency, it’s easy to stay in reactive mode and never truly grow.
This is why I love working 1:1 with leaders and owners within real estate. Taking over my family agency nearly broke me (I inherited the business with millions in debt), but I strategically rebuilt it and we were profitable within three years.
If you feel stuck at a specific level, or worse, ready to throw it all in, book in a quick chat with me. I truly just want to help, whether that’s in 15 minutes or over a few follow-up calls.