Episode Overview

Podcast: Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Episode: 729: The 6-Step System Behind 100M Real Estate Teams
Date: November 28, 2025
Host: Tristan Ahumada

In this episode, Tristan Ahumada continues his deep dive into building scalable, high-performing real estate teams, drawing from over a decade of personal experience with teams that have produced over $100 million in volume. Focusing on the practical, psychological, and operational pillars of team success, Tristan details steps 4 through 6 of his six-step system, offering advice, cautionary tales, and actionable strategies for agents, teams, and brokers.

Main Discussion Points

1. Training and Support Systems (04:00)

• Key Concept: Building effective onboarding and ongoing training is crucial for team success.
• Personal Experience: Tristan recounts the early mistake of hiring someone to "create systems" without guidance, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
  • “I thought I would hire somebody and they would create the systems for me. In fact, that's exactly what I told them to do...It was terrible. They're like, what do you mean, systems? I'm like, you know, systems.” (01:18)
• Technology Tip: He highlights the value of using tools like ChatGPT to itemize necessary systems and processes.
• Onboarding is Critical: The onboarding process must cover all training needs and showcase the team's support structure and benefits.
• Ongoing Training: Real estate agents thrive with in-person, people-centric training and consistent team connection.
  • “Most real estate agents are people to people, in person, type things, and they need training, they need to connect, they need to feel like they're moving forward.” (02:30)
• Leadership & Culture: Ongoing involvement and leadership from seasoned team members is essential for development.
  • “Your team members...need to know how you do business and have the tools to succeed. That's the key to this one.” (03:58)

2. Accountability and Expectations (06:30)

• Challenge: Many team leaders avoid confrontations and clarity around expectations, but it's vital for long-term growth.
  • “This is a tough one because we don't usually gravitate to confrontations.” (06:33)
• Metrics and Standards: From day one, set clear activity metrics, production goals, and standards.
  • Not employees: Team members are often independent contractors; incentives and opportunities should align with meeting these metrics.
  • “These opportunities are based on the actions that you do.” (07:00)
• Opportunities as Rewards: Make it clear that those who show up and deliver get the best opportunities—those who don't, miss out, and that's okay.
  • “You're not going to get the opportunities that I have because they're only going to the people that are showing up.” (07:26)
• Empowering Members: Emphasize independence but reinforce that rewards align with effort and participation.
  • “Because I'm in the business of making more business for the people that want to work and show up a certain way. That's important. Make sure you get that down from the very beginning.” (08:05)

3. Transaction Coordination (08:40)

• First Critical Hire: Even before having a formal team, hire a transaction coordinator to handle paperwork and admin.
  • “For me, my first hire, before I even started a team was a transaction coordinator. I hired a TC...They did all my paperwork.” (08:47)
• Centralize Processes: Keep paperwork and admin centralized so agents can focus on building relationships (not on paperwork).
  • “So that the agents that you have on the team can focus in continuing to build relationships, not that they have to worry about paperwork.” (09:30)
• Strategic Delegation: Freeing up agents from administrative duties enables business growth and leverages team strengths.
• Growth Beyond Six Steps: As your team grows, consider hiring more specialized roles: concierge (for past clients), lead conversion, ads specialist, marketing expert, social media manager.
  • “You start building out this amazing team. And this is from personal experience. You get to keep a lot of the amazing agents that you have because you're doing all the heavy lifting for them.” (10:20)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On System Creation:
  “I thought I would hire somebody and they would create the systems for me...It was terrible. They're like, what do you mean, systems?” – Tristan (01:18)

• On Real Estate Training:
  “Most real estate agents are people to people, in person, type things, and they need training, they need to connect, they need to feel like they're moving forward.” – Tristan (02:30)

• On Accountability:
  “These opportunities are based on the actions that you do... You’re not going to get the opportunities that I have because they're only going to the people that are showing up.” – Tristan (07:00/07:26)

• On Delegating Admin:
  “Your job is to build relationships to grow this business, not to get buried in paperwork.” – Tristan (09:40)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 – Introduction and Episode Context
• 01:18 – Early struggles with system creation
• 02:30 – Importance of in-person, ongoing training
• 03:58 – Culture, leadership, and development of long-term team members
• 06:30 – Addressing accountability and setting expectations
• 07:00 – Connecting actions to opportunities
• 08:47 – First crucial hire: transaction coordinator
• 09:30 – Centralizing paperwork to free up agent capacity
• 10:20 – Building out additional roles and team infrastructure

Conclusion

Tristan distills over a decade of wins and failures in real estate team-building into practical, actionable steps. This episode is a concise masterclass in team systems, culture, accountability, and strategic delegation—vital listening (or reading) for any agent or broker committed to growth. For further resources, Tristan invites listeners to message him on Instagram for a Google Doc with all six steps (also tied to episode 728).