Why Smart Brokers are Offshoring Research and Admin to Focus on Revenue

Welcome to the CRE Broker Playbook!

This week we sit down with Elijah Stout, co-founder of CRE Task Wizard, to discuss how offshore talent is helping brokers scale their businesses and buy back their time.

Jake: Why did you start CRE Task Wizard?

Elijah: My co-founder and I were both ex-brokers. We actually met about six years ago at CBRE here in Austin. Funny story - I was actually the oldest intern in the office and my co-founder was the youngest associate. We were the same age because I was late getting started after playing football.

I left CBRE to do multifamily acquisitions at RPM Living, and my co-founder stayed as an industrial and office broker for about four years. Along the way, we both started hiring virtual assistants for back-office tasks - I had someone managing our CRM for acquisitions, and Kevin had help with prospecting.

We saw the massive benefit of using this talent that otherwise wouldn't make sense for us to have in-house. So we started a side business helping other brokers find similar help. We figured out pretty quickly there was something more to it when all our business was coming inbound from referrals and social media without any outbound effort.

Jake: So you're finding offshore talent across multiple countries. How does that work?

Elijah: We recruit from about 15 to 20 different countries, and we go to different places for different skills. If you want an analyst, I'm probably going to India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. For a cold caller, I'm likely going to Egypt or the Philippines. For transaction coordination, probably the Philippines.

We have an in-house team that reviews 900 to 1,000 candidates per month. They're interviewing candidates, vetting them, and calling references before we even introduce them to our clients.

Jake: Why do these talented people want to work for CRE Brokers here in the US vs. opportunities in their own countries?

Elijah: The opportunities here in the United States are just better. We pay them more than what they'd get paid doing similar work in their country, and they get stability. Many of them have been working U.S. hours since college - it's very common, especially in the Philippines.

They want to work for a company in the US and they want career growth, not just freelance work. It's very common for our talent to work 20 hours for one client and 20 hours for another, giving them full-time work with variety.

Jake: Walk me through a typical scenario. What problems are you solving for brokers?

Elijah: It usually comes down to two things: brokers either want more business or they want to buy their time back.

Let's say you're making $X per deal and doing six deals a year and you're spending a third of your week doing monotonous research that could be done by someone you pay hourly. What if you could get those tasks off of your plate and suddenly have time to do more deals each year. It's just a math problem. You need to get those tasks off your plate so you can focus on revenue-generating activities.

The most common setup is a researcher and cold caller. The cold caller verifies data - is this John Doe's number, does he own this building, what are his real estate needs? Then they generate warm leads for the broker. Most of our clients convert 1-3% of warm leads into deals.

Jake: What other problems do you solve beyond lead generation?

Elijah: We see a lot of retention issues. I have clients who couldn't keep a marketing person - they'd train someone, they'd leave after nine months, train a new person, they'd leave after a year. The broker was tired of constantly recruiting and training.

We also help boutique brokers who are drowning in administrative work - uploading listings, managing 200 emails a day, handling inquiries from Crexi. An executive assistant can handle all of that.

For brokers starting their own firms, we can provide an analyst, marketing team, and executive assistant for less than what they'd pay one person in a major market like New York City.

Jake: Once someone decides to work with you, what's your process?

Elijah: I always recommend layering people in rather than hiring everything at once. First, we do a visioning call to go deep on what you want to accomplish, what tasks need to be handled, what tools they'll use, and what the priorities are.

Then we recruit and curate several candidates - usually people already in our pipeline who fit your needs. About five days later, we have a selection call where you meet the candidates and pick who you want to work with.

We handle all the payroll - they work for you, but you pay us monthly and we pay them weekly. It's a three-month commitment that goes month-to-month after that.

Jake: How do you continue adding value after the hire?

Elijah: Roles change constantly. Maybe you want to add a cold caller, swap your assistant for someone with more marketing experience, or train them on new software when you switch from CoStar to Crexi. We handle all of that.

We're really the coach calling the plays to make sure you have the right talent in the right roles as your business evolves.

Jake: Any security concerns?

Elijah: We vet candidates thoroughly - background checks, interviews, reference calls. But honestly, I've never heard of a security issue from any of our 300+ clients.

Jake: Any final thoughts for brokers considering offshore talent?

Elijah: Most successful brokers have figured out they can't do everything themselves. Your deal-closing skills are valuable - spending time on research and data entry isn't the best use of that skill set.

The brokers winning in today's market are ruthlessly selective about where they spend their energy. If you're spending a third of your week on tasks that could be handled by offshore talent, you're leaving money on the table.

Want to learn more about CRE Task Wizard? Check them out at CRETaskWizard.com

Want to be featured? Send me an email ([email protected]

Thanks for reading!