Editor's note: This is the first of a series of columns by radio personality and broker Jerry Fowler on the team approach to running a brokerage. A fresh, new business model, teams are more efficient because they allow each member to specialize and facilitate the transaction. Here's how it works:

Instead of having agents working for themselves, our office employs agents as a team. I believe the team approach is more efficient for our clients. That flies in the face of traditional agency, but the indisputable truth is - it works better for everyone for several reasons.

First, a single agent cannot hope to be a specialist in every area of the transaction. I've found that people basically come of two minds - the creative mind and the analytical mind. One mind is better at executing certain tasks than others. Marketing, for example, is best left in the hands of a creative mind, but contract negotiations and closings are safer with someone who likes to pore over details.

Another reason is that changing hats all day long is time-consuming and interrupts momentum. It's very easy for an important task to be left undone while the agent dashes off to a showing, or mentally hops back and forth between dealing with the buyer and seller.

Most important is that the team approach provides better service to our clients. I believe that a sick person wouldn't want a general practitioner to perform his or her brain surgery, and an informed consumer wouldn't want a single agent to perform every task in the home buying or selling process. It simply requires too many skills for one person to do them all equally well.

Let's look at the process of buying and selling real estate. It can be broken down into separate and distinct steps -

Buying:

• Choosing a home
• Negotiating the deal
• Closing the deal

Selling:

• Listing the property
• Marketing the property
• Negotiating the deal
• Closing the deal

Each of those steps involves a host of tasks - so many in fact that each step can and should be considered a full-time job. A single agent can do everything, but can't possibly do it as well as a team can. It's like buying one of those multi-purpose machines that perform a dozen tasks. Sure the machine functions, but it doesn't do any one task very well, and when it breaks down, it takes other functions with it. With the Results Team, each of our members can focus exclusively on one area of the business.

Our buyer's representatives handle Step 1 of the buying process. Their sole job is to search the Multiple Listing Service computers several times a day, to look at as many houses as possible, and to stay in constant contact with our buyers. They don't have to stop what they are doing to list a house or write newspaper ads. They can really focus on being the best buyer's representative.

Once a client finds a house, it's time to negotiate a contract. That's where our lead agent and broker comes in. He is the master of negotiation, which is a real art. This is one of the most crucial steps and requires experience with negotiating techniques, real estate law, and psychology. The lead agent is also ready to step in and troubleshoot any problems that crop up. Problems almost always crop up, and they are so wide and varied that this job more than any other demands extensive experience. A green agent just doesn't have the background to do this part of the job well.

Our closing coordinator is the details person. There are over 90 details involved in getting a deal from contract to closing. You have to stay on top of it every day. That's what our closing coordinator does. She's on the phone constantly, coordinating with the attorneys, the inspectors, the lenders, the home warranty salespeople, the clients, etc. If an agent had to stop thinking about closings throughout the day in order to show properties or list a house, it would be all too easy to forget a crucial detail. We think our method is much better, and our track record proves us right. We close about 99.9% of our deals - on time. That figure is practically unheard of in this business.

On the selling side, you start off with the listing associate, whose job it is to constantly study and analyze the local market. Knowing how to correctly price a listing is about 50% of what it takes to get the listing sold. The listing associate also has to inspect properties and suggest what needs to be done to stage the house, or prepare it for showings. Our listing associate takes photographs, prepares a market analysis and presents it all to our lead agent for final approval. The lead agent makes whatever adjustments are necessary, then meets with the clients and lists the house.

After we've listed a house, it's time to market it. The marketing industry is all about change. What works today is probably not going to work tomorrow, so it's crucial that you be able to accurately analyze your marketing strategy and make constant adjustments. You can't just write a few newspaper ads and leave it at that. It's a daily challenge to set yourself apart from the competition and to make your clients' houses stand out from the crowd. You need someone with a creative mind to do that.

That's basically why the team approach works so much better - it takes different kinds of people with different talents to perform the different steps.

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