A client may hire you because of your reputation. Whether they recommend you afterward often depends on the people working beside you.
The person answering the phone, coordinating a closing, preparing a marketing campaign, or showing a property becomes part of the client’s experience. Every missed deadline, thoughtful follow-up, careless comment, and well-handled problem contributes to what that client believes about your business.
That is why hiring deserves the same attention we give to pricing a property or negotiating a contract. We spend years building trust. We should be deliberate about who we invite to represent it.
After 31 years in real estate, I value talent. I also know that talent needs follow-through, sound judgment, and accountability to become useful to a team.
A polished résumé is a starting point. It tells you what someone wants you to know. Your responsibility is to understand the work behind it.
Verify employment history, clarify responsibilities, and ask candidates to explain their accomplishments. If someone says they managed marketing, what did they personally create? If an agent cites impressive production, what portion was their own, and what portion belonged to a team? If someone lists leadership experience, how did they support the people they led?
Career changes and gaps deserve a conversation, not an automatic rejection. What matters is whether the explanation is honest and whether the experience prepares the person for the work ahead.
References should go beyond asking whether someone was pleasant. With appropriate permission, speak with former supervisors or professional references who observed their work. Ask how they handled competing deadlines, responded to feedback, and corrected mistakes. Would that person hire or work with them again? Why?
For agents, verify license status and review available disciplinary information through the appropriate regulator. Understand their transaction experience, communication habits, and approach to protecting clients. Treat unverified gossip as a reason to ask a fair question, never as a finding.
Background screening also deserves a thoughtful process. Real estate professionals may have access to homes, keys, sensitive documents, and confidential client information. Checks should reflect the responsibilities of the position and follow applicable requirements.
For employment screening through a background-reporting company, federal guidance calls for a standalone written disclosure and written permission. If a report may lead to rejection, required steps include providing the report and a summary of rights before the decision, followed by the required notice afterward. Apply consistent, job-related standards and allow inaccuracies to be addressed. Staff employment and agent affiliations can involve different arrangements; establish the appropriate process with qualified guidance. EEOC and FTC employer guidance.
The same care belongs in a social media review. Look beyond a polished LinkedIn profile to relevant public posts, photos, captions, videos, and interactions across platforms. The useful question is how someone exercises judgment when communicating publicly.
Do they expose confidential client information? Misrepresent accomplishments? Attack customers or colleagues? Handle disagreement respectfully? Those behaviors can matter in a business built on trust.
A photo alone rarely tells the whole story. Personal appearance, family life, religious beliefs, or an ordinary vacation should not become hiring criteria. Review public material consistently, keep the focus on job-related conduct, and give candidates an opportunity to explain genuine concerns. Federal nondiscrimination requirements apply to background information regardless of its source. EEOC guidance.
The goal is to understand professional judgment while respecting that people have lives beyond work.
Interviews become more useful when candidates demonstrate how they think. Ask a marketing candidate to explain an existing campaign and identify what they contributed. Give a coordinator a hypothetical scheduling conflict. Ask an experienced agent how they would respond to a seller who wants an unrealistic price or a buyer who needs information they cannot yet verify.
Keep exercises brief and relevant. If the assignment involves substantial work, compensate the candidate. You are evaluating ability, not collecting free work.
Pay attention to ownership. Someone who can say, “I missed that deadline, here is what happened, and here is what I changed,” gives you more useful information than someone whose every setback was another person’s fault.
Then ask an equally important question: Have you clearly explained the position?
A creative person may enjoy producing content but dislike the scheduling, reporting, revisions, and administrative work that keep a marketing department running. A successful independent agent may prefer working alone to sharing systems and expectations with a team. Neither makes someone a bad person. It may make the role a poor match.
Discuss priorities, availability, outside commitments, compensation, decision-making authority, and how performance will be evaluated. Put responsibilities in writing. Give people the tools and training to succeed, and address problems early enough for them to improve.
Accountability belongs to leadership, too. We cannot hire someone into an unclear position and then be surprised when their understanding differs from ours.
When hiring works, the benefits reach everyone. Clients receive faster answers. Agents have dependable support. Marketing becomes more consistent. Colleagues can take time away without wondering what will fall apart. The business gains room to grow because people trust one another to finish what they start.
When hiring fails, the costs extend beyond compensation. Rework consumes time. Strong employees absorb unfinished tasks. Leaders spend more energy checking work than serving clients. Over time, tolerating poor performance can tell your most dependable people that their effort does not matter.
Still, a hiring decision that does not work out should be handled with professionalism. Address specific responsibilities and documented behavior. Provide clear feedback. If separation becomes necessary, protect the individual’s dignity and the confidentiality of the situation. Public criticism does nothing to strengthen a team.
These principles shape how I think about The Agency Oklahoma.
Wayne Kirby and I have built our business around quality over quantity. We want professionals who care about their clients, respect their colleagues, and take pride in the work that happens after the listing appointment.
Production matters. So does how that production is achieved. A strong agent should bring preparation, honest advice, responsiveness, and respect to every transaction. An impressive sales history does not excuse behavior that damages the people around them.
The same expectations extend to staff. A coordinator, marketing professional, or administrative team member can make a tremendous difference in the experience a buyer or seller receives. Their contribution deserves clear direction, meaningful support, and recognition.
The Agency provides a powerful brand, marketing resources, and a network of professionals. Delivering on that promise in Oklahoma requires people who use those resources thoughtfully and consistently. Tools become valuable when someone does the work.
For clients, careful team selection means the experience should hold up beyond the first conversation. For agents considering The Agency Oklahoma, it means joining a business where service, collaboration, and accountability matter.
The strongest team does not require everyone to have the same personality or background. It benefits from different perspectives and complementary strengths, supported by shared professional standards.
Choose people carefully. Set them up to succeed. Hold yourself to the standards you expect from them.
Every person you bring into your business helps write its reputation.
Wyatt Poindexter
Managing Partner | The Agency Oklahoma
405-417-5466
www.OKLuxuryHomes.com
