Hiring A Transaction Coordinator: The Guide

If you have reached a point in your real estate business where it's time to hire a transaction or closing coordinator, congratulations!

This is an exciting time that reflects the growth you have made as an agent while also allowing you to remove some of the tasks off of your plate.

The role of the transaction coordinator focuses on managing the administrative tasks that accompany real estate transactions, helping to keep you or your team organized, and ensuring the buyer and seller process runs smoothly.

Whether it's an inspection and appraisal for the buyer or a handyman for the seller, the Transaction Coordinator (TC) facilitates meetings with all suppliers in order to bring the right people to the right place. This may include preparing and submitting purchase documents, gathering information or documents from the buyer or seller, communicating with other real estate agents, and more

This guide will walk you through all thing transaction coordinators, providing the steps and information to onboard your transaction coordinator.

Step One: Create Transaction Coordinator Job Description & Job Ad

Getting clear on the exact person you are looking for will obviously come in handy during the interview process. Now this will also prove to be useful in the next step, finding qualified TC candidates.

For example, if you are open to hiring someone fully remote, you can advertise place the job ad in other mediums, such as Facebook groups.

Transaction Coordinator Job Description

A great framework to start with is to think through the steps of a contract. You can start at a high level and continue to revisit, filling in the smaller details. Even perceivably small things, ie updating the CRM, need to be noted in the job description. Here is a description to get you started:

Buyer Closings:

• Update CRM to reflect buyer is under contract
• Review contract paperwork (send paperwork for signatures, if needed)
• Send intro emails to buyers when a new contract is received. Ensure they have the information & deadlines for earnest/due diligence money
• Send intro email to the Listing agent
• Schedule closing with the attorney
• Schedule home inspection
• Send weekly updates to clients (even if there is no update)

Listing Management:

• Schedule photos
• Upload photos into MLS
• Write a description
• Ensure home information aligns with tax records
• Update price/under contract/sold

Seller Closings

• Update status in the MLS
• Update information in CRM
• Review paperwork
• Send intro email to sellers
• Send intro email to the buyer's agent
• Schedule closing with the attorney
• Send weekly update emails to the sellers

Transaction Coordinator Job Ad

No matter the real estate company you work with, transaction coordinator jobs are relatively the same. Knowing this, It's important to set your ad apart from other companies hiring for the same role.

Some companies choose to offer a larger salary whereas others choose to provide more perks.

Offering these incentives is heavily dependent on budget and there is a better way to attract more talent that also finds those who will be perfect fits for your company.

Highlight your culture.

Each culture has something unique to offer and not every culture is the right fit for every person.

If you want the team to be in the office at 7a sharp, talk about that. There are some people who love the discipline and work ethic that this job ad will speak directly to.

If there are Friday happy hours, talk about what y'all do as a team for fun.

By highlighting this in your job description, those who don't like it won't even apply. You are able to weed out those who do not align with your culture upfront.

From there, give an accurate description of what a day in the life will be like. I have seen some ads that really sugarcoat job descriptions this does nobody any good.

Setting the wrong expectations upfront will only lead to resentment from the new hire and have you wondering why they are not performing.  

Step Two: Finding Transaction Coordinator Candidates

Having an understanding of what you are looking for will help narrow down where you should place the TC job ad. For example, if you are open to hiring someone remote, you could reach out in Facebook groups.

Zip Recruiter

A common mistake I see when hiring is signing up on multiple job sites to place your ad. This requires you to respond, update the job, and remove the job on multiple sites... quite a bit going on.

I recommend using a site, like ZipRecruiter, that will allow you to create a job ad on their site and they will post it on the top job platforms and social media sites. From there, you can manage your job posting and candidates in one location.  

Zip Recruiter will also rank applicants for you, making it easier to discover who may be the best fit for your company.

Facebook & Social Media

While zip recruiter will place your job ad on Facebook Jobs, I still recommend making a post on your social media profiles. You will be surprised at who in your network or someone they know is a good candidate for this job.

Sending Messages On Linkedin

Linkedin offers a great feature where you can search by people who have "open to work" on their profile. You could add additional filters for past job experiences such as real estate agent or transaction coordinators.

You can also use a service, like PhantomBuster, that will send out these messages for you... You simply create the search, add what you want the message to say, and your messages will be automatically sent.

Past Clients

Funny enough, I know an agent who hired one of their past clients about 8 months after they closed. I definitely do not recommend this while they are a client but it's a very real possibility to occur later down the road.

The great thing about this is you both know how each other works.  From your experiences together, you were able to see how they respond, their involvement in the process, etc.

While it may not make sense to reach out to a past client directly, you can always include it at the bottom of one of your emails that you are looking to hire someone.

Step Three: Interviewing Transaction Coordinators

I believe the interview process starts well before the actual "interview" takes place. A transaction Coordinator will be heavily involved in corresponding via email and over the phone.

As you are setting up the interview, take note of how quickly they respond, how their written communication is, and how they are over the phone.

Setting The Proper Expectations

Our interview should be based on the transaction coordinator job description created. Their day-to-day responsibilities will provide insight into the questions we need to ask.

Additionally, this provides the proper expectations, letting them know the tech they will be using, the parties they will be communicating with, and the process they must follow.