What separates great real estate teams isn’t just production. It’s the systems behind it.
That’s the focus of a new interview series from ReminderMedia President Luke Acree, who is sitting down with some of the country’s top team leaders to unpack how they built, grew, and run their businesses. From recruiting and leadership to operations and accountability, each conversation reveals the playbooks behind some of real estate’s highest-performing teams.
In this interview, Luke talks with Andy Griesinger, whose five-agent team in Charlotte, North Carolina closed 170 transactions worth $103 million last year. While many teams grow by adding more agents, Andy has intentionally kept his roster small, raising the bar for who gets in and building systems that help every agent produce at a high level.
Here’s what it takes to earn a spot on Andy’s team, and the onboarding process he uses to get new agents producing quickly.
The Bar Recruits Have to Clear to Join Andy’s Team
Andy didn’t always screen recruits as much as he does now. Early on, his team took almost anyone who wanted to join, as long as they got through a couple of interviews and a personality test.
That changed, and part of the reason traces back to Andy’s own start in the business. When he first moved to Charlotte, he called a couple of residential teams to try to join them. One of them turned him down flat.
Andy recalls the rejection that shaped how he recruits now.
“’You don’t sell like you’ve never sold anything, so I can’t bring you to my brokerage because you don’t have any experience.’”
That memory stuck with him. Today, a candidate has to have closed at least 10 deals in the last 12 months to even be considered. They also need to have spent at least a year and a half at their current brokerage, which screens out agents who bolt the moment things get quiet.
Every candidate also sits for an intense personality test called PXT, roughly an hour long, with a deadline attached and math questions that reach back to high school algebra.
The logic behind the 10-deal minimum comes down to where Andy wants to spend his time.
“I’m not willing to take the time to get an agent from zero to 10 deals. But I can get that agent from 10 to 20.”
An agent already doing 10 to 15 deals a year is a different situation entirely. Andy can strategically place them with one of his investor partners or a high-touch developer relationship and get their production moving fast, using relationships he’s already built instead of teaching someone how to make a cold call or run a showing for the first time.
Skipping that bar once taught Andy exactly what was at stake. He let one agent join early on, before any of the current screening existed. The agent showed up late and dressed unprofessionally for the job. He also started saying things around town that got back to Andy through people who assumed he’d hired someone official.
Andy describes why that was the end of it.
“As soon as someone came and questioned me because of having that person on the team, we’re done. I care way too much about my image to deal with that.”
That one experience is a big part of why the current bar exists. Fewer people get on the team, but everyone who does is representing the entire team, whether they realize it or not.
The 61-Point Tracker That Ramps New Agents Up Fast
Clearing the recruiting bar only gets an agent in the door. Once someone’s on the team, Andy runs every new hire through a 61-point daily tracker for their first 90 days.
Agents submit this daily tracker Monday through Friday, and whatever they do over the weekend rolls into Monday’s count. Every submission goes straight to Andy’s director of operations.
Sixty-one points is the number Andy wants agents aiming for each day. He isn’t scoring it as a strict daily pass or fail. He’s watching the average over time, and that average tells him how much an agent actually cares.
Andy explains what the daily number reveals about a new agent.
“You don’t have to hit 61 every day, but are you getting close? Are you going over it? It teaches you so much about their commitment and their competitiveness.”
Andy borrowed the idea from the team where he got his start as an agent. That team gamified lead generation the same way, and going through it wired his brain to understand which activities actually moved the needle and which ones didn’t.
The daily tracker sits alongside a 30-60-90-day checklist and 15-day and 45-day check-ins, all kept in one place so nothing about a new agent’s first three months slips through.
What This Tells Other Team Leaders
Andy’s recruiting bar and his 61-point tracker are the same system, applied at two different points. The bar decides who’s disciplined enough to get on the team in the first place. The tracker proves it once they’re in.
Any team leader watching a smaller roster put up results like Andy’s should ask two questions:
- What’s the actual bar for getting on your team right now?
- What happens in the first 90 days after someone clears it?
More of these conversations are coming as Luke sits down with top team leaders across the U.S. to reveal why they started teams and exactly how they grow and run them.
If building a system like this inside your own team is the goal, BAM Camp: Team Leaders is where that work gets done in person. The two-day event runs September 22-23 in Scottsdale, Arizona, and brings together operators running some of real estate’s most ambitious teams for sessions on recruiting, retention, lead generation, and the operational systems it takes to scale a team past nine figures.
Seats are capped for this one. Get the details and save your spot before they fill up.
