Should You Hire In-House or Outsource Operations?
At OpSuite, we talk to real estate agents every single week who are navigating the same crossroads:
“Should I hire someone in-house, or should I leverage a third-party operations team?”
This topic is one of the most common and one of the most misunderstood.
The Situation We’re Seeing Over and Over
Recently, an agent reviewed her year-end P&L and noticed she was spending money across several areas:
Marketing
A part-time admin
Transaction coordination and listing support through OpSuite
When she added it all up, her thought was logical:
“If I’m already spending this much, should I just hire a full-time admin instead?”
First of all, we want to say this clearly:
If you’re reviewing your P&L, you’re already doing something right.
But here’s where many agents get stuck.
The Biggest Mistake in the Comparison
Most agents compare a salary number to a service cost and assume they’re equal.
They’re not.
A $40,000 to $50,000 salary is not the true cost of an employee.
What’s often missing from the math:
Payroll taxes
Workers’ compensation insurance
Business and liability insurance
Software subscriptions
Hardware and equipment
Office space or home office stipends
Onboarding time
Training time
Ongoing management and performance reviews
That salary line item is only the beginning.
When You Hire In-House, You’re Hiring More Than Labor
When you bring someone into your business as an employee, you are also becoming:
The manager
The trainer
The accountability partner
The HR department
The compliance officer
Training does not happen once and then disappear. It’s ongoing.
You’re reviewing performance weekly or monthly.
You’re course correcting.
You’re motivating.
And sometimes, you’re making the hard decision to let someone go.
Most agents are phenomenal salespeople.
Most agents are not natural managers and that’s okay.
But it matters when you hire.
Experience vs Potential
This is where the comparison becomes even more important.
When an agent hires in-house at a lower salary range, they are often hiring:
Someone new to the industry
Someone early in their career
Someone who has not seen multiple market cycles
That person may have incredible potential, but they haven’t yet built pattern recognition.
At OpSuite, our team has collectively seen:
Thousands of transactions
Businesses grow from dozens of closings to hundreds
Market shifts across multiple cycles
Last year alone, more than 1,000 transactions ran through OpSuite.
That experience matters most when things go wrong, not when everything is smooth.
Time Off and True Freedom
One of the main reasons agents enter real estate is freedom.
But hiring in-house can actually reduce your ability to step away.
Employees require leadership.
They require vision.
They require access to you.
You can’t hire someone, train them for 30 days, and expect to fully disappear during busy season.
Outsourcing creates flexibility:
Your business continues even when you step away
You’re not responsible for daily management
You’re not paying payroll during slow months
That freedom is often underestimated until agents experience it.
Scaling Up and Scaling Down Matters
Markets change. Volume changes. Life changes.
One of the biggest advantages of a third-party operations team is flexibility.
You can:
Scale up when business increases
Scale down when volume slows
Adjust services without restructuring payroll
Payroll doesn’t pause when closings slow down.
Outsourced support can.
So What’s the Right Answer?
Hiring in-house is not wrong.
In many cases, it’s the right move.
But before you decide, ask yourself:
Do I have the time and energy to train consistently?
Can I manage performance and accountability?
Does this improve or hurt my client experience?
Am I hiring for potential or proven experience?
Do I want flexibility or fixed overhead?
If you’re consistent, structured, and ready to lead, in-house may be your next step.
If your days are unpredictable and your goal is freedom and scalability, leveraging a third-party team may be the better fit.
Where OpSuite Memberships Fit In
This is exactly why we created our OpSuite memberships.
They’re designed for agents who:
Aren’t ready to hire in-house
Want stronger financial clarity
Need help with bookkeeping, KPIs, budgeting, and operational structure
Want to level up before adding payroll
You don’t have to choose between doing everything yourself or hiring a full-time employee overnight.
There is a middle ground.
Not Sure If You’re Ready to Hire In-House?
If you’re still on the fence about whether hiring in-house is the right next step, we’ve created a free Hiring Readiness Checklist to help you evaluate it clearly.
This checklist walks you through:
Financial readiness beyond just salary
Time and leadership capacity
Training and management expectations
Whether your business truly needs an employee or leverage
It’s designed to help you make a confident decision, not a rushed one.
Download the free Hiring Readiness Checklist to see if hiring in-house aligns with where your business is right now.
