Val Evans attended the team building seminar where the instructor mentioned that you should start thinking of building a team at 20 transactions and start with the admin first!

The sole practitioner, has bandwidth to complete 46 transactions a year for single family homes, based on the average direct time required per transaction and 2,000 work hours.

The sole practitioner listing agent has the band width to manage 15 listing simultaneously. 

And these numbers apply to the real estate agent with a cape.

Too often life and stuff impose that influence optimum productivity. At maximum band width a bump in the road could prove catastrophic.

Long before an agent reached the 'end of their rope' they need to be seeking force multipliers or other business modifiers. That awakening occurs when a sole practitioner transaction count creeps over 25 and on a favorable trajectory.

Dis-service is a word that agents like to use to judge other agents. However, an option every agent has when bandwidth saturation is approaching is altering their business model. Simply because agent A does not dance the same jig and agent B or even meets agent B's inflated expectation, that does not equal DIS-SERVICE. 

The reference to disservice in your question is INVALID.  Unless you were present at the dining room table when the listing agreement was signed, such judgment is recklessly and maliciously rendered.

As many I can. 

As many I have.

Depends on your level of organization ad comfort with a workload. Same as for any agent in my opinion!

 Good Wednesday morning Val. I have attended a lot of seminars and the KW model as you starting with the admin first

Val,
A lot of good answers here. Part of it depends on your other support team, inspectors, handymen, etc. who can take some of the load off if they are good.

I run a business, we expand as needed.

Depending on your personal life and the ratio of sellers and buyers the range is 40 to 60. 

Between the two of us, we sell between 25-35 homes per year.  I feel like that's a fair amount and we're able to stay engaged with each client/deal.

listing and selling are two very different tasks.... I've listed as many as 20 resale homes and had 3 subdivisions going ....no team....and I did all of my own paperwork.... this was 15 years ago and everyone received great service.... from there I started my team....now I only market....and my daughter has taken over the team concept....I have no team .....I get paid to market all day....

I have sold over a hundred homes a year during my peak selling years. All of the clients received the needed attention because I had staff support and referral associates.

It depends on the properties because some require much more attention. Usually about 15.

I keep 10 to 20 listings.  I rarely work with a buyer unless it's a repeat client from past years.

volume in dollars make a bit of a difference, and geographically spread out. i would say 3-4 a month is pushing it

Val, by "sole proprietor" I'm assuming you mean a Realtor with a broker's license who works alone rather than in a broker's office with other agents and a support staff - and we have quite a few in this area.  This is a business model that is very, very tricky.  I can see it working with buyer brokerage, but with listings, it's virtually impossible for a sole proprietor to do justice for his or her sellers on a large scale.  Many of them in my area try to do it all - often without even hiring an assistant, and they simply can't.  With Listing homes in today's market, there is marketing (which in this area needs to include Open Houses), staging, photography, and lots of things where there are economies of scale.  It's hard for a sole proprietor to pull it off unless they carry a modest listing load and focus mostly on buyers -which has it's own set of challenges!

At this time I have 18 listings. I'm comfortable with that number and could probably go a bit higher. 

I don't have a set number, but when I'm really busy for any reason..I refer out. 

Val - I think having listings versus buyers is critical to the formula. Personally, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable handling about 4-5 buyers at any given time. Considering each transaction takes about 30-45 days to close, that would be somewhere between 40-50 per year. As far as listings, I could probably manage a few more, maybe 10-15 at any one time. In that case, if DOM is typically 60 (plus a 30-45 day closing), then I could handle about 80-90 sales a year.

If I reached either of these maximums, or any combination of, I would be more than happy to hire additional staff.

This spring/summer was absolutely crazy, and know I cannot have more than 12 UC and work with new sellers.   I referred out some business for fear of not being able to give good customer service.

I haven't hit that limit yet!! I also think we have the luxuy of hiring help if we get busy.

Val, I think there are a lot of variables in play.  For one, I don't think it's so much as an annual number of transactions but how many of them are happening at once?  Sellers (once set up) seem to take less time than buyers.  How many hours is the agent willing to work?  How ruthless is the agent about protecting their time and finding ways to be productive with their time?  For me, I'm completing 20 transactions this year while also taking care of my engineering job.  I'm careful to make sure no one on either side of that equation is unhappy with what I'm getting done for them.  Bill

A lot depends on the amount of service required for each home.  Some require a lot, while others very little.  Personally I can comfortably service on average around 20 homes at one time.  Depending on the turnover rate would determine my yearly number.

For me, I think it is more of a concurrent listing question.  I'd guess maybe 10-15 would be the max for any one time, depending on how time intensive they were.  I had 2-3 last month and that wasn't a problem.

Val,

It really depends on one's efficiencies. We have a client who has sold 25 homes a year regularly, and her focus is on listings.  She has a great support staff, and in some years has done more than that.  A

I have been a independent (Sole Practioner) for many years and I have had some very busy years and not so busy in terms of number of listings. I think it matters on how organized you are and how you plan your business. I know that its really not about the number of lisings that matter because you can have a large or small number of listings and the same sales volume. I focus on this stat more than anything.