Each Wednesday, Real Estate Magazine shares insights, experiences and advice from top-performing teams and agents across Canada. If you’d like to contribute or nominate a colleague or team, send us an email.
Taylor Hack entered real estate after years as a mortgage specialist, where he watched families make life-changing decisions with far too little guidance. Wanting to raise the bar, he shifted into real estate and became one of Edmonton’s most recognized team leaders. Today, he’s known not just for results, but for the systems, mentorship and intention behind them.
REM: How did you first get into real estate?
TH: I was a mortgage specialist who cared about the outcome for families, having spent my childhood as part of the luggage, being the sixth family member in a five-passenger van. Once we finished the pre-approval, my clients would often choose the friendliest person at their BBQ as a real estate agent and, effectively, bet their house on them. Back then, you could see the negotiation process in the paperwork, as the counter offers were scratched out and signed back and forth. It was sad. The best most people could hope for is that they would get an average agent that could achieve an average result, but in a time before review services, how were they to know?
So I called all the agents who referred mortgage clients to me and explained that I was about to hop the fence and come in as an agent, but that I appreciated them supporting my business and would never solicit the clients they sent me.
REM: When did you decide to build a team — and why?
TH: Overwhelm and obsession. I had never been as good at anything as I was at real estate, and it made me popular and successful, which is really enticing, so I was all in at a level that really isn’t healthy. I had babies at home, so I’d wake up early and spend time with them and then work until I couldn’t go anymore.
As a third-year agent, I was on a streak of selling 10 houses per month for six months, and my real estate coach had resorted to car racing metaphors as a way to try to help me understand that this wasn’t sustainable: “If you don’t service the car, it will break down.” My coach was right, but I was all in, so team building made sense and unlocked something I didn’t realize about myself. Mentoring felt good to me, and I would become obsessed with that as well.
Current snapshot
Agents on the team: Four, including myself.
Staff: Jaya, our listing coordinator, and Lanvy, our admin assistant
Markets served: Edmonton area
2024 production — Transactions: 163/Volume: $67 million
Staff-to-agent ratio (approximate): 1/2
YTD 2025 production so far — Transactions: 122/Volume: $58M
REM: What were the first three key hires you made that changed your business?
TH: Full-time assistant and two licensed agents. My first three full-time hires were also a streak of luck, considering what great outcomes we had. Two of them worked with me for years, and one of them set some of the records on our team and eventually appeared on HGTV. Real estate really is about the people you choose to travel with.
REM: What advice would you give a team leader making their very first hire?
TH: Clean up the house before inviting people in. Showing someone how to help you is made easier with a plan. If you hired a manager today, they would have to explain to the next hire how things are done and what part they play. When you start a team, you hire yourself as a manager, so you need time in your calendar and a plan to help the people learn to help you. Mapping out every move you make while serving clients when buying and selling is often the first step from being a solopreneur to being an entrepreneur who can support more than yourself.
REM: Approximate % of marketing budget by channel
TH: We look at our marketing as nurturing (internal) and outreach (external). This year, we spent about 30 per cent of our marketing budget to nurture the people we know and 70 per cent of our budget on outreach to connect with new people. For outreach, we would be primarily working through Meta, but we did testing with Google Ads this year.
REM: If you had to cut one channel tomorrow, which would hurt the most — and why?
TH: The highest ROI for us would be reviews. We’ve been the highest-ranked team in The Greater Edmonton Area on Rankmyagent.com since 2018. That impact would have levels because it helps people choose to contact us, but also choose to work with us when interviewing other agents.
REM: Do you track cost per lead, cost per appointment, cost per deal? Which number matters most?
TH: They all matter as they indicate different things. When I’m looking at cost per lead and cost per appointment, I’m normally trying to solve for which lead sources are giving us the best opportunities so we can spend into the best options. When I’m looking at cost per deal, I would be looking to remove the cost per lead or average it so I can solve for how much we’re spending into our client experience and what property price range we need to be in to justify that spend and satisfy that client profile.
REM: What does a $500,000–$750,000 take-home producer do differently on your team?
TH: People say it’s grit, but most people don’t know what that looks like. Imagine watching race cars zip around a track. Take your eye off the fast one. That one isn’t going to be first at the end of the race. Look at the one that never goes slow instead. It’s the agent that still hits their calls on the way into a long weekend and when they are having a record month. On call tracking, you have a high, a low, and an average, and the lows not being as low is where you see the difference in the high producers.
REM: What’s the minimum viable follow-up cadence you’d recommend?
TH: If it’s follow-up with someone you are hoping to talk to for the first time, it should be measured in minutes and hours. This person wanders around on the internet, giving real estate agents their contact information while doing things online that are evidence of the intention to act.
There are five to 10 invisible agents, and whichever one of you meets that person in a property and doesn’t say something ridiculous is likely going to be their agent. Have a better follow-up plan that is more aligned with the outcome the person you’re trying to help wants, and then look at it like you miss 100 per cent of the people you can’t talk to.
Lightning round with Taylor Hack
One tech you’d fight to keep: Text shortcuts. Low tech. High impact.
Marketing hill you’ll die on: List price is a marketing tool. Full stop. The value of a house is on the purchase agreement, and the price of a house is on the listing agreement. If you’re not able to decouple price and value, you don’t get price as a marketing tool, and if you do average things, you’ll get average results.
Finish this: ‘Teams win because…’: Teams win because they play as a team in a world of individual athletes.
