How a 7-Person Team Serves 300+ Clients a Year Without Burning Out

Private Real Estate Collection,
Heather Herr

Heather Herr’s company, the Cincinnati-based Private Real Estate Collection, helped more than 200 families achieve their housing dreams in 2024.

In 2025, they’re on track to serve more than 300 families — with an even smaller team than before.

When you’re averaging 40+ transactions per team member, it would be easy to let your standards slip. Not Heather. By focusing on tight systems, cross-trained staff, and using her tools to their full potential, she’s created a well-oiled machine of a company that maintains exceptional service levels, no matter how many customers it’s serving.

Here’s how she makes it happen:

1. Everyone Knows Every Tool

Herr’s Cincinnati-based team is small: three full-time agents, an operations manager and an office manager, and two licensed showing assistants who can step in for showings or open houses when needed. To keep things running at high volume, Heather insists that everyone on the team, regardless of role, learns the systems inside and out.

“To be on this team, you have to know how to use our tools,” she says. “We’re intentionally small, and if someone goes out of town, that puts pressure on the rest of us. We have to be able to lean on each other.”

That cross-training also reassures clients. Heather tells them upfront who’s on the team, what each person does, and that everyone is equipped to help. 

“I go into listing appointments with a brochure and say, ‘Here’s our roster. This entire team is looking out for you. And that reassures clients that I’m not going to forget about them just because I have multiple listings on the market at once. We are all here to support you.”

2. Quick Handoffs Keep Agents Focused

Heather structures the team so agents can hand off the file right when a deal goes under contract.

“As soon as they sell a property, they really need to take that, bundle it together, and pass it off to the team member who does the handoff,” Heather explains. “Then they move right to the next one.”

This works so well because Heather puts in the work upfront to ensure that her clients understand they’re working with a team, not one individual. So clients don’t resist the handoff; they welcome it.

Pushing for the quick handoff keeps agents always focused on their next opportunity.

3. Document and Constantly Refine Processes

Because running hundreds of transactions across a small team leaves very little room for error, Heather rewrites her processes every year. Every task, from listing input to post-closing follow-up, is spelled out step-by-step so no one is guessing.

“Just when I think we’re doing great, every year I’m like: Okay, let’s sit down and start over again,” she says. “Let’s rewrite every single step of the process until it’s completely airtight.”

That level of clarity ensures that if someone new steps in midstream, they can pick up exactly where the last person left off — and the client never feels a disruption.

4. Automate Wherever Possible

Heather makes it a priority to get all the pieces of her tech stack — the Side App, Follow Up Boss, Luxury Presence, MoxiWorks, and more — to talk to each other so her team’s time doesn’t get eaten up by double-entry.

And she doesn’t settle for the status quo. As a self-proclaimed tech nerd, Heather loves learning new tools and actively explores ways to further reduce the time her team spends on manual tasks.

“I recently started using RealScout’s auto-nurture feature, and it’s been extremely impressive,” says Heather. “I added a thousand contacts from our CRM and people are already starting to come out of the woodwork.”

By keeping her systems airtight and her technology working in sync, Heather has built a business that can handle extraordinary volume without losing its personal touch. Every client knows exactly who’s in their corner, every team member knows exactly what to do next, and every process is designed to run smoothly at scale. It’s how the Private Real Estate Collection continues to grow year after year.

Launching my own boutique real estate company has been the biggest challenge (by a country mile) that I have ever faced in my professional career. But I have an amazing team of back office support and rockstar agents, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

— Heather Herr, founder of Private Real Estate Collection

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