{"id":520094,"date":"2026-01-16T10:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520094\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T10:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:08:16","slug":"chicago-brokers-share-how-to-scale-real-estate-teams-and-win-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520094\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago brokers share how to scale real estate teams and win in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

At A and N Mortgage\u2019s<\/a> first Power Hour<\/a> of the year, Matt Laricy<\/a>, managing broker at Americorp Real Estate and team lead of The Laricy Team, and Jill Silverstein<\/a>, president of the JS Group at Compass, pulled back the curtain on how top-producing teams can scale without losing their edge. The panel, titled \u201cScaling Smart: When to Hire, When to Outsource, When to Grind,\u201d drew agents looking for concrete strategies to grow in the Chicagoland market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Planning in Q4 for 2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laricy\u00a0opened by stressing that success in January\u00a0is\u00a0built months earlier. He reviews every lost listing and client who chose another agent, saving their feedback and using it to rebuild his playbook for the coming year. \u201cI\u2019m planning January in September, October, November,\u201d he said, explaining that weaknesses\u00a0identified\u00a0in the prior year become targets for improvement so they can turn into strengths in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anticipating a surge in demand,\u00a0Laricy\u00a0has\u00a0grown his team ahead of the curve, hiring and training agents and adding\u00a0virtual assistants in the Philippines\u00a0to handle late-night scheduling and\u00a0logistics. That move, he said, protects his in-office staff from burnout while ensuring every opportunity is captured during peak season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also pushes buyers to think strategically about timing, often advising January and February shoppers with spring leases to extend to late summer or fall so they can skip \u201cwaiting in line like a club to get into a property\u201d and buy when competition eases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coaching buyers to compete\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silverstein focused on\u00a0front-line execution with buyers, especially in multiple-offer situations. She coaches clients to treat every showing as an audition: dress well, introduce themselves to the listing agent, and come across as \u201cwarm, easy, rational, fair\u201d so they stand out when offers pile up. In a market where most offers are over asking, \u201cas is,\u201d and accompanied by appraisal waivers, she said the difference is often in\u00a0presentation and process, not just price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her team\u2019s offers are packaged with a\u00a0buyer profile, JS Group accolades, and a tailored cover letter\u00a0that humanizes the deal while staying within fair housing guidelines. Strong terms on earnest money,\u00a0timing\u00a0and flexibility around the seller\u2019s needs round out the strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the agent side, both\u00a0Laricy\u00a0and Silverstein criticized \u201ctext-only\u201d negotiators; Silverstein tells her team, \u201cCall the agent. Call the agent. Call the agent every time,\u201d while\u00a0Laricy\u00a0admitted\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0take a lower offer with a strong, responsive agent over a higher offer from someone who\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0pick up the phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hire before you feel ready\u00a0<\/p>\n

On\u00a0hiring and scaling, Silverstein\u00a0said while\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0good to understand what\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0good at,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also to know what\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0bad at.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked to be able to hire an assistant because I knew that was going to be the ticket to help me scale,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silverstein hit $11 million in volume in her first year, largely from open houses and relentless networking, then hired an assistant just 10 months in so she could focus on prospecting and brand-building. A later hire \u2014 a dedicated transaction manager \u2014 was \u201cpivotal,\u201d allowing her to hand off contract-to-close and stay in growth mode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laricy, meanwhile, described his hiring filter as simple but strict:\u00a0undying loyalty, work\u00a0ethic\u00a0and cultural fit. Candidates meet him, then existing team members, because \u201cwe\u2019re like a family,\u201d he said, and he refuses to carry agents who treat real estate as a part-time hobby.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For agents in Chicago, the message from both panelists was clear: plan early, hire before you feel ready, outsource the noise \u2014 and grind where your unique value is highest.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At A and N Mortgage\u2019s first Power Hour of the year, Matt Laricy, managing broker at Americorp Real…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":511252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[231625,228561,960,59696,62785,5386,1818,228562,228564,228567],"class_list":{"0":"post-520094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-a-and-n-mortgage","9":"tag-americorp-real-estate","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-real-estate","12":"tag-compass","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-illinois","15":"tag-jill-silverstein","16":"tag-matt-laricy","17":"tag-power-hour"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115904230572711465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}