A real estate team owner’s guide · 6 min read
By Michael Schuerman · Growth Partner · Atlanta
A senior operator who makes growth operational inside one business: revenue, team performance, recruiting, and market expansion. They run the calls that move the line and leave a team that can run them without the owner. Not a consultant. Not a fractional COO. One seat in one company.
01 - At a glance
Michael Schuerman is a Growth Partner to real estate team owners and brokers. His work combines growth strategy, leadership development, and hands-on support for selected growth initiatives. He was one of 15 go-to-market team members that launched Zillow Flex, now Zillow Preferred. Based in Atlanta. The operating seat starts at $7,500 a month.
An owner bottleneck shows up when every agent, lead, hire, and expansion decision routes through one person. The team may look healthy from outside, but growth still depends on the owner’s personal bandwidth. That ceiling is a seat problem.
The receipts: $0 to $300M growing Zillow Flex, now Zillow Preferred, in three years. 10 producers to 90 at ChuckTown Homes in 15 months across five markets and three states (as their Zillow Growth Advisor). A $20M sales team built at the company L.A. Fitness later acquired. Sixteen named recommendations, written between 2022 and 2026, back it.
It runs in two steps. A short application, then a 30-minute call if it's a fit. Then the seat: $7,500 a month, scoped to your business, with a three-month minimum, then month to month. I carry the revenue target in your ops meeting.
The first step is a short application, followed by a 30-minute call if it's a fit. The operating seat starts at $7,500 a month. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
02 - The bottleneck
The owner is still the only person who can make the call. Lead follow-up waits for review. The sales leader hire stalls. The recruiting pitch, team meeting, and new-market decision all wait on the same calendar.
The problem is not another dashboard. It is the seat. Every week those calls do not happen costs leads, producers, closings, or expansion time.
An Operating Partner is the person who takes the seat, makes the call, and carries the target until the owner is no longer the ceiling.
03 - Results
Zillow
$0 → $300M
3 years. Zillow Flex, now Zillow Preferred. Grew the offering from zero to $300M in revenue.
ChuckTown Homes
10 → 90
Producers in 15 months across five markets and three states.
L.A. Fitness acquisition
$20M
Sales team built at the company L.A. Fitness later acquired.
A founder-led brokerage at 10 producers wanted to scale by hiring. The founder was the only person making the recruit calls, running the onboarding, and closing the comp conversations.
The Operating Partner work: take the calls. Build the recruiting loop. Sit inside the comp redesign. Run the market-launch meetings. Make the hire when the founder couldn’t get to it.
Fifteen months later: 10 producers to 90 across five markets in three states. Same founder. Different seat next to them.
04 - How it works
Thirty minutes. You bring the one call, hire, or revenue decision that keeps stalling. If it's a fit, you'll get a firm price before you commit to anything.
I sit in your ops meeting, carry a revenue target, run the weekly cadence, and hire the leader who eventually takes the seat from me. The operating seat starts at $7,500 a month. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
05 - Offers
Step one
Thirty minutes. You bring the bottleneck. If it's a fit, you'll get a firm price before you commit to anything.
The seat
Starts at $7,500 a month. Three-month minimum, then month to month. Scoped to your business. I carry a revenue target and run the operating cadence until the team can run it without me.
06 - Questions founders ask
An Operating Partner sits in the seat and runs the business; a coach talks you through decisions; a fractional COO builds the operating system. I carry a revenue target, make the hire, run the weekly cadence, and stay until the team can run without me. The others leave you holding the playbook.
The operating seat starts at $7,500 a month. Three-month minimum, then month to month. I join your ops meeting, carry a revenue target, and build the leader who eventually takes the seat from me. Scope sets the number.
Results depend on where the bottleneck is. A team owner may see lead conversion move, the right hire land, a new market open, or the owner step out of the weekly fire drill. Past work includes helping launch Zillow Flex, now Zillow Preferred, and grow it from $0 to $300M, plus helping scale ChuckTown Homes from 10 to 90 producers in 15 months as their Zillow Growth Advisor.
No. The seat fits a real estate team or brokerage when lead conversion, recruiting, leadership, or expansion keeps routing through the owner and the work is too broad for one tactical hire.
I shadow the operating rhythm, read the numbers, and sit in on the calls that move the line. Within two weeks I name the one constraint that matters and the three moves that fix it. By day 30 we have a running cadence, a clear scorecard, and usually one hire or renewal decision already in motion.
A consultant delivers a diagnosis and a deck. I deliver a calendar entry and an outcome. If the renewal with your biggest customer needs to happen, I run the call. If the VP hire is stalled, I close it. The difference is not expertise; it is who carries the ball when the meeting ends.
No equity. No carry. No phantom ownership. The Seat is a monthly retainer tied to scope. You keep the business. I keep the operating target. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
Bring the one decision that has been sitting on your calendar for two weeks or more. The stalled hire, the renewal, the comp conversation, the new market launch. If it's a fit, you'll get a firm price before you commit to anything. The call takes 30 minutes.
07 - Comparisons
A Fractional COO builds the operating system around the work. The plan. The cadence. The team design. The dashboards. An Operating Partner takes the calls inside that system. Most founders who search for “Fractional COO” want the second seat. They want someone to run the renewal. Not build a process around it.
A consultant gives you a deck. An Operating Partner gives you a calendar entry and runs the call. Ten consultants in a room give you nine versions of the same advice. An Operating Partner gives you the one move no one else is running. Then runs it.
Same words. Different model. A PE Operating Partner sits at the fund and rotates across a portfolio. The Outside Operator model is one seat in one business. The founder hires the operator directly. No fund. No portfolio mandate. No carry. Just a senior operator inside one company. Running the moves the founder has been carrying alone.
Thirty minutes. You bring the bottleneck. If it's a fit, you'll get a firm price before you commit to anything.
Or see what the delay is costing first: run the calculator
Sources & further reading
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