Help With Your Zillow Flex Team: Who to Hire First
Running a Zillow Flex or Preferred team and need help? Compare ISA, transaction coordinator, sales manager, operations manager, and Operating Partner. Written by an original Zillow Flex go-to-market team member in Atlanta.
Zillow Flex / Zillow Preferred team owners
Help with your Zillow Flex team
If your Zillow Flex team is drowning, the right hire depends on where the leak is. Too many leads and slow follow-up means an ISA or lead manager first. Converting appointments means a sales manager. Closing chaos means a transaction coordinator. If the owner is the bottleneck across all of it, an Operating Partner is the only seat that owns the whole system.
Written by Michael Schuerman, one of 15 people on the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex, now Preferred, to market. Based in Atlanta, working with partner team owners across the US. Updated September 2026.
Which seat matches your problem
Why most teams hire in the wrong order
The natural move is to hire a sales manager because the owner is tired of babysitting agents. But a manager cannot manage a standard that does not exist. If connection to appointment is already broken, the manager ends up chasing agents for activity that does not convert.
The right sequence is usually ISA first, then TC once contract volume justifies it, then sales manager once the funnel is stable, then operations once the owner is the clear bottleneck. Skip a step and the person you hired quits or the number does not move.
An Operating Partner is not a replacement for those roles. It is the seat that decides which role is actually missing, installs the cadence, and runs the business until the manager bench is ready.
When I am the hire you actually need
I take the seat when the owner is still the constraint across recruiting, routing, accountability, and revenue targets. That usually shows up as: the team has hired an ISA and a TC, but the owner is still in every hard conversation, and the numbers only move when the owner moves them.
For teams in Atlanta, Roswell, Alpharetta, or anywhere in North Fulton, I am local. I can sit in the office when the move requires it. For teams outside Atlanta, the work runs remote with travel into the business for the key weeks.
I was on the original Zillow Flex Go-To-Market team, built the partner training in Atlanta, and spent two and a half years as a Growth Advisor inside partner teams. I have seen the same five hire decisions from both sides. My first question is always which seat you need, not whether that seat should be me.
Zillow: $0 to $300M on a new business line in three years. One of 15 people on the original Go-To-Market team that brought Flex, now Preferred, to market.
: 10 producers to 90 in fifteen months, five markets, three states.
: two agents to thirty as their first Growth Advisor, now Atlanta's largest Zillow Preferred team at more than 230 agents.
Current real estate client: 70 hires in six months, scaling the producer roster from 60 to 120 across five markets and two states.
05 Questions team owners ask
Bring your last 90 days of Zillow numbers and the bottleneck you keep carrying. I will tell you who to hire first, even if it is not me.
© Michael Schuerman · Atlanta
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Zillow Group, Inc.
Operations manager / team manager
Who can I hire to help my Zillow Flex team?
Start with the symptom, not the title. Hire an ISA or lead manager if speed-to-lead and follow-up are the gap. Hire a transaction coordinator if contracts and closings are chaotic. Hire a sales manager if agents have appointments but are not converting. Hire an operations manager if the owner is the bottleneck across systems. Hire an Operating Partner if the decisions, targets, and weekly rhythm are still stuck with the owner. Most teams try to hire a sales manager first when the real problem is that nobody owns the lead response.
Should I hire an ISA or a sales manager first?
What does a transaction coordinator do for a Zillow Flex team?
A transaction coordinator manages the contract-to-close workflow: deadlines, inspections, lender follow-up, attorney coordination, and document compliance. They protect the deals your agents already won. Zillow identifies the TC as a foundational role for partner teams, but it is a capacity protector, not a lead generator. Bring one in after you have consistent contract volume.
When do I need an operations manager versus an Operating Partner?
An operations manager owns the internal machine: CRM hygiene, routing, scheduling, onboarding, and SOPs. An Operating Partner owns the moves that drive revenue and holds people accountable for the number. If your problem is that systems are messy, hire ops. If your problem is that the owner is still making every hard call and the business cannot scale past them, you need someone in the seat with revenue accountability.
Why is my Zillow Flex team not converting leads?
The most common causes, in order, are slow speed to first contact, leads routed to agents who cannot take them, weak appointment-setting discipline, agents not asking for the appointment, and no weekly scorecard that names the number. Start by pulling your last 90 days of Zillow metrics connection to contact, contact to appointment set, set to held, held to contract, and contract to close. The leak is usually visible in the first two steps.
How do I know if I have a people problem or a process problem?
If your best agent hits the standard and the rest do not, you have a people problem: coaching, hiring, or accountability. If nobody hits the standard, including your best, you have a process problem: routing, capacity, scripts, or speed. Process problems are owned, not coached. People problems are coached, not rebuilt.
What should I fix before hiring anyone?
Audit your last 90 days of Zillow data before writing a job description. Know your speed to first contact, your appointment set rate, your held rate, and your per-agent conversion. If you hire into a broken routing or follow-up cadence, you are paying someone to fail inside a broken system. The cheapest fix is often the cadence, not the headcount.
How much does each option cost?
An ISA runs $40K to $75K base plus variable, or $2,500 to $6,000 a month outsourced. A transaction coordinator runs $300 to $600 per file, or $45K to $70K in-house. A sales manager runs $90K to $160K base plus variable. An operations manager runs $80K to $140K. An Operating Partner starts at $10,000 a month, month to month, with a $5,000 90-Day Scorecard first. Hire to the problem, not to the cheapest line item.
Can one person fix my whole Zillow Flex team?
No. A single ISA cannot fix a broken sales process. A single manager cannot replace the owner's decision making. A single Operating Partner cannot do five peoples jobs at once. What one senior operator can do is diagnose which seats are actually missing, install the cadence and standards, and hire the right tactical people into a system that already works. That is the difference between a body and a fix.
Why hire Michael Schuerman for Zillow Flex team help?
I was one of 15 people on the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex, now Preferred, to market. I built the in-person partner training in Atlanta and scaled it nationally when COVID hit, then spent two and a half years as a Zillow Growth Advisor inside partner teams. I have run this same play from the consultant seat for ChuckTown Homes, 10 producers to 90 across five markets and three states in fifteen months, and from the Growth Advisor seat for Dwelli, two agents to thirty on the way to Atlanta's largest Zillow Preferred team. I tell owners which seat to hire first, even when it is not me.
Help With Your Zillow Flex Team: Who to Hire First
A team owner's guide to hiring the right help for a Zillow Flex or Zillow Preferred team. Compare ISA, transaction coordinator, sales manager, operations manager, and Operating Partner. Written by an original Zillow Flex go-to-market team member.
Zillow Flex and Zillow Preferred guide
How the program works, how volume is allocated, and what fixes a drop.
How to increase Zillow Flex conversions
Six operating moves: speed, routing, capacity, set vs held, experience, rhythm.
Zillow Preferred leads not converting
The diagnostic: response time, appointment discipline, capacity, and routing.
Operating Partner for Zillow partner teams
The offer, the seat, and how an engagement starts.
Five seats compared for any owner-led business, with 2026 market costs.
Michael Schuerman is an Operating Partner for founder-led businesses doing $5M to $30M in revenue, based in Atlanta, Georgia. He takes a seat inside the business, runs the revenue moves the owner has been deferring, and leaves a team that runs without them. Book a 30-minute call at michaelschuerman.co.