Free tool · Calculator
The Marketing Hours Calculator
How many hours does the brokerage spend on marketing every month, and what is that time worth to the owner? Listings, office posts, video, email, blogs, the website, onboarding and recruiting, all in one number. The math is yours. The comparison to the six plans is plain arithmetic, not a promise.
How it works
Three steps.
- Move the sliders to match the brokerage. The totals update as you go.
- The hours model is on the page, so you can argue with it.
- Email yourself the math to bring to the next leadership meeting.
Assumptions: a listing launch set 4 hours (coming soon through sold, plus the email), an office post 40 minutes to write, design and schedule, a short video 90 minutes to direct and edit, an email 2.5 hours, a blog 1 hour to draft, edit and post, a new agent launch kit 4 hours, a marketing-manager task 3 hours, a recruiting piece 1 hour, revisions at 10% of production, community management 15 minutes per post, agent requests 20 minutes per agent a month, training and support 4 hours plus 10 minutes per agent, templates and tools 4 hours, Google Business Profile and reviews 2 hours, SEO upkeep 2 hours, planning 3 hours, reporting 3 hours, keeping up with platform changes 2 hours. A full-time month is 173 paid hours, about 140 of them productive.
Every month, the office spends
0 hours
worth about $0 in leadership and staff time
Three ways to cover those hours
Keep it with leadership
$0 a month
The hours above, at the rate you set. The usual cost is not the money; it is that the work slips in a busy month and the brand goes quiet.
Hire one person
Typical
One full-time hire covers roughly 140 working hours a month before management time, vacation and the first eight to twelve weeks of ramp-up. Most single hires cover one or two channels well and still need design or video help.
The full picture, all in
All in means the money out plus the hours that still sit with the office, at the rate you set. On a plan that is the weekly meeting, 30 to 60 minutes. Anything above a plan's monthly caps is scoped as a priority request.
- Agent Starter Marketing$1,150 a month
- Broker Growth Marketing$2,250 a month
- Team Marketing DepartmentCovers one brand plus five agents. Additional agents from $150 each per month.$3,850 a month
- Luxury Agent Studio$2,850 a month
- Luxury Boutique Story Suite$5,500 a month
- Private Luxury Story StudioCovers one brand plus five agents. Additional agents from $250 each per month.$8,550 a month
Arithmetic, not a savings claim. The in-house figure is a typical all-in cost for the role the hours call for and varies by market, so move the slider to your own number. What any option is worth depends on what the hours would go to instead.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Where do the hours per task come from?
From ten years of running this work for brokerages: a listing launch set about four hours, an office post about 40 minutes to write, design and schedule, a short video about 90 minutes, an email about 2.5 hours, a blog about an hour, a new agent launch kit about four, plus the fixed work every month that never shows up on a content calendar: revisions, community management, agent support, templates and tools, Google, SEO, planning, reporting and keeping up with platform changes. A full-time month is 173 paid hours, about 140 of them productive. The assumptions are on the page.
Is the plan comparison a savings claim?
No. It puts the hours the office is already spending next to three ways of covering them: leadership keeps doing it, one in-house person, or a plan. The in-house figure starts at a typical all-in cost for the role the hours call for (roughly $4,500 for a part-time or junior coordinator, $6,500 for a full-time coordinator or manager, $9,500 for a manager plus freelance design and video) and varies by market, so move the slider to your own number. Whether any option is worth it depends on what those hours would go to instead.
Why does it sometimes recommend the 12 Week Program instead of a plan?
Because that is the honest answer. If the office already has an in-house marketer and the volume fits one role, the gap is usually the system and the real estate playbook, not headcount. The 12 Week Program trains the person you have. When the volume is more than one person can carry, the recommendation is a plan with your marketer kept on the day to day.
What does "carries about N hours" mean?
The calculator checks the office's volume against the plan's monthly caps (posts a week, video hours, blogs, emails, marketing-manager tasks, website work, recruiting pieces) and counts only what fits. Anything above a cap is scoped as a priority request. What stays with leadership is the weekly meeting, 30 to 60 minutes; the work itself does not need managing. Anything above the caps can be scoped as a priority request.
Whose hours are these?
The owner's, the office manager's, a coordinator's, or an agent's pulled off production. Price the hour at what the person doing the work costs, or what their time would earn elsewhere. Most brokers use $75 to $150 for leadership time. The default here is $100.
Next step
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