Is a TC Worth It? The Math at 5, 15 and 30 Deals

I’m a co-founder of Arivana and a practicing Nashville real estate broker, and I’ve closed 300+ transactions myself. I’ve used a TC on every one of my deals. I started with a TC firm I paid per file. I didn’t have the volume for an in-house hire, and I didn’t know Tennessee contracts well yet. That firm taught me a lot of the norms. At about 50 deals a year, I hired an in-house TC who’d done the job before and also handled admin work for me. When she left, I went back to a TC agency I paid per file. Later, I hired a second in-house TC with no TC experience and trained her. Today, my preferred setup is an assistant for admin and a TC I pay per file. The reason I’ve always used a TC comes down to one idea: time in the business vs. time on the business.

What a TC takes off your plate

With a full-service TC (our Standard plan), here’s what comes off your plate on every file:

• The 100+ tasks between going under contract and closing day
• Getting your clients started: your TC introduces themselves the same day the file starts
• Updates to the lender, title and the other agent, plus a call when one of them goes quiet
• Chasing documents and signatures
• Amendments and repair requests
• Every deadline, with a calendar invite for each one
• Closing day: the walkthrough, closing time and key handoff
• The broker file

What stays with you: negotiating and contract decisions.

The math at 5, 15 and 30 deals

Here’s the example we’ll use. The median residential sale in the Nashville area was $510,000 in September 2026, per Greater Nashville Realtors. At a 3% commission and a 70/30 split with your broker, your share of that sale is about $10,710.

A TC that charges $495 a file (our Standard price) costs about 4.6% of that check. One extra closing pays for about 21 files. At 8 to 12 hours a file, you’re paying about $41 to $62 an hour for work you’d otherwise do yourself.

At 15 deals a year, a TC costs less than one extra closing. At 30, it costs about 1.4 closings. The question is whether you can win one or two more deals a year with 120 to 360 hours back. I think most agents who want to grow can.

In my experience, 8 to 12 hours is about right for one file from contract to close. It’s spread over the 25 to 40 days a home is usually under contract, and some files take more when clients need extra hand-holding. For what TCs charge in Nashville, see what a transaction coordinator costs in Nashville.

Time in the business vs. time on the business

TC work is time in the business. Marketing, prospecting and meeting new clients are time on the business. I never did the TC work myself, because my time was better spent trying to grow.

I’ve grown my sales volume every year since I started. From 2024 to 2025, it nearly doubled. A lot of that comes from not getting bogged down in the day-to-day paperwork. With the time my TC freed up, I focused on marketing and getting more clients.

It’s also a different skill set. Most agents are good salespeople. They’re personable. A good TC needs to be very organized, and that’s close to the opposite personality. A TC is also in front of a computer all day. Most agents are out at showings, listing appointments, open houses and networking events.

Is a TC worth it at 5 deals a year?

This is the hardest row in the table. At 5 deals, it’s tempting to do the TC work yourself until business picks up. I think that’s the wrong way to look at it.

If you spend your time on the details of every file, you won’t have enough time to build your business. Saving $2,475 that way is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Getting your business moving is the hardest part, so that’s where your time should go. Unless you aren’t trying to grow, I’d hire a TC even at 5 deals a year.

That goes for part-time agents too. If you’re doing 1 or 2 deals a year and want to make real estate your full-time job, hire a TC now. Building your marketing is the only way you’ll last.

When a TC isn’t worth it

There are a few cases where I wouldn’t pay for one:

• Your broker already provides a TC as part of your split: There’s no need to pay twice. If that TC is making mistakes, bring it up with your broker first.
• Your deals are short sales or commercial: You need someone with that specific experience. A traditional residential TC isn’t built for those.
• You aren’t trying to build a full-time business: If you’re happy with a few deals a year, doing the work yourself is fine.

Pay-per-file TC or an in-house hire?

An in-house TC paid $50,000 a year costs about $54,000 with employer payroll taxes, before benefits. At $495 a file, that’s about 109 files a year with a pay-per-file TC. Both times I hired in-house, I had to set up our processes and software and test them. It took about 3 to 4 months before I could trust my experienced hire with a file without checking her work, and about 6 months with the one I trained from scratch.

My first in-house TC also handled admin work for me. For TC work alone, a pay-per-file TC would have cost less. The full in-house math is in what a TC costs in Nashville.

A pay-per-file TC is a variable cost. When the market slows down, you aren’t stuck with a salary. Of the 9 Nashville TCs who told us their policy, none charge more than $100 when a deal dies, and 2 charge nothing. At Arivana, Standard and White glove files are free if the deal dies.

TC vs. assistant

The two jobs are different:

• TC: works only on your transactions. Deadlines, documents, signatures, updates to the lender, title and the other agent, and the broker file.
• Assistant: helps run your business. Marketing, keeping your business organized and admin work.

I’ve tried it both ways. My preferred setup is a full-time or part-time assistant for admin and marketing, plus a TC I pay per file to work only on my transactions. You get help with both, and your transaction cost goes up and down with your business.

What if I don’t want to give up control?

You don’t lose sight of anything. You still handle negotiating and every contract decision. You get a calendar invite for every deadline and appointment, updated when plans change. Your agent portal shows where every file stands, and you approve and e-sign there.

If you’d rather keep every client conversation yourself, our Compliance plan ($395) tracks every deadline and builds the broker file, with no contact with your clients, lender or title. Compliance files are billed whether the deal closes or not.

What Arivana costs

At Arivana, our Standard plan is $495 a file, with a dedicated TC who runs your file from contract to close. You upload the contract and your clients' contact info, and we figure out everything else, including every date. Files received by 8pm start that day, weekends included. Standard and White glove files are free if the deal dies. There’s no long-term contract or minimum number of files, and your first file is 50% off. After a 30-minute call, we set up your account on an onboarding call at a time that works for you. Within a day, you can start sending us files. See our pricing for every plan, or read 12 questions to ask a transaction coordinator before you hire anyone.