The key to successful time management begins with setting up a workday schedule. This can be as involved or as abstract as you want it to be. The basic schedule should include an outline or overview of each day. Perhaps you’ll spend the morning working on your marketing and the afternoon making follow-up phone calls with clients. However your schedule turns out or works best for you, make it and follow it! For professionals that move out of their field to become real estate agents, one of the biggest pitfalls can be all the free time you suddenly seem to have on your hands. The Real Estate profession should be treated just like any other job. Only, this time YOU are the boss and you only have to answer to yourself. (Of course, you also have to answer to your broker but most real estate brokers realize that they cannot micromanage their agents and so outside of the weekly meeting and occasional one-on-one meeting, will generally leave you to yourself.) This can be good or bad depending of course, on your ability to manage your time.
The following is an example of a daily schedule:
9:00am - Noon: Spend your mornings working on your marketing plan. This can include sending out mailings to your COI and SOI, checking the internet or newspaper for new FSBO listings and checking the MLS for any Expired Listings that you may want to send solicitation letters to. (For more information and great marketing plans for FSBO / Expired Listings as well as Geographic Marketing kits, visit: www.GetThoseListings.com )
Noon-5:00pm: You may wish to set this time aside for showings or follow-up phone calls with existing clients. Many clients will want to see properties after 5pm but there are many clients that may want to take off on their lunch break to see listings. You may also want to make a quick stop at your broker’s office during this time period to check on messages, your mail or to see if there’s anything of particular interest going on that you need to know about.
6:00pm-8:00pm: Generally this is the best time during the week to meet with new clients for Listing Appointments. They’re home from work and ready to hear what you have to offer!
Granted, the above is a very, VERY loose schedule but if you get into the same routine every day as to when you’ll be doing your marketing etc, you’ll soon find yourself doing these tasks as force of habit.
Now that you have your daily schedule worked out, you should realize that in Real Estate, nothing will ever be set in stone. This means that despite your best intentions there will always be a late night that a contract has to be signed, a holiday in which an offer will be presented. For the most part however, you will be able to follow your schedule and you will learn early on that not only is it vital to make a schedule but it is just as vital to stick with it.
If you are on time or early for your appointments, ALL of your appointments, you’re going to score high marks in the mental grade book of your clients. Think about it: how many stories have you heard agents tell about not getting a client to list that started out “…I was running late…” Of course, life happens and despite our best intentions there may very well come a time when you are running late for your appointment. Whether it’s traffic or your schedule is booked solid with showings or whatever the reason is; CALL AHEAD. Let your client know that you’re running late as soon as YOU know that you will be running late.
Being on time is by far one of the easiest things to manage and one of the most important tips for any real estate agent. Whether you’re new or you’ve been in the business for a while, always try to be as punctual as possible!
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