Successful Real Estate Agents do not work static nine-to-five hours or set 40-hour workweeks.
One of the things that appeals to me most about being a real estate broker is not selling my time. Meaning, not working set hours for wages. Being a professional real estate agent is about productivity, not the amount of time spent on that production.
When helping a client sell their home, the only time they are honestly concerned about is how long it takes to sell. They typically never concern themselves with how many hours throughout the day you have to work in order to do so.
The same is often true with buying a house. Some people are more particular than others so finding the right place can take some time. But the focus again should be on finding that particular home – not how many hours you put into researching homes and lining up showings over the coming weekend. Some closings are easier than others. Some will take longer than others and some will require a lot of work while others don’t seem to require much at all. In the end, it’s about results. Not hours.
More than once in my career I’ve had a client fall in love with one of the first few houses they saw – it felt a bit like those shows on TV where the buyers choose from only the three houses shown during the 30-minute episode. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve shown clients a dozen houses and they still seemed no closer to finding the home they actually wanted to purchase.
This can be frustrating because the goal as a buyer’s agent is of course to help your clients find the home fit for them. So, it sometimes helps to step back and simply ask, “What am I missing?”
‘Day in the Life’ story
While representing some buyers I had an interesting experience that made me take a step back and reevaluate my approach to helping them.
We initially spent some time going over their requirements – which is an important step early on in the agency relationship because it allows you to segment the details of what they are looking for in a home. From the “must-haves” to all other additional items down to those that fall more as a want than a need. Knowing what your buyers must have is important because not every need can always be met. Often concessions need to be made on the wants list because, unfortunately, unless it’s a custom house, tract homes are designed to sell quickly so do not always have upgrades, but typically satisfy most general needs of an average buyer.
After narrowing down the list of potential houses to a handful we scheduled viewing for the coming weekend. When we went to the first house, the wife immediately disappeared as soon as she walked in the door. The husband and I didn’t even get that far into the house when she came back and said “Nope. Not this one.” and then simply walked out. At the next house, she does the exact same thing. This time I’m even more confused so ask the husband what just happened? He replied that she has a thing about flooring in the bathrooms and refuses to buy a house if they are carpeted. It was a good learning experience to ask additional questions during the early requirements gathering meetings with future clients.
The thing most interesting is that their budget was $995,000 – they wanted to stay just under $1 million. Replacing the flooring and removing the carpets from the bathrooms is not a difficult or overly expensive process especially considering their budget. It would be an easy fix if everything else in the house fit their needs. Even if the carpeted bathrooms on the second story had some water damage to the floorboard, it’s repairable and not too expensive. However, her concern was not on the carpets or flooring themselves but the potential of mold – a valid concern for sure.
After showing them a handful of other houses, they determined that it wasn’t the right time for them to purchase. I don’t honestly know how many hours were spent trying to find them a house. Narrowing down the search shouldn’t seem that difficult but the specific area they were wanting to live in was a development built in the early 90s when apparently, carpeted bathrooms were a trend. At least for this developer anyway.
The clients were actually friends of mine too so the point of this story is no one really cares about your time more than you. So, focus on servicing your client’s needs and create an income through your results, not hours.
On the bright side, a couple of years later they were ready to purchase again and I was able to help them find a home that not only fit perfectly for what they needed but at less than half of their original budget too.
Being a Real Estate Agent is not a standard nine-to-five job.
Being a real estate agent often requires working nights and weekends, however, setting your own schedule absolutely has its own advantages. Accommodating your clients’ schedules is of course crucial, but you can also set your own hours too. Having the flexibility to run errands or take my kids to a park on a random Tuesday is extremely appealing and very important to me.
The point is real estate agents don’t have timesheets. It doesn’t pay to focus on how much time you’re spending on something – unless of course too much time is being spent on something that isn’t bearing results because then you need to evaluate and change tactics. Instead, focus on honing your skills. The more experience we gain the better, faster and more efficiently we can usually accomplish a task that creates better results.
A real estate agent profession is more along the lines of being an entrepreneur than an employee. Because again, real estate, just like all other entrepreneur or sales positions, is about results. Happy Selling!
