A day in the life of a broker: Planting Seeds
Real estate can be a fulfilling and lucrative career, but at its heart, realtors are entrepreneurs. They are in business for themselves, and running your own business can be quite lonely. Many students and new agents ask me what the typical day in the life of a broker is, so I decided to write about it this week.
I see lots of people enter into a career in real estate with high hopes of HGTV days and fat bank accounts and fancy cars. Although this is sort of true in a few cases, the reality for most of us is much different.
Here’s a Snapshot of A Day in My Life
5:00 AM: Wake up time
I spend the first few minutes in bed going over my intentions for the day. I have tried to meditate, but I can’t seem to get the hang of it, so this works better for me. It is simply to remind myself of my purpose for the day. This helps me stay focused and on track. Today’s intention is to inspire and motivate my agents.
A couple of them are going through rough patches in their business, so I thought about them and how it felt to be a new agent and a little lost at times. My day is dedicated to supporting them and helping them get out of that rut. Then it’s out of bed to make the coffee and walk the dog.
5:30 AM: Sit down with coffee and work on this blog post
Sit down with coffee and work on this blog post. Keeping in line with motivating my agents, this post is meant to show them they aren’t alone and to give an example of how to structure their day so they can be productive.
6:15 AM: Shower and get ready for work
Shower and get ready for work. Out the door by 7. I got my routine down to 45 minutes by trimming it. I don’t wash my hair everyday and I lightened my makeup routine to about 7 minutes. Every moment counts, and several years ago I decided to get a no fuss hairstyle and get ready quickly because there are other things I would rather spend my time on.
7:05 AM: Arrive at the office.
Arrive at the office. I live really close to my office. I turn on the lights, water the plants and unpack my lunch. I bring lots of food because I love to eat all day (as you can tell if you look closely at my keyboard).
7:15 AM: Work on a presentation
Work on a presentation I am giving to a networking group in May. I have most of the outline done, but I need to polish it up so marketing can develop the power point in time.
8:00 AM: Pay some bills and go though my email.
Pay some bills and go though my email. Triage both of these. I skim through and do the most urgent first, since I have to leave the office at 8:50 to meet a home inspector.
9:00-9:30 AM
Meet a home inspector. He is one that I work with often, so I ask him to do the basement first. I want to be there for the most important part since I know I can’t stay. My buyer is an investor and he is not attending.
9:30 AM
Have my assistant accompany another one of my buyers on her home inspection across town since I have yet to figure out how to be in two places at one time.
9:45 AM
Head over to one of the condo buildings we manage to do a walk through with a contractor for needed repairs.
11:00 AM: Head back to the office
Head back to the office and make some phone calls on the way. I reach out to two people that I haven’t spoken to in a while. This is part of my daily routine of Touching 5, but not in a creepy way. I will get the other three once I get back to the office.
11:30 AM
Barrel through the office to the kitchen and shove food in my mouth at my desk while skimming my emails again. My team knows to stay away during this time in order to avoid seeing me hangry. Really, there is nothing pretty about this at all.
Noonish
I resurface and check in with my team to say hello and put out any fires. This next hour is pretty inefficient. It is a constant struggle for me to balance meeting their needs with staying focused. I find myself bouncing from one thing to another without feeling like I got much done.
1:00 PM: Meeting with a prospective new agent.
He seems like he might be a good fit for the team, so I invited him to our sales meeting on Wednesday. After that, we will discuss if this is the right fit for him.
1:30 PM: Checking on Deals
The next two hours are spent touching the other three form my five and checking in with my agents on deals and questions they have. I go through email again and work on some files that are in process. We do our own conveyancing here, so I take care of all of the missing documents without having to rely on anyone else.
3:30 PM: Clean Off Desk
I clean off my desk and make a list of what my plans are for the next day. I list the five people I want to touch and my seed planting activity for the day. For tomorrow I have two- put the (hopefully) finishing touches on my outline for the networking group and install the new spring window that we have been working on for weeks. Then I pack up and head out.
4:15 PM: Show a house to an investor
Show a house to an investor. He wants to write up an offer, so I tell him I will get to it this evening as soon as I get back to my computer. I call the listing agent to let him know it’s coming and then I go pick up my kids from practice.
5:15 PM: Arrive Early
I arrive 10 minutes early and check my email.
6:00 PM: Arrive home
Arrive home. They go play basketball and I write up the offer.
7:00 PM: Dinner
Dinner and unwind time.
8:30 PM: Submit offer
Submit offer. Do one last email check and shut down for the day.
One of the exciting aspects of a career in real estate is the freedom to set your own schedule, yet is also one of the most debilitating.
Most agents who fail do so because they do not structure their days to include enough “seed planting” activities. The activities I do to build my business may be different than yours, but the process is exactly the same. Even though I still work with a few buyers and sellers, my target clients are my agents. Blogging, presenting to networking groups and meeting with potential new agents are all seed planting activities for me. The rest is busy-work bullshit. It is work that has to be done, but the goal every single day is to concentrate my energy on seed planting first, and fill in the busy work later.
Seeds take time to grow, but plant some every day and be patient. Before you know it, it will be harvest time.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on efficient scheduling. Scroll past the related blog posts below to get to the comments section.
