I have recently read a number of posts on Active Rain from members who have decided to only work M-F 9-5. While I don't envy those folks, as I am only in competition with myself and I never place any measure of self-worth in some defined and expected outcome, I truly don't see how this would work for the "majority" of REALTORS.
Case in point: My typical client has a full-time job, which normally is from 9-5pm, or in the case of medical professionals who may be surgeon, work 12-14 hour days, etc.. So...say I am working with a buyer who wants to see homes who can't break away from work easily and the only time they can see homes are in the evenings or most likely on the weekends. This probably defines 90% of my buyers in a given year. I don't have the financial luxury of hiring buyers agents so they can attend to these buyers needs.
With sellers, same thing. If a seller's employment prohibits them from easily leaving work, traveling 30-60 minutes back home, so they can meet with me who is only available during the day M-F 9-5, so a face-to-face is required to either review a purchase offer, review any matter of documents or issues, etc., how does this look to a seller who is actually paying us out of their own hard-earned money?
The 9-5ers say they acknowledge they will lose "some" business as a result of these decisions and they are okay with that.
While I always place my family time first, and make sure I am there close to 100% of time for important family and child functions (which isn't that hard with some planning), I would imagine that I would perhaps lose 75% or more of my business and the remaining business would not be well-served by my lack of flexibility in hours.
While buying or selling a home is not a life or death situation, it is one of the biggest stresses and financial decisions a person can make, and while some argue that lawyers and accountants don't work these kinds of crazy hours, my response is: If you find a "partner" in a law firm, how many hours do you think they work? I bet they miss much more family/child time than a typical REALTOR does. Try getting a hold of your tax/CPA during tax season. Do you honestly think they work 9-5? When the work is there, they work their tail off. A partner at a law firm has spent many hours getting to where they are and it wasn't by working 9-5.
If a REALTOR wants to provide exceptional and response service, unless they have built a team underneath them, which doesn't apply to 95% of agents, I truly wonder how they can do a serious volume of work under these constraints. If they only sell 5-10 homes per year, then perhaps this is possible. But if someone is working hard and working with many clients, I truly don't see how, no matter how time managed and organized an individual is, they can truly make this work and not be going 500 mph and provide exceptional service.
Comments(1)