Are you in charge of your time or is someone else? 
I believe the most important part of your success in any business is to master this one area of owning your own time and the failure to do so will result in total burn out and an agent’s eventual demise in this business.
One of the Secrets of A Successful Real Estate Agents is:
*You work a normal work week or less with plenty of time off to be with your kids, husband, wife, significant other and friends. You have time to pursue other interests.*
I want to drive this point home to you. There are so many excuses that agents give me to not take time off. I do not know whoever started this big lie; that you have to available 24/7 for your clients. This is just not true. Some agents feel that they are servicing their clients by sacrificing all their time to them when in reality that very act causes agents to be inefficient and is actually a disservice to their clients. If you are currently working with clients who expect this from you than you need to change the clients you are attracting and you must set up a schedule. Now, this schedule is not set in concrete. Of course there will be times when you are not able to abide by your schedule due to the constraints of a situation. Realize that most circumstances in which you feel you have to be there 24/7 are ones that you have created yourself through your actions that others pick up and then form their expectations of you from.
Sit down with your planner this weekend. The first thing you schedule in is your one day off a week. We now take 2-3 days off or we mix up the time off like taking blocks of time off. Sometimes Nestor and I take different times off so one of is available but we always come together for one family day off. Our day of choice to always take off except for emergencies is Sunday. We go to Church on Sunday so it is nice to just have the rest of the day off so we can feed our spirits.
Now the next thing to schedule into your planner is your fitness program. Making a date with yourself to exercise helps you to keep up with your program. Then you write in your family activities that are important to you, like you child’s baseball games and such. If you are married, you write in a date night.
You will now schedule your “Hour Of Power”. This is your self development time. You can meditate, read uplifting books, write in your journal, say your affirmations, review your goals and dreams and any other activity that helps you to grow as a person. If you work more on yourself than you do on your business you will always be successful.
Now you are ready to get to work on your business appointments. The rest of the time in your planner is for appointments and real estate related activities such as your marketing and prospecting.
This one act alone sets the tone of your business. When you do this with your planner it is much easier to say “No” to prospects who will defile your time. It is hard to explain but the people who respect your time will start to come to you because you are respecting your time. Self Respect is felt by others and they respond by treating you with dignity. The ones that don’t will fade away because like attracts like.
Here is a real life example on how it just worked for me: ( I am only sharing the parts of the conversation that have to do with calls and showings)
I called a new buyer referral yesterday. I called him during my regular work hours. The time of your first initial call to a prospect is very important. It sets the example for what is an appropriate time to call you. It sets the tone for the rest of the relationship.
Then I ask him what days he has off, what hours he works. This gives me what I need to work with. If the only hours he has off to look at homes will be on my days off then I will refer him to another agent and earn a referral fee. This way I still make money but I do not compromise my values or my most precious commodity; time.
Now I listen. He tells me that he works from 2:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. then he usually goes home to go to sleep and wakes up at 5:00 p.m. and goes back to sleep at 9:00 p.m. until he goes to work again. He has Saturdays and Sundays off but he likes to spend those with his daughter who he only sees on the weekends. He is talking, I am listening. Without any interruption from me, he works his schedule for showings out by saying that he can look at homes right after he gets off of work around 2 p.m. That is perfect for me. He is a great match for me. We can do this.
Sidebar: Nestor and I are listing agents. We work with buyers by referral only and we make sure it is a good match. Buyers are much more time consuming than listings.
I then tell him that we have a home office and that he can email us with any questions or needs at any time. He can call us at our home office during work hours and on weekday evenings up until 9:00 p.m. This sets the boundaries. Also, when I disclose it is a home office our clients just do not call us late hours and during dinner, etc.
Notice that I did not jump into the conversation and say, “Oh I will show you homes whenever you want me to.” In other words, I did not hand over my control over my time to him. I see agents do this all the time, like they are afraid they will lose the client.
I have never ever had a client who would not use our services when I do this. I tell all my clients I go to Church on Sunday. The only exception I make to this rule is if I have an Orthodox Jewish client who is observing their Sabbath on Saturday and the only day they have to see homes is on Sunday. That rarely happens because my Jewish clients have other days during the week in which they can look at homes and they do not want to interfere with my Sabbath day either.
Time is the one thing that once it is spent, you can never get it back. It is gone forever once you spend it. Think carefully if each thing you are doing, each person you are working with is the wisest and best use of your time. You are only given so many minutes, hours, days and years so spend them wisely. I found that by asking myself, “ How is this serving me? “ helps to keep me on the right path for myself, my family and my clients.
Stay tuned for our next session of The Secrets of A Successful Real Estate Agent.
Copyright (C) by Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved * The Secrets Of A Successful Real Estate Agent*
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Call Nestor and Katerina Gasset for all of your referrals to West Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Lantana and Manalapan, Palm Beach County Florida at 561-753-0135.
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