My schedule is pretty much - up at 7 a.m. and do whatever until whenever.  

Ken - I work crazy hours.  Real estate is not really 9 to 5 job.  I talk real estate anywhere I go and I can be negotiating on the phone at night after 8 PM.  However when my manager tells us agents during office meetings that we have to be at the office 9 to 5, I resent it.  We are an independent contractor and we make our own hours.  If we are in the office, we don't make money.  We have to be on the road talking to people. 

We schedule our hours that we show or are in our office...otherwise you are right...we meet people all hours and are always talking real estate!

Ken.  The only Realtors that need a schedule are the ones that want to make more than $50,000 a year.  If a Realtor aspires to more, then they DO need a schedule  However, I speak of a schedule not so much in terms of hours and minutes on a dayplanner but in the organization of real estate activities.  I blogged last week on this exact subject (if you didn't read it Ken, our friendship is in jeopardy).

Most Realtors that work "ridiculous" hours only do so because they lack organization and have trouble focusing on productive real estate activities.

Hi Gary, Dimuria, Rosalinda (pretty rose) and Gary.  Thanks so much for commenting.

And I hope we can all remain friends:)

Ken

And Leonard, if that was A, B, C, and D time, I did read it last week.

Ken

Ken: I know that's one area I have to work on and make sure that I stick to my schedule. Thanks for the reminder.

There have been days I woke up with no appointments and in 5 minutes time everything changes and I am booked all day. Likewise I have woke up with a full day and in 5 minutesit all fell apart.

You have to be able to roll with it.

A schedule, no.  A routine yes. 

I work from home.  I get up, take the kids to school, come home and have my coffee.  I then watch Regis and Kelly and clean the house.  I hit my office at 10am and go at it. 

If it's slow or no showings, I look for a reason then to get busy.  I call my SOI, I write a card, hell I go as far as taking old marketing material to a bar and passing them out over a beer. 

Ken~You got it right. We love our business and don't think of it as "work" so we do it when the time is right.

Morning Ken,

The way I look at it, we are Realtors not line workers. I am at work all my waking hours. If someone ask a question of me I will do my best to answer it. That's how I am, it doesn't matter if the subject matter is personal or Real Estate related. I am happy to say 9 to 5 when out the window when I retired from my other life.

Hi Hal, Doug, Chad, Wendy, and Donna.  Thanks all for reading.

Keeping busy seems like the key.

Ken

Hi Ken,

One of the things I love about this business is I make my own schedule, I agree our everyday life revolves around real estate and it works for me. :)

Ken-I am a work anytime Realtor, as you are. Being in this business does allow us a certain amount of freedom, when needed. Being a single parent, it allowed me to be there for my children, and work from home if needed. I may work 7 days a week and it seems like 24 hours at a time, but then I can catch a much needed break if I choose as well. I could NO WAY work 9-5. (I guess it is all a mental thing, because most of us work more than 40 hours, but still consider it a "freedom" of sorts, because it is OUR decision to do it).

Hi Elizabeth and Suzanne.  Thanks for stopping by.

Ken

No i prefer to make my own. The 9 to 5 thing doesn't work for me also. I prefer to have appts start at 10 and work late. I see this was one reason i became an agent. Tired of the structure.

I'm with Chad...no schedule but yes to a routine. If you don't have anything planned for let's say Wednesday, decide what you should do on that day so its productive.

Hi Robert and LaNita.  Thanks for stopping by.

LaNita, I have been showing in your neck of the woods (Plainfield) a bit more lately!

Ken

hehe, hours? What are those? To me there aren't enough in the day to get everything accomplished. You think you got a rough job, try marketing yourself, taking every phone call, placing loans, processing loans, listening to whiney babies, talking to everyone and coordinating everyone and pray it's not already 7 p.m. I have had days where I have had loads of phone calls in a day and then had none. I love the phone calls, don't get me wrong, sometimes I wish people would just calm down. LOL I have caught myself up til 12 a.m. and trying to get work done so I didn't have to do it the next day since there aren't enough hours in the day. It's called focus and discipline everyone needs it, it's a matter of how you do it. Sometimes you just have to say no that day and yes the next!

i cant tell you how many times i have hit "dismiss all" on my outlook calender because something that was planned was bummed for something else, couldnt agree more with the group

I probably fall in the category needing more organization.  I do things as they happen flying as a free spirit in the wind.  I try to be available when I am needed but I watch the way that may seem to others.  You can't be available ALL THE TIME.

Ken - I love the freedom of real estate.  I work from home and set my own hours, hit the links while everyone else is at the office and work late into the night so that I can take advantage of a morning at the beach.  It's a good life.