One concept that has been written about widely in real estate blogs is the concept of transparency - the idea of making the business of real estate less secretive and more open to the consumer. There is even a very good blog dedicated solely to this subject - TransparentRE.com. The internet has facilitated this through the rapid and inexpensive dissemination of information. Blogging communities such as ActiveRain talk openly about real estate although there is the ability to hide certain posts from the general public if you so choose. But you don't have to be an agent to join. And once you do join, you can get information on a wide range of topics such as commissions, dual agency, ethics, etc.
This series of posts will be be dedicated to making the daily life of a full-time agent as transparent as possible over the course of the next sixty days. I will let you know exactly what I do every day for the next two months. I will try and be as transparent as possible. I will answer all comments immediately. I will respond to any requests for more information as quickly as possible. You will know what a full-time real estate agent does each day. You will see what an agent makes, how they get leads, what they spend money on and what else they do besides real estate. It will be very transparent.
I hope you find it interesting. Here goes...
DAY 1 - Sunday March 4, 2007
Today is Sunday and I was supposed to be off today however, another agent called and asked if I would cover her shift. There are only six agents on our team so it will not be easy for her to get her shift covered especially if the other agents are showing property or otherwise working with clients. I agree to cover the 3pm to 6pm shift, which is where I am right now.
The reason I agreed to cover the shift is two-fold. It will force me to focus on writing this post. I have been thinking about doing it for several weeks, but keep putting it off. I have been extremely busy and productive the first two months of the year. And that is the other reason I wanted to take the shift. When things are going good, when business is brisk, I don't want to lose momentum. Maybe I am superstitious, but after the horrible end of year I had last year, I am not taking anything for granted.
I write two different blogs, this one and another that is specific to my marketing area. It is easier to write that blog because more of what I do on a daily basis applies to that blog. Things like how the market is doing, what is selling, local market trends, etc.
I sold my second listing of the week and 10th of the year yesterday. It took me three price adjustments (that's agent talk for lowering the price) over 124 days to get them to the right listing price. They were sure it would sell for at least $550,000. After 3 contracts we finally got it sold at $492,000. All three contracts came in at the same price, but the sellers finally realized that maybe their house was in fact worth about $490,000.
I received a ridiculous call from another seller whose house I sold 3 weeks ago. They have relocated to Rhode Island and came down this week to fix the items on the home inspection report. The wife called me from her house to complain that I didn't make sure the thermostat was not tampered with. It was set at 75 degrees and it was going to cost them a lot to heat the house. I had explained earlier to the husband that it was not possible to continuously monitor their thermostat, but we would check on it once a week. I also explained to her that I told her husband we are not a management company, but we could put them in touch with one that would monitor their house. They are very cheap so I knew they wouldn't get someone to do it.
I also knew that the husband doesn't tell the wife anything. Most of the time I tell both parties separately, but in this case the wife was not an owner of the house so I did not. I asked her if her husband had mentioned this and she got very quiet. She told me how unprofessional I was and hung up on me.
About once every 6 months I get a client that is so completely out of touch with reality or so completely miserable that I wish I never met them.
The shift has been very quiet. Only one phone call in 2 hours. I did receive one lead from the internet. It came in from one of our listings that we have on 20+ websites. This is the primary source of buyer leads for us. I will send her a link to these blogs as well as a group of listings that are similar to the one she requested information on. It takes an internet lead on average 6 months to actually respond to me, but once they do they are pretty much ready to buy or sell immediately.
I just finished writing a post on Loudoun Stats about a new blog on Washingtonpost.com. The author of the blog put us on her blog roll which is pretty exciting. I'm getting a lot done on the blogging front today which is good because the shift is almost over and the phones haven't rang and only one other lead came in online and it was a bogus email address.
It's 6pm and I'm off to have a nice dinner.
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