Some on these pages, me included, offer various methods, systems if you prefer, to produce a larger and more reliable income in the real estate business. I have my way, others have theirs. The smart ones literally couldn’t care less how the other guy does it as long as the cat skins keep showin’ up on the wall. Oh, they may care enough to adopt others’ techniques, making it their own, but in the end, they care about puttin’ smiles on the faces of their wives and bankers. A lesson I learned from Grandma long ago — one of the most reliable gages of how well you’re doing at any given time is if both your banker and your wife are consistently happy to see you coming.
Let’s skip the M.O. today, and talk more on how your work week is really playing out. There it is, the room is now so quiet, you can’t hear yourself think above the din of the crickets. I’ve given, heard, made fun of, been shamed by, and shaken my head at the explanations given for so called ‘work weeks’ a myriad times.
It’s Thursday as I publish this, so it might be Friday or the weekend as you read it. Look back over your week, and honestly assess how many hours you spent ‘working’ for which you wouldn’t be embarrassed to charge more than $10. It’s my contention most full time real estate agents haven’t worked eight hours in one day doing what Dad used to call ‘actual productive, billable work’. One night at dinner he bluntly declared that the next time I work 40 billable hours in one work week would be the first. Ouch.
What agents do to avoid real nuts and bolts work need not be listed in detail here. I know what you do, because I did it. Constantly getting ready, getting ready to get ready, preparing, waiting for information, setting this or that new project up, blah blah blah. I’m convinced most never fully realize how much their words come out sounding like, ‘My dog ate my homework’.
You ever grow weary of hearing how Joe or Suzy work 60 hours weekly? Yeah, me too. Trust me, they don’t. They spend the time, but so much of it is simply not worth much more than $10/hour. If you don’t take anything else from this minor piece of fluff, take this:
I never became a big hitter until I realized what 40 hours a week of killer quality work was all about. I abhor the whole ‘work smart, not hard’ mantra, though I understand the genuinely good intent behind it. Wanna be a real world cleanup hitter?
String together an entire quarter of 40 hour weeks of very hard, very smart work. I promise you the epiphanies will flow, and the rest will take care of itself. Have a good one.
Keith Burkhardt says:
BG,
I was a “work smart” kinda guy when the market was “hot”, but times they have changed! It can be hard to put in 40 hours of billable work in this biz. But with the tough times I have been working harder than ever and it has really been paying off!
Before I sort of waited for things to happen. Now I have focused quite a bit of time/energy on web marketing/social media stuff,it’s really paying off in spades!
There’s another saying, heard Gary Player say this once;”The harder I work, the luckier I get”.
April 2, 2009 — 10:39 pm
Brian Brady says:
I think you’re actually being a task-master, Jeff. 16-20 FOCUSED hours per week would make a dramatic improvement in most agent and originators’ lives. The challenge is “where do you find the time?”.The solution is to make the time.
I’ll go for some BawldGuy knowledge. If I were a seasoned but underemployed agent, on which would you suggest I spent 15-20 hours per week?
April 3, 2009 — 8:13 am
Jeff Brown says:
Brian – Surely, if your daughter played T-Ball, you were the guy who put the ball on the Tee for the hitters. 🙂
If the agents are truly underperforming, 80% of those hours (100% would be much mo betta.) should be spent on hardcore prospecting. If every single person but one tells them to perform anatomically impossible acts in new and inventive ways, they’ll have a new client a week. If they kept that up 48 weeks, and only had a .333 batting average, they’d have closed 16 extra transactions. If the price point was just $200K/deal @3%, their bank account would be up just under $100K.
How would you have them use those hours?
April 3, 2009 — 9:59 am
Jeff Brown says:
Keith — You’ve discovered for yourself what really matters. One of the lessons I was taught was to observe the family farmer. Of all the workers in the world, they may be the best models for prioritizing, and working their plan.
Their rewards, sans acts of God, are in direct, predictable proportion to doing the right things at the right time, year by year, month by month, even hour by hour. I like the way Brian put it — Focused hours.
April 3, 2009 — 10:05 am
Rob Chipman says:
Jeff:
Nice focus on the obvious! “The next time you out in a 40 hour week will be the first”- I’m still laughing. You motivated me to do some real work… 🙂
April 3, 2009 — 11:37 am
Jeff Brown says:
You’d think it was obvious, but going only by what we can all easily observe, it’s apparently about as clear as mud for most folks. 🙂
April 3, 2009 — 11:41 am
Matthew Hardy says:
What the hell am I doin’ reading this! I should be working!
😉
April 3, 2009 — 4:53 pm
Brian Brady says:
“How would you have them use those hours?”
The answer is…prospecting, of course. Prospecting is the most inefficient, de-leveraged way to get business…
…that works (and works quickly). If sales people spent just 3 hours a day…HARD hours, prospecting, they’d hit the numbers you set.
April 3, 2009 — 5:22 pm
Mortgage Cicerone says:
Bawld Guy provides truly clarion advice AGAIN for both experienced and newbies!
April 4, 2009 — 7:52 am
Tom Vanderwell says:
Jeff,
You rock.
Tom
April 4, 2009 — 10:15 am
Sean Purcell says:
Jeff, well said (as usual). Sometimes respecting the content of your hours begins by recognizing the hours themselves. Not too long ago an agent and I were talking about his lack of success since the market turned from order takers to an actual j-o-b. We both agreed that some set number of hours per day should be spent marketing.
Hoping to lead him down the path of time blocking, I asked him to describe – in a perfect world – how he would set up his day to achieve super star status. He replied, “Oh that’s easy. Marketing is a priority and it would come first. The day would go like this: hour one – 10 to 11 am, I would…” I had to turn away I was laughing so hard.
The movers and shakers that I’ve been lucky enough to meet generally had at least this one thing in common: their big deals and negotiations were already done by 10:00 am.
April 4, 2009 — 4:45 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Sean — You have some of the best stories. Bottom line, do the work, get the results.
April 5, 2009 — 10:13 am
Teri Lussier says:
Focus is simple, but it ain’t easy, although it gets easier every week. I just do what I gotta do and it gets done.
April 6, 2009 — 6:29 am
Tom Vanderwell says:
Hey Jeff, Sean, Teri and the rest….
Here’s a related topic that I’d like your input on. How do you balance the “maintenance” of clients with the need for marketing time?
You know what I mean, the seller who calls or e-mails 3 times a day? The buyer who wants to look at 50% of the 12 months worth of inventory “in case there is something better?”
In these disconcerting times, how do you balance those issues and the time that takes with the need for business development efforts?
I can pretty much guarantee you that all of the lenders out there who are good enough to take the time to hang out here are also struggling with balancing the maintenance that it takes to keep very nervous customers happy with the need to generate future business.
I’ve got my own ideas but I’d love to tap into the collective wisdom of the hounds…..
Tom
April 6, 2009 — 7:29 pm
Jeff Brown says:
That’s one of those questions with which we all must struggle as the lines of time and tasks cross.
Speaking for myself, it’s always been a matter of maintaining all the sections of the pipeline. I don’t mess with pains in the ass. I know how this comes off, but bottom line, if they insist on wasting my time based upon their belief they know more than I’ve forgotten, I show them the door — with a smile, and a lollipop. 🙂
Frankly, I’ve never understood the agents/lenders who’re always so proud of a closing for a client who did as you described. Meanwhile, agents for whom time has value, closed 2-3 in the same time.
I’ll assume an assistant is out of the question here, due to the market. Maybe you’d be interested in what I learned from one of Dad’s best buds. For the last couple decades, whenever I get a diva as a client, I will often refer them to a total pain in the ass. Look out it works out.
I now have my schedule back; the client is happy to be with someone who’ll deal with them, and who I’ve endorsed; I get the added entertainment of collecting a referral fee while watching someone I don’t like get his time wasted while paying me for the privilege. I actually had one local broker ask me very nicely not to ever refer anyone to him again.
Sometimes ya just hafta make lemonade outa lemons. 🙂
Of course, the best of all worlds is when I can refer them to someone I really like. But that’s not half the fun.
I know this all sounds harsh, but after a few years of putting up with time thieves who think it’s their birthright to question everything you say, you’ll adopt this approach. It costs too much money to mess with those folks. It’s especially galling when they can’t carry your professional jock. Explaining everything in rich detail is one thing, and is my policy — as it should be. Having every single thing you say challenged though is when the line gets crossed.
Make sense?
April 6, 2009 — 8:04 pm
Tom Vanderwell says:
Jeff,
As always, rock solid advice for the major time sucking clients. But what about the normal every day, non-overbearing type? They still need attention but how do you keep that from overrunning the rest of the important stuff?
Does that make sense?
Tom
April 6, 2009 — 8:42 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Tom-
What Jeff said. I don’t hesitate to refer people out- was referring more than I was taking at the end of last year. Yes, I’m fortunate to be in that position- I understand that is not the norm.
One thing I’ve honed from BHB is how to be brutally honest, which means I tend to attract those folks who want to work with me because I’m me. Greg calls these people self-selected volunteers. I call it prescreening clients. Jeff might call it skinned cats. 🙂
April 7, 2009 — 5:49 am
Teri Lussier says:
One other thing- I’ll sleep when I’m dead?
I love to work hard. ::shrug::
April 7, 2009 — 5:51 am
Tom Vanderwell says:
Teri,
The brutally honest part is something I’ve learned and refined here as well. I’m telling clients things now that I’ve never told them before. And business is up in a down market, so I guess that’s not a bad thing.
I’m just looking to try to glean some wisdom from others. There has to be ways to make sure that the details of work don’t overrun the big picture items.
Tom
April 7, 2009 — 6:30 am
Jeff Brown says:
Tom — The answer to your last query is a post. Thanks
April 7, 2009 — 10:06 am
Sean Purcell says:
Tom,
How do you balance the “maintenance” of clients with the need for marketing time?
You don’t.
I know that sounds flippant, but the two do not balance. One is an absolute necessity, like breathing, and the other is something you do as part of your job – for now. They trully are that far apart in importance.
Marketing is the life blood of your business. It must be done consistently and as if your very income depended on it… because it does. Every day from 9-11 I do XY&Z marketing. Nothing interrupts it. This appointment with myself and my marketing is more important than even a client meeting. The former pays me every month, the latter pays me once (well… hopefully more with referrals, but you get my drift). Maintaining clients is a matter of managing expectations and creating a schedule you and they can abide; eventually it is something you delegate to your buyers’ agent, assitant or whomever.
E.g.
“Hi Mr. Client, before we start your home search, I want to tell you just how important you are to me. I’m pretty selective about who I work with, just as you’ve been careful in selecting me. I know we are going to find the right home for you and I am personally setting aside every Tuesday afternoon AND Thursday evening to view homes until we do. In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you there are agents out there who have lots more free time, if you know what I mean. If you’re not as interested in a dedicated professional as you are someone who can hop seven days a week to look at homes you’ve found on the internet, I’ll give you some good names. I guess it’s similar to that old two-restaurant story: one has a full parking lot and possibly even a wait to get seated. The other place is empty. If you’re looking for a great dinner, if you’re going to invest more money in a dinner than you’ve ever invested in anything else in your life, which restaurant do you choose?”
April 7, 2009 — 11:13 am
Annie Maloney says:
This is a great topic. One that currently dictates whether you are working real estate or real estate is working you. The latter is common place in many offices now and thus the reason that their doors are closing. Adapt and change, adapt and change, or die…..
April 9, 2009 — 9:08 am