As a newer real estate agent, it can be confusing to know where to start, especially if you're like me. My mind wanders and I make lists and then I think about how to do things better, faster, easier. And then the time has gone and I've accomplished little.
Whether you have a military background, a business background or a student background, the way you manage your time is often set by what you're most used to doing.
The business of real estate is not that complicated, once you're established, but in the beginning you won't have much in place, so you may find yourself scrambling to do a bt of everything.
Depending on where you've chosen to hang your license, some of the things you should be focused on may be dictated by your broker and the process and training they've set up for newer agents.
Unfortunately, I've found that much training is random, sloppy and not geared for someone who is very new.
If that's your case, like it was mine, you may find yourself a bit stressed and lost when it comes to building your business and creating a schedule for managing your time.
In real estate, there are two tracks of things that must be done to build your business and they are different types of work entirely.
The first type of business is what your broker will probably be training you on, which is how to generate new business, in short, SALES & MARKETING. Without this, you have no income or business. For many brokers, this entails cold calls, door knocking and lead buying.
The second order of business is more OPERATIONS. This is contracts, signs, working with banks and title companies, etc. Most brokers will train you on this after you've gotten a lead for a buyer or seller.
In my opinion, these are very broad segments and need to be distilled into smaller blocks of tasks and managed consistently.
These are the blocks of activity that you need to block time for so that you not only build an income, but build a roadmap for future success.
There are a variety of tasks that fall under each of these items and each need to be done. But how do you manage your time with all these things to do? Each day will be different, you've probably learned that by now, but everyone of these items needs to be done to keep moving forward and growing as a real estate agent.
Whether your broker/trainer dictates your time, or you're on your own, you need to block time for generating business, managing current deals, and building your business (branding, learning).
The number one thing to focus on is generating business. This is what is going to pay you and help you build a foundation to grow. While you're new, you're probably going to need to make phone calls and knock on doors. Your broker may give you leads, but more often than not, you're going to need to do what every good business owner does, go out and meet the people.
I'm not a morning person, and I can find a million reasons not to get on the phone, or knock on doors. But do it. Find a fairly consistent time that works for you where you're "On", upbeat, feeling good, thinking clear, and happy to be alive. You don't want to be syrupy when you talk to people, just positive. For me that starts around 10am and again in the afternoon.
TIME BLOCK #1 - Business Generation
Find your "on" time. Then block it out. Don't be doing 2 things, making plans, worrying about other things. This is your 2-3 hour block where you are going to dial or knock. It may take a while to figure this out but when you get it going, you'll find that as difficult as it might be for you, it will be a great time of learning and growing, as well as leads.
Once you've finished your new calls or door knocking, you can then follow up with your lead nurturing calls. These are calls where you're reaching out to people you've recently talked to but scheduled to call back in a few days or weeks to speak with again. If you never call them back, you'll lose them, so calling them back helps you build a relationship with them and get closer to a 'yes' or 'no' for working together.
TIME BLOCK #2 - Appointments
When you do this calling, you'll end up setting appointments. You'll time block this as well from 2-6pm perhaps. You'll be tempted to break this for people who are 'urgent', etc, but ultimately, you'll want to do your best to stick with it and only break it when a person is actually qualified and worth it.
TIME BLOCK #3 - Client Management
If you have clients and appointments, you'll need to block time to get documents created and sent out, get some preliminary comps or listing docs prepared for upcoming appts, do some research for buyers, set some auto search property emails, follow up on some status calls, etc. This is a time to move things forward and get the prep work done for meetings.
TIME BLOCK #4 - Business Building
You'll need to set a block of time out for building your business. This includes learning, continuing ed studying, branding, making flyers, postcards, researching lead sources, etc.
All this is important, but it's important long term. These are the tasks that are going to help you be a smarter and better agent, improve & expand your marketing, build in some automation tasks, setup website pages, etc. None is critical to your current income, but all of it is potentially critical in building up future business.
TIME BLOCK #5 - Planning and organizing yourself
This is short period and sometimes a few short periods during the day where you're planning your activities. You may make a list of items to remember to do for each of your time blocks or a list of things on your mind that need to get on paper so that your mind is clear and relaxed and you can sleep knowing you're not forgetting anything.
You may find that an appointment book and a 'to-do' list are good things to have and keep up-to-date. And finding ways to keep files organized, both paper and digital, will help you be organized.
The most important thing in the beginning is to be consistent and keep improving. It will all be hard and confusing and as you figure out what works and what needs improvement, you'll be able to adjust to make things better.
If you stop thinking of real estate as a job and think of it as a business, you'll find you are not just working, but building your business, or said by others, working IN your business and working ON your business.
Each day will be different. You've probably learned that by now, but everyone of these items needs to be done to keep moving your business forward. So figure out your time and you'll find your success is greater than those who don't manage their time.
