what do realtors do all day between showings?

[Anonymous]

I will add that what you might think takes one phone call actually takes many.

For example, to schedule an inspection you have to find a time that works for you, inspector, buyer couple, seller (to be out of the house), and sellers agent if he/she insists on being there. Often you get some windows from the inspector, call around to everyone, wait for call backs, then call around or e-mail to confirm with everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will add that what you might think takes one phone call actually takes many.

For example, to schedule an inspection you have to find a time that works for you, inspector, buyer couple, seller (to be out of the house), and sellers agent if he/she insists on being there. Often you get some windows from the inspector, call around to everyone, wait for call backs, then call around or e-mail to confirm with everyone.

Right, but every other job also involves scheduling the equivalent (meetings/calls) with multiple people. Setting up one thing is a drop in the bucket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will add that what you might think takes one phone call actually takes many.

For example, to schedule an inspection you have to find a time that works for you, inspector, buyer couple, seller (to be out of the house), and sellers agent if he/she insists on being there. Often you get some windows from the inspector, call around to everyone, wait for call backs, then call around or e-mail to confirm with everyone.

Right, but every other job also involves scheduling the equivalent (meetings/calls) with multiple people. Setting up one thing is a drop in the bucket.

You have no idea.
While you are no doubt relaxing this evening @ 9:00pm, I am fielding calls/texts from an overwrought buyer who may not be able to close and emailing the lender to see if we can save her deal (that has been an exhausting 8 months in the making), another agent wanting to know about an item that I mentioned to them being against code in one of their houses that will come back to bite them down the road, a past client wanting referrals for work to be done on their new house, an upcoming client who wants to discuss all work to be done to prepare for the market, all while working on a 64 page relocation offer and communicating with myriad other people in various stages of preparing to buy/sell, buying/selling, etc.
I had a client drop me this summer because I could not show them houses on my daughter's birthday. I also had a walk-through that evening and for once, this was her day. Clients are fickle and many times we work without payment when things simply do not work out. We deal with emotions and finances and remodeling and advice and work and hope that everything comes together for clients who are counting on us. It's rewarding when we can make a plan come together and I love it despite the unusual hours and ultra-flexible (for everyone else) schedule.
Yes, some agents are terrible flakes and some are clueless. We work with them. I'd love to see more stringent rules for education and ethics.

What you see is so little of what an active agent does. I know we are loathed here, but the disrespect blows my mind. My clients appreciate that I am there for them whenever they need me, and I make things happen for them.
It's not just opening doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nap. Maybe blow up balloons.

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. I have a client who left her job as an associate at a high powered law firm when she had her fist child. After two months she called and asked about "shadowing" me for a week because she wanted to get into the flexible easy line of real estate sales. I did not want to allow it because it would bother me and slow me down. Because she was a good source of referrals, I agreed. She began at 8 am on a Monday and was in tears about 9:15 pm on the following Sunday she was exhausted and did not understand why I had to send a document to a client in Singapore so that it pulls be signed that night and save a deal. I suggested she leave

I dud not hear from her despite follow up calls. She finally called to tell me being a real estate agent did not suit her personality. She was returning to her firm

In real estate as in much of life, the 80/20 principle operates. 20 percent of agents do 80 percent of the business. For those agents long days are filled with a work which varies greatly and is often scheduled by the public for the last minute.

I am writing this post in front of the house belonging to ab elderly woman who just moved to her daughter's house in Front Royal. The daughter called me at 11:30 am today asking of I could meet her at 1:30 pm. Daughter is stuck on Rt 66 traffic so I wait. I made this meeting by rescheduling other activities. My last meeting tonight us at 8

I understand why the public perception is bad for agents. I have to work with them much more closely than you

I like what I do and my clients like and respect me. I wouldn't work this hard if I didn't like it and was well rewarded

Please join me at any time

You sound great, truly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. I have a client who left her job as an associate at a high powered law firm when she had her fist child. After two months she called and asked about "shadowing" me for a week because she wanted to get into the flexible easy line of real estate sales. I did not want to allow it because it would bother me and slow me down. Because she was a good source of referrals, I agreed. She began at 8 am on a Monday and was in tears about 9:15 pm on the following Sunday she was exhausted and did not understand why I had to send a document to a client in Singapore so that it pulls be signed that night and save a deal. I suggested she leave

I dud not hear from her despite follow up calls. She finally called to tell me being a real estate agent did not suit her personality. She was returning to her firm

In real estate as in much of life, the 80/20 principle operates. 20 percent of agents do 80 percent of the business. For those agents long days are filled with a work which varies greatly and is often scheduled by the public for the last minute.

I am writing this post in front of the house belonging to ab elderly woman who just moved to her daughter's house in Front Royal. The daughter called me at 11:30 am today asking of I could meet her at 1:30 pm. Daughter is stuck on Rt 66 traffic so I wait. I made this meeting by rescheduling other activities. My last meeting tonight us at 8

I understand why the public perception is bad for agents. I have to work with them much more closely than you

I like what I do and my clients like and respect me. I wouldn't work this hard if I didn't like it and was well rewarded

Please join me at any time

You sound great, truly.

Trying again. You do sound great, and like a true professional.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget you're not the only client. So, if a realator is juggling a few clients all in the different stages of buying/selling than, yea, there's a lot going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nap. Maybe blow up balloons.

lol

Really made me giggle too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nap. Maybe blow up balloons.

lol

Really made me giggle too

Thank you, I'm here all week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. I have a client who left her job as an associate at a high powered law firm when she had her fist child. After two months she called and asked about "shadowing" me for a week because she wanted to get into the flexible easy line of real estate sales. I did not want to allow it because it would bother me and slow me down. Because she was a good source of referrals, I agreed. She began at 8 am on a Monday and was in tears about 9:15 pm on the following Sunday she was exhausted and did not understand why I had to send a document to a client in Singapore so that it pulls be signed that night and save a deal. I suggested she leave

I dud not hear from her despite follow up calls. She finally called to tell me being a real estate agent did not suit her personality. She was returning to her firm

In real estate as in much of life, the 80/20 principle operates. 20 percent of agents do 80 percent of the business. For those agents long days are filled with a work which varies greatly and is often scheduled by the public for the last minute.

I am writing this post in front of the house belonging to ab elderly woman who just moved to her daughter's house in Front Royal. The daughter called me at 11:30 am today asking of I could meet her at 1:30 pm. Daughter is stuck on Rt 66 traffic so I wait. I made this meeting by rescheduling other activities. My last meeting tonight us at 8

I understand why the public perception is bad for agents. I have to work with them much more closely than you

I like what I do and my clients like and respect me. I wouldn't work this hard if I didn't like it and was well rewarded

Please join me at any time

OP here. This is a convincing post! It sounds like realtors like you do work very hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nap. Maybe blow up balloons.

lol

Really made me giggle too

Thank you, I'm here all week.

Maybe you should rethink that and go someplace you're wanted.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I find it hard to believe that a law firm associate was completely exhausted and overwhelmed by the stressful world of residential real estate. Just....no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I find it hard to believe that a law firm associate was completely exhausted and overwhelmed by the stressful world of residential real estate. Just....no.

Another agent and new to this thread.

I was going to comment last night but got distracted. (Working. Until 11:30 p.m.)

Anyway, I'm not surprised by this at all. We had a lawyer do the same thing, left her firm to join ours. She didn't make it a month. The things she needed to do to hustle and build up a business were too difficult for her and she went back to a steady paycheck.

It's not easy for sure. We do things that end up resulting in nothing - spending a lot of time on them. I've spent time searching with clients for 4-5 hours a week or so, for 7-8 months only to have them decide to stick to renting. That's 150 hours (almost 4 weeks of regular job time) of working without pay. I've had a client come in from out of town who needed to buy a house in the weekend and spent all day Fri/Sat and Sunday with her only to have her come back and do it again another weekend (which I cleared for her and pushed off other clients) and then she hijacked another weekend and tried to write an offer of $450,000 on a $600K house.

Rare is that slam dunk offer that someone looks at a few houses or goes out in one day and finds something.

I could go on and on. You just have no idea what we do until you actually step into our shoes and do it. I haven't had a vacation in a year and a half. This Christmas will mark 2 years. Last year I was looking at houses on Christmas Eve and New Years Day. Your life really isn't your own. I love it so I don't mind, but it's not just like we sit around all day doing nothing.

Today I have to go to a property and get it ready for pictures, clean it up, move some furniture around and make it as bright as possible on this cloudy day. Then the pics come in and I go through them and select the ones for a brochure, write that, send it off for processing, put the listing in the system, set up the open house times, confirm with clients that those times work, etc. It's just a shit ton of your own admin work. And I refuse to trust an admin I would hire because it's my own business and I can't let go of control like that because it's my reputation on the line.

[Anonymous]

^NP here but isn't it more likely the law firm associate decided that practicing law had more pecuniary rewards than being a realtor rather than being a realtor was too stressful as compared to being at a firm? To suggest it was stress rather than not being worth it financially is a little disingenuous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like realtors must have free time to sit around or sleep for 90 percent of their day. I imagine realtors should be working to identify potential buyers (or houses if not selling) and working the phones. But I feel like they just sit around waiting for buyers' agents to call them or waiting for their clients to find houses they want to look at online.

They hang out with the teachers who according to the other thread do nothing during their short 6 hour day.