6 Very Powerful Time Management Tips For Real Estate Agents
Let’s face it. Time Management for Real Estate Agents is one of the most neglected areas of their real estate business.
This no longer needs to be an issue for you. Below you will find 6 very powerful Time Management Tips for Real Estate agents to 10X your business.
These time management tips are not only for real estate agents but for real estate brokers, secretaries, administrative assistants, buyer’s agents and all others who may be part of your real estate team.
I’ve followed these six simple time management tips for all of my businesses. These were written and implemented by a man named Chet Holmes who wrote The Ultimate Sales Machine. Let’s dive in!
#1 – Touch It Once
Chet explains it is imperative to touch a task one time and one time only. Let’s take a simple example. You get an email with a subject line “Home Inspection Issues For 123 Maple Rd.” Yeah, the dreaded email you will get when listing and selling real estate.
At the time you review the subject line, before even opening that email, I you prepared to deal with it in its entirety right then and there? If not, leave it be until you are ready. By opening the email and checking it out will only distract you from the task that you have at hand. The behavior of distraction will only limit your effectiveness and efficiency as a real estate agent.
So… Touch it one. Deal with it when you are ready and dedicated time to handle the task at hand.
** Quick tip that Chet brought up that has worked extremely well is to ensure any employees, staff, fellow agents and even clients abide by the email subject rule.
Which is anytime someone emails you, the subject line has to be clear and specific. If we don’t have a good understanding of that item that we cannot effectively touch it once as we will have to open it up, dissect it and then figure if we will handle that task at hand then and there.
#2 – I’ve Got A List For That
Over the years, my sister and I were big believers in utilizing lists to ensure we were effective day to day in our real estate activities.
Lists help you focus on high priority matters and will immediately make you more productive.
Chet explains the key is to limit this list into six important tasks each day.
You can absolutely have a running “side” list as well to ensure you are fulfilling your daily list off of that as well.
But be sure your day is comprised of only 6 most important items. If a list is too long, psychologically you will defeat yourself as you will not feel accomplished. These six items should be achievable with the ability to be completed that day.
This is why time management is so crucial in your real estate career. How many times have you had a list and only achieve a small handful of what you needed to do that day?
Well, what happened? What distracted you?
#3 – Time For Tasks
Plan to allocate how much time you will allocate for each task and input into your schedule. For example: Follow Up Calls – 8am-9am. Do the follow-up calls for this time period and have certain discipline.
Do not allow another phone call or email to disrupt this 1 hour of follow up calls. Be realistic as well on how much time it will take you to complete each task.
And… If the task is that of a major time suck, then prepare to break up that 3-hour task into 3 separate days. Your six tasks should take approximately 6 hours.
#4 – Plan The Day Ahead Of Time
It is suggested to plan the six tasks above as well as other items such as checking emails the day/night before.
This way you are walking into your office ready to go without any delay or hesitation.
#5 – Prioritize
Most people will have the most amount of energy in the morning or beginning portion of their day. Check out our article on setting up your morning for success! Life changer for sure!
This is when you have more creative ability and your brain is working at full tilt. So concentrate your first couple of tasks that are most important AND more importantly the most productive.
Have you ever felt “really busy” but to end up not feeling like you got anything accomplished for the day?
This is a common effect especially with real estate agents and their time management skills, or lack thereof.
Concentrate 80% of your time on tasks that produce and 20% on everything else.
Consider writing down the items that are productive in your real estate business. Let’s face it, we can probably spend half of our day filtering through senseless emails. For what? Did we make another real estate sale? Did we add another prospective buyer? Did we land a listing appointment?
I see too many real estate agents not only have poor time management skills but just simply don’t know what to do with their time.
Filter through this site as you will find many articles on many ways to market and get productive!
#6 – Toss It!
I take a lot of pride in keeping a clean working environment. If there is something on my desk or in my email, I will ask do I really need it? Is this “thing” hurting my time management?
It feels great when my inbox is completely cleared out. If there is something in there, it means I have to deal with it. But there are certain things we can just toss.
That stack of paper you printed out 3 weeks ago of articles that you intended on reading. Still sitting there? Toss them. Or bring them home for leisure reading.
The distractions we have in our lives are incredibly powerful in hurting your time management as a real estate agent.
What Are You Doing With Your Time?
So, what are you actually doing with your time as a real estate agent?
If you are a veteran agent you should spend at least 1-2 hours of lead follow up and at least 1-2 hours of prospecting new clients.
If you are a new agent, you should spend at least 4 hours a day prospecting. What else are you doing? Prospecting is single handed the fastest way to make money in real estate.
And without spending much money….
This Is Sales…
Remember you are in sales. You are a “Salesperson.” You have elected to get your real estate sales license – By the way, a great school is Real Estate Express who have high pass rates for online schooling! Check it out if you are going for your real estate license, brokers or even continuing education.
But keep this in mind. Let’s say you were hired to be a sales representative for a corporation and getting paid a salary. This salary was to drum up new clients.
If you didn’t make the necessary calls. Have the necessary meetings or lunches. Didn’t do the necessary follow up, what would happen? You would have limited results and likely will get fired.
Complacency Kills Revenue
By creating a disciplined and being very time efficient as a real estate agent, you will have no time to be complacent. There is something always to do next that you have to complete.
Follow the process. The moment you allow complacency to infiltrate your business and life, there will be 100 other local REALTORS there to pick up your crumbs.
Time Is Finite
And lastly… You are not going to live forever. Time is finite and we must be smart with it.
I can run circles around 70% of local agents in a 3 hour period over what they will do in a full day.
I’ve learned to implement these time management skills daily and have reaped the rewards. I’ve been able to utilize time so wisely that I am fortunate enough to have a lot of free time (if I wish to have it).
My goal was to achieve financial freedom as quickly as I could. PS – Read this article on How To Retire in 7 Years. Get your money right! It isn’t about how much money you make. Rather… How much you keep!
This kind of mentality help to get me to where I am at today. And if I had to simplify it… Be wise with Time & Money.
“Money – It isn’t about how much money you make…. Rather, how much you keep.”
“Time – If you ever lost someone you loved you likely will have a better understanding of the importance of time.”
So do yourself a favor. Grind out for the next 5-10 years. Be efficient with your time. Invest your money in assets and not liabilities. And you will have plenty of time to spend with those who you love.
What Do You Want?
To conclude. Time is ticking. What do you want? Print or draw a picture of it. Post it where you will see it every day. Obsess over it. It will become a reality one day.
Just how quickly that is, will be up to your time management skills.
Much luck! By the way. Want to read the details of Chet’s time management plan for real estate agents and sales people in general, check out his book below. It is worth the read!
