REAL ESTATE AGENTS ASSIST PEOPLE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF BUYING, SELLING AND RENTING HOMES, APARTMENTS, OFFICES AND OTHER PROPERTIES. IN ADDITION TO STAYING CURRENT WITH REAL ESTATE REGULATIONS AND TRENDS, THEY ARE TASKED WITH A MULTITUDE OF DAILY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. HERE’S A LOOK AT ONE DAY IN A REAL ESTATE AGENT’S LIFE.
7:00 am: Wake up. Check phone. See 12 messages from buyers and sellers asking if I think we’re in a buyer’s or a seller’s market.
7:30: Morning coffee. Pretend to work out while read- ing emails.
8:00: Review schedule for the day. Make a to-do list of things that I didn’t get to yesterday.
8:30: See what’s trending on Instagram and try to copy it. Set up ads stories to post.
9:00: Show a house that can only be shown during the 15 minutes after the homeowner’s kids are gone, but before the buyer must be at work. Promise to answer the buyer’s 36 questions by noon.
9:30: List apartment, trying to decide if “fixer-upper” is too much of a red flag to buyers. Decide “handyman’s dream” sounds better.
10:00: Company Zoom meeting. Wonder if it’s obvi- ous I’m trying to check my phone every 10 seconds.
11:00 Meet photographer to photograph new listing. Realize I’d sold the same house five years ago and wonder why the new owner thought a leopard print sofa looked good in the den.
11:30: Meet with an appraiser who asks me what I think the property is worth. I tell him a lot more than he’s probably going to tell me.
12:00: Run back to the office for a meeting with a seller’s grandmother who is actually the true owner of the home that he wants to sell. Find out the seller wants me to
break the news to grandma that she wants to sell. Find out grandma only speaks Polish.
12.30: Compose email blasts for the week, wondering if anyone actually reads their emails these days.
1:00: Meet home inspector at the home. Spend fifteen minutes before with the seller explaining the buyer is run- ning late because they thought they placed an offer on a different house.
1:15: Explain to the seller why the buyer is back there for the 19th time and why he has a partner with him wear- ing a flashlight on his head and a clipboard in his hand.
1:00-2:30: Go up and down the stairs with the home inspector and buyer six times making sure to cover every inch of the home, even the ones we can’t see. Convince seller this is normal.
2:30: Follow up on current in contract deals. Find out six pages were somehow deleted from the last five contracts that went out. Try to figure out how to edit a contract on my phone.
3:00: Run to show another house that can only be shown after the baby awakes from his nap but before older children arrive home from school.
3:30: Sit in my car checking emails while waiting for the next buyer to arrive to show the house, again. Show the house to second buyer who wants to know how difficult it would be to put a pool in the back yard. Point out there’s no back yard. Realize the buyer is at the wrong house.
4:00: Another Zoom meeting.
4:30: Review and present all offers to the owner from Sunday’s open house. Hit “send” and realize I never answered the earlier buyer’s 36 questions. Send an email saying I’m waiting to hear back from someone else.
5:00: Run out to show 3 apartments before heading home to cook dinner.
6:00: Pull into the driveway at home and realize I didn’t buy the chicken I intended to cook for dinner. Go in and tell husband he forgot to pick up the chicken.
8:00: 2 showings. Potential buyers run late and walk through the house together, sizing up their competition, try- ing to discourage anyone else from being interested.
9:00: Meet with a buyer and seller to go over the home inspection report. Convince buyer he can easily replace the broken circa 1920 aqua blue, fish-shaped tiles in the bathroom, although I have no idea where you’d find them. 10:00: Spend 15 minutes on the phone calming down
the seller who is wondering why the buyer hasn’t yet signed a contract that went out this morning. Hang up and realize the contract didn’t go out, yet.
11:00: Review comp reports from the day. Think there’s no way that house down the street with the hole in the roof sold for as much as the report says.
12:00: Write up descriptions on new listings. Come up with six new ways to say “fantastic opportunity”.
1:00: Write an article for next month’s IMAGE. Pick up the latest issue and look at my article from last month.
2:00: Read and answer additional emails. Finally respond to earlier buyer’s 36 questions. The buyer responds immediately saying he has a few more questions and needs them answered ASAP.
3:00: Review surveys of properties that are due to go for inspection.
4:00: Set up new listings onto 200 websites to be ready for launching. Wonder if I need to double-check addresses and descriptions. Decide to let sellers call me about any mistakes.
5:00: Review current guidelines and updates from multiple listing services and wonder why other realtors have the same exclusive I do.
6:15: Set alarm for 7:00.