As a real estate agent, it's more than common to work the entire day and yet end up not having the prioritized task completed. There are countless things to tackle in a day, and by the end of the day, you'll feel like you haven't even nearly finished the high-priority and valued task you wanted to complete before.
In the fast-evolving pace of the real estate industry, even a minor hiccup, like an unexpected request for a showing, can derail your plans for the day. Hence, creating the best real estate agent daily schedule is essential for getting through most days smoothly.
In this article, we'll take you through seven important things to remember before setting a schedule as a real estate agent and share a sample schedule on how to plan out your working hours.
While it's essential to have a daily schedule as a real estate agent, the first question that may arise in your mind can be how to get started with it. If that's the case, here are some points to keep in mind before you set a schedule:
The first step to setting a successful real estate agent daily schedule is starting at the end and working your way backward. This means that you first need to understand what are your end goals. For example,
Discipline comes with holding the patience to follow a fixed routine. It's said that what you do as soon you wake up and get out of bed matters the most in setting the tone for your entire day. To make a successful real estate agent daily schedule, ensure you set the stage for success with a morning routine that gets you going.
So, whether it is a peaceful morning jog or a strong cup of caffeine, do everything that helps you take time out before beginning to work. This way, you will feel more energetic, focused, and confident throughout the day.
Some things cannot be stalled as they really get the needle moving for your business. Such tasks should be given priority and done before. So, if you're scheduling for the day, include those tasks to do in the morning, and if you're sitting for weekly planning, make sure you cover them at the beginning of the week.
One such example of a task that needs to be prioritized as a real estate agent is developing warm relationships with your clients. Most of the new real estate agents don't think that focusing on building a relationship with a client is important, while the experienced ones know how necessary that is. It's essential to maintain a good relationship with someone who will sell their house as you don’t want to risk losing them for the lack of communication.
Keep a dedicated slot for fixing meetings with potential clients by answering their queries genuinely; for your existing clients, keep them updated with the status of their property.
As mentioned earlier, it's important to maintain a great relationship with your client, but lead generation is also necessary to prioritize for creating an effective real estate agent daily schedule. Generating leads should be the first thing you dive into in the morning to ensure you have a ready flow of clients to make your business successful.
Running from one task to another without a set time assigned to each task is tempting since you can keep a bit of flexibility in your routine. But it's not an effective method. Try blocking a similar task in the same set of times to make everything easier to handle.
For example, assign a particular time for regular tasks like answering emails, attending meetings, and generating leads. If you have two-three client calls to attend during the day, don’t schedule them at different times of the day. Try to squeeze them in one after the other. This way, you won’t have to switch between highly different tasks like creating a marketing campaign, attending calls, answering emails, and then returning to work on the campaign
The biggest secret to a successful real estate career has always been strong networking. The real estate business is based on making connections and letting people know you are an agent, in fact, a good agent in the industry. Hence, making some time for networking is necessary.
This means grabbing every opportunity to connect to more people outside your clientele and social circle. Almost everyone you meet will have a property to sell, a house to buy, or know someone who is searching for an agent to help them sell or buy their property. So, attend real estate events to meet several potential clients. Furthermore, try to expand your reach online from your social media and try to reach out to anyone who wants to buy or sell a property.
While it's important to follow your schedule to build discipline and get successful in the long run, it's also not practical for you to stick to the routine rigidly. This means that while you may have time blocked to attend one call after the other, on some days, it won’t be possible. So, it's better to be flexible in your ways. But this does not mean not fighting to stay on a schedule.
The biggest mistake a successful real estate agent makes in their daily schedule is failing to try to stick to their schedule. The key formula here is to stay somewhere in the middle – no rigidness and no careless attitude – in between where you have a flexible schedule and the will to get back on track.
Having your business and working for your own self is liberating and gives you the freedom to take control of your life on your own terms, but it also comes with certain drawbacks. One of them is not being able to set time limits for working. This could lead to overworking and ultimately exhausting yourself in the long run.
To avoid this, set a time for when you'll begin your work and clock out of it, like an employee. Try to start working by 8 am or 9 am as it helps you become more efficient.
Things change quickly in the real estate industry based on personal and business goals with the ever-changing dynamics of the economy. And if you are willing to see hardcore results, it's about time you start treating your job as a business, not a hobby.
Below is a sample of how ideally a real estate agent's day should look like. With this sample real estate agent daily schedule, we hope you get an idea of how to plan your day and adjust the timetable according to your needs.
The first step to setting a successful real estate agent schedule is approaching the morning by energizing yourself in the right way! How you approach the day mentally is how you'll spend your day. So, count the morning as a kickstart to an awesome day.
We recommend you set a morning routine. It could be anything – working out in the morning, journaling, planning your day, writing affirmations, praying, reading a book, or meditating. Add to it your personal responsibilities, like feeding your pet, taking the trash out, walking the dog, cleaning up the house, or dropping your kids at school.
Preparing yourself for generating leads is the next step to pushing your day forward. This includes sitting down with your planner or assistant and reviewing every objective of the day. Get your list of the leads you have gathered and skim through them, prepare your script, and contact them through different channels like social media, emails, or calls.
Try to sharpen your skills and update your industry knowledge in this hour of your real estate agent schedule. Scan new market listings through MLS and keep track of what's happening in the industry. Create neighborhood hot sheets and go ahead to track the homes that are on sale in different areas.
Make good use of this time to improve your industry knowledge by reading emails, newspapers, and social media and scanning the real estate industry experts to understand any changes in the sector. Also, try to enhance your conversation skills by working on handling objections, answering queries, reaching out to FSBO sellers, and preparing a set template for talking to clients.
While the schedule of a real estate agent might be complex and tight, some tasks are simply unavoidable. This includes prospecting (lead generation). And although this is an important task that keeps your business alive in the long run, most new real estate agents tend to cut it off from their schedule, which is not ideal to do.
Spend some good 90 minutes prospecting. This will also help you hone your conversational skills and overcome the fear of talking on a phone.
Dedicate an hour to your administrative tasks such as checking the transactions and paperwork, holding property searches, recruiting, replying to emails, and uploading listings. Use this hour to also follow up on the vendors and your leads to ensure they don't go away due to delayed response.
As a real estate agent, you are never really on a break, but this can lead to mental and physical exhaustion. So, take an hour from your real estate agent schedule and get some much-needed "me time".
Take this one-hour slot and catch up with your friends for lunch, or use it to network with other agents or affiliate partners in related industries like insurance or mortgage. You can even use it to unwind and relax by walking or swimming.
Use this time to block schedule your appointments and make listing presentations. And if you're a new agent who doesn't have more than two to three appointments with the client daily, make sure you use this valuable time for prospecting.
For listing presentations, if you're new to it and want help in creating some good listing presentations that will help you close deals, check out our blog, where we share expert tips and tricks to help you create the ultimate real estate listing presentation.
Another important task to add to your real estate agent schedule is building your brand by marketing yourself through different mediums like blogs, social media, videos, and more. Incorporate traditional marketing methods as well, like billboards, door hangers, networking, referrals, direct mail, business cards, newspaper ads, and more.
If marketing isn't your strongest point, but you want to stand out from the crowd to create a strong brand presence, check our comprehensive realtor branding guide to help you elevate your brand in the competitive world of real estate.
At this end hour, review your day. Track everything you did for the day and your appointments to ensure you are on the right pace to reach your goals. Wrap up for the day by updating the listings and preparing the schedule for the next day. Make a to-do list for the next day by identifying what is left to do and what should be prioritized to get you going.
The schedule of a real estate agent can be exhausting, and sometimes you may even lose track of time and find yourself overworking. Hence, it's essential to maintain a work-life balance. Make sure you include the time in your schedule. Wrap up your work, go home to spend time with your family and enjoy your dinner.
Relax and unwind for the day by devoting some time to yourself. Focus on your hobby, meditate, read a book, or spend some quality time with your partner.
Finally, this last step in your real estate agent schedule is an important step that shouldn't be compromised. Get a good night's sleep to recharge for an energetic new day filled with adventure and opportunities!
While a typical schedule of a real estate agent is bound to consist of some changes depending on their clients and duties, a real estate agent daily schedule becomes successful only when there's consistency in following it daily. Make sure you are flexible in your schedule but also hold the will to be constant.
Most real estate agents work about 30 to 50 hours every week, sometimes on weekends and out of working hours, depending on the number of clients or the properties to show or sell.
This may differ for real estate agents, depending on their clients and years of experience, but a successful real estate agent's daily schedule mostly includes working on the following points:
A real estate agent primarily works round the clock because weekends and nights are prime timings for showing properties around. But by following a proper real estate agent schedule, you will become more efficient in working and lower wasting hours.
According to a statistic, almost 87% of real estate agents fail in the first five years of their business. However, you don't have to end up in the mass number if you are strategic in your planning and market yourself correctly.