WHAT DOES A REALTOR REALLY DO ANYWAY?
Great question right? Seriously, there are a lot of Realtors out there, but the truth is that most people outside the industry have little idea what they actually spend their days doing. Admit it, you have been wondering yourself. It looks pretty glamorous from the TV shows: attending black-tie open houses, driving fancy cars and closing multimillion-dollar deals on a regular basis en route to huge paychecks. The reality is a little less glitz and a little more rolling up sleeves and putting in the work. Follow along and see if you can keep up with all the different hats Realtors wear on a daily basis.
First things first, being a Realtor is being in business for yourself. A common misconception is that a Realtor works as an employee of the brokerage that appears on their signs, business cards, etc. Realtors are independent contractors and while they do receive support from and represent the brokerage they are affiliated with, they are not employed by the brokerage. This seems a little odd to anyone outside the industry, but suffice it to say that you can think of each Realtor as owning their own business - because they do. What this means is that the Realtor has to perform all tasks associated with running a business or hire out pieces of the process to narrow their list of "to do's". Broadly, this means that a Realtor needs to be a marketer, bookkeeper, transaction manager, scheduling coordinator, salesman/woman, local expert, pricing strategist, negotiator, well-networked (inside and outside the industry), problem-solver, etc.
Perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate how all of these various roles come together is to give an example of "a day in the life" of a Realtor. For sake of clarity, this is for example purposes and days can vary wildly from Realtor to Realtor depending on if they do more listings or work more with buyers, if they work alone or have built up a team around them, etc. We are going to walk through the day of an agent who is operating as an individual Realtor performing most tasks for themselves (I.E. the "typical" Realtor).
6:30 - Wake up and check email/texts quickly before hitting the gym (listen to favorite marketing podcast while working out)
7:30 - Grab a shower, eat breakfast (1 day a week this might be with a networking group)
8:15 - Get to office (or home office) and lay out plan for the day (must do, should do, might do) and read a couple quick industry articles to keep track of trends and issues facing buyers, sellers and agents
8:40 - Respond to emails, texts, phone calls concerning any deals currently under contract for clients (may include getting a copy of a contract to an attorney, answering a nervous buyer's questions about repairs, or touching base with a loan officer to make sure the loan process is on schedule), inquiries about listings, questions from buyers about a particular home, confirming your attendance at an upcoming event, etc.
9:15 - Refill coffee, enter previous day's expenses into Quickbooks
9:25 - Review all coming soon, new listings, price reductions and homes that are back on the market for your buyer clients and notify buyers accordingly of the properties that will most interest them that they may want to schedule a showing on.
9:55 - Schedule showings for that evening on the 4 homes that buyer "X" wants to see (making sure to account for traffic, best route, printing out information on each property and if unfamiliar with neighborhood or area, conducting some research to bring additional knowledge to the showing for your buyer)
10:15 - Receive call from attorney's office saying that the closing for your seller that was scheduled for 1pm today will be delayed until the following day. Immediately call your seller to notify them that they will need to get off the following day for an hour or so from work to accommodate the new closing day/time and to hold off transferring utilities and canceling their insurance. Call buyer's Realtor to coordinate this change of plan and work out any issues this causes (like the buyer may have all their stuff in a moving truck and no where to spend the night because they thought the home was closing today).
10:35 - Input a new listing into the multiple listing service including all pertinent property information, pictures, descriptions, directions, etc. Set up the showing service for the home and notify seller that home is now going to be live and email them link to the new property listing for their review.
11:30 - Work on marketing material for the new listing including: a flyer for in the home, a letter to the neighbors to announce the new listing, a Facebook and Instagram Ad to promote the home and posting the home into some local Realtor Groups you actively participate in online to make sure that other Realtors are seeing the new listing.
12:30 - Lunch meeting for the Chamber of Commerce which is the perfect chance to catch up with community members and business owners to keep in touch with what's happening locally and make connections.
1:30 - Respond to two texts, 1 voicemail and 3 emails that came in during your lunch meeting. Make the phone call while in the car to save time - it's a person who saw your new listing on Realtor.com and wants to know if the seller will consider renting the home (you refer them to one of the local property management companies that you like).
1:45 - Put finishing touches on the mailers for your new listing, respond to comments/questions on your Facebook Ad for said new listing
1:55 - Write quick blog post or record video about the upcoming open house on 123 Main Street you will be hosting this Saturday and distribute to the appropriate channels - social media, email, text, etc.
2:25 - Receive call from old college buddy who says he thinks he wants to buy a house, but has no idea if he qualifies for a loan. You spend too long catching up and refer him to a loan officer who can help him get pre-qualified. Add said friend to your database, so you can remember to follow up to see if loan officer was a good fit and if he is now ready to move forward.
3:00 - The attorney who is closing the deal tomorrow emails to say they are missing an invoice for the completed repair work on the home being sold. You send them back a copy of the invoice.
3:05 - Home inspector sends over the report on the home you put under contract last week for your buyers and the report identifies a number of issues with the house. You call your buyer and work with them to determine which things they would like to ask the seller to repair. You assemble the repair request, send it over to buyer for e-signatures and then on to the listing Realtor for them to review with their sellers.
3:50 - Post an article you like on the "3 Best Tips To Sell Your Home Quickly" to social media.
3:55 - An investor buyer client texts you that they want any information you can find on 456 Broad Street. You gather what you can find from the MLS, tax records, etc, call listing agent to see what other details you can glean and run an analysis of comparable properties based on the post-renovated value of the home. Email investor this information and then call them to follow up and see if they have any additional questions. Investor says this one is a pass because the numbers aren't good enough.
4:30 - Final preparations for your showings with your buyer (get a couple bottles of water, make sure flashlight is working, gather up material you printed out previously, etc). Drive to first home and wait for buyer to arrive.
5:10 - Begin showings, being sure to highlight important information about the home and neighborhood, record questions buyers have on any of the homes, follow up with buyer at the end of the showings about which homes were a definite no, a maybe or a yes. Call listing agent about house #3 that your client liked to get a copy of the property disclosures and find out from sellers if they would consider selling the pool table.
6:30 - Return call from the seller's agent about the repair request you sent over earlier. The seller is willing to do 3 of the 5 requested items. Call your buyer and convey this information and decide if they want to accept this compromise or push for more. Send email back to listing agent that your buyer is ok with the 3 items sellers are willing to do. Then email loan officer that repairs are agreed upon and appraisal can be ordered.
7:15 - Get home, eat dinner and spend time with family.
9:30 - Set a couple reminders on your phone about things you need to do the next day. Respond to another comment on the ad you are running for that new listing. Send an email to your investor that you will be attending an open house the following day on a home that you think might be a fit and if they are available you can video chat them for a live tour.
10:00 - Read 10 pages of Gary Vaynerchuk's latest book.
10:15 - Catch an episode of Breaking Bad on Netflix even though you have seen it before because the show is that good.
11:00 - Sleep, so you can wake up and do it again.
Some of you might be thinking this sounds exhausting and others might be wondering where you can sign up. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, for a full-time Realtor this is an accurate depiction of what a day can look like. Yes there are open houses, closings, networking events, client lunches, some Realtors do have nice vehicles and sometimes there are even sizable checks. However, the full picture includes long hours, managing deals and client expectations, marketing your listings and your business, spending money (without a guaranteed return), getting paid by commissions only on deals that close regardless of how much time, energy or money you may have invested, responding to clients at all hours, delivering tough news (like your buyer was not the winning bid on their dream home or a deal has fallen apart halfway through), etc. The business is not for the feint of heart and it has a high drop-out rate as a result. Despite the challenges, there are many out there that love this business (me included!) If you have questions about the process, want to know more specifics or are interested in what steps you have to take to become a Realtor you can always reach me on my phone/text/email/social.
Jordan Flair
Realtor
Pacifico Properties
C: (704) 707-5145