Fix Procrastination in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

It is a fact that many commercial real estate brokers are under significant pressure every day to get things done.  Clients, team issues, and paperwork all take a fair slice of time to keep under control every day.  That can then lead to personal frustration and diversion away from the things that really matter.

So what things really do matter?  Try some of these:

• Finding listings
• Creating property enquiry
• Inspecting with qualified parties
• Negotiating
• Closing on a sale or lease deal

It is very easy for agents and brokers to procrastinate and avoid the difficult tasks and the time consuming issues involving clients, marketing, and negotiations.  On that basis, every broker or agent needs to be disciplined and focused when it comes to critical processes and tasks.  Be prepared to take on the tasks that are difficult and challenging; do that first important thing every day.

Do you need help to get your real estate activities under control? Here are some rules to help you with personal procrastination and time management as a commercial real estate broker.

1. Some sale or leasing deals and larger property transactions can be quite complex.  They can take hours if not days to bring to finality.  It is best to tackle the difficult issues and transactions when your mind is fresh; that is usually first thing in the morning.
2. If you have a number of difficult matters to work through, get to the office early and well before your fellow workers.  Break the difficult transactions and tasks down to simple and single matters.  Place them into an order where you can work through the issues one by one.  From that point onwards, it is simply a matter of getting started.
3. Checklists are very helpful when it comes to working through unusual or difficult property matters.  You can for example have checklists relating to investment sales, investment leasing, tenant management, project leasing, and property management handover.
4. Matters relating to marketing can be quite time consuming with individual listings.  A new property campaign will take several hours of focus and activity to establish the campaign ready for release.  Given that the marketing process is so important to the listings and commissions you create, it is best to work on your marketing first thing in the morning before any prospecting activities have started for the day.
5. It helps if you write things down as part of a daily planner or diary process.  Chunk your time when it comes to client contact, listing activities, marketing, negotiating, and prospecting.
6. The things that will help you get ahead in the industry must be done every day as part of a business building process.  In other words you develop some habits relating to the things that really matter.
7. Understand or identify the things that are really wasting your time.  Either remove those things from the working day or delegate the tasks to other people.
8. Meetings have a tendency of taking you away from the workplace for long periods of time.  Two or three meetings a day can easily disrupt your activities and your work plans.  Quite soon you will find that stress and frustration will develop given that you cannot reach the targets and results you are after.
9. Track and measure your activities so that you can see progress where it is important.  Personal goals will help you with momentum.  The tracking and measuring process should be part of your business plan and monthly performance review.  The best things to track are related to business growth, commissions, and client contact.
10. Establish a simple pipeline of activities that can be applied to client contact and networking.  The pipeline should reflect the stages of moving a client forward into the ideal property situation and opportunity.  It is then a matter of filling the pipeline with fresh and new people constantly.
11. Some agents have the advantage of professional administrative support.  They can pass over to the support team those mundane and time consuming issues that typically slow down the real estate business.  That being said, any administrative support should be focused mainly on the things that will help an agent progress with more important issues such as commissions, clients, and listings.  As a general rule, the agents create the listings and earn the commissions; the administrative support team helps that occur.

When you look at the top agents in the industry, most of them are typically hardworking and committed to the daily tasks that they know will move the opportunities towards them.  Sales, leasing, and property management opportunities are always available for the agents that focus their research, prospecting, and client contacts.