The Perfect Cure for Time Poor Commercial Real Estate Agents

In commercial real estate agency you as an agent will get quite busy on most days of the week with things that can take over your focus.  All good intentions will come ‘unstuck’ when you get the pressures of current deals and clients overtaking your day.  When confusion starts, stress takes over.  Soon you are not building your listing base and the prospecting becomes random rather than driven.

When this happens you must have a plan to hold together your direction and momentum.  There are far too many agents that struggle in the industry due to a lack of control and personal commitment to growing their business.  Soon they are just ‘going to work’ rather than ‘building a market share’.  Low commissions and less listing conversions are the result.

Yes, I know you will have days that are completely ‘off plan’ and difficult, but at least 70% of your working day should be to a basic system that you can stick to.  That’s what top agents do and over time that is what takes them further into their market.

Don’t complicate your day; make it simple so you know what you have to do, and get at least 50% of your day fully in your control.  Are you a morning person or an afternoon person?  In most cases it pays to get the harder things done in the morning whilst your mind is fresh and alert.

Here are some tips to help you with controlling your time as a commercial real estate agent:

1. Write things down as you think of them.  In that way you will plan how to handle the bigger things that can be done later.  Carry a simple one page diary with you for that purpose.
2. Map out your day the night before.  Each night you can ‘chunk’ your day into the key things that should be done to help you build your market.
3. Understand the 3 big things that have to be done by you personally.  Pick only 3 things that you know are critical to the long term growth of your real estate market share.  Slot them into your diary before you put in anything else.
4. Rate your clients so you know the ones that require more attention.
5. Divide your listings into ‘open’ and ‘exclusives’.  The ‘exclusive’ listings are the ones that you should service very well.  The ‘open’ listings can wait till you get more time.
6. Move your inspections to the afternoon wherever possible.  That will leave your mornings for prospecting.
7. Move your paperwork to later in the day when you are fully done with prospecting, client contact, inspections, and negotiations.

A career in commercial real estate agency is one of many challenges in time and task management.  Develop a simple system like that above that can take you to the top of your market.  Control your day and the leads and opportunities will evolve.