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Top 100 agent Toby Parker started out in the industry as a part-time PA and now heads up hockingstuart Balwyn as a seasoned real estate professional. Here we get a glimpse into what makes him so successful.
5:30am I try and wake up around 5 o’clock each day, but it’s usually 5:30.
5:30 – 6:30am Time for the gym.
6:30 – 7:30am I have breakfast, play with my eight-week-old son and get set up for the day.
8:20am I make a couple of calls on my way into work and arrive around 8:20. I make sure I return all of my calls from the previous day; I never leave an email or call unattended unless there’s a reason for it the day before.
I usually speak to a couple of vendors on the way to work because they don’t mind being spoken to early. Buyers are not so keen on getting called that early.
9am I usually have a team meeting with my direct team: Chris, Fiona and Josh. We talk about what appraisals we’re doing, what reports need to be done, who we’re calling back, who’s doing what… and if we’re setting up a new initiative, Chris usually drives that. It could be a newsletter or electronic digital marketing, anything around that is all discussed in that first meeting of the day.
10am I do buyer calls for any buyers that I’m following, any properties that I’m chasing.
10:30am – 1pm Prospecting, and then I start my appointments. Nearly all of my appointments are in the afternoon, unless it’s a sign-up. If somebody is saying that they’re going to be selling, or if they need a listing and say that they can only meet me in the morning, that’s the only time that I’ll have a morning meeting.
My afternoon appointments are usually appraisals and listing appointments, but I will do some buyer appointments too because I enjoy them. Usually these buyer appointments are second inspections on properties. When someone is coming back for another look, if I’ve met them at a Saturday open, for example, or they’re really hot to buy, I’ll always take those buyers through myself.
I think, particularly when you’ve been tracking a buyer for a while, it’s nice to match them with a property, and a lot of these people are people I’ve done business with before, so I genuinely like to see them again.
6:30pm I try and get home by 6:30 because I have a little family, but Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are usually my late nights. If I do have a later appointment, I prefer to do them earlier in the week, because by Thursday and certainly Friday, you really need to recharge for Saturday auctions.
[Related: A Day in the Life: Piers van Hamburg]
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