Login
iscover
Real estate agents can make more sales and work fewer hours if they ruthlessly eliminate distractions, key industry figures say.
Industry coach Timothy J Eaton says agents do not need to be workaholics to be successful – they need to be productive.
“The problem that most agents have is that they spend too much time on unproductive things. It’s a social environment and there’s plenty of water cooler conversation,” he told REB.
“You should never begin a day until it’s been finished in writing. You should always write down what you’re going to be doing for the day before you get started – and be ruthless about saying no to time-wasting activities.”
Century 21 chairman Charles Tarbey said the best agents are not those who put in the most hours but the ones who build and nurture the most relationships.
“They do have to work odd hours, but they can get so much more done, because they’re dealing with people who either they’ve been referred to or they’ve done business with before, and they don’t have to go through the process of education and waste so much time on getting things done,” he said.
“The agents that work the most hours are activity-driven real estate agents, they’re not performance-based, and there’s a very big difference between the two. We can create a lot of activity in this industry very easily.”
Phil Harris from Harris Real Estate said agents do not need to be workaholics to write high volumes, provided they take control of their calendars and lives.
Mr Harris told REB that agents should strive to create a “healthy unbalanced lifestyle” in which they prioritise a handful of important matters.
“People who try to balance family life, personal life, business life – if you try to balance everything, you have a diluted version of everything,” he said.
“In my life, I don’t want to have an equal amount of time spent on hanging out with people that have no relevance in my life – I have an unhealthy imbalance towards hanging out with my family and my closest friends.”
[LinkedIn: How many hours do you work in an average week?]
Newsletter
