Time Management Can Be Difference Between Success and Failure
By Buck Wargo
REALTORS® looking for an edge over their competition can find one by better managing their time.
That’s the view of former agents turned consultants who train real estate professionals on improving their productivity.
“Time is a prime resource,” said Don Wetmore, a former Massachusetts REALTOR® and president of the Connecticut-based Productivity Institute. “The way they use time gives them knowledge and skill and the ability to anticipate things. The difference between those who are successful and those who are not is how they use time.”
Because REALTORS® are independent contractors, they lack the structure of employees who work a 9-to-5 job, said Lawrence Hasbrouck, a former Allentown real estate agent who now runs the Real Estate Training Institute in Mississippi. For some, that freedom leads to poor time-management skills, which is one reason the attrition rate among new agents is high, he said.
Experts offer these time-management suggestions:
* Don’t open e-mails when you start work and allow someone else to control your day.
* Hire an assistant, either a high school or college student, to run low-priority errands.
* Schedule time to attend seminars to help you become a better REALTOR® because career improvements increase productivity.
* Schedule time every day to generate new clients. More business cards handed out and contacts made will generate more leads and transactions.
* Take a speed reading class to shorten the time it takes to read newspapers or listings.
“A good time management system prevents burnout because people get so overwhelmed,” Hasbrouck said. “It helps you control those things you can control.”
Whether it is a paper planner, Palm Pilot, computer or a combination of the three, REALTORS® should schedule activities on a day-to-day, weekly and monthly basis, the time management consultants said.
That means when listing activities on their calendars, REALTORS® should use a ranking system of 1 to 4 or A to D to prioritize what is urgent, important, less important or has little or no value. The urgent and important activities get priority.
“It doesn’t help get more things done but it helps get more of the important things done,” Wetmore said. “The reality is they all have too much to do and if you have too much, you are not going to get it all done. If you get more of the important things done, you improve productivity.”
REALTORS® face pressure from buyers, sellers, appraisers and closing attorneys, Wetmore said. Sales people, by their nature, however, want to please everybody. Their time ends up going to the loudest person or to the greatest pressure at that moment, he said.
To start, REALTORS® should track for one week how their activities compare to the A through D schedule of importance, Wetmore said. It’s best to track throughout the day to accurately gauge their time, he said.
“They will find they spend about 20 percent of their time on the A and B projects and 80 percent on the C and D projects. They need to identify those C and D items and convert them into A and B time. They can improve that ratio to 40 percent and double their productivity -- do more sales and have more of a personal life.”
A REALTOR® may accomplish 13 of the 17 items on his daily list and feel satisfied but the four items left undone may have been the most important, said Sean Frontz, a senior consultant for Franklin Covey who teaches time management classes throughout Pennsylvania.
“It goes back to the old saying in the sales world that successful sales people are ‘willing to make a habit of the things that unsuccessful sales people don’t like to do,’ like taking time to plan,” Frontz said.
Buck Wargo, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times, is a Las Vegas-based freelance reporter covering real estate and development.