A general post on what a day in the life of a Commercial Real Estate Broker is like for most successful CRE professionals in comparison to my schedule. It shows how hard successful brokers work and manage their time effectively.
I have been wanting to track my time to understand what my day is like and why often times I feel unproductive. My work time has been condensed down to 2-3 hours during the pandemic time.
6:00AM: Wake up. Check emails, news and financial market. Most CRE brokers would exercise and ready to the office by 7:00AM.
7:00 AM: Check emails, news and financial market. Most CRE brokers head to their office, get caffeinated and ready to review the day. One of the brokers even do a Tuesday Traffic video to capture the day and advice to clients.
8:00 AM: Prepare and wake up the kid for online school. CRE brokers would meet their sales team to start the productive day. Team consists of admin, marketing and sales, listing updates, new properties on the market, to do and prospecting list.
9:00 AM: Read and write on various topics. Plan for the day. Most CRE brokers time block for 2-3 hours to tackles the to do, the follow up and the prospecting list.
10:00 AM: Arrive to the office. Review plan for the day. Respond to emails. Review CRM and schedule. Work on the priorities. Most CRE brokers work on prospecting for 2-3 hours.
11:00 AM: One hour of productive work – follow up calls. Need to work on the prospect call list. Most CRE brokers finalize their list of to do and prospecting.
12:00 PM: Work can drift off here due to distractions – social media, web browsing, random calls. Most CRE brokers do lunch with someone or schedule a lunch with someone differently throughout the week.
1:00 PM: Maybe a quick lunch or snacking inside the office. Most CRE brokers head to their meetings or tours they planned the previous days or earlier in the morning.
2:00 PM: Most meetings and tours happen during the afternoon time. Most CRE brokers have meetings with clients and touring properties.
3:00 PM: Back to the office. Review emails, update CRM, and plan for the next day or rest of the week. Most CRE brokers continues with clients meeting and touring.
4:00 PM: Work in the business – listings, marketing and sales. Most CRE brokers are back to the office to return calls and emails. Prepare LOI, secure signatures, negotiate a deal and secure new listing.
5:00 PM: Complete all follow up and return calls and messages. Most CRE brokers wrap up, go home or to another meeting.
6:00 PM: Finish up. Maybe a little bit of web browsing. Extracurricular stuffs. Some CRE brokers would have night or dinner meetings with clients since some clients are only available after business hours.
After a brief writing on this topic, I have come to realized how much more I can do to have productive days that can lead to very successful career in commercial real estate.
All CRE brokers need to have the following:
- Big Goals
- Daily Planning
- Delegation (teamwork)
- Time Blocking (Prospecting, Client meetings and tours)
- Systems (office operation, delegation, time management, prospecting, marketing, sales, and follow up)
- Accountability
- Follow Through
- Followed up & maintained the connection with clients
- Follow up! Don’t always take
- Ask yourself, “How can I help my clients?”
- Ask them, “What is your biggest problem & how can I solve it?”
- And “What are your goals?”
