What do you do for work?

This entry is in response to my friend DY’s blog on jobs. His challenge to his readers was to answer, in depth, what they do for a job. We are commonly asked this difficult question and we respond with a simple and generic answer such as: I’m an engineer/consultant/doctor/scientist/lawyer. But what is it that we really do? What are your day to day tasks and responsibilities? Here is MY response to his question.
People often ask me what I do for work. My answer to them is “I’m in real estate, more specifically, residential sales.” Another words, I’m a Realtor, or Real Estate Consultant. But what does a Realtor really do? What do I do in my day to day life to make money and to build my business? The answer to that is actually very in depth and somewhat complicated.

There is a very common misconception that real estate agents make a lot of money and that their job is very easy. This is a stereotype that is completely wrong. 90% of real estate agents fail in the first 3 years of business and of the ones that do get by; maybe 10% of those actually make a lot of money. The Realtors who you see and interact with are usually the successful ones because they are the ones who do all the business. This is why many people think real estate agents make a lot of money.

So what is it that we actually do as Real Estate consultants? One way of looking at it is like this: Real Estate agents are in the lead generation and customer service business. I am in the business of marketing myself, my services, and my properties. The by-product of my efforts is the sale of a home. During the entire process, I am providing excellent service to my clients and guiding/advising them through the entire process.

My typical day can be broken up into three parts. In the morning, I work on lead generation. I spend around 2-3 hours on this activity. The purpose of lead generation is to find new business, another words, find new buyers and sellers to work with. This activity is the core of my business and it is how I find my clients. It involves emailing, making phone calls, and sending letters/postcards, and reminding people(past clients, friends, acquaintances, etc) to send me business.

The second part of my day is following up with existing clients and making appointments. This takes up another 2-5 hours depending on how many active clients I’m working with and how many deals I have in process. This is where I make sure my current buyers and sellers are up to date on what’s going on. For sellers, I let them know what the status is on their property that I’m marketing. And for buyers I point out properties that might fit their needs and see if want to view them. When there is a property they want to see, I schedule the appointment. This is also the part of the day where I take care of the detailed procedures for existing deals that are in the process of closing.

The final part of my day is to go on appointments. This can take 1-3 hours. For buyer clients, I take them to view homes. This is the small part of the day where the general public sees us working. This is also the easiest and most relaxing part of the day. On the other hand, seller clients are a little different. This is where I go to their home, give them a market analysis of their home, explain to them how I will market their property, convince them that I am the perfect person for the job, and if all goes well, we sign a contract and I list their property for sale. You can think of this as a job interview and it’s also the most stressful and exciting part of the day. If you remember how you felt during the times you’ve been at a job interview - that is what I have to experience that several times a week.

I hope this sheds a little light on my profession. The tasks may sound simple, but the marketing that I do and the words that I say require a lot of thought, creativity, practice, discipline and skills to implement. What do you do for work?