Strike one: The general public has little or no respect for us in general. The general public does not understand what we really do. Most people think that if they call or page us we should return their call within minutes and drop everything to show them a home or meet with them. They think we should show them our listing at any time of the day or night, even if they have no intentions of buying it, or it is out of their price range, even when they have not met with a lender yet, or even if they have already selected another agent who will be representing them in their purchase. For example, once I had received a call because the potential buyer’s agent was out of town, and the potential buyer wanted me to show him the home. The potential buyer wanted me to leave my family for one or two hours over the weekend so he could see the home. The truth is this potential buyer was never going to buy the home through me even if he decided to buy! The odds of this potential buyer actually purchasing this particular home was maybe 10%-15%. Why would I want to break away from my family for one of my listings to sell at that rate? I would not make such a poor decision.

My belief is that I am not obligated to fulfill any of these above unreasonable requests. I am not obligated to take time away from my family to show potential buyers a house because they want to see it now. Because people want something, does not mean they can have it. If most people called their doctor and wanted to see the doctor right now, they could not. Why should we realtors be treated any differently than doctors? If the prospect on the other end of the phone has no respect for your time; that prospect will not have respect for the other parts of your service as well. He also will not have respect for you as a person. If a prospect has little respect for you, his attitude will not change when he becomes a client.

You must earn a level of respect for your time on the first call, whether you call the prospect or the prospect calls you. You must set the tone that my time is valuable, and if I am going to give you, the prospect, some of my time I expect to be paid. I am making an investment of my time with that prospect to turn him into a client.

How many times have you called an attorney to ask a few quick questions and you are billed for 15 minutes to 30 minutes of time? You will receive a statement almost every time. Rarely do attorneys not start the meter when they pick up the phone. Of course they do, because the caller is buying their knowledge and their time. Why should we as agents be different?

I know I provide as much value as an attorney, do you? What do you make per hour? Do you know that number? If you do not, you should. To figure out your hourly wage, take your gross commission dollars earned and divide that figure by the hours you worked in a year. Remember to count all the hours. The answer will give you what you earn per hour. Focus on doing the activities that pay you what you are worth per hour. Only a few activities that we do allow us to be highly paid.

Strike two: We help perpetuate the problem by not controlling our clients. There are too many agents who are available 24 hours a day, seven days per week. There is no other profession whose individual members are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Yet we seem proud that we are there for our clients at all times. Our clients do not work a schedule like that in their jobs, why should we? Take back your family time. Inform your clients of your days and evenings off and stick to your schedule. Do you really want to do business with someone who does not want you to have days off or family time? It is solely up to you to set a clear standard.

As agents we need to stop the practice of 24 hours a day, seven days per week. We need to stand firm and say, "No more." Even my wife’s OB doctor has days off and may not be there for our child’s delivery. He explained that fact very clearly to us up front. To be honest, I thought nothing of it. He is willing to risk not being at our beck and call at the appointed hour. Why shouldn’t we adopt the same practice as professional realtors?

Strike three: We are independent contractors. We get to do what we want and when we want to do it. I have observed some of the work habits of my colleagues. It is not a mystery to me why many of my colleagues do not make any money. It seems to be the grand mystery to them for some reason, but not to me. If many agents in the business left real estate sales for another sales job, they would not last a week. Some of these realtors have sold real estate for ten to twenty years, and they will tell you so. If you want to make any money, you must treat yourself and your career with respect. Show up at the office at the same time every day. Complete your work day at the end of the day. Do not regularly take a two hour lunch break. Treat this career like a real job or a real career. Your clients are counting on you to do so. If you have that philosophy, you cannot help being successful. I have never seen an agent who came in early and put in a full days work who was not successful. Remember that no one is going to help you develop the time management disciplines you need but yourself. Your broker or manager will not be able to magically give you that ability.