Realtors depend on their email to get stuff done and cannot afford to let their inbox get cluttered by junk mail. When your inbox is full of spam and other unwanted emails, it becomes easy to get distracted. Checking your inbox quickly becomes a chore to sort through, instead of a quick task to keep your work day moving. As the junk mail stacks up, it becomes very easy to miss important emails from clients or partners.
Take the time to clean up your inbox and get the clutter out of your way. Trimbox is a simple and effective tool for doing exactly that. It lives in your Gmail inbox and allows you to unsubscribe from any email with just 1 click. Even better, Trimbox allows you to mass delete all of the old emails from that sender in just 1 more click.
Estimating time can be a challenge for humans. We often underestimate how long a task will take in advance and overestimate the time spent once it's done. Time management expert, Laura Vanderkam, proposes tracking your time for an entire week. For realtors, this should be detailed, categorizing tasks like:
Switching between tasks can reduce productivity, as our brains struggle with such transitions. To combat this, realtors can take control of their time by creating time blocks for specific tasks. For instance, prioritize showings if you're a buyer's agent in residential real estate, and schedule them during evenings and weekends. Block the times before and after showings for administrative work, such as printing listings or updating your CRM. Allocate specific times during the day to respond to emails and voicemails. This approach will make you feel more focused and productive.
Scheduling meetings can be a time-consuming task, especially in real estate where you're dealing with clients, partners, internal staff, and more. Thankfully, you no longer need to exchange countless emails to arrange a meeting. Use your restructured calendar to align with a scheduling tool in your CRM (like Hubspot) or a separate app (like youcanbook.me). Send a link to your calendar to those who wish to book a meeting, allowing them to choose a suitable slot.Tech Stack: Your Key to Productivity
As a realtor, you can't ignore your phone. However, with the rise of robocalls, not all calls are worth your time. Investing in a good call filtering app can declutter your call log, ensuring that answering a call is a good use of your time. Major carriers like Verizon and AT&T offer free and paid apps to cut down on robocalls, and there are also third-party apps like Robokiller and Hiya available for both iPhone and Android users.
Traditional marketing methods may not reach a well-targeted audience. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, attracts potential clients by offering valuable content and events. This could include calculators ("How much home can I afford?"), webinars, in-depth guides on mortgages and home-buying, and other lead magnets. With inbound marketing, you can set up an email follow-up campaign to further qualify leads based on their interests.
While each client is unique, you can identify patterns in the types of emails you frequently send. Save time by setting these up in your CRM or saving a draft in your email program that you can copy, paste, and send instead of typing the same information repeatedly. For instance, a buyer's agent could have an email ready with links to local listings, a mortgage calculator, and local lenders for clients early in the home-buying process.
Referrals from happy clients can be a goldmine. Remember to follow up with clients a few months after a deal closes, ask them how they're enjoying their new home, and request referrals. If a past client provides an excellent referral, thank them with a gift, like a bottle of wine or a gift certificate to a local restaurant.
The most productive individuals in any industry understand the value of outsourcing, and real estate is no exception. Your time is valuable, and it should be spent on tasks that only you can do best. Everything else can be outsourced. If you find yourself repeating a task that someone else could do, write down a process or create a checklist, and delegate it.
By taking a step back and analyzing how you spend your time, automating tasks, optimizing your marketing efforts, and outsourcing tasks, you can increase your productivity. This can help you close more deals in less time and with less stress.
Remember, productivity isn't just about working harder; it's about working smarter!