A Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Broker
0600– Up and at ‘em as the kids have to get to school and it is a full day of meetings and showings. Spend some alone time with God in prayer and worship! Contracts, leases and LOIs need to be prepared, deals need to be negotiated, prospecting needs to be done.
0745 – Last kiddo at school and now to the office to prepare for 0900 weekly sales meeting with the team.
0800 – Arrive at office and make final preparations for sales team meeting. Return calls that came in yesterday after I left to go show property and was not able to get back to office before it was time to head home.
0830 – Go through the 100 plus emails that came in overnight and late yesterday.
0840 – From emails, I have 1 LOI to write, another lease deal to finish negotiating and countless information requests to get out.
0900 – Sales meeting with team. Lots of great things happening in our market. Training on some advanced techniques in utilizing Google Earth Pro®. Many “to-do’s” come out of meeting
1005 – Leave office for first meeting with corporate client as a need has come up and we need to go meet with their team to determine what that need is and at what kind of time frame we are looking.
1020 – Arrive at clients’ office. Meeting goes well. We get the info we need and tour their current facility, which we will list for sale after we handle their first need. Great meeting!!!
1138 – Leave from client meeting and head across town to meet a vendor and client/friend about getting some ideas on some signage on a property that we manage and lease. Call him and he is on his way.
1149 – We meet for a quick lunch on the go and discuss what it is I am looking for in this new sign and the purpose it will serve.
1215 – Finish lunch and head to property just down the road. We meet on site and walk the grounds and look at different views of the property from the consumer’s point of view in driving by. After many discussions and looking we determine the best location and he gets his marching orders and we part. He heads back to his shop to work on design ideas. Me? I am off to the next meeting.
1250 – Arrive at the next property where I have potential buyers in from Houston to see the property. It is a good location with a very old building on site. The owner is operating a business on site and will vacate upon the sale. We arrive and meet and greet each other. Lo and behold, my client, who is open every day and assured us we did not have to call before showing, is closed and nowhere to be found. UGH. So now we have to explain to our prospect that he is not going to get to go inside today. He is very cordial and we are able to spend about 30 minutes on site walking around and talking about the market and the neighborhood. We agree to get him a video and pictures and to reschedule a showing.
1340 – Off to the office to pick up a new agent to take with me on the next showing. On the way, I get word that the client decided to close the location we just left Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s going forward. Nice to know these things. But…it happens.
1400 – Arrive at office and pick up agent for the ride and learn.
1415 – Arrive at property to meet buyer broker and his client. Showing goes well and we depart with a list of items to email over to help buyer make a more informed decision.
1520 – Arrive at office and get to work on the many tasks each of the earlier meetings created.
1525-1800 – Return calls and emails. Answer questions for those in the office who had questions. Prepare LOI and get out for signatures. Prepare draft lease to follow LOI. LOI comes back signed by both parties. Thank you, DocuSign! Able to get a little marketing work done on one property while returning calls to two prospects about an investment property.
1800 – Review schedule for tomorrow and start preparing for another productive day!
What to Take Away From This
No day is the same in the VERY FAST-PACED commercial real estate industry and that is why I love what I do! Passion sells and that is one of the differentiators between me and my competitors. I am very passionate about everything I do. People love to work with passionate people who are happy to be alive and love what they do.
There are only 4 things that a CRE broker does that makes him/her money:
List
Sell
Negotiate
Prospect
Sure, there are many other things you must do, like marketing, etc., but those 4 are where 90% of your time must be spent. It is so easy to get sidetracked with the internet or talking too long to one person, etc. Do not get me wrong; this is a relationship business and you have to spend time doing that if you are building a business, but you have to be efficient if you are to be successful.
Today was a good day and tomorrow will be just as good. Not because of some deal that will happen, but more so because I choose to stay focused on my Lord and Savior Jesus! Each day is a gift from Him and if He gives that to me tomorrow, I will make it good. My work as a CRE broker is my ministry. I get to work with all kinds of people every day and I may be the only Jesus they see that day, so I must make sure they get the right story.
Time to head home and spend quality time with my family. Balance! You must have balance.