Today, my son, who lives a continent away is coming to town. I haven't seen him in person for several years because he has lived so far away. Now, if life acts like it normally does in the real estate world, the day will be quiet and no one will call me until he arrives, then I will get multiple calls from clients and potential clients, each thinking that they have a situation that has to be dealt with right then. Each will want my undivided attention. Then I will have to calm them over the phone and by email and assure them that everything will be OK and I will get it taken care of (just not right now). In the process, I may lose a potential client who insists that today is the only day that I can take care of them and I have to do it in person and they live an hour away (in which case they really need a newbie agent who has no other clients since an experienced agent will almost always have other clients that they are dealing with at the same time).
A realtor's day is like a juggler - we have all these balls in the air that we are keeping up - the sellers who are out of the area and need their homes taken care of - the potential sellers who need comps and a listing presentation prepped and presented (a good 8 hours to prepare some of those when we do it right and sometimes they give us 1/2 an hour (and that includes driving time) when they call and say can you come talk to me now, we have everyone together now, and we won't later on - the contract we're negotiating for a client - the building inspection that has to be done at noon - the gas company needs to be let into a home and they won't give you a time so you have to sit and wait for them - a contractor to fix something - working through a municipal predication - helping a buyer to get financing - the other agent needs a form and it's at the office and you are at home - can I help you fight your tax assessment, of course I can - you'd like to set a time to look at 12 homes and you're sending me the addresses and you'd like to see them this afternoon (and it's Saturday morning and the offices are closed to schedule part of the homes they'd like to see) - sending feedback for the homes you've shown - getting feedback from the agents who have shown your listings and then sending it on to your sellers - letting your buyers and sellers know what's going on in the market - Sending out marketing materials to your farm areas - choosing marketing materials - better prep for Sunday's Open House - what about those continuing education requirements, better get those done early - what relocation department has a new client for you, coming from Bolivia and they need you to call them (on their time zone) and set up emails and have things set for when they arrive in town and, oh by the way, they are arriving in 2 days - Don't forget you have 8 active listings and 10 buyers that you are handling this week alone and you don't have an assistant, it's just you so when the contract is written and negotiated, it's you doing the paperwork and sending it along to the title company, the mortgage company and the main office! We get up in the morning with a phone call, spend our days juggling 2 phones and the keyboard and go to bed at night (actually in the early hours of the morning) having taken care of other people all day long and sometimes never gotten around to taking care of ourselves.
And through it all, we keep smiling, do our best to keep everything in perspective and help everyone find the best solution to their issue.