Why So Late? Seriously - Why are Realtors ALWAYS Late? And How to Stop It
Why So Late? Seriously - Why are Realtors ALWAYS Late? (Except to Meet Clients)
And how to stop it
(Before anyone says "What about emergencies?", obviously there are always exceptions to the rule and emergencies happen. But stop blaming being late on your kids every single morning when they catch the bus 2 hours before your meetings or traffic when really you had a long lunch. Own up to your tardiness.)I've noticed a trend among the Realtor crowd - y'all are always late! And I need to know why. As a someone who bills my consulting clients by the hour, when said clients show up late, it's their money they are wasting. Literally.
I have seen this with multiple agents that I have worked with in various settings and I do not understand it. So please, if you are constantly running late to meetings and appointments, tell me why in the comments. Because here is the thing - it tells the person(s) you are meeting with that they don't matter. Whether it's your team members, assistants, BIC or even family members, you are subconsciously telling them they don't matter enough for you to value their time.
Let's flashback to around 8 years ago. I worked for a large team as admin and the team leader was always late unless you were a client. If you scheduled a meeting with him, it was expected that he would be 30 minutes late every single time. Even if he was sitting at his desk and the meeting was in the conference room, he would be late. I distinctively remember one meeting where a small group of us were going to one of the other offices to meet with 3 of our team members. The office was right at 60 minutes away, if you took the short route. We left our office at the meeting start time. Then he had to stop for fast food (which he went inside and ate, all while my team members were texting me they were ready to walk), then we took the long route. Now, if he had allowed the staff to travel separately to the meeting, we could have at least stalled/stretched out our training, but he didn't want to pay the mileage. So instead, we arrived over an hour late with everyone fuming and not in the mental mindset to sit through a meeting.
Let's flashback to 3 years ago. I was showing property and needed the listing agent to let me in as there was no lockbox. I had set up the appointment the day before and confirmed that morning that we would still need the agent to let us in. 30 minutes later and after wandering around the yard in the middle of SUMMER IN THE SOUTH (humid, hot, gross with lots of bugs), my buyers decided to not bother and the agent got several progressively more angry texts from me as we waited. Their response? They forgot but could be there in 20 minutes.
OK, I could go on. I actually have a large handful of similar stories all surrounding agents that kept me waiting. But instead, let's talk about how to break this cycle of always being late.
For starters, get some kind of planner or calendar and put your appointments and meetings in them with the start time. You can use your phone, your desktop calendar, a paper planner, whatever, but make sure it's something you will use. If you need email or pop-up reminders, make sure you use a program that can do so. Google Calendar is great for this and it's free. I can set my appointments with various reminder times as both pop-ups on my phone and an email reminder, I can invite people, I can link the meeting site so I can get directions and drive times. Plus, I can have a daily agenda sent each morning so I can see my day at a glance. I also use a paper planner that I keep handy but having it digital means my phone will buzz when I need to start heading out the door.
Next, treat every meeting like a client meeting. I am serious. If you are scheduling a meeting with someone, treat them like you are trying to win a listing. That means you don't arrive "on time" but then need to get a cup of coffee, run copies or check email. That's not being on time, that's showing someone that you value a cup of coffee more than their time. If other people are setting aside time in their busy schedule for you, respect them enough to be ready to meet at the scheduled time. Arrive early, even if it's just 2 minutes and be ready to go at the start time.
Start your day a little earlier. Now we all know one of the perks of being a real estate agent is setting your own schedule. But that doesn't mean waking up at 10 every morning and not starting your day before noon. You will be playing catch up from all the emails and calls you missed from 8 am on. Even if your clients, team members and brokerage are cool with you having a midday start to your morning, wake up 15-30 minutes earlier so you can take your time eating breakfast and getting ready. Aim to leave the house 10 minutes earlier than usual so you arrive earlier to set up for the day. You will be surprised at how much more relaxed your day will be when you aren't racing in at the last second.
And lastly, treat every meeting like a client meeting. I am really and truly serious here. If you are still finding yourself running late, imagine that every person you meet has the power to fire you and replace you with someone who arrives on time, every time. After all, even assistants who feel like an afterthought will leave for a company where their boss respects them, thus firing you as their boss and replacing you with a better boss.
Plus it just makes you look like a sh*tty person when you are always late and who wants that reputation in business?
