Now what was I doing? Focus, focus…

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged and all day it’s been bugging me that I really need to blog. Now, what should I blog about? Lots of possibilities… maybe the market (same thing, different day), the marathon of Man vs. Food episodes I watched this weekend, how important the right lender is in a transaction (I’ll save this for another day), how there are 37 items on my new listing checklist (recently created so it’s top of mind), that I swear there is a new online real estate advertising opportunity created everyday, dissecting the parts of a listing contract or purchase agreement (cause that would be fun for you) or maybe I could cover a recent newsworthy topic like Michael Jackson’s doctor or the Penn State scandal… Ugh, maybe I need to slow down and focus.

Most of the time I love that my days are never the same, always different. But some days, it really hits me that I do a million things a day, on a moments notice and I need to be ready for anything. You see there are the mundane but very important items like making sure that all of my listings show up on all of the internet sites with the correct pictures, prices and descriptions, some sites like Craigslist have to be manually entered & can’t be the same as the last time or I could be black-listed, you can’t imagine the amount of junk emails I weed through every day, FB status updates for new listings & price reductions, updating print advertising, there’s paperwork & documentation needed for everything, etc.

After checking my cell phone bill for the last few months I see that I average 54 text messages a day (including Sundays) and average just under 2 hours a day on the phone (again including Sundays). I switch from talking to talking to sellers of my current listings about why they haven’t sold yet, to talking to buyers I’m currently working with about why we can’t find what they want, to talking to For Sale By Owners about why I think they should list with me, to talking to the new lead on the phone who wants info on a house but won’t tell me who they are, check in calls to the 758 people in my database, to calling other Realtors to set up showing appointments or getting feedback, or checking up on a lender to make sure a clients purchase is still on track.

Throw in actually showing properties to buyers, giving listing presentations to prospective sellers, writing & negotiating offers, putting up & taking down signs, enough paperwork to kill a forest, doing market presentations/absorption analysis/estimate of proceeds on properties, continuing education classes, brochures to create, open houses, mailings to send, business to business lunches add 38,000 miles a year on my vehicle and you’ve summed up my real estate career.

Did I mention that I also have a husband I love, a house to keep up, an endless supply of laundry, 3 dogs to spoil, friends & family to spend time with, a weekly commitment to bowl on Wednesday nights, and oh yeah, I eat & sleep too! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I truly love my job.

Some days I just focus better than others!