We want to know
Where do you spend most of your day as a real estate professional?
With the rise of virtual offices, many people are leaving the desk life, but as any pendulum swings, we’re seeing people that have learned they don’t function effectively at their home office due to distractions, so many are going back to their brokers’ office for various reasons.
Take the quick poll below telling us where you spend most of your work day and feel free to comment as to what works best for you and why!
In the meantime, show us in pictures where you work by posting your best shots in the AG Flickr Group where we’ll be pulling pictures from to feature on AG. We’re looking for your favorite work spot, the view from your office, your favorite desk organizer or anything interesting in your work space.
Justin Boland
February 8, 2010 at 3:50 am
I’m surprised that so many voters are in home offices. Question from a young know-nothing, though: is that because of technology advancements, or are most of that 61% folks who’ve gone independent and/or been laid off, post-bubble? Do major agencies have a lot of employees who telecommute?
Benjamin Bach
February 8, 2010 at 6:21 am
I’m with the 3rd largest franchise in the US (which is not remax anymore – Keller Williams 🙂 and a lot of our top producing agents work from home.
Many Millionaire Real Estate Agents are running their businesses from their home offices, often with the whole team operating out of there.
Kevin Baker
February 8, 2010 at 10:56 am
I still work in the brokers office, mainly due to the team enviroment that I work in. It is important for us to gather daily and go over what is happening with our clients, inventory etc. I would love to work from home due to costs reasons but don’t believe that I would be as productive as I am in the office. Needless to say with the advancement with technology and the fact that we are in a people business we should all be out infront of faces all day long and leave the office work to the help of assistants. etc.
Patrick Flynn
February 8, 2010 at 11:21 am
Agents unwilling (or unable) to pay $20-$30K in Brokerage Fees are finding themselves in their home office more and more! I’m with Kevin, I truly believe there’s no replacing the energy and the environment of the office…but the desk fee model means giving some of that up! If you are fortunate enough to have a (small) desk fee and an office to go to…that’s the ticket. However, If you work from home and pay a Brokerage Fee…there’s medication for that!
Ken Montville
February 8, 2010 at 3:54 pm
You don’t want pictures of my home office. You can trust me on this one! 🙂
Jeremy Isaac
February 8, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I have a home office for the late night and weekend business that has to be done, but during the week you can find me most days at the coffee shop just down the street from my office. It provides a better atmosphere meeting with clients and I’d rather be in the real world than isolated with other brokers. I’ve never sold a home to another agent, but I have sold homes to people I met at the coffee shop!
Karen Goodman
February 8, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I split my time pretty evenly between my broker’s office and my home office. Some days I’m not productive at home and need to get the energy of the office. Plus, I’ve got a couple of people who provide leverage for me there and it’s good to interact with them in person. Other days, I get distracted by all the activity and head to a coffee shop. Now if I could find a coffee shop with good food, the ability to scan and print, and lots of outlets, I would invest!
Bryan Myers
February 8, 2010 at 9:35 pm
My office is where my laptop is. I go to my physical office mainly to get away from family interruptions and to interact with the agents who work for me.
JayPapasan
February 10, 2010 at 10:38 am
I suspect that “telecommuting” in one form or another is a older than most might think.
When Gary Keller started the Keller Williams franchise he did a lot of research on this point. We have the highest agent count per office of any national firm (by a multiple of about 3) and rent tends to be one of the biggest expenses for a real estate brokerage. Gary’s goal was to minimize space costs by determining how much space was actually needed per agent.
So way back in the 1980’s we tracked how many agents and cars (you have to pay for parking too) were at the office at any hour on any given day of the week. The research showed that only a fraction of the agents were ever at the office at the same time. So long before internet-based telecommuting, agents tended spent the majority of their time in the field, in their cars, in their clients’ homes and in their listings. Seller meetings took place at the proverbial kitchen table, although buyers did tend to meet with the agent in the office. Agents came to the office for training, coaching, floor duty, contract work and social occasions. At the end of the day, you’d have a modest percentage of agents (mostly top producers) working full time out of the brokers office. For the rest, “flex space” (working areas and conference rooms) was what they wanted and used on a need to basis.
I love that your doing this survey. It would be really interesting to dig up some of that old research and see how much this has actually changed over time. I’ll see if I can find our original formula for office space (sq ft per agent recommendation).
Thanks for all y’all do!
CindyinIndy
February 10, 2010 at 4:28 pm
I think working at home makes the most sense for me because I can multi-task home with business. I know there are tools out there like Buffalo Navigator to access my outlook and files from any computer, but the reality is I’m most efficient grabbing an file from excel, a picture from a real estate file, a document from my saved Word files, etc. What I need now is dual screens to drag and drop; I typically have seven or so windows open when I write blogs, etc.
ColoradoHomeFinder
February 10, 2010 at 6:56 pm
In all the years I’ve been selling real estate the only time I spent in the broker’s office was to drop off closed files and pick up my checks. I know this is a broad generalization but it always seemed to me that the agents who were experts at sucking up everybody else’s time were the ones who hung around the office. It can get a little lonely working alone out of the home office but I am a lot more focused and productive.