Written by Melissa Arndt, Principal Broker for Simplicity Real Estate Solutions.
6:00 am Monday morning – First alarm goes off, I hit snooze. I was up late Sunday discussing prospecting plans with my husband, who is also an agent within my brokerage. We also received a late night call from a buyer client couple that we both have been working with who are having a hard time finding a home. They are in a tricky price range where homes quickly get multiple offers and our clients keep losing out. They are good friends and we all have been having a good time looking at homes, but they are getting discouraged.
6:09 am – First alarm goes off again, dog issues a long suffering sigh, I hit snooze.
6:15 am – Second alarm goes off, husband has some choice words to share with me, I hit snooze.
6:18 am – First alarm goes off again, cats begin staging revolt, I hit snooze.
6:24 am – Second alarm goes off again, dogs are doing a pee-pee dance by the door, cats are loudly vocalizing how they are starving to death, husband threatens matrimonial termination, I turn off alarms and shuffle to the maker of the sweet nectar of the gods.
6:30 am – Checking email with one eye while waiting for the coffee to kick in. I see an eSign request from overnight. I mark it as unread so I can sign once I am of sound mind.
6:35 am – Crap, I’m running behind. Sprint to my bathroom, notice the dogs haven’t been fed yet. Feed the dogs while brushing my teeth. Ensure the cats food bowl is overflowing since they equate being able to see the slightest hint of the bottom of the bowl as being out of food. Rush through a shower (I can wait another day before shaving, right?), and grab jeans (maybe shaving couldn’t wait another day) and the first shirt I see.
6:50 am – Run into the kids rooms, turn on their lights and loudly indicate we are running behind and they need to leave their warm cocoons of sleep NOW! Grab the first thing I see clean in their closets and shove the clothes in their general direction. I hear a text notification going off in the kitchen. Rush to the kitchen to pour some juice and make toast for the kids, check the text to see one of my agents asking if I can please sign the offer they sent last night because it’s a multiple offer situation with a 9 am offer submission deadline. Open eSign, see an error in the contract. While texting the agent to tell them what needs to change, I argue with my daughter about her hair. Autocorrect changes one word, which alters the whole meaning of the text I sent. Since I am now arguing with my son about why he can’t wear his shirt backwards (yes, the cool logo goes on the back, and no I don’t know why they do that), I miss the error.
7:10 am – Herd the children into the bathroom to brush their teeth and hair. Again argue with my daughter about why she can’t have Elsa braids today (seriously, who are those moms that have time to do that nonsense before school?!), and hear my phone ringing in the kitchen. It will have to wait, because now the cat has thrown up in the hallway and the kids are making retching sounds.
7:22 am – Out the door to take the kiddos to school. Hubby just now getting around cause he “couldn’t sleep with all the ruckus we were making” and mentions as I am closing the front door that he has a showing this afternoon so I’ll have to be home in time to meet the kids off the bus. Pulling out the driveway trying to mentally rearrange my day so I can leave early, and the phone starts ringing again. Answer the phone, it’s an agent with another brokerage saying she left a message for one of my agents yesterday evening around 8 pm with no response to the urgent voicemail and she also called me earlier (remember the call less than 15 minutes ago) and didn’t get an answer or a response to her voicemail and is frustrated about how uncommunicative our brokerage is. Nicely explain that not receiving a call back by 7:30 am on a Monday from a call made at 8 pm on Sunday is not a reason to involve a broker and tell her she will get a call back today. Kiddos are yelling in the background about farts the whole time.
7:45 am – Both kiddos have been dropped at school and I am on the way to the office. Notice I have spilled coffee on my shirt, but too late to go home now since I have an early meeting with the office manager. Phone rings again, my “uncommunicative agent” is calling to complain about the numerous voicemails they received at 8 pm, 9 pm, 10 pm, 11, pm, 6 am, and 7 am from the impatient agent. Getting ready to ask my agent to just call her back when their phone starts ringing and it’s her. They hang up to speak to find out what is so urgent. My agent almost immediately calls back, the impatient agent had a question about my agent’s listing that was answered on the MLS listing. Let my agent vent for the rest of the ride into the office.
8:30 am – Arrive at the office and see an updated eSign from my agent with the offer deadline. Error has not been corrected, and now there’s a different change that makes no sense. Call my agent and discover the autocorrect fail. We have a nice laugh and they rush off to correct both errors so I can sign.
9:00 am – Meet with the office manager about marketing and updated guidance from the state licensing agency. Turns out we have to make several changes, not only to the online marketing but also to our signage. Leave a message with the state licensing agency for clarification on a few points before we order all new signs and before I finalize information about the agent training class. Have a missed call and text message during the meeting.
10:00 am – Check voicemail and text. Both from a buyer client of mine who wants to look at a home this afternoon at 4. The home just came on the market late yesterday and the agent remarks state there have already been offers received and the deadline to submit is 6 pm today. Call my husband to verify he also has a showing at that time since the kiddos get off the bus at 4 pm, and he does. Call the school to arrange to have the kiddos be car riders today so I can race by and grab them at release time on my way to the showing. Schedule the showing and learn there are overlapping showings due to the popularity, give clients a heads up that we won’t be the only ones there.
10:30 am – Heading out the door to grab a late breakfast/early lunch, and one of my new agents comes in and asks to speak to me. Put my purse down and have a long conversation about several “what if” situations for when they meet with their first listing client later this week and go over the listing contract again to ensure they have thorough understanding. I have to talk louder and louder to be heard over the rumbling of my tummy.
11:30 am – Reaching for my purse to go grab an on-time lunch, and my phone rings. It is the state licensing agency answering my clarification questions. Before I forget, I go to the office manager’s office to get the updated signs ordered and marketing plans set. Grab a couple pieces of candy to tide me over while on the phone with the website designer to ensure they make the correct changes so I don’t get called down to the state capital for a no-no meeting.
12:30 pm – My stomach stopped rumbling due to the candy, and now I feel like I can take on the world with the sugar rush. Chug the remainder of my cold coffee and spill some on the other side of my shirt. Now I have inappropriately placed matching splotches on my chest. Start sorting through the pile of papers on my desk and begin an organizing storm. I have piles everywhere, new files being made for the file cabinet, and I start to make a list for organizers to pick up from the store.
1:45 pm – I take a break to check my email, and see numerous eSign requests from my agents. The sugar crash has arrived, and I have to re-read each contract and addendum numerous times before they make sense and I can sign. See a notification about an error on a MLS listing, call the agent to ask them to make changes before a fine is assessed, walk them through the process while trying to find sustenance under all the piles of paperwork and files littering my office.
2:10 pm – Grab my purse so I can grab a bite to eat before getting in the school pickup line. My transaction coordinator catches me on my way out to ask for clarification on a file. Uh-oh, this file appears to be turning into a dumpster fire, so I get my agent on speaker phone so we can all three get on the same page on what is going on. My agent seems to have it under control, but has not updated the transaction coordinator with all the changes. Remain at her desk until my agent is able to update her on everything to ensure all is well and I do not need to step in.
2:25 pm – Finally get in my car. Maybe I can go to a drive-thru and still make it to the pickup line before it gets too long. Placing an order at what is usually the fastest restaurant and phone rings. I answer it while completing my order and the under control dumpster fire is now way out of control. As I get my food and drive to my daughter’s school I discuss options with my agent and our client. Call waiting keeps kicking in with my transaction coordinator trying to call me to find out what’s going on. Get to the school just in time for release and the line is ridiculous. And did I mention I still have to repeat this process at my son’s school? Send a quick text to my transaction coordinator telling her the agent will update her once we figure out what the heck is going on.
3:45 pm – Both kiddos finally in the car. Race towards the showing and call my client to let her know that I may be a few minutes late. Kiddos tell me about their day, what they wouldn’t eat at lunch, and complain about being hungry. I haven’t had a chance to even touch the food I got from the drive thru, so I pass it back to the kids to share with strict instructions not to argue about it. They instantaneously begin to argue. I turn the radio up until I can no longer hear the bickering. My phone is oddly silent.
4:05 pm – Pull up to the showing to see my client’s car, her husband’s car, and my husband’s truck. These are the buyer clients that are our friends, and the overlapping showing ended up being us overlapping ourselves. The husband had called my husband to set up the showing and the wife had called me to set up the showing. We all laugh about the lack of communication between spouses, and I keep laughing since I am now delusional from lack of food. From the heavens, a Kind Bar appears and I eat it in one bite. Hubby sends me off to get real food for myself in his truck while he shows the house and brings the kiddos home in my car.
5:00 pm – Hubby gets home from the showing with the kiddos. Our clients want to make an offer, so I write up the offer while he feeds the bottomless pits again. We all sign and get the offer to the listing agent just in time for the deadline.
6:00 pm – Phone is still oddly silent. I check it, apparently I somehow put it on airplane mode. I am scared to change it back, but I do. The heavens are smiling down on me, because there are only 2 missed texts, one from my agent letting me know the dumpster fire has been extinguished and the other from my transaction coordinator letting me know she has everything she needs. We decide to take a family walk with the dogs and head down the driveway. My husband and I look at each other and say “Thank goodness for a quiet evening.”
6:05 pm – My phone blows up. Apparently a hacker has stolen my identity and is texting everyone in my brokerage from a different number, pretending to be me and asking for gift cards. All of our agents begin calling to ask what’s going on. It’s a mess. I cry. The kids cry. The dogs bark. My husband gets a glazed look in his eyes like he’s imagining being anywhere but here. We go back inside to straighten out the mess, gets the kids to bed, and prepare for a new day.
9:00 pm – I get a chance to sit down. I am hungry again, so I make popcorn to go with my drink and call it dinner. I have 100 unread emails from the late afternoon and evening. I try to sort thru them, but the beverage is hitting me hard and I must be seeing things because I have an email saying our buyer clients offer was picked from the multiple offers received and they are now under contract. I make hubby look at the email and he assures me it’s real. We call our client-friends and share the good news. I have another drink to celebrate.
11:00 pm – I go to bed, turn out the lights, roll over on my side to enter dreamland when I hear a text notification. It’s an agent from another brokerage asking for the phone number of one of my agents so they can schedule a showing for Friday. I leave it for morning when I can more politely inform the agent that all of the information they need can easily be obtained by looking at the MLS listing. I am totally going to return their text at 6 am on the dot!
