Q. For the old timers. Floor Duty

jessiesc · 02:45 PM

Perhaps old timer wasn't exactly the best choice of words. I meant Experienced

I'd like to hear opinions on floor duty. While I primarily ask this of the long time agents, all are welcome to voice opinions.

My Opinion:

I hate it

I could be spending my time doing so many other useful activities such as building more web presence (which I do to a limited capacity on floor duty) or sending out letters and such. I get very few if any leads out of floor duty. I suppose I wouldn't mind it as much if I got more out of it. But it's such a chore.

Any one else have an opinion, good or otherwise?

Thanks in advance.

coastal · 10-07-2006, 04:02 PM

Floor Duty. Whats that???

I run my own department so I guess I am on floor duty 24/7

Dan Connolly · 10-07-2006, 04:24 PM

I was on floor duty a long time ago when I was a newbie and someone came in and listed a portfolio of rental property with me. Don't remember how many houses it was... probably 10 or 12. Man that was exciting.

(unfortunately none of them sold, but that's a different story... about pricing properties LOL)

AaronSOLD · 10-07-2006, 04:52 PM

How is your floor duty set up? In my office, it just means an agent is on call in the office if a prospect calls or comes in. So I get all my regular work done.

jessiesc · 10-08-2006, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AaronSOLD

How is your floor duty set up? In my office, it just means an agent is on call in the office if a prospect calls or comes in. So I get all my regular work done.

Yes Aaron, that's how it is setup here. We share the day with one other agent.

However, we also have a property management department which gets a lot of calls. Consequently, we wind up being an answering service for the property management department which drives the agents nuts! While we do have a receptionist (except for her lunch hour) weekends are an absolute burden.

It's very difficult to get work done with constant phone interuptions for rentals.

I finally got the broker to allow to us to try and convert some of them to buyers but it's still a pill.

Goknights · 10-08-2006, 08:00 PM

Just another way to generate leads. That's how I look at it. It's definitely a good idea if you don't have any "hot" leads to work. You can always work on your site and other marketing while you are on duty.

Mike Colpitts · #**7 A real answer!** 10-08-2006, 08:38 PM

Hi Jessie: Good to see you around here! When I first started in real estate in 1989 I did floor duty-- never got much from it, and yes I felt like the receptionist too. Some of the old standards in the business include floor time and most agents don't get much from it. It's not a bad way to start out when you've got nothing else, but over time you'll learn to dump it! It turns out to be a waste of time for most.

The net, working your client base and marketing will work 10 times better for ya'! Your company is one of those that still teaches the old school real estate philosophy and that's all right, but things are changing rapidly these days in the business like the rest of the world. There's a rather well known real estate coach who says, "Floor time is bore time," and I think he's right. Working a program "you find" for yourself is the best medicine to be a success at this business.

Good luck with this business Jessie! It's a rough road but if you really want to make a success of it you will. It takes time, perserverance and a ton of hard work. I've looked for the quick fix time and again, shopped for it from coast to coast and still haven't found it. I've found a ton of people who wanted to coach me and taken a few up on it along the way who have helped tremendously and a lot of others who dare I say were just quick buck artists trying to make a buck from me and many others.

Work hard my girl neighbor and stay strong!

judyo · 10-09-2006, 10:36 AM

I actually did pretty well with floor time and I also did as much of my other real estate work as I possibly could. In fact, I complained loudly about having to be a receptionist so when I was on floor my broker made sure someone was there to answer the phone (with the exception of secretary lunch, etc.). In fact, if I took an evening floor time he was sure to stay late (he usually did anyway) & he answered the phones.

However, his wife used to do weekend reception duty & most of the agents told her to stay home because she was worse than answering phones (jabberbox - nonstop). I just didn't take floor time on the weekends as I usually had showings and floor time interrupted my weekend appointments.

My current office doesn't have floor time and I really don't miss it.

Fort Lauderdale · 10-10-2006, 04:30 AM

Jessie:
I think it was originally set up years back when all sign calls went to the main number for the office. With my company it was a good opportunity to get a prospect if the listing agent wasn't in the office (for homes $750k and under). Nowadays, most agents have direct numbers on their signs, so floor time ends up being receptionist time. I stopped doing floor time years ago.

john

jessiesc · 07:34 AM

Thanks everyone for responding

IMO, floor duty (which both Jennifer and I have today) is no longer as prudent as it once was.

I believe, with todays technology (everyone having cell phones) and methods, floor duty can easily be managed by a receptionist and perhaps one agent on duty for walk ins.

From a time management perspective, as much as I try to get work done on floor duty, I believe it is counter productive. Between the interruptions and the ambient noise, it is very difficult to complete a thought process.

It's interesting to me, that many long time brokers (been in the business for many years) are very slow to accept change, specially when it comes to embracing technology or manual processes.

It's a shame actually, as the market changes, that so many rely on the "older" methods of prospecting and fail to embrace new methods.

Example: Our website is generating more leads and business than on our "accepted" prospecting methods, FSBO and Cold Calling etc.. The ratio is 9 to 1!

With this data as an example, you'd think the "proof is in the pudding" so to speak. Yet more often than not, our website is waved away as a "nice to have' and a "that's nice" gesture. I just don't get it.

I'd like to see floor duty completely eliminated myself, however with walkins I don't see how that is possible. Unless of course, you assign a single agent which would more than suffice.

For those of you with no floor duty, how are walk-ins managed?

Thanks again for reading.

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