[photopress:tgif_cover.jpg,thumb,alignright]T.G.I.T.F.D.O.T.M.! Thank God It’s The First Day Of The Month!
I’ve learned over the years to just say “you too!” when someone says “Have a nice weekend!” I haven’t had “weekends” since I left the banking industry in 1989. Today, the first day of the month, is the closest day I have to a “Friday”.
October closings went fairly well. In fact one of my clients gave me a hand held GPS device as a closing gift yesterday. It’s a Dell Pocket PC with a Global Sat thingie sticking out of the top. He loaded the King County maps via a Mapopolis program. We tried it out last night after we received the call from escrow saying the property recorded, and went to the house for the “key exchange”. Most exciting to me is that it has a setting for “avoid freeways” 🙂
On the first day of the month, I move yesterday’s closings to the “closed drawer”, I pull forward the closings for this month, and I re-organize, and say Thank God It’s the First Day of the Month!
So what did I decide to do with my day off? Go to Broker’s Opens and try out my new handy-dandy GPS device! When I wrote this post back in July, I had it all wrong. I was just too darned busy at that time of year to think it through. In the old days I had to map out where I was going from beginning to end before I started. I had to get from here to the first house and then map out the route from house to house before stepping a foot out the door. So I asked for a program that did that for me. Correct answer is…I asked the wrong question!
That is why it is SO important for agents to shake out their heads every November. Dump everything out that you THOUGHT was the way to proceed in the coming year, and hold it up to the light. Go back to the first transaction of the year and examine each one thoroughly. Which clients were the happiest and why? Where were the snags, and what can you implement into your procedures for the new year to prevent those snags? Which did YOU enjoy most and why? Which did YOU feel most uncomfortable with and why?
This year took me all over the place, due to blogging. From Queen Anne to Snohomish, from Judkins to Duvall, from Factoria to Juanita and Bellevue to Ballard. Unlike the old days when we chose our “farm” and worked our back yard, technology takes you to places you wouldn’t have dreamed of going to. So this year I’m ready with my new handy dandy GPS device! But today, on my day off, I’m going out to Broker’s Opens in my own “territory”. I want go out to see what didn’t sell. I want to examine those properties that didn’t make the cut. I want to see any vacant houses, that are not sold, that have been on market for way too long.
Most of the year I have to focus only on those properties that my clients SHOULD buy. On my day off, this 1st day of the month of November, before I get too busy again, I’m going out to pay attention to that part of the market that missed the boat, that didn’t sell, and discover why they did not.
Not everyone’s idea of how to spend their “day off”, but to make it a little more fun, I invited a tall dark and handsome young guy to go with me 🙂 Have great day!