Countdown to a carefree family vacation

Vacations help recharge your batteries and allow you to spend important time with family and friends. But if you get away only to find yourself checking your e-mail and voice mail frequently, worrying that work will dry up in your absence, and feeling you’re shortchanging customers and colleagues, you haven’t prepared sufficiently. Let this timeline guide you; adjust it as needed. Bon voyage!

At least five weeks out
Begin keeping assistants, colleagues, and your broker in the loop about your deals and inform your customers when you’ll be away.
If you have a shared office calendar, be sure to add your vacation dates early—at the beginning of the year, if possible. The dates may change, but the heads-up helps colleagues prepare mentally.

Four weeks before
If you haven’t already, arrange with an assistant, partner, or colleague to cover your listings, closings, and phone duty. If you like certain procedures followed, spell them out. For example: “Call current listers once a week with a status report.”

If you’ve already lined up a backup, check with the person again to make sure his or her schedule hasn’t changed so that you both won’t be away at the same time. To avoid misunderstandings, decide on a mutually agreed fee for each transaction closed in your absence.

Remind other colleagues by e-mail that you plan to be gone, provide exact dates, and let them know who’s covering for you and whether there are any circumstances under which they should contact you during your vacation.

Three weeks ahead
Remind clients and potential buyers and sellers that you’re going away and give them the name and cell phone number of those covering for you. Tell clients how to contact you in case of an emergency. If you’ll be out of the loop—in a jungle without cell service or an Internet café, say—take extra time to reassure them you’re well covered.

Two weeks ahead
Give your broker and colleagues who are covering for you notes on your current listings and closings, sufficient brochures and disclosure forms, and the phone numbers of others involved in your transactions, such as co-op salespeople, loan officers, and attorneys. You may want to slip copies of this information into any open files, too.

Give your contact information to your broker and backup. You may want to provide a specific hotel name and phone number or just say, “I’ll be in Santa Fe, N.M,” and provide your cell phone number for emergencies.

One week ahead
Ask buyers and sellers if they have last-minute concerns that you and your colleagues should know about. Set dates to meet with prospects and clients on your return. And schedule a post-vacation meeting—perhaps over lunch or a latte—for a brain dump from co-workers who handled your work. Before you head out of town, organize future work, such as scheduling open houses, stagings, and photo shoots.

By this point, you’ll know whether you really need co-workers to keep you in the loop about transactions while you’re away. Broker John Mayfield is more relaxed on vacation if his assistant types up notes of the most critical goings-on and e-mails them to him daily. He also asks her to forward less important e-mail that he should read before he returns. He checks in by phone midway through his trip.

A few days before
Tie up loose ends. Record a voice vacation message on your office and cell phones. Set up an out-of-office e-mail, saying, “I won’t be retrieving messages while I’m away (if that’s the case). Please call my office instead. So-and-so will be happy to help during my absence.” And include the person’s direct number.

If you plan to stay in touch, be sure you pack your cell phone, laptop, handheld device, adapters, cords, and extra batteries.

While away
Relax and have a great trip. Don’t worry: You’ll be found if a true emergency occurs. So focus on being rested for your return.

Sources: Elizabeth Ballis, ABR®, CRS®, Coldwell Banker Residential Banker, Chicago; Bob Herd, Coldwell Banker Success Realty, Tucson, Ariz.; and John Mayfield Jr., ABR®, CRB, Mayfield GMAC Real Estate Inc., Farmington, Mo.

Published in REALTOR® Magazine 3/1/2005

Real Estate Mom Self-Quiz: How balanced is your life?

Assign the number that, for you, applies to each statement.

Then total your numbers for a composite score that will reveal how well you’re juggling life’s demands.

Rarely (0), Sometimes (1), Frequently (2)

I say no to unrealistic requests from…

1. ___ Clients ___ Family
2. ___ My boss and colleagues
3. ___ I keep my commitment to exercise and healthy eating.
4. ___ My family would say I give them my undivided attention and patiently listen to them.
5. ___ My clients, boss, and colleagues would say I’m focused on what I do.
6. ___ My doctor would say I watch my health, what I eat and drink, and how much I exercise.
7. ___ I go to sleep at night feeling I haven’t shortchanged my work, my family, or myself.
8. ___ I feel more in control than out of control of my life.
9. ___ I make changes in my life when I find I’m doing something wrong (like failing this quiz).

If you scored:

0–6. You’re a ticking time bomb. Your life isn’t just out of balance; it’s out of control. You most likely won’t do anything to put your life in balance until a crisis—a job or big client loss, illness, divorce, trouble with your kids, or drug or alcohol problems—hits. This quiz is a much less expensive and debilitating kick in the pants than those alternatives. Make some changes now!

7–15: You need to make tweaks, but you’re on the right road. It’s not easy to stay balanced in a world that conspires to throw you off track weekly, daily, and sometimes hourly. But you understand the need for and have taken steps toward prioritization. Don’t take your balancing act for granted because you could easily slip into ticking time bomb territory.

16–20: You’re the envy of your colleagues, friends, and family. Congratulations, you’re winning at life! You’re on track for a long and healthy life and, more important, one with few regrets. Enjoy the days, weeks, and years ahead.

Source: Dr. Mark Goulston, author of Get Out of Your Own Way at Work (G.P. Putnam, 2005) and senior vice president with The Wright Co. (www.thewrightco.com), which helps design and implement strategies to attain success in and out of work.

Published in REALTOR Magazine on: 03/01/2005

17 ways busy real estate moms can add balance to their lives

Finding time for yourself, creating a happy home life, and succeeding at work aren’t impossible if you learn to set limits, periodically say no, and forgo expectations of perfection in yourself and others. Real estate consultant and author Danielle Kennedy has learned to meet this challenge, with help from a flexible, involved spouse (a former real estate salesperson turned boat captain) and their eight children.

Here are Kennedy’s 17 top tips:

1. Prioritize by not saying yes to all requests and learning to say no kindly but firmly. Example: “I’d love to help you out, but I already have a commitment. Let’s try again another time.” People appreciate honesty and sincerity.
2. Eat well, exercise, and have regular checkups. You’ll have more energy, jump-start your endorphins, and be happier.
3. Surround yourself with compassionate friends who understand your demands and won’t criticize your juggling act.
4. Yield on expectations that require perfection of yourself, family, and colleagues. Example: The house needn’t always be spotless; every project needn’t be done perfectly, but try your best.
5. Delegate tasks among family and coworkers. For example: A six-year-old can make her bed; a nine-year-old can make his lunch; colleagues can cover for you when you go on vacation.
6. Cook a few meals in advance one day a week. Also prepare more servings than needed so that there are leftovers for another meal.
7. If you have kids, work for a company whose management values family. If you’re the broker, make family values part of your company culture. Example: Don’t schedule a sales meeting at 5 p.m. when parents need to pick up children.
8. If you can afford it, hire help around the house so that you have more time to spend with family and pursue favorite hobbies. Consider bringing on a babysitter, gardener, or cleaning service.
9. Share tasks with colleagues and friends. Organize car pools and cooperatives for babysitting and food shopping.
10. Schedule regular dates with yourself—quiet lunches, manicures—to smell the proverbial roses.
11. Find a new passion or revisit an old one. Bake, golf, or play bridge.
12. If you’re part of a couple, have a weekly date to maintain romance.
13. Curtail spending by following a budget so that you don’t need to work excessively to pay bills. Two-career couples shouldn’t delude themselves that their combined checks allow them to spend more.
14. Get and stay organized, which sets a good example for colleagues and family members. Set up a home command post where you keep your keys, bills, and other important papers.
15. Keep routines going to maintain some normalcy even in the face of major snafus. Example: Continue driving the kids to their activities even if the kitchen remodel hits a snag and the contractor needs more of your time.
16. Keep family life enjoyable by sharing activities. Bowl with your children, have dinner together (without the TV on), choose a movie everyone wants to see. Don’t let family life become boot camp.
17. Praise yourself, family, and colleagues. They’ll return the favor.

Source: Danielle Kennedy, Danielle Kennedy Productions, Sun Valley, Idaho, and author of WorkingMoms.Calm: How Smart Women Balance Family & Career (Thomson South-Western, 2003). Thomson is a REALTOR VIP® Alliance Program partner.

Published in REALTOR® Magazine 3/1/2005

How busy Real Estate Moms schedule family time

Balancing act

Working hard all day—sometimes seven days a week—may seem like the perfect script to please your broker, colleagues, and customers and ramp up earnings. But it’s an impossible story line to follow all the time. So, how do you change your role? Understand the value of stepping away from work at times: You’ll clear your head, be more interesting both to yourself and others, and have time to get healthier—by exercising and taking time to eat better. But achieving balance isn’t easy. It requires constant rehearsing and juggling so that you don’t slip back into old habits. Start now: Put away your MLS sheets, turn off your cell phone, and do something you’ve been dying to try—like yoga or a hot stone massage. Also, take time to read our tips on gaining balance. Then give yourself the ultimate test: Take a vacation and prove you can truly get away.

Schedule family time

Problem: My spouse and kids get upset when I miss family dinners or when I have to forgo weekend plans for listings, showings, or closings. What can I do so that they’re not disappointed and I don’t lose business?

Solution: If you honestly believe you’re going to lose business by putting your family first, you lack sufficient confidence in your professional ability to be a top salesperson. When you tell potential buyers and sellers you have a conflicting appointment—dinner with family is an appointment, as are children’s recitals and soccer games—immediately offer up an alternative day and time. Most people want to do business with busy people since they consider them successful. They also understand people’s allegiance to family.

No amount of money is worth missing family activities; you’ll never recapture that lost time. To be sure you value family time as much as your business appointments, write them on your paper calendar or enter them on your handheld device. If you occasionally must cancel family dates, have a heart-to-heart talk with loved ones to explain why.

A hypothetical explanation might be, “I know I promised to take you to the baseball game (dinner, park), but I have to break our date. We’ll reschedule for next week. I appreciate your understanding. This is important to our family’s well-being and could mean a longer vacation next summer.”

Source: Nelson Zide, CRB, CRS®, broker, ERA Key Realty Services, Framingham, Mass.
Published in REALTOR® Magazine on: 03/01/2005