The tasks may change, the priorities may shift but nothing can diminish the quality of what a successful real estate assistant delivers, in a single day. A qualified assistant is both impressive and daunting to behold!

I recently interviewed a real estate assistant with seven years experience—we’ll call her Sarah—to get a better sense of what a typical day for a real estate assistant looks like. What struck me most was the fact that the single most important quality they must possess is the ability to prioritize. While that might not seem like a ‘daunting’ quality, the speed with which a day can change makes prioritization the most important skill they need in their tool box.

Sarah explained that she always begins and ends her day with organizing the tasks she knows will be need to be done, based on priority. That may seem like common sense, but when things go crazy in the office—and from one minute to the next, that’s a real possibility—a good assistant must find a way to be working on the right task, in the right priority.

Her start time at the office is officially 9:00 a.m., so Sarah shared that she arrives to begin her day at 8:30 a.m. It’s during this ‘quiet time’ that she is able “plan” the tasks for the day.

The first 5 tasks

On any given day, the first five tasks are always as follows:

  1. Prioritize what needs to be done on that day;
  2. Review emails and messages, decide what needs to be responded to immediately and what can wait;
  3. Broker load the NEXT day’s listings;
  4. Collect (call, email, text) feedback from agents that showed listings the previous day and provide client feedback;
  5. Check manual for daily task list. Update manual with new tasks, if necessary.

After running through those tasks, her day is typically broken down as follows:

9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. — Handling emergencies

This is the time Sarah sets aside to handle emergencies, including listing issues or offer paperwork. Within a busy office, she handles the paperwork for 5-8 agents, mostly from offers that they are actively negotiating. This means correcting or gathering missing signatures and documents, setting up signings for the agreements, notices, waivers, and amendments.

A typical client care emergency usually comes up daily so Sarah proactively sets aside the time to deal with it. What constitutes a client care emergency? Here’s an example: A buyer agent from another brokerage failed to show up at a listing and the client is upset. After all, taking the time to prepare the space for viewing, vacating the premises, only to have the buyer agent not show up is more than just a little inconvenience!

11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. — Paperwork and more…

This is when Sarah starts tackling marketing or listing paperwork tasks. On a good day, she will get to take a quick walk and have lunch somewhere during that time frame. On a busy day, it’s just a quick lunch! Then on to the remaining tasks:

  1. Scheduling and organizing photographers for an upcoming listing;
  2. Scheduling and organizing graphic designers for marketing materials such as: ‘just listed’ postcards, ‘just sold’ postcards, and feature sheets;
  3. Scheduling of social media posts;
  4. Gather, and research content for blogs;
  5. Deliver content for listings;
  6. Listing paperwork research: Geowarehouse, previous listings, other neighbourhood listings; communicate and coordinate with homeowners;
  7. Submit ads for listings to newspapers and online media;
  8. Staging support – scheduling and measurement coordination;
  9. Scheduling signage deliveries for: new listing, open house signs, and lockboxes.

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. — Miscellaneous time

This is when Sarah would undertake those tasks that may or may not come up daily:

  1. Home evaluations, letters, compiling information for CMA’s;
  2. Database and website maintenance;
  3. Pulling distribution lists for properties;
  4. Pulling stats for newsletter, for internal marketing, for home owner;
  5. Answer and reply to client emails;
  6. Running errands, picking up last minute staging items, delivering feature sheets;
  7. Checking invoicing, paying bills;
  8. Organizing for the next day.

Sounds exhausting doesn’t it? With this list, you can clearly see how the ability to prioritize and engage efficient work processes are skills that are essential to the role of real estate assistant. Finding a person who embodies these skills isn’t easy. Let us help you in that department, so you can focus on what it is you do best.