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For most people, holidays — and the long weekends associated with them — are a time to relax and enjoy family. When you work in real estate though, life can be a different story.
Long weekends don’t necessarily mean a break from nurturing leads and being in touch with clients. Sure, you might miss out on some prime socializing time, but knowing that your clients are happy, and that you’ve taken care of necessary business tasks (at least for part of the day) can make a big difference.
Particularly May through August is definitely not the time to decide to take an extended break. Despite how hard it can be to focus on work when the sun’s shining, research shows 50% more homes are sold in the summer.
So what’s the best way to balance your personal life and your real estate business without spreading yourself too thin? We spoke with several top producing agents who let us in on how they handle their business over long holiday weekends, time off, and their favorite marketing techniques.
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Approach a holiday weekend as a time of opportunity.
The best opportunities can happen unexpectedly, so it’s always best to be prepared, even during times you aren’t technically in full-blown agent mode.
Kenny Truong, the “Fast Agent” of Climb Real Estate in the Bay Area said, “Holidays are a great time to network and meet potential clients!” Even if you don’t have plans to hop in the car and drive people around your community on a round of showings, don’t pass up the chance to engage with a potential customer.
And as Bill Gassett of Re/Max Executive Realty in Hopkinton, MA said, “Communication is one of the most important facets in this business. People come to count on you to be there for them.”
Neglecting your real estate marketing during the holidays could be a mistake.
Kim Colaprete, managing broker of Team Diva Real Estate at Coldwell Banker Bain in Seattle, explained the team’s philosophy around reaching out to their real estate leads that involves a weekly newsletter and some quirkier ideas for engagement.
“We actively market to our sphere all the time—holiday or not,” Colaprete said. “We love making crazy videos for the holidays. One year we did a ‘How to Host a 4th of July Tupperware Party’ video complete with drag queens, red, white, and blue Jello shots, and a flag cake.”
Now, while you may not have the time, resources, or desire to create involved video campaigns, or even spend time sending out lead nurture emails, it’s never a bad idea to plan ahead at your agency for popular community festivals or events, and take advantage of those fun times to promote your business.
Central New Jersey’s The Weiniger Group‘s Judy Weiniger told us she keeps her clients in mind during the holidays. “I send along good wishes and some content that we write,” she said. For the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, she wrote a blog post on the best restaurants for outdoor dining in her community.
Leverage the tech tools available to you.
There’s a huge amount of real estate technology to choose from to help you manage your email list of potential clients during a break in typical business days. The automation capabilities of your CRM will give your nurturing efforts a boost whether you’re actively in the office or not.
In fact, you can even automate tasks like adding new leads who visit your site to your email drip campaigns, which can give you much needed peace of mind when you step away from the office.
Prioritizing work-life balance is key.
When your occupation can eat up way more than 40 hours of your workweek, how do you discover a happy medium between the desire to close as many deals as possible and avoiding burnout? Gassett emphasized the importance of taking some time off during holiday weekends to recharge and relax.
“When I first got into the business I was an extreme workaholic. It is really easy in the real estate business to get burned out without having any free time.” He shared. “At this point in my career I will always take time off on a holiday weekend.”
Truong shares that mindset as well. He explained that while he won’t take an entire weekend off, he’ll step away from his business for a bit, and will work later the day before to ensure tasks don’t pile up. “Usually the first day back from the holiday isn’t too hectic since I was only away from my work for 24-36 hours.”
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance and scheduling time away from your real estate business is what allows for continued success and the motivation to keep engaging new prospects and nurturing your existing leads. Research from U.S. News found almost 35% of the U.S. workforce is on the clock during the weekends and holidays.
Weiniger explained that her approach to long weekends has changed since the beginning of her career. “When I was new, I found holiday weekends a great time to be available for RELO shoppers. This year I am taking a three day weekend at the Jersey shore to rejuvenate to finish off the summer season!”
One of the advantages to working within a team is that you’re more likely to have a replacement in the wings if you’re itching for time away. “Always have another agent from your branch or office on call to help you out during a holiday weekend,” Colaprete said. “Just in case you get invited to a client’s Fourth of July party. You don’t want to miss out on that opportunity!”
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