The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Daily To-do List

A real estate to-do list is a sign of an agent on the right track. A tight routine is what separates an okay agent from a top producer. Unlike a corporate job where you have a manager looking over your shoulder to make sure that everything is completed properly, owning a real estate business means that you have to move the needle yourself. It’s easy to complete comfortable tasks, but that’s not what moves your business forward. This is where your successful daily schedule needs to do the heavy lifting.

Being a real estate agent can feel like a 24/7 job, especially with social media and other ubiquitous technology. Your schedule will be the life raft that keeps you from drowning in tasks and allows you to put more focus on family time and personal interests.

Let’s start off with some best practices to launch your own schedule:

Focus on Productivity

In the unconventional life of a real estate agent, there are countless tasks that can tug at your schedule. By the time you realize it, it’s already too late to complete any of the high-value tasks you had planned.

Think about which hours you feel most awake and productive, then organize time blocks to accommodate that. Design your days to accommodate the unexpected, while prioritizing the most important tasks in your day. Remember that no two realtor routines are the same.

Get the Important Stuff Done First

Connecting with past clients, generating leads, hosting open houses, and planning content are some examples of high-priority tasks that you’ll want to complete before slipping into the afternoon slump.

Stick to Your Goals

Think about your “why” for getting into real estate. Was it to have a more flexible schedule? Generate a high income? Become a real estate mogul with multiple offices? Make sure that your daily schedule includes incremental steps that are taking you in the right direction. For example, if your goal is to become a force in the national real estate industry, you’ll want to factor in more time for networking.

Preserve Your Energy

Your energy is precious, so watch out for any energy leaks! Stay away from people who don’t respect your dedication to time-blocking and dedicating specific hours to work. These people often do not understand the importance of organization in your work and make it more difficult for you to stay on task. Unfortunately, family and friends are the most frequent perpetrators. Make it clear that you block out your schedule to reach your career goals and discipline is essential.

If It’s Not Scheduled, It Doesn’t Exist

Time blocking is the most effective way to make sure that you stay on task and have a realistic idea of how long it takes you to complete each task. Although multitasking may make you feel busy, it actually lowers the efficiency and quality of your work. The University of Southern California found that multitasking actually causes people to waste time mentally shifting from one task to the next.

Blocks of time allow you to know exactly where you should be, when you should be doing something, why you are completing a task, and how you will complete your responsibilities in each hour of the day.

If an unexpected event pops up, you can easily reorganize your time blocks instead of being thrown for a loop.

Remember that there is no such thing as “free time”, simply unaccounted time. Even relaxing and leisure should be scheduled to make sure that you are staying balanced between work and play in order to preform your best.

Your Daily Sample Schedule

How you prefer to write out and track your schedule is up to you. Some agents prefer a pen and paper agenda, while others are comforted by the alerts and ubiquity of a Google or Apple calendar. The most important thing is that you spend a few minutes each day to review your schedule and check each item off as you move through your productive day.

Morning Routine

No two morning routines will look exactly alike. Some agents like to start their day with a quick workout, while others spend time getting their family ready for the day. The most important thing is waking up early to get some quiet time and peace before jumping into stressful tasks. You should start your day with a clear, calm mind that is prepped to process the chaos of the coming day.

Unfortunately, most agents don’t include morning routines in their daily schedule. But calming your mind, nourishing your body, and maintaining your overall health, starts in the mornings and is one of the best competitive advantages you have over “hustle culture” agents in business.

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: Prep + Review

We recommend that most agents start their day by catching up on loose threads such as reviewing their CRM to review missed texts, emails, and calls, then review what you did the previous day to plan what lies ahead. It’s a simple concept: the first 10-20 minutes each morning are an awesome time to hammer out a key tasks, that will allow you to be more productive, focused, content, and generally happier for the rest of the day.

If you have an assistant, this is a great time to catch up with them and go over your calendar ad well as objectives and outcomes of the previous days.

Next, review the hot sheets and current real estate market stats to keep your finger on the pulse of the market.

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Appointment Setting

After covering your bases, head straight into completing the least appealing or most challenging tasks of the day. For many agents this is prospecting and appointment setting.

Prospecting is a part fo a successful real estate agents schedule that can’t be compromised or sacrificed. These non-negotiable tasks, although a pain-in-the-butt, actually help to give your real estate schedule some form and concreteness. Making sure you always have an influx of hot leads is not something you can skip.

The real estate leads you take this time to generate today will carry your business forward tomorrow. Build the acquisition of new leads into your daily schedule to make sure that it’s completed.

Lead generation is especially important for new real estate agents, as they likely are more focused on gaining clients that servicing current clients.

We suggest getting prospecting over early in the day because this is when everyone is awake and likely to pick up their phone or check their emails. Additionally, as most clients have a full time job, there are few distractions for real estate agents in the morning, allowing full focus on lead generating.

Don’t be tempted to spread out prospecting and client calls throughout the day. Try to plan them in one after the other. This way you won’t have to waste mental energy switching between different tasks like creating a PPC campaign, answering calls, sending an email newsletter, and then returning to update your social media accounts.

If you aren’t into making phone calls or door knocking, there are options to prospect though emails or text. You can also step up your inbound marketing and focus on online marketing via social media, blog writing, and online advertising.

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM: Break and Lunch

Rest time! A successful real estate agent isn’t necessarily a workaholic. As we mentioned earlier, balance between rest and work is a key to longevity and productivity. Take the time to get your body moving, momentarily shift your focus to anything non-real estate related and have a healthy meal.

12:00 – 4:00 pm: Advance Your Real Estate Business

This is around the time where each real estate agent’s schedule varies most. Depending on where you are in your real estate transactions, you may choose to spend your time in afternoon appointments, creating listing presentations, going to a listing appointment, showing properties, supervising photoshoots and staging, attending networking events and more. Even small tasks like viewing real estate hot sheets or giving the photographer a call.

If you are left with some flexible time during these hours, we suggest spending it on furthering your education and perfecting your scripts.

Educate Yourself

Most real estate agents allow education to fall by the wayside as their business ramps up. However, advancing your real estate education and increasing your real estate knowledge could be the one-up they’re looking for.

Education can be as simple as scanning new market listings, reading real estate publications, or skimming social media to keep track of what’s happening in the industry. Alternatively, you can take the formal route of attending a real estate class that will directly increase your value in real estate business such as pursuing a mortgage broker license or gaining a certificate within a certain real estate niche.

Anything that sharpens your skills and updates your industry knowledge should be in this section of your real estate agent schedule.

Rehearse Client Interactions

Real estate agents often underestimate the importance of scripts throughout their day-to-day interactions. You will find yourself in similar situations with many of your clients, and knowing exactly how to respond will make you appear professional and experienced.

For example, if you rehearse your listing presentation regularly, you don’t have to worry about stumbling through it. With a confident and well-rehearsed script, you’ll have the capacity to notice seller concerns and reactions during your presentation.

Ask yourself: when was the last time you rehearsed how to handle objections? Your FSBO scripts? How about your scripts for cold calling expired listings?

Try recording yourself delivering your script on your phone, then watch it or listen to it to find places to tweak. This review will help you identify and correct any flaws in delivery.

4:00 pm- 5:00 pm

One of the most important tasks in your real estate schedule is to review your entire day to see what you did well, what could be improved, and make sure that you are prepared today for what may come tomorrow.

Before you sign off, make sure that you haven’t left any loose ends that will make the next day hectic. You may have to call other agents, do a bit of additional prospecting, confirm tomorrow’s schedule with your assistant, etc. Factor in a bit of time for these activities into your daily schedule to ensure that they get done!

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Home + Dinner + Family Time

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of a busy day and have finally reached “personal time”. This is the time to stay in the present moment and enjoy a good meal with the ones you love, get the kids ready for bed, or catch up on your favourite hobby. With your career right on your phone or laptop, it’s tempting to complete quick administrative tasks, but don’t give in! If you have wrapped up your day properly, those tasks will be waiting and ready for you tomorrow.

Leave your to-do list at your desk and immerse yourself in anything else. Work/Life balance is too important to sacrifice.

Conclusion…

If you’re not used to working around a routine, be kind to yourself as you get started. Start small, by blocking out your day for crucial tasks and then adapt those time blocks as you learn more about your high-energy times and times required for challenging tasks. Then, make sure these changes are working and add or remove more steps over time.

The tips above will help you strike a balance and find a comfortable rhythm for your day. Prep your schedule properly, stick to it, and you’ll get your real estate business will be a well-oiled machine soon enough!