Reposted with permission from Matt Bonelli.

“Time is money” — Benjamin Franklin made this phrase popular long, long ago.

The intention wasn’t to create a buzz-worthy catch phrase but to highlight the opportunity costs of the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Real estate agents are famous for spending extraordinary amounts of time on “work”-related tasks while ultimately achieving a relatively low income per hour. By taking a closer look at how you organize your activities and make decisions, you can increase your income per hour while providing more value and building a better business.

I already hear the excuses rolling in. “My clients need me available 24/7.” “I should put together that CMA on the property that’s half a million over budget, again.” “It’s only the 100th house, they need to see everything to make an informed decision.” “As long as I secure the listing, I can get them to reduce the price later.”

Stop it.

These may be some extreme examples, but the point is that it’s not your clients consuming your time, it’s you. You need to set expectations, manage your activities effectively and qualify opportunities before walking down a dead end street.

Here are a few things you can do right now to take your time back.

  1. Control your calendar.
  2. Do more work up front.
  3. Set expectations.
  4. Bulk your non-productive activities together.
  5. Know when to shut it down.

For the detailed explanation of those items, be sure to watch the video above.

There are a lot of topics to cover as it relates to taking your time back so you can increase your income per hour, build a better business and live a better life. In subsequent posts and videos. we are going to cover these topics one by one.

Hey, it’s your time. Why not own it?

Matt Bonelli is a manager and broker associate for Turpin Realtors’ Chatham office in Chatham, New Jersey. You can follow him on Twitter or learn more about him on LinkedIn

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