Where do AG readers spend their work days?
Last week, we asked AG readers, “where do you spend most of your work day?” The results were not surprising:
- Home Office 62%
- Broker Office 23%
- Coffee Shop 5%
- Other: 10%
Those who answered indicated that their time was spent either in the field, in the car and one person answered “on my butt” while another said they spend most of their work day on their boat (which I’m not sure is a facetious answer or not).
Why so many home office workers?
In the original poll, Justin Boland noted in comments his surprise that the bulk of those that took the poll work from home. Boland asks, “Question from a young know-nothing, though: is that because of technology advancements, or are most of that [62% of] folks who’ve gone independent and/or been laid off, post-bubble?”
First of all, with such a small sample (roughly 100 people), this in no way reflects the entire real estate industry and barely is the tip of the iceberg of AG readers. For people who are tech savvy enough to understand what a blog is, let alone read a blog and take a poll, chances of their having a laptop and trending toward virtual brokerage is high.
Is working from home on the rise?
Jay Papasan of Keller Williams University said that “The research [done by Gary Keller in the 1980s about this very topic] showed that only a fraction of the agents were ever at the office at the same time. So long before internet-based telecommuting, agents tended spent the majority of their time in the field, in their cars, in their clients’ homes and in their listings. Seller meetings took place at the proverbial kitchen table, although buyers did tend to meet with the agent in the office. Agents came to the office for training, coaching, floor duty, contract work and social occasions. At the end of the day, you’d have a modest percentage of agents (mostly top producers) working full time out of the brokers office. For the rest, “flex space” (working areas and conference rooms) was what they wanted and used on a need to basis.”
Some people say that working from home is on the rise but I would argue that despite the reason for being outside of the office, agents have always found a way to be outside of the office as a means of survival. Some people work better from home in the quiet, away from people while others find television and lack of accountability too tempting and distracting.
Regardless, I would argue that where agents work does not impact their customer service levels, would you?
