Zephyr: Week One(half)

Well, I call it a half-week because my new career is.. well.. it's NOT a M-F, 9-5 kind of job.

I started on Tuesday. Tuesday is broker's tour day. That means that all of the new houses on the market all across the city (and those who want extra attention) are held open so that real estate agents from every agency in the city can see them. The tour is organized in such a way that each neighborhood has their houses open during a particular time slot, so you work your way around the city in an orderly fashion. There are hundreds and hundreds of properties open, so it's important to have a good game plan. It's even more important to find a few open houses that are serving food! (What a fantastic way to get the other agents to show up!).

If you have current buyers, this is your opportunity to check out houses they might be interested in before you drag them to the house on Sunday. Better to not waste their time if they require space for a baby grand piano, and the property just doesn't have it! Also, if you have a seller, it's a great time to see what else is for sale in the neighborhood, how nice they look, and how much they are selling their unit for. Since I don't have any customers yet (because the Department of Real Estate is still processing my license application!), I'm using my Tuesdays to explore properties that I think my first customers might want, and also to get an idea of what is on the market. Basically, Tuesdays are spent wearing comfortable shoes and driving around town doing research. No need to hit the gym on Tuesdays. :-)

Wednesday morning is the Zephyr sales meeting. We have breakfast, talk about the market, learn a new tip, have interesting discussions, hear about what people sold that week, and have other agents present their new listings. Then we do another tour of all of the new Zephyr-Agent listings. Vroom vroom around the city again.

Thursday and Friday would normally be spent preparing for the weekend. I spent them preparing my marketing plan, finding a catchy domain name for my website, and reading up on TIC laws and financing. I also set up lots of meeting for next week. My photo shoot for my business card mug shot. My meeting with the marketing guru. And my get-logged-in-to-all-Zephyr-systems meeting. I also determined a neighborhood-research plan. I am familiar with most neighborhoods in the city, after being here for 9 years (!) but there are some that need more investigation. Every Friday I will explore a new area. I also printed out a list of all parking fines from the City of San Francisco. Since I will be driving and parking all day, along with hundreds of other agents, chances are I won't get rock star parking every time. This way, I'll be able to make an educated decision about which type of ticket I get. Hmm. Street cleaning is less than parking by a red curb. But if I don't see the street cleaner coming up the street, I can make it in/out without a ticket (they are easy to spot). I'll take street cleaning violation risk, please!

On Fridays we get a thick print-out of all of the houses/condos that will be on the following Tuesday's brokers tour. Just to give you an idea of the size. There are approximately 600 properties open next week. Obviously, you need to put some effort into mapping your route!

Saturdays and Sundays are open houses for the public. This is when prospective buyers can look at properties. If I had a buyer customer, I would be driving them around to look at houses that they might be interested in. This week, I spent Saturday with Tania and Ooma, and making a plan for Sunday. I think I will focus on districts 5 & 6 tomorrow. District 6, Central North, is Lower Pacific Heights, Alamo Square, NoPa, Hayes Valley, Western Addition. District 5, Central, is Mission Dolores, Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Haight Ashbury, etc. I'm going to be looking at Condo/TIC/Lofts up to $700k.

Mondays are typically filled with faxing offers, making counter offers, tying up loose ends from the weekend.

And once you have something in contract, every day consists of following up with the customer, title company, inspectors, and everyone involved to make sure the deal goes through smoothly!

I a few months, I'll pretty much know every street, every alley, every dead-end road, every hill's elevation. So if you need any directions, call me up. What? You need to know where Uranus is? I can help you with that. I saw a house on Uranus last week. Baaah! Okay, sorry. I couldn't help myself. I do love the scatological humor! And I really did see a house on Uranus, too. It was very nice. I would live on Uranus. Baah. I just can't stop!

So far, I'm loving it. Sure, I have no customers or pay. But I love it! The only problem is going to be making sure that I still get to see Tania on weekends, since I now work 7 days a week!

So, who wants to buy or sell a house with me? ;-)