Last weekend, while many people were enjoying Memorial Day, visiting cemeteries, camping, indoor barbecuing (it was raining most of the day up here in Northern Utah) or just spending time with friends and family, many of us in the industry of real estate were working. Personally, I don’t mind this at all. I knew what I signed up for when I chose this profession. Weekends, holidays and evenings are oftentimes spent meeting clients, showing houses and taking listings. This is the time that is most convenient for people who spend their days working and are only available during “off work” hours to take care of personal business.

A couple of years ago, after having recently moved into my current home, I was taking a walk through the neighborhood and ran into a gentleman in front of his home doing some yard work. I began to chat with him and soon learned that his wife used to sell real estate as well. “After a couple of years though,” he exclaimed, “she quit. It was really cutting into our leisure time.” If memory serves me right, I may have laughed out loud at that. Leisure time? In real estate? Oxymoronic expectations, and that is all I’m going to say about that.

This Memorial Day weekend was no different than those in previous years, with the exception of having a gravesite to put a flag on. After that, however, I went to work. This weekend consisted of holding three simultaneous open houses (with the help of a couple of Realtor colleagues), followed by several home showings, multiple offer negotiating on the three open house listings, getting accepted offers for two buyers, collecting earnest money, scheduling inspections, and ending with myself and a 24-year-old college student single-handedly moving furniture for a client to a storage unit. Since this is what I do for work as well as fun, I considered it a well-spent weekend.

There were, however, expected moments of frustration. While most of us (Realtors) were available and out working hard for our clients, some agents chose to take the weekend off. Now, before flogging me for dissing on people who have some balance in their lives, hold your horses for a second (something I would tell my 4-year-old daughter to do in years passed, at which she would respond that she did not own a horse so she could not hold onto one, but she would be happy if I would change that dilemma for her and purchase a horse … clearly a story for another time) and let me do some explaining.

I too believe that balance in one’s life is essential to longevity, productivity and happiness. I often take time to hike, rock climb, rappel, workout, win Monopoly or Scrabble, read and dance in the rain (literally). However, when doing so, if I know I will not be available by phone or I know I will be unavailable for longer than a couple of hours, I make sure that there is someone available who can be reached in a moment’s notice who is fully equipped to answer questions, show a house or answer a text for a showing request on a listing. In this world of real estate, where high financial impact decisions are often made within minutes, we must not leave our business unattended. Yet, I continue to be perplexed and astounded that some agents do.

Two recent examples come to mind. This last holiday weekend, as I was scheduling showings for a client who had two days in which to secure a home and get it under contract, I ran into a listing — one that would be a perfect fit for him — which I was unable to get into. The showing instructions detailed that all showings were to be scheduled through the brokerage office, which was only closed on evenings, weekends and holidays. There was no other number listed. I tried contacting the list agent by looking up his number on the agent roster, but there was no reply there as well. Three critical days passed, days that most people had time off work to find homes. We personally moved on and found another home for my client. We submitted the offer, got it accepted and we are currently under contract. It was no wonder why the home we were unsuccessful at seeing had been on the market for 18 days. That is a long time in this market. There had already been a price reduction. Yet I wonder if there would have needed to be if the agent was simply available. It begs the question.

Another example happened the weekend before. A colleague brought her client to an advertised open house on a $1.2 million property and the agent was AWOL … as in the home was open, people were going through it and no one could locate the agent — as in none of them could. They waited, they looked, they called out, yet to no avail. Does the homeowner of the $1.2 million home know that the public has been invited to view the contents of their home unattended? I doubt it.

What is your availability on weeknights, weekends and holidays? All valid questions when interviewing your next Realtor.

Jen Fischer is an associate broker and Realtor. She can be reached at 801-645-2134 or jen@jen-fischer.com.

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