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Welcome to the Commission Queen podcast. Commission queen is for women real estate agents that are craving success and want to do things differently. We talk all things manifesting money, and of course, real estate. I'm your host, Bekkah, Marie. And just like you, I'm a real estate agent. I went from struggling to get clients to making over six figures consistently, while working 15 hours or less each week. And now I coach women like you on how to do the same. Listen for real life examples and tips in every episode on how to massively increase your income and find your freedom with ease. You're here because you're ready to change your life, your business and your financial status. So let's do it. Hey, Queens, welcome back to another episode of The manifesting in real estate podcast. It's a girl, Becca, we have something to chat about today. I need to talk to you about boundaries, boundaries in real estate boundaries with your clients. It is something that Realtors the real estate industry, the whole thing. Real Estate lacks boundaries are the ability to put boundaries in place, and to normalize that you don't have to be available at all times. Burnout is so common in the real estate industry. Especially for women, realtors, because women realtors, we've got other things going on. We have friends, social life, family, kids, significant others, self care, health, fitness, I mean, we're trying to do all of the things while being like world's best realtor, right? Okay, I talked to so many women, realtors. And this is one of the most common themes that I've noticed. It doesn't matter if you are a year, two years in the industry, or 20 plus years in the industry, burnout is the common theme. And the remedy to burnout is a few things. But a huge one is boundaries, boundaries of just setting, like certain times that your clients contact you or certain times that you do showings or appointments. These things these standards or standards of types of clients that you work with, they should be the norm in real estate. Instead, it's just pushed so often that you should answer every phone call, answer every text right away, answer every email right away, and jump on the opportunity to do any type of listing or showing or anything, even if it's not in the best interest of you your time your schedule, or your clients. Like some of you know what I'm talking about. And I have been here too. So I'm not like just calling you out, I've totally been here, you know, when you are wasting both your time and the clients time, if you know that a house is not the right one for those people, but you schedule the showing anyways, because you're afraid of being too pushy, or whatever. But you know that there's like something missing that they really wanted. And they just want to see it anyways. And then they say they don't like it because of the exact thing that you knew they weren't going to like maybe its location, maybe it's missing something that they needed. I'm sure that you've been I'm sure you've had those experiences. So how do we stop those things from happening? How do we stop wasting not only our time, but also the client's time, I have found that the more confident and clear you are with your clients, the more you take on that expert role instead of just being a personal assistant, essentially, to your clients. But when you take on that expert role of a real estate adviser, the safer they feel, and the more they respect you. So often we take on the role of like, okay, yep, we're here to help you with anything at anytime. answer your call at 1am. Those types of things are great, and we have such good intentions when we're doing that, right. I mean, you have such good intentions, when you're saying I'm always going to be here for you. And you want to help and you want to be the best agent that they've ever had. And you want to give them a good experience, which is all amazing. But have you ever noticed that the people that you really start to give to in such a way where you have no boundaries with them? You're just like, Yep,
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I'll help you with anything. They take. They take they take and those are the least respectful clients. Not always but very, very often. Those are the clients that tend to be such a headache. They don't respect you. They're actually not That appreciative they start to think like, oh, well, that's what you should be doing. So the one time that you finally answer the phone call at 11 at night, that was a one time thing you're thinking. But now that's what they expect. They think, oh, okay, I can text her anytime and she should answer. And that's the new expectation. So then if you don't do that, a little bit later, a few days later, they call you at 11pm. And they don't and you don't answer, they start to think, well, now you're not doing your job, because you didn't before. So if you set in place these certain boundaries,
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you can help your client have an amazing experience, you can be the best agent that they have ever had. They will respect you, they will appreciate you, they will see you as the expert, and not as just the assistant to run all over town and to answer calls at midnight. You are nice, you are wonderful. You are an amazing agent, without having to be the pushover of doing anything. Your clients say, this includes lenders, title other agents in the industry, like please, please, please, this industry needs to normalize, having boundaries having times in place that you're reaching out to people, and not having to be always available. So lead the client, lead the client, they will so appreciate that. It's just like, if you are a parent, or if you know anything about like child psychology, kids go through this time, right? Where there's this push back to see if there are boundaries in place and what the boundaries are, it's the same thing with clients, where they're going to test certain things to see okay, so is this person going to answer the phone at midnight, and then Okay, so there's the boundary or the lack of boundary. And then they expect that from then on. So put boundaries in place, be the leader for your client, be the expert for your client, and it will actually make for a more enjoyable and smoother process for both you and your clients. So here's what this looks like. Here's how you put boundaries into place. One is starting out right away with your clients, whether it be a buyer's consult or a listing consult, where you're telling them, here's what the process looks like, you're giving them the guide to what it looks like and where the boundaries are. So decide what your boundaries are going to be what does that look like for you, maybe it's that, you know, I put my phone away after 9pm. Or I do appointments on these certain days or at these certain times, or I respond to emails and texts within a certain amount of time, whatever boundaries you are putting into place and that you are telling your clients, make sure that you uphold those make sure that you actually practice those and that you're not constantly breaking them, for your clients or to your clients. Because they're going to be seeing that and then it just loses the credibility and it loses the authority in that boundary. Now, if you're thinking about this, and you're like, Becca, my clients will never go for this, then let's go one step back and say, Now put your boundaries in for saying, I am only going to work with my ideal clients and my ideal clients. Respect me, appreciate me and they respect my boundaries. I talk about this all the time, because I think it is so important. The only way you are going to love what you're doing is if you're working with people that you love, yes, we love real estate. But if we're not enjoying our clients, if our clients are not respecting us not respecting our boundaries, not appreciating us not communicating, then it's going to be a lot more difficult in that, in that burnout is going to come a lot sooner. Even if you love what you do. You want to create a seamless process for you want to create a really smooth transaction for both you and the client. And that means you should be having those ideal clients have certain non negotiables in place, that if you see certain behaviors, like not respecting your time being rude, disrespectful, all of that, if you see those things that you say I have this boundary and I will refer you to someone else, or at least to yourself know that that is your standard that you have a standard for the clients that you're working with. Okay, so if you're working with the right clients that respect you, then they absolutely will respect your boundaries. So when you're giving that buyer's consult or listing consult, you are giving them here are the boundaries in place. And also, here's what the process looks like, here's when we go to look at showings, here's what it's like, here's what the offer writing is like. And make sure that they understand make sure they're on the same page. And that they agree to that, that you have some sort of agreement in how things will work. Now you've laid the foundation so that you both have the understanding of what the boundaries are like what the process is like. So if there's any deviation from that, you can just bring it back to that time to say, you know, remember, we talked about this in the consult, and explain a little further on what you need to correct. So if it's on the listing side, this is when you would lay the foundation for, if you have to do a future price adjustment, if you think that there's going to be repairs that need to be done by them. Anything that you think needs to be done by the seller. And you know, I know that in this market, there's not a lot, but still, you want to prepare them for what is coming up, and make sure that they understand that now so that in the time when it comes, it's a much easier conversation to have, because you've already covered it upfront. In the buy side, you're going to talk to them, what are their non negotiables? Like, what are the must haves for them in their future house. And if they send you a house that is missing those must haves for them, you're going to just gently remind them and say, Hey, I noticed that this is missing this, this and this, that you said were your must haves or I noticed that this is 45 minutes from your work and you wanted to stay within 20 minutes. Is that a deal breaker? I always just kind of gently remind them, and most of the time, the client will say Oh, you're right, it didn't realize that it was missing that. And so often, they're gonna say like, well, it doesn't hurt to look. And that is a common thing with buyers. But in the very beginning, lay the foundation, letting them know, we only want to look at the properties that are going to have your must have if it's missing major things, then we know that it's not a fit. And yes, there are going to be times when they are super adamant about like, I know that I said I wanted those things, but maybe I don't. And this looks like the one or something. But most of the time, if the conversation is head of front, then it's real for real, that they do want to purchase that property like I tell my clients, if you see the pictures, if you see the details of everything, and you think, you know, I'm not really sure this doesn't really look like something I'm interested, but I might as well look at it, like let's cross it off, because it's probably not the one. And there are a lot of agents that are just doing whatever the buyer or the seller tell them to they're just running around and doing all of the things. But here's where that gets tricky. And here's where it becomes a problem not just for you for your own sanity and for the burnout, but for your client as well. Because as they continue to think that they just need to see all of the things just to see them. Or if they think that you know, they have to fight certain offers, you know, if it's a seller, then it becomes a difficult transaction, it becomes stressful for not just you, but it can become stressful for the client as well. It doesn't feel as controlled, it doesn't feel as precise. And it can be really discouraging for the buyer or the seller. So if you didn't properly prepare the seller for what type of offers, they may be getting, especially you know, in this market, when it's a really hot market, you never know when a listing could flop. I mean, you usually kind of have an idea that you never know. So I'm not like over selling what's happening in the market. I'm not like oh yeah, you're gonna get 50 offers 100k over you know, I'm not sharing that I'm telling them here of potential things that could happen. And then if something great comes along, if we do get a bunch of really strong offers, then they are going to be super happy. But they are prepared for the offers that maybe aren't so good if that happens. So if it happens that there are inspection items and different things, they are prepared. And the same for buyers to have, you're letting them know what the market is going to be like, what are the type of offers they're gonna have to write so that they know going into it what it's going to be like, so if their plan is to write lowball offers, let them know hey, just too You know, I don't think this offer is going to get accepted or, you know, if they're writing kind of weak offers, let them know be really clear about that. So that they can't come back and say, Oh, well, our agent never told us that we had to put so much over and do all the things to get the offer accepted. And the same with houses, like the houses that they're looking at, get really clear on what they are looking for what they want, what are their must haves? What are the things they don't want, get really clear on that, and then let them know those are the houses that fit the criteria, those are the ones that we are going to do showings for, if you start to do showings for every single house that comes on the market and their criteria of, you know, maybe a price range and beds and baths. And that's the only thing that you're looking at, there's going to be a lot of houses, usually. And they're going to get discouraged, because it's probably missing a lot of the things that they want. So every house, they're going to that that's when they're figuring out what they want. So if you do that in the beginning in the buyers console, getting so clear on what they want, so that when you go to see houses, you're not seeing 1020 4050 houses, you're seeing three houses, and one of those is the one and they know what type of offer to put in. And that's it, they got it. And they are thrilled because it's their dream house. And they didn't have to waste their nights and weekends, house searching and being disappointed. I mean, I look back at the clients that have left me or have fired me or have had a bad experience with me. Which is not very many, thankfully. But you know, I have a few and those always stick out in my mind because I think man that sucks like I failed them or, or it just, you know, feels bad. But it was because of one of these reasons it was because either I took on a client that was disrespectful, right away, and I should have known right away to let them go. Or it's because I didn't do the upfront work to prepare them and laid the foundation for setting the boundaries of what the process looks like, and how I work. And when I work. So like at the time when I'm working with these, I'm just going to call them nightmare clients at the time. In the moment, I'm thinking I'm doing absolutely everything for them. Like I feel like I'm a slave, basically, those clients that I lost or had a bad time with me. They were so horrible, like, I was doing everything. I was working at 7am to 11pm. And like doing everything that they asked. And those are the people that have the worst time because they just take and take and take and take. And at the time I don't get this because I'm working harder for them than I have for any of my other clients and all my other clients are having great experiences and love me. So what am I doing wrong, like what's different here. And finally, I realized, I am doing a disservice by not putting those boundaries in place. Because I'm just like doing all of the things and they are taking everything that I'm giving. But I'm giving it's my fault, right? Because I'm taking the responsibility. And saying, If I would have put boundaries in place, one I would have not worked with them, or a would have worked with them. But it would have been a lot easier a lot smoother, because they would have understood the process. The next way to implement boundaries. Figure out when you're going to take phone calls, texts, email, any of those things that constantly need your attention, or so the real estate industry says, have certain times that you're going to block out for doing email or phone or text. If you're a super scheduled person. It's great to have like time blocks so that you can have say I'm getting back to people at you know, one to two, or maybe you do it two times a day. So it's like nine to 10 or three to four. You can actually put this on your voicemail letting people know when you check it or put it in your email as an auto responder, if you are worried about people, you know, trying to contact you. But also, like I don't even have that anymore. I had that for a certain time because I felt like I always needed to be available. But I started to realize okay, it's not as urgent as it seems. So even when a client a lender title Another agent is contacting you, you know, there's always fires, like there's always fires to be put out. And everything seems so urgent in the moment. And I've just found like, if I give it an hour, I call them back. It's already like magically figured out, versus when I used to answer every single call every single text, every single email within like, one to five minutes, then I'm losing my day, I'm losing my focus on trying to put out all of these different fires. So even if you're a person that's not super scheduled, just try to lessen that time, you know, take the notifications off of your phone, for like the email, ping. And I usually have my phone on silent or vibrate, just because I don't want to be so torn away from my focus for the day or whatever I'm doing. So I love to have my phone on silent or vibrate, because it's my time I get to choose when I'm going to respond to people. And of course, I am going to do it in a timely manner, I'm going to do it in that day, if it's urgent. But no, you get the choice. Like you get to create your day you get to say what you do with your time, and how it's used. And I just think like the whole real estate industry thinking that people need to be glued to their phones, all of the time is so unrealistic. And it's hurting your health and your enjoyment of the business. If you miss a phone call, and you call them three hours later, or if you respond to an email or text a few hours later, you're not going to lose business, you're not going to lose clients, you're not going to lose your partnerships. Everything's going to be just fine. And you're going to be a whole lot happier. And lastly, have boundaries with your vendors have boundaries with the other agents, letting them know when you respond to things when you work when you don't work. And it'll be so much easier for all parties. I love when agents tell me what their boundaries are. Because when obviously I'm totally in support of having your own freedom and having your own free time. But also it helps me know so that oh, okay, they're not responding right now. Because they're busy or, you know, this is the time that they don't respond, but they're gonna respond to me tomorrow. So just having that making it super clear for everybody is going to not only help you save you from burnout, but it also that communication is so helpful to everyone in the transaction. screenshot this episode and let me know what boundaries you're going to be putting into place gratitude and abundance greens.
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Thank you so much for joining me today. If you love this episode, hit that subscribe button and share a review I so appreciate every one of you. If you're not already following me on social media, you can find me at commission clean and go to commission clean.com To browse products and get more free content
Transcribed by https://otter.ai