Floor Time

[Margo6786]

Does anyone here have any experience/advice for handling floor time? Have you found it to be a waste of time? Worth while? Any hints or tips for making the most of it soulfully?

Thanks! 

[Bill Saunders]

I would think that if your office is in a busy area, floor duty can be a good thing. In our office, the duty agent is the assigned agent for a sign call that does not ask for the listing agent, for instance (which can definitely be worth your while).
Sadly this "walk in" was a "time waster" in old school nomenclature. It is a long story, but the bottom line was a Sunday afternoon floor duty paired me with a multi-million dollar developer...by chance. He was a broker, so as I was not the listing agent for the parcel he was inquiring about, I would make nada. But I worked the info for him because it was really good early on training..and thus anything but wasted time...
Floor duty is somewhat kin to open houses and life. It is what you make of it. There is plenty of work to do if floor is slow, and when floor is not slow, it is a lot of fun!
Do you consider an "agent on duty" sign outside too cheesy?

[Jennifer Allan]

It does depend somewhat on the office, but there's a guy in my old RE/MAX office who made at least half his living from being AT the office. We didn't really have floor time, and since there were very few agents reliably there, the receptionists considered him their go-to guy for sign calls and walk-ins. And he was a 13-year agent - not a newbie.

The secret to successful "floor" is to be able to speak intelligently about the market. When someone calls, you want to be able to inspire them to want to meet you (as opposed to begging for an appointment). You do that by being familiar with whatever it is they're calling in about. Of course, you have no way of knowing WHAT they'll be calling about, so the more familiar you are with that market area's inventory, the better chance you'll have.

Same thing with walk-ins. But in addition, you should also have a great online search program that you can look at with the person, instead of a clunky, slow MLS that only a 20-year veteran could interpret.

When I was required to do floor time at my 3rd office, I got about $20,000 worth of busness from it, which doesn't include any subsequent repeat or referral I got from the person. It's worth doing - or at least - worth trying. Many days you won't get anything at all (kinda like open houses) and then BAM! A sweeeeet one stumbles in...

[Margo6786]

Thanks for the advice! At my office, we can do "floor time" from home by diverting the calls to our cell phone or home phone. Since I office from home, that sounds good to me. There are enough agents that do rent space at the actual "office" that there is no shortage of help for walk-ins.

Since I'm a newbie, I went to a floor time orientation the other day, and the agent teaching it said that she does floor time once a week, every week and she usually gets at least 4 closings a year from it. But the key was doing it consistently.

It sounds like the key is being familiar with the office's listings, and I'm working on that.

[Bill Saunders]

Just for added "oomph", I was talking to an agent the other day, and he said that he was on floor and got a client looking for a multi-million dollar apartment complex. It can happen.

[Susan Haughton]

There are agents in my office who have built very successful careers off of floor duty, so it can be done, but not everyone can do it (and I'm sure those who are successful at it are very grateful for that fact.)