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I was in church this past week and the pastor spent the whole message going over the value and reasoning behind the Sabbath. For those of you that aren't church goers, the Sabbath is the 7th Day of the week. Traditionally most Christians celebrate it on Sunday, but some denominations like Seventh Day Adventists and Jews celebrate it on Saturday. Muslims celebrate a special day of prayer and rest on Friday.  No matter how you flip it though, most religions agree that there should be a day out of the week that you DO NOT WORK!!!

I'm as guilty as many of you reading this blog in that I might have a "day off", but that just means I don't go into the office. I STILL spend 2-5 hours in my home office or on my cell phone answering emails, returning calls, etc. SO.....for the last two weeks my family and I have challenged ourselves to do away with the TV, internet, phone, fax, email, Facebook, and whatever other electronic addictions we possess for an entire 24 hours.  IT WAS DIFFICULT....but a few things happened:

  1. I found myself with more time to spend with my kids. I read  a book I'd been waiting to start for months.
  2. I took a nap and felt more rested going into Monday than I have in months
  3. My business didn't burn down. The urgent emails I felt like I needed to address, waited until Monday morning for a response. 

 

I'm curious for those of you who have been in the business for a while, do you have a day of complete rest?

If not, do you think you could be a better agent, father, or husband by taking one day truly off ?

 

http://agentacceleration.com/god-gave-us-the-sabbath-to-rest/

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Comments

  • Love all the comments.  Don't forget, being a better mother, and wife by taking a day off from our hectic Real Estate schedule.  My husband is always asking, when are you coming home?
  • I keep the whole 7th Day (Sabbath) holy as God commanded. Most Christians keep the Sunday which is the First day. Unfortunately, the first day has no promise. Getting back to R/E, It is tough for us to keep day offs, but we must choose what is our priority.
  • Great feedback guys - reminds of that ridiculous commercial from a few years back by NAR that said "We're realtors, real estate is our life"? (I found link and put it at bottom of here). I would hope and pray that my God, my family, my friends are my life. Real estate....is my profession.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3HdlEaDDTY

  • Marqueze, while we don't share it with the real estate community as much as we COULD, we are a Christian company without a doubt.  Andrew Thurber (our national accounts manager) is a church pastor, and will unfortunately be leaving us to plant a church in Denver in March.  J.P. Ott and myself are both active leaders in our church and are heavily involved in international missions and other ministries.  Heck, most of the other staff here are part time missionaries and/or active leaders as well.  Six of us even go to the same church.  Keeping God 1st is without a doubt the reason why our business has been blessed so much over the last few years!

     

    The no weekend work schedule transition takes alot of faith and willingness, but it works.

     

    Steve, you bought up a good point that I have also learned.  Most of those asking for a last minute showing are only calling you because their actual agent chooses NOT to work weekends!  Unfortunately, they usually will call their agent when it comes time to write the contract!

  • I was self-employed before getting into real estate, so I have for a long time, set my work hours. This seldom includes weekends! I will bend that rules sometimes on a Saturday unless the wife has something planned. But usually the extent of my weekends are a handful of calls.

     

    On top of that, I never "pop-up" when someone calls wanting to see a property, usually within a few minutes. I will set an appointment the following day or when I'm not already booked, but I never run out the door! My experience has been 95% of these people already have an agent they are working with and just want something for free on their schedule. They have no concern about you or your time.

  • @Mike that just changed my entire though process about your business. WOW! You never know people until you really know people. I try not to work a lot as well but agents and asset managers seek us a lot! But I too have a great team in place who kicks butt. Now my team members are work heavy! They will work until the meat falls off of their bones. ( I ALWAYS TELL THEM TO TAKE DAYS OFF) But this is so true man. I put God 1st, period! I am a musician who also plays at church and that's my venting time. But I am glad I chimmed in on this convo...I might have to lean towards doing some business with the short sale network after all...
  • Great feedback Mike - Kudos to you and your team for steppin' out on faith like that.
  • Without reading this article at all, this is simply not true.  We do short sales and REO's.  Short Sales nationally, but still have 30-40 REO's locally.  We are CLOSED on the weekends, except for 9-1 on Saturday.  We don't use our cell phones for business, and leave our business at the office.  All of us are very active in our church.  A couple of my friends are adventists and take off both days.  I keep God 1st and everything I put 2nd turns out to be 1st class.  I know I personally have 100+ listings, and have not done ANY work on the weekends in the last couple years.  I took my cell phone off EVERYTHING years ago as well.  It is all about delegation and balance.  This Summer I worked 25 hours/week average, and probably average 30 hours the rest of the time.

     

    Justin, my first couple years in Real Estate I worked 7 days a week. Heck, my kids have even been on several showing appointments with me.  I thought I was a good father and working hard to provide for my family, but I was really not a good father and worked FAR too much.  I Can't be a good father if I'm not there. 

     

    There are more important things in life than money, and as soon as I started focusing more on THOSE things, God blessed me with money.  Go figure...  But seriously, a good trustworthy team is key.  We are open Monday-Thursday 8:30AM-9:00PM, Friday 8:30-4:30 and Sat. 9-1.  No single person is here all of those hours, but they have staggered shifts.  Frankly, if a customer isn't able or willing to do business with us during THOSE hours, I don't want to do business with them. 

     

    It works, but takes alot of guts to take that risk.

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