As you know, I am a real estate agent.  At least I play one on TV.  Well, not really, unless you count self-produced YouTube videos, IGTV, and Facebook Live as television.

Everyone thinks working in real estate is a glamorous job.  HGTV shows like Flip or Flop, Property Brothers, Love It or List It, and others certainly make it seem that way.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of glamorous perks to being a real estate agent.  For example, you get to set your own hours and work when you want to.  You get invited to free lunches and midday mimosas at broker opens and builder events. You get to travel all over the Charlotte area and tour some very interesting and beautiful properties.

But real estate agents are notorious for working long after hours, on weekends, and whenever their clients cough, ahem, or want to look at a house. We aren’t making any money when we’re hanging out having fancy lunches.  And we don’t get paid for those fancy home tours unless our client buys or sells one of them.

So, what does the typical day look like for a real estate agent?  Obviously it varies from agent to agent and from day to day.

I’ll describe my day today for you. Currently, it’s 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, and I’m writing my weekly real estate article for Tri-W News.  I believe to be successful in this business, you have to educate your clients and you have to put yourself out there.  I try to make this column informative and obviously it helps make my name more well known in the community.

I started the day with a brief meditation and some light yoga at 7 a.m.  I came downstairs, poured a cup of coffee, and walked into my office to review my priorities for the day.

My buyer clients got an accepted offer on a house yesterday, so this morning I teed up the transaction for my transaction coordinator – a must for any busy agent who gets bogged down by admin work – and made introductions between the closing attorney, the lender, and the seller’s team.

Next, I scheduled follow up showings for this afternoon with a young couple who I showed properties to yesterday. They’ve narrowed down to their top two so I expect to write an Offer to Purchase agreement this afternoon.

I also have a new listing coming to the market soon and I’m working on the preliminary marketing for that before pictures are taken and it’s ready for MLS and public consumption.

As a local small business owner, I am very active in the Waxhaw community and I volunteer with the Waxhaw Business Association as the group’s communications director.  Prior to writing this article, I put together the WBA Corner piece for this very publication.

I’m also a co-sponsor of Pups ‘n Pints and I’m headed downtown as soon as I finish this piece to distribute flyers to local businesses for the May 4 event.

Somewhere along the way, I hope to fit in some business development activities and write that offer to purchase I was talking about earlier!

The work day is only halfway done.

No two days are the same, and they certainly aren’t all glamorous, but this interesting career keeps me engaged in the community, allows me to impact lives, and pays pretty well when I do my job well.