Truth About Floor Time, Truth About Floor Time Options

[dmyeaman]

Ok gang....Here are some REAL facts about floor time.

Many of you know me and for those of you who don't, I have been a consultant, trainer and owner/operator and in the real estate industry for some 27 years. I have demonstrated to 1000's of brokers and owners over that period the proof of what I am going to present. Any one who would like to challenge these facts may contact me and I will be happy to provide you with empirical documentation and you can prove this your self.

Floor time is the industries way of not spending money on answering the phone or spending money on call centers and receptionists. In studies I have conducted over and over and easily demonstrate, the consumer is ask for an appointment less than 2.13% of the time. That means that out of 100 consumers calling in response to ad's and signs, less the 2.13 are ever even ask for an appointment. When they see the property, it is primarily because THEY (the consumer) asks to do so.

Virtually no one in this business trains agents to really manage the phone and ask for the appointment. 82%...yes EIGHTY TWO PERCENT! of the consumers calling in on the phone are going to do something real estate related in 6-9 months. Between 20% and 30% (approx) are going to buy and/or sell now.

In the last market study I was involved in, (Chicago) it was actually 18.8% The rest are building an information base as part of the early buying/selling cycle.

The inbound call frequency, does not usually justify the return on time invested (ROTI) when tested against other types of prospecting activities. Many others have far greater return. The anomaly of this is a function of the local market and the ultimate test of ROTI is exclusively a function of inbound frequency. So, traditionally, good producing agents DON'T take or want floor time; and they are right. That leaves marginal producing agents answering the phone doing a very poor job generally.

When agents who claim their production is from the floor, a close examination generally shows that to NOT be the case, unless they are marginal and that is the only business they have. We had one agent that was given over 75 leads(appts) from our call center and did only 13 transactions...another agent was given 27 leads(appts) and did 23 transactions.


Production is a function of capture and competence. Floor time is extraordinarily rich(as a function of density), but very sporadic and sparse as a function of time. That means every contact is worth meeting if you can, and if you stay in touch for 6-9 months then they have a very high ROTI; (not the time you spent on the floor!)

Bottom line...Floor time is Good for the broker for capture, bad for the agent to spend time trying!!! Open house are second in rating of density and based on the same type of logic and analysis. But, having 3-5 people showing up and making no appointments makes them a waste of time too. At some point, inbound call centers will be the future of this business. It serves the agents interest, and serves the clients needs.

If you are intending to develop real business, both short term and long term, the real issue for you will be your own capture rate. If you are net capable of making appointments at 60% or better, you will struggle through the business. Capture rate is everything when it comes to building your business!