Your Realtor is going on vacation; the question is “Are they going to tell you about it”?  With cell phones and easy Internet access you may not even know.  Then of course, there are vacations and then there are amazing vacations. 

In January I was in Puerto Vallarta for five days.  I woke each morning checked my email, checked it again after lunch and again just before dinner. Natalie was hard at work in the office, so there were few calls made from my cell phone.  She and I successfully negotiated an offer and on another escrow negotiated the buyer’s request of repairs after a physical inspection, mostly via email with only a few phone calls between us.  This is what I consider a “kind of vacation”; I am still working, but I prefer to let my clients know that Natalie will be manning the office, and that I will be available via email or by phone if necessary.  The email doesn’t feel as intrusive.

Last November I was in Rome and Florence which is a dream vacation, on a dream vacation, I would rather not work, I would like to recharge.  As a Realtor, we work seven days a week, recharging is necessary.  Natalie was in the office, running the show.  



I checked email every other day but  Natalie was able to phone me in an emergency.  Again, I did let my clients know that I would be gone as I didn’t want to be making transatlantic calls unless it was something that Natalie couldn’t handle.  Natalie is very resourceful and has yet to make that call.

Another vacation issue: how soon do we tell a client that we are going out of town?  George and I will be in Mexico for 7 days in November.  During my real estate career, I have bounced back and forth as to when to tell clients about an upcoming trip, years ago I was telling client’s months ahead of time, but I learned that this only made some of them anxious, I now time when I inform each client.  Often, I am able to wrap up an important aspect of the escrow, such as an inspection negotiation, and then let them know that I will be gone and can be reached in an emergency.   This seems to work better. 

I am currently managing a Realtor friend’s business while she is out of town for five days.  She has cell phone and lap top; I am returning Broker (availability) calls and anything else that may come up, for instance, yesterday I returned a phone call to an appraiser that had questions pertaining to one of her closed escrows.  She certainly didn't need to be bothered with this and I was able to easily answer his questions.  This "vacationing" Realtor is returning her client's phone calls.   Do the clients know about the vacation?  Probably not, but is it really a vacation when you are working? Probably not.