How to Succeed as a Single Mom being a Real Estate Agent

Being a single mother is a full-time job. Between shuttling your children to and from sports practice, cooking dinner every night, and being “on-call” when your kids are at school, there’s simply no time left in the day. How can you possibly be a real estate agent on top of all of that?

To succeed as a single mom despite being a real estate agent, you have to do what you can from home. You should time-block your calendar for personal and professional responsibilities, partner with another agent with an open schedule, focus on sellers, and have a babysitter on call.

As a single mom, you already wear several hats, and being a real estate agent will be your next one. To find out how to get into real estate, get your real estate career off the ground, and experience success — all while being a single mom — keep reading.

Understand Most Agents Work 40+ Hours a Week

The real estate industry is a blessing in one sense; you get to choose your schedule. You can check your email every night at 8 PM, and you can reach out to hot leads midday at 1 PM, so long as it fits into your calendar. To be a successful single mom real estate agent, you’ll need to commit your time to the craft.

Surveys show that 49% of real estate agents will put in a 40+ hour work week on top of being on call 24/7 whenever a client needs them. To get your business off the ground, you want to make sure that you have at least some time in your schedule to dedicate to working. 

Ideally, 20+ hours a week of free time is a great place to get started. If your kids attend school daily, this gives you 35 or so hours to work with each week. However, you may want to hold off on real estate if your kids are still young and need 24/7 care.

Work on Lead Generation and Prospecting From Home

If you’re a stay at home mom thinking about real estate, consider a good chunk of a real estate agent’s responsibilities can be fulfilled from home. The only time you’ll have to go into the office is to drop off commission checks, attend sales meetings or fax contracts to clients.

Though, a trip to the office while the kids are at school is a good idea if you get distracted easily and crave a professional setting to get in the real estate zone.

From home, you can:

• Call or email your leads & clients
• Craft an email marketing campaign & online ads
• Create your next mailing for your EDDM route
• Send & receive contracts and documents

Doing what you can from home will save you money on childcare costs that don’t need to be spent. You can feasibly work as a real estate agent from home most of the time, aside from obvious in-person tasks like home showings, client meetings, and open houses.

Time-Block Your Schedule to Stay on Track

The real estate mom’s schedule is whatever you make of it. Most top-grossing in the country use a method called “time-blocking” to plan out their daily schedules and make sure that they’re making good use of their time.

For you, this will come in handy for juggling your personal and professional life. For this type of schedule, you’re “blocking” out times in your schedule to dedicate to certain tasks. 

Here’s an example of what your time block might look like for the typical Monday:

Time	Task
7:00-8:00 AM	Get the kids ready for school & drop them off at the bus stop
8:00-9:00 AM	Squeeze in a workout & do household chores
9:00-11:00 AM	Prospecting
11:00-12:00 PM	Write content for social media & your blog
12:00-12:30 PM	Lunch
12:30-2:00 PM	Follow-up with hot leads & current clients
2:00-4:00 PM	Client meetings & property visits
4:00-6:00 PM	Pick up the kids from school, help them with homework, make dinner, etc.
6:00-7:00 PM	Check email

This schedule can help you prioritize your children and use whatever time is left over to dedicate to growing your business. The goal is to avoid multitasking and encourage complete dedication to each task you do in real estate.

Partner With Another Agent

There’s not enough time in the day to be a single mom and commit to a 40-hour workweek in the real estate world if your children are still young. If you’re struggling to find time for both, you might want to partner with another agent in your office. After all, it’s better to get a 50% commission than 100% of no commission.

Finding the right partner is the most crucial piece. You want to work with an agent with a similar outlook on real estate and is willing to split the job 50/50. That means nobody assumes the role of “leader,” You both look at one another as an “equal.”

Since your time and ability to get out of the house are limited, you should choose an agent who enjoys working one-on-one with clients and has more of an open schedule. They can handle most of the showings and open houses. You’ll take the reins on client contact, documentation, and lead generation.

Focus on One Aspect of Real Estate

Any sale you make in real estate will be a commission check in your bank account, but it’s simply not realistic to handle every type of sale your license affords you. As a single mom, it can be tricky to juggle leases, rentals, buyers, sellers, and everything else. It’s a great idea to choose a specific area of real estate that you want to focus on.

Buyers can be easier to come by, but they’re also more time-consuming. With such a jam-packed schedule, it might be hard to find time to shuttle buyers to eight different homes on a Saturday or schedule multiple showings throughout the week.

Sticking to the seller side of the transaction is more lucrative, but it’s also much easier to do from home and with a limited schedule. That way, you don’t have to spend cash on a babysitter for a buyer that ends up changing their mind about purchasing.

Choose Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies

Real estate is one of those industries where you have to spend money to make money, at least until you build name recognition in the local community. 

Until the referrals start coming to you (which can be 18 months to get your real estate business thriving), you’ll spend much of your time and money on advertising your business. The research shows that the majority of real estate agents will spend $5,000 a year on that.

To succeed as a single mom real estate agent, choose affordable marketing methods to increase interest in your business without risking your bank account.

For example:

• Cold calling or door knocking
• SEO, blog posts, and social media content
• Facebook & Instagram ads

There’s no need to rent out billboard space, line the streets with yard signs, or invest in five EDDM routes. Any advertising method can work as a single mom real estate agent, so long as you commit to it.

Hire a Babysitter or Invest in Childcare

In the perfect world, all of your real estate responsibilities will fall during your child’s nap time or school hours. But we know that clients want an agent at their beck and call, ready to show a house at 7 PM, host an open house on Sunday, and the likes. 

Since it’s unprofessional to bring your kids with you to meetings and closings, you’ll want to have a babysitter (or more than one) on call and ready to go.

So, what does the average day look like for a single mom real estate agent? Take a look at this video that will show you from start to finish:

Conclusion

Now you might be wondering, “Is real estate a good career for moms?” Of course, it is — if it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so many real estate mom blogs.

Real estate can be a great career for anyone as long as you’re willing to commit your time and attention to the industry. As a single mom, the most important way to succeed as an agent is by finding a middle ground between your personal and professional life. Both deserve attention and, if you’re serious about growing your business, you can do it! Don’t Wait.