What Is Floor Time In Real Estate And Is It Worth Doing?

As a new or maybe existing agent, you might be wondering what floor time in real estate is and if it’s worth doing? Does it make sense to sit in front of a phone for an hour, two hours, or more?

That’s what we’re talking about in this article. I will share my personal experience and how you can get more out of floor time.

What Is Floor Time In Real Estate?

Floor time in real estate is an opportunity for real estate agents to generate leads, and ultimately, get clients.

Since all real estate marketing must contain some of the broker’s information, especially yard signs, it’s common for a certain number of prospective home buyers to call the broker rather than the listing agent when they have questions about a home for sale.

Between yard signs and Zillow listings, home buyers may end up calling the broker when looking for information on a listing.

Brokers offer floor time so agents can respond to those questions and get leads. It’s a way for new agents to get their first client.

In Michigan, it’s illegal for unlicensed real estate agents to provide information about a listing. For our state, that’s another big reason floor time exists.

Prospective buyers can’t get the information they need from the office administrative staff.

Is Floor Time Worth It For Agents?

So, is floor time worth doing for real estate agents? The answer to that question comes down to your goals and the company you work for.

Floor time, when compared to other marketing channels, is an excellent low-cost lead source. It costs only your time to generate these leads. Compare that to Zillow leads, which can easily range in the hundreds to thousands.

However, it’s impossible to scale floor time and generate a ton of leads.

The number of potential leads available at your broker is determined by their number of listings, agent participation, and their policies.

The Number of Listings

First, the number of leads available is directly correlated to the number of listings the company has. The more listings, the more floor calls.

That just makes sense. The more prospective buyers see listings on Zillow or while driving, the more leads that will be generated through calling the broker’s phone number.

Agent Participation

But, it’s not just the number of listings. The agent participation is going to make a difference, too. The more agents that participate, the less available calls you get.

So, while a company might have a lot of listings, if they also have a lot of agent participation, then you may not get any leads from being on floor time.

Example: let’s say Broker #1 has 100 listings and there are 25 agents that participate in floor time. This leads to a 4:1 ratio. There are four listings per agent. On the other hand, Broker #2 only has 50 listings, but only 10 agents participate. This company has a 5:1 ratio, or five listings to one agent.

All else being equal between Broker #1 and #2, floor time is more likely to be worth it at Broker #2.

It has a higher listing per agent ratio, and therefore, is likely to lead to more floor calls for an individual agent. Broker #1 will produce more total calls, but less for the individual agent.

So, you want to find a company with a strong ratio of listings to agent participation. The number of listings should be high and agent participation low.

What’s Your Broker’s Policies?

Sometimes agent participation is low, even though the listing numbers are high, because broker’s have policies that put constraints on floor time agents.

There are sponsoring brokers who have a strict policy about how leads are supposed to be handled. For example, some sponsoring brokers will require you to forward all leads calling about a company listing to the respective list agent.

This can really tie your hands. It makes it difficult to generate any leads if your company has this policy.

That’s because the only leads you become eligible for, then, are the leads that are ready for you to go list them or are determined to work with an agent from your company.

These kinds of calls are far and few in between. They’re out there. But, they’re rare.

Ideally, floor time works best at a brokerage that doesn’t have strict policies on how the leads are to be handled. And, where you’re not required to forward the calls to the listing agent.

My Personal Experience

I personally had a lot of success with floor time when I was a new real estate agent. Floor time is something new agents should do once they have their license. It’s what allowed me to do nearly $4-million in production my first year without a sphere of influence or knowing anybody.

Floor time allowed me to generate leads without any kind of money cost. I did spend many, many hours on floor time and I worked for the largest broker in my area.

I don’t have data from how much I made in 2018 from floor time, but I generated a little over $20,000 in GCI from floor time in 2019.

I don’t have any more data beyond that year because I scaled back on floor time and pursued other lead generation channels.

So, floor time does work. It took around 20 hours per week of floor time.

Most real estate agents who can’t make floor time work either, work for a small brokerage or don’t put in enough hours on floor time.

Questions To Ask Buyer On Floor Time

When a prospective buyer calls, chances are they’re not going to buy that home. So, you need to be ready to ask the buyer some questions and convert them into a lead.

There were two methods I used to convert leads. If the client seemed interested in the home and it was still available, I would pitch them on a showing.

When they ask a question, you answer it with the information and ask if they would like to set up a time to see it?

As a new agent, I didn’t care if they were qualified or anything like that. My goal was to get in front of people.

It’s easier to sell you as their agent in person. Once they see a smiling face, it’s an easier task to become their agent.

Here are some floor time real estate phone questions you can ask for people that aren’t ready:

• “This house is X. What kind of home are you looking for?”
• “Sorry, this home has an active offer. Let me see what else might be similar and available that I can send to you. What’s your email?”
• “How long have you been looking for a home?”

Some real estate coaches might suggest asking if they’re prequalified, but that’s too much. Put yourself on the other end.

How would you feel if you called a stranger and they’re asking you personal questions about your finances. It doesn’t feel great. Trust me.

Are You Searchable?

Floor time is a great lead generation strategy and you can increase your results with a strong agent profile. Let me tell you what’s most likely happening every floor lead you talk to…

Once you hang up, they’re likely Googling you. They’re looking you up and trying to figure out what kind of agent you are. I’ve seen it countless times where people take floor leads, schedule a showing, and then get ghosted.

A major reasons for being ghosted is because your agent profile likely turned them away or didn’t give a lead a reason to meet you at a showing.

An agent profile is a critical part to your success as a real estate agent. That’s why we created our Agent Profile Blueprint program.

Final Word

Floor time can be a great lead generation source for new agents. To make the most of floor time, it works best at a larger broker with more listings and fewer policies. You need to log the hours to earn the money.

As I mentioned, I would easily spend 20 hours or more a week on floor time. I also did it year round. Often I was the only agent doing floor time in the winter.

Fewer leads came in, but I essentially got 100 percent of them. So, don’t just do floor time during busy months because that’s when agent participation goes up. You may end up getting fewer calls during these times.