and I'm not coming out...at least until my kids go back to school. Working from home can be a blessing and a challenge. This has been the longest holiday break I can remember. Before anyone calls CPS, I love my children. They are amazing young people, but it can be difficult to stay focused on work when they are whining about being hungry and bored and creating more dishes and laundry than I ever knew we had. Every time I walk out of my office I spend 15 minutes loading the washer and dishwasher and putting away cereal boxes, milk cartons, bread and peanut butter. I could fight with them to do it themselves but that takes way more than 15 minutes. I am choosing to lock myself up so I don't have to see it.

Yesterday I was on a conference call with the FloorPlanOnline sales team for a first of year evaluation and strategy call. I know they were expecting me to contribute some intelligent conversation to some serious agendas but all I could do was stay muted because my 10 and 13 year olds were duking it out in the other room and my dog was barking his head off trying to get me to get up and stop the carnage. I know they were trying to get my attention but I also know I set expectations very clearly before this break.

It would be easier to walk out of my office, grab the kids, go to the mall and play but I have deadlines and work responsibilities. I am fortunate that I have worked autonomously most of my life. For a lot of real estate agents, this is their first time having to manage their own time without the structured environment of an office and the luxury of a bi-weekly paycheck.

There are very few people who can work from home and be as productive as they could be in a structured work environment. These are not lazy people, they just have different triggers and may need more support from staff etc. We must keep this in consideration when creating our own business plans and when coaching and training others on time management and expectations. I feel like there are a lot of issues that are not discussed when an agent first gets started or converts to a work-from-home plan. Perhaps it should be a mandatory class?

It isn't about whether or not you can get the job done outside of the broker office, we all know technology makes that very easy...it is about environment and stimuli. Triggers that keep you motivated.

I am not talking about spending 8-12 hours in the office per day. That is counter productive to our industry. You have to be out to make contacts and do business. When I say in-office, it is for maintenance work, marketing, calls etc. If I saw you in the office all the time, I would wonder if you were super-human and telepathically showing homes or if you were afraid to walk out the front door and go get some business. I think a 50/50 split of time in and out of office is pretty balanced unless you have a support team doing your in-office work.

How can we set expectations on income generating activities if we don't look at the whole picture? In the mid 80s, I was a single mom in a male-dominated technology industry. They could care less if I had daycare issues. They set their expectations of me as if I were a young single guy with no other life responsibilities. It was never discussed and I struggled to meet their and my own expectations. Of course they could do this because they were paying me a salary.

In real estate we tend to not hold accountability for production even when the agent has expressed a great desire to meet certain goals. Working from home can make those goals a bit harder to attain and need a focused plan that varies a bit from in-office activities.

Yes we are all adults. Self motivation and responsibility are key to all success. No one should have to baby-sit to get us to do the work necessary to be successful. We should be able to be productive no matter where we are, however, discussing the pitfalls of working from home and addressing true home and personal life stumbling blocks are important. Defining whether or not you have the discipline to stay on course without the stimulus of activity and people is key. There is no way my dad could work from home. His job would allow him to but he would be doing everything but working. He never takes work home and shuts his phone off at 3:30p. At the office he is a machine, cranking out work like no one I have ever seen. Not right or wrong, just is.

All that said, before you decide to work from home exclusively or join a brokerage that doesn't have bricks and mortar for you to park in, take a hard look at your personal nature. When you first get started the pendulum swings from one end to the other. You are either in your home office too much doing things that are not productive or your not in your office enough. There does have to be balance. Decide if it is worth spending a little more money to have an office or cubie in your brokerage to make more money in the long run. I always recommend that when you are new to real estate or in a slump...you get your rear into the office every day. I don't care if it is a 3 person brokerage, just getting up early, dressing for success and driving to a place that means "work" can make all the difference.

Brokers and Managers, before you suggest or agree that an agent would be suited to work from home, have a serious conversation about it and what could happen. Discuss with them the pitfalls and find out a little about their home life. Stay in touch with them often as they go through the initial stages of transition. It's not babysitting, it is coaching and guiding to success. I have seen it so many times, mom has been an in-office agent for 5 years and now decides, since her business is going so well, it would be great to move home and let the nanny go so she can pocket more money and be with the kids more.....could be paradise, could be disaster.

Would someone please bring me a pb&j. I'm hungry and bored .