Floor time is an anachronism symbolic of a far simpler time when mobile phones weren't invented yet, brokers were mom-and-pop organizations, and brokers and agents were fifty-fifty partners. But it's a new era. Is floor time still necessary?

A Realtor wonders if being asked to answer phones should be part of the job.

Hello Blanche:

I am a semi-retired Realtor with 18 years of sales experience in the business. I have worked Commercial, Investment, Appraisals and just about every aspect of the Real Estate Industry. My wife has also been a realtor for over 20 years and is an expert in the Residential market and does well working with people. She is still affiliated with a Brokerage of about 250 agents in 14 offices. Her manager has been frustrated with the lack of interest with the 'floor time' in his office. It seems that many of the agents in her office are not producing due to the slow market and the agents who are doing most of the business are selling foreclosed bank properties. He wants all the agents to be on the floor time schedule.

Agent interest in taking floor time has diminished considerably since the phones don't ring like they did a few years ago. The floor duty agent is required to take all the calls coming into the office, including appointments for showings and other agents' calls. If someone calls about a property, the duty agent has the right to that call. Then the Secretary will take any calls while the duty agent is talking to a client.

The manager has called upon all of his agents to plan a task force to determine what is wrong with the office 'floor time' program and what can be done to make it more exciting. He suggested giving a $50 gas card as a prize for the agent who's name is on the winning ticket that is placed in a box every time the agent takes his/her phone time.

Both my wife and I feel there is a better way to promote more business for the agents. If 'floor time' was so popular surely all agents would be standing in line to get their name on the list.

Do you have any idea what other managers are doing around the country in their offices? We have mixed emotions about agents taking all the calls coming into the real estate office. Shouldn't an employee be doing this? Seems like nothing has changed in this area for over 20 years. Why is this?

Signed, Seeking a Better Way

Realty Times responds:

Dear Seeking a Better Way:

There are a number of reasons why floor time used to be popular, and still is -- with some brokers.

When you were a young Realtor, agents came into the business as fifty-fifty partners with the broker. There was a lot of loyalty associated with hanging a license with a brokerage. Agents were willing to earn their way to higher splits with sweat equity -- knocking on doors and making calls to their "spheres of influence." In other words, agents understood that they were agents of the broker, employed to bring business into the brokerage. In return, the broker supplied training, materials, advertising, and other paternalistic assistance.

In this simpler time, there were fewer places to derive leads, so agents were required to create leads. The broker typically bought local newspaper ads and used the local MLS to alert competing brokers of new inventory. Everyone understood how things were supposed to work.

But the only constant is change.

Splits became a bigger issue with the introduction of the "100" percent companies -- Realty Executives and RE/MAX, to name a couple. It was the beginning of the shift from a broker-centric industry to an agent-centric industry. Agents began to seek ways to distinguish themselves apart from the broker's brand, turning agents into competitors against their own brokers. Buyer's agency became an issue, and sub-agency was retired, reconfigured, or renamed to adjust to an everchanging set of rules.

In the meanwhile, we've had an electronic revolution. Nearly all agents have cell phones, PDAs, laptops, and other mobility-enhancing devices. They have their own offices in the spare bedroom or on the dining room table. There's very little need to come into the office, except for meetings and to pick up sales materials.

Agents are more mobile in other ways. Because they've demanded and received higher splits, they also feel they can leave at will, and so many change brokerages frequently looking for that ever-elusive better deal.

Brokers have responded by offloading more and more costs onto agents from providing their own training, to charging them for the office supplies they use. That's done little to build loyalty or affinity from the agents. Many agents pay for their own advertising, not satisfied with the tiny display ads they get from the broker's hometown newspaper. They pay for websites, banner ads, Market Conditions reports and other advertising means to get them noticed by consumers. In light of all that expense, they aren't about to let a sales call get as far as the broker's office.

So instead of partnership, we have an uneasy truce. That's not a very positive atmosphere in which to ask agents for floor time.

In today's world of email, cell phones, and PDA's, it's a wonder brokers are getting any calls at all. That's why agents don't want to work floor time. It's not profitable.

That leaves the broker with only one choice. Put the situation in front of the agents and explain the options. He can hire a receptionist or phone service, and pay the agents a few less percentage points in commission. Listing calls will go to the listing agent, but if the listing agent doesn't follow up in a timely fashion, the call will go to the next person down the list who's "up."

The other choice is that all the agents agree to a revolving schedule of phone duty. But phone duty doesn't have to be mind-numbing hours of boredom. It should be explained that all agents should be making so many calls a day to their "spheres of influence." Phone duty would be an excellent time to make calls.