And then my phone rang…

I just got back from a short “vacation” of sorts. We went over to Chicago to visit some old fraternity brothers and then on up into Wisconsin and across the UP and down the state to home - inadvertently doing “The Circle Tour” around Lake Michigan. I say it was a vacation of sorts because I never really got away from business.

On the drive over to Chicago I was on the phone at least 5 times discussing various deals that are in progress and instructing people what to do. Friday night we went out to dinner with the friends that we were visiting and then the phone rang. Saturday night, when we got to the home of the friends, the phone rang (I finally turned it off that night). Sunday we went to the Circus museum in Barabo, Wisconsin and the phone rang. Monday we toured Door Country, Wisconsin on the peninsula across from Green Bay and then the phone rang. Tuesday we decided to head home and I had 4-5 more conversations on the drive home.

Real estate is a 7 day-a –week job and there is little provision for taking time off, even if you have someone “covering” for you. The needs of the clients and the decisions that keep coming up in deals often can’t be satisfied by someone who has volunteered to watch things for a realtor. In addition to the phone, I was in daily email contact (really twice a day) the whole trip too and had to make sure that every hotel had Internet access. To a larger extent it was as if I’d never left home.

My long-suffering wife is a saint about putting up with what she knows will happen when we travel; however, I’m starting to question whether it is really worth it to try to keep up with the business while also trying to relax a bit and enjoy a vacation. It was perhaps a poor choice of timing for this trip, since I have 4 deals in process right now; but the timing was dictated by the schedule of one of the participants in Chicago, who came into country from England for a visit and who really was the reason for the get together. The next vacation will hopefully be better timed to a lull in my business.

I’m going to try again in the winter to just take off and enjoy some time away from the business. I’ve been in other businesses over my lifetime and none were as hard to get away from as real estate. Perhaps it’s just me and how seriously I take my responsibilities and obligations to my clients. I certainly have hit other Realtors with much less concern about the needs of their clients or the timeliness of decisions in deals. Intellectually I know that the world will not end if I do not answer that ringing phone; however, it might be important and it certainly seems important to whomever is placing the call. I could just turn the phone off and check it once or twice a day for messages and maybe just check email once a day. Oh, excuse me, my phone is ringing…got to go.