Picture thirty open files. Each one has a lender, an escrow officer, an agent who wants an update and a client who wants to know everything is OK. At 8am all of them feel urgent. Only a few are.
Triage is how you tell which. It isn’t about working faster. It’s about doing the right five things first, so the other twenty-five can wait without anything breaking.
Make the list before you work it
One easy way to drop a deal is to start working while you’re still sorting. You open the first email, it turns into a call, the call turns into an addendum, and it’s noon before you look at the file that had a deadline today.
So the first rule: spend the first minutes of the morning building one list across every file, without fixing anything. Then work the list from the top.
The triage order
- Overdue. Anything past its date: a contingency, a document, an appointment that should have happened. This is where a file is most exposed. Work the oldest first.
- Closing soon. Files closing in the next week, even when nothing is late. Check that the last steps are moving: clear to close, closing figures, signing scheduled, walk-through booked. A small gap on a file closing Friday matters more than a big one on a file closing next month.
- Client questions. Unanswered messages from buyers and sellers. A question left overnight becomes a worried call. Reply, even if the answer is “I’ll know by Thursday.”
- Blockers. Steps waiting on someone else, such as the lender, title or the other side. You can’t finish these, but you can make sure each one has a name and a follow-up date.
Everything else, from steps due later in the week to filing and cleanup, comes after the list is clear.
Three questions for every item
- What happens if this waits until tomorrow? If the honest answer is “nothing”, move on.
- Who owns the next move: me, the agent, the client or a partner?
- What’s the smallest action that moves it? A two-line email now beats a perfect one this afternoon.
A daily routine that holds up
A routine you repeat beats a perfect one you abandon by Wednesday. Here’s one that fits most mornings:
- Read the summary of the day, if you have one, before opening any inbox.
- Build the list: overdue, closing soon, client questions, blockers.
- Clear the overdue items: tick what’s really done, chase what isn’t, and flag anything that needs the agent’s decision.
- Walk through every file closing in the next week.
- Answer every client question, even briefly.
- Send blocker follow-ups in one batch: one message per partner, covering every file they’re on.
- Block an hour for focused work, such as new files and addenda, with notifications off.
- Before you stop for the day, glance at tomorrow’s due items so the morning holds no surprises.
When you work for several agents
A TC working for three agents has three sets of expectations. Group your list by agent, so you can give each one a clean update and so one agent’s fire doesn’t quietly push another agent’s deadline off the page.
A short end-of-day note to each agent saves a lot of “where are we on…?” texts: “[Address]: inspection response signed, appraisal Thursday. [Address]: still waiting on the lender’s conditions list; I’ve asked twice and will call tomorrow at 10. Need from you: a decision on the repair credit for [address].”
Keep blockers from going quiet
Blockers are where files stall without anyone noticing. For each one, write down who it’s waiting on, exactly what you asked for, and when you’ll follow up. If a blocker survives two follow-ups, escalating is the agent’s call, so tell them early and give them the facts.
Make each follow-up easy to answer. A lender who covers many files will reply faster to a specific question than to “any update?”: “Hi [name], checking on [borrower] at [address]. We’re still waiting on the appraisal report, and the contingency date is [date]. Do you have an expected date? Thanks.” One message per partner, listing every file you share, saves everyone a stack of separate threads.