You may or may not bring buyers on tour in your car, but as a real estate agent, you know the importance of having a clean car at the ready. Even though keeping a clean car is likely already on your radar, what about the keeping an organized car – where your trunk or storage area functions as a tool to help you in your business?

Think back over the last year about all the times you wished you had something on hand, whether that was paperwork, hardware, or even a spare set of shoes…

Think about this concept for a moment – when was the last time you stopped by a house you had listed and noticed that the wind had caused one of the hinges to break and you wished you had a zip tie in your car so you could easily fix it? Or have you even been with buyers touring a vacant home and inadvertently stepped in – well, you know – and wish you had some baby wipes to clean your shoes?

Or the buyer who wished they had a land measuring tape to measure the width of the lot they were looking for?

Or what about the time you ran into a past client at the grocery store and they asked you if you had anything on you to give to their neighbor who was thinking about selling? If you haven’t run into a situation that necessitated having some seller or prelisting packages on hand, you probably will. And no, in an instance like that, people need a printed package – an email is not up to par.

Oh! And what about a time when you could not get online and access your MLS forms so you and your buyers could start to write a purchase and sale agreement? Wouldn’t it have been nice to be able to access some paper copies and at least create a rough draft of the documents which you could then complete later via electronic signing?

One of my themes for 2015 is to work more efficiently and that means having the right tools on hand for when you need them. Having an organization system in your car is no exception.

The first step is to determine what you need. Make your list and then take a look below at my checklist that I am making available from my Club Zebra Vault: Get the checklist here.

Once you have your list, go shopping and start gathering your materials. Once you have all your materials, see how much space they take up and then think about what you want to put it all in. You can stop by a big office supply store or perhaps even Costco. You can either look for “car organizer” or take a look at plastic bins with sections to put different items.

Not only will you feel more organized with your car kit, but I guarantee this will save you time. Not only that, think about the potential impact your organization will have with clients. In fact, I have a client who made this car kit herself. Not one week later, she went to meet with a potential client at a property. The client wanted to measure the lot and regretted not bringing his land measuring tape. She simply reached into her kit and there it was! After the agent saved the day twice more by having something at the ready, the potential client indicated he couldn’t imagine someone handling the details better and he went from being a potential client to a client.

I would love to see your finished car kit! Send a photo to denise@thelonesgroup.com and I will post them in my upcoming Zebra Reports.