’24 Hours With’ takes a look at a day in the life of CORE’s agents. Patrick Mills talks about the importance of building and maintaining relationships in an ever-busy day.
My alarm goes off promptly at 7:00am and my day begins by cross checking morning e-mails and social media posts of friends from Dubai to London to Boston. With CNN on the background, I make sure I get fully caffeinated, nourished (usually with oatmeal) and mentally prepared for the day ahead.
By 8:30am, I’m out the door to make my CrossFit class at EVF Columbus Circle. CrossFit, which is not only an incredible workout, is efficient and most importantly, is a community based routine – finishing each workout of the day with fellow classmates “Stronger Together”!
After class I quickly head downtown from Columbus Circle to Chelsea for a photo shoot. Once downtown, I meet with the incomparable Rich Caplan to shoot a beautiful new listing in my favorite building, 305 West 16th Street. We work together like a finely tuned machine by now. We understand each other and know how to bring a property to its fullest potential. By 11:30, I’m on my way to my office. On occasion I’ll run into a resident whom I’ve sold to and we’ll catch up briefly. Before heading out, I make sure that the doorman is taken care of with a fresh cup of hot coffee. Doormen can be your best friend and advocate as a broker, so I always make sure that they are taken care of – they work harder than any of us, so they deserve the recognition.
Around noon I finally make my way to the office and am greeted with big smiles and warm welcomes from our office staff. They always make me feel fortunate to work for a firm that really has my back and makes our office feel like family. With the limited office time I have, I quickly do some marketing prep to officially launch the new 305 West 16th Street property; editing floorplans, re-writing the listing description and brainstorm with our PR team to see how we can generate media buzz for this listing in a saturated luxury market. Now that we’re ready to launch, I put all of the marketing materials in the hands of our design team and I head out for a lunch meeting.
Today I’m meeting with an old college friend who I haven’t seen in a while. We catch up about life, love and business. My business focuses on relationships, so I make sure my calendar is always full – catching up with old and new friends, clients, mentors, etc. Cultivating relationships is not only fulfilling, but it’s an essential part of growing my business. So in addition to catching up with her, today she wants me to meet a neighbor of her’s to discuss selling her home.
At 3:00pm I begin a two-hour tour with another close friend for investment opportunities of the West Side. We begin in Chelsea looking at 1-bedroom investment properties up to $1.5M. Not only do I get to catch up with this client who’s become a good friend, I get to help him build his investment portfolio – holding his hand and giving him honest and straight forward advice on the product and potential for growth in today’s market. But by the 3rd property in Hell’s Kitchen, he decides to move forward with an offer, and within minutes, I’m on the phone with the listing broker making an offer on his behalf. We likely won’t receive a counter until tomorrow, but he’s very excited with this opportunity in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Manhattan. Hell’s Kitchen is authentically New York and I see the value of the neighborhood going through the roof in years to come. I bid farewell to my client and run off to meet another client/friend.
Before I know it, it’s 5:30pm and I’m off to meet my friend who’s been out of town for the past two months for work. Tonight we get to catch up thoroughly and have plans to meet other friends at theater. Curtains are up at 7:00pm precisely on the London transfer to Broadway – “A View from the Bridge”. Theater is my church, so I see at least one show a week. I find inspiration in live performances and they remind me why I moved to New York City in the first place. Theatre re-enforces the power of art, expression and community. This production succeeded and left me thankful to live the life I live, but also inspired me to be the best version of myself.
When I get home close to 10:00pm, I call my mom to briefly catch up and wish her a good night. I finalize work e-mails and respond to messages that have built up over the past few hours. I end the night by catching up on today’s news with Anderson Cooper. Maybe I’ll read a chapter of the new book I started or perhaps I’ll head to bed soon because tomorrow is another fulfilling day of living and working in New York City – focusing on relationships and the people who make this city so great!