Croissants, Conference Calls, and Kids: How We Worked Remotely for 6 Weeks in Europe

We've officially been home from Paris for 1 month and life has simmered back to reality from the trip of our dreams! Since the day we arrived back on US soil it's been go go go - kid you not, I had showings the next morning! Ha!

However, 30 days later and I can confirm we have overcome the jet lag, all the bags are unpacked, we are adjusted back into our groove, and those 6 weeks abroad feel like a fever dream. Although, there is still one thing we have yet to accept our American fait: No fresh croissants and baggetts just steps outside our frontdoor. Breakfast is quite disappointing since we've been back to say the least.

Imagine packing up your young family of 4 and spending a month in the heart of Paris with a few overnighter trips to Belgium, London, the French countryside (my personal favorite), a visit to Brussles and a week in Amsterdam, with one last 24-hour hurra back in Paris before flying back home to America. 6-weeks total abroad, 8 airbnb's, 1 carryon and 1 backpack each.

Now, throw in the mix my husband who works remote as a Data Engineer and myself as a full-time Arizona Realtor. How did we swing it?!

Why didn't we take PTO?

My husband actually did take some PTO, but the full 6 weeks wasn't necessary. As for myself, a Realtor, we don't have PTO let alone days off haha! In my dreams! But, I was able to resume business as usual without skipping a beat.

How did you work while abroad?

Luckily, over the past year I have been building and training my Doberneck Realty team. Perfect timing, right? As a Realtor, you hire me to advise, negotiate, educate and advocate for you through the transactional process. All of which is done from the comfort of my home. The only thing that requires my physical presense is 1) showing houses to buyers 2) attending the buyer's inspection review 3) the buyer's final walk thorugh a few days before closing 4) a walk through on a new listing to help price it approperiatly 5) hosting open houses.

There are also a lot of other things I am normally present for - hand you your keys and a gift on closing day, be apart of the social media filming to promote my listings, pop over to check on vacant listings, the list goes on.

Big or small, all of these things can be done by my highly trained (by me, myself, and I!) team of Realtors. They have been trained to know what to look while showing houses, what should make your ears burn during an inspection review, and ensure all repairs have been completed prior to a final walk through. And that's exactly what happened! While I was gone, my team showed houses to my buyers, attended inspections, final walk throughs, and closing day festivities (and more!), all while I remotely negotiated deals back and forth, connected with new buyers and sellers over Zoom, coodinated with title and lenders, and kept up with all my transactional contracts (and more!).

And guess what?

The well oiled machine kept running! It was a proud moment to realize I could physically step back from my business without anything slipping - no balls dropped and the quality of service unchanged. That's a game changing moment as a business owner.

When did you work?

The time change from Arizona to Paris could not have been better. 8 am - 5 pm in Phoenix is 4 pm - midnight in Paris. So, from 4 pm - 8 pm we would take phone calls, send necessary/time-sensitive messages, and occationally step away for a zoom meetings or important phone calls. Tyson and I tagged teamed these 4 evening hours and it was a syncronized dance we quickly grew acustom to. We enjoyed dinner and evening shanangins as a family and put the kids to bed around 8 pm. That's when Tyson and I would head straight to our laptops and work from 8pm till midnight. When possible, we intentionally scheduled calls and meetings during these hours. Were we tired? Yes, but working till midnight is not forign to us. At home, we both strive to preserve time with our children so we are often wrapping up work after bedtime - and that was no different in Paris. To compensate for late nights, we rarely set wake-up alarms and enjoyed leasure mornings, usually mosying to the downstairs cafe for breakfast around 9 or 10 am leaving us with 8+ hours of sleep, and a true Parisian morning routine.

Breakdown:

• 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm: 4 hours of multi-tasking family, play and work

• 8:00 pm - 12:00 am: 4 hours of dedicated un-disrupted work

• 8+ hours of sleep

• Late nights and lazy mornings

Not too shabby right?!

The most mindblowing part of it all!

After the first week Tyson and I learned something truely valuable. While we were out spending the entire day with our children, everyone in America was fast asleep. Our family time was completely unintrupted and we could be 100% present parents. A full 8 hours with our children before anyone in America pinged us. No phones necessary, no work required. Our entire day was dedicated to pure family time. Leaving all the important work tasks for post-bedtime. As far as my children knew, we hardly work the whole trip!

Whereas in America, it is completely reverse. Our entire day is dedicated to work and our evening hours are crammed with homework, extracurriculars, and dinner. Trying to enjoy the special moments inbetween the cracks of chaos.

We came home with a renewed dedication to make family-time the focus of the day even if our afternoon/evening time together is a little more limited.