April 28, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. Parking.

Regina is about to blow up the parking lot. Of course, we all want Regina to be happy, so today at the end of Sales Meeting, we held a short discussion about our parking policy. On the surface, the parking lot is a great blessing to both agents and clients but in actual practice, Regina has been left to police the parking lot. She does not like to do that so we decided to have a full blown discussion of the issue. Normally our Agent Council makes decisions but our system is not working.

Mr Foster bought the building for us, which includes a 16 place parking lot. Directly behind us is a huge multi-level parking lot which is owned by the County. In addition, about a third of the agents have designated parking in adjacent private lots. At first we hired a young man to monitor our own parking lot and we actually allowed the agents to double park, while Jack would move the cars. This system worked fine, except for two things. No parking spots were left for clients and the Fire Department said we were not allowed to double park in the fire lane. The next plan was to allow the agents a two hour time period in our own lot before moving, and then to make it one hour, in order to allow parking for clients. The Company pays for half of the agents who have chosen to park in private lots, and we reimburse each agents fifty dollars a month for public parking, so every agent has access to parking in Bethesda. We also terminated our parking attendant three years ago, as a cost saving venture.

Two years ago, the Agent Council decided that too many agents were staying too long in our own lot, so the fifteen minute rule was put in play. Our own lot was to be used for any agent when they had to drop off a contract or settlement sheet, but not for long time period. This seemed to work, as we always had spots for clients but the agents could just stop quickly for the fifteen minutes. The problem is that some folks abuse the system. They don't intend to, but they come into the office for just a few moments and then get caught on the phone and forget where they left their car. Next thing you know, the lot is full and no spaces are available for the client who is just ready to go out to look at houses. That is the situation right up to the minute.

Our discussion was lively and spirited and we did find out several things. I will meet the staff tomorrow to formulate our plan. The office philosophy is important. We developed this office for the benefit of the agents, who in turn can help Buyers and Sellers, so we have a history of working everything out to the benefit of the agent, and I am sure we will accomplish our task this time. But it is interesting, how something that is so valuable becomes a bone of contention with both agent and staff. I think it is a hoot!!