Complete Guide to Growing Your Business with a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

As your real estate business grows, you will find yourself spending more time on administrative tasks, follow-up calls, and staying on top of an ever-complicated schedule. Eventually, you will reach a plateau. You know you need to bring on some help, but what is the best way to do it?

A real estate virtual assistant may be the answer you are looking for. A real estate assistant can make your business more efficient and organized by taking over mundane administrative tasks. Your valuable time will be freed up to dedicate to growing your business or simply enjoying a better work/life balance.

What Is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant, or VA, is an independent contractor or employee who handles support services and administrative tasks remotely. A VA can be an employee, independent contractor, or temporary employee and work full-time, part-time, or on an as-needed basis.

What does a virtual assistant do? It depends! There are many types of virtual assistants ranging from customer service and bookkeeping to social media management, data entry, and graphic design. A virtual real estate assistant has the specific experience necessary to support your business.

What is a VA in real estate? A virtual assistant for real estate helps with scheduling, office management, inbox management, answering phones, and providing other administrative support.

How a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Can Support Your Business

Now that you have a basic idea of what a VA is, what can a real estate assistant do? Real estate virtual assistants handle everything from general office management and answering the phone to managing your schedule and inbox, data entry and database management, and sending follow-up emails.

A real estate virtual assistant can be your right-hand man, giving you the support you need so you can focus on more important tasks that grow your business.

Before hiring an assistant in real estate, it's important to consider the tasks you want to delegate. There are some tasks perfectly suited to a real estate administrative assistant and some duties that require a licensed real estate agent or someone with specialized experience.

Here are examples of virtual assistant duties your real estate VA can handle to help your office run smoothly and assist your entire real estate team.

Basic Bookkeeping

A virtual assistant for real estate agents can take care of simple, but time-consuming bookkeeping tasks that help you understand the financial health of your business and track important metrics, especially in a team setting.

• Sales reports
• Income and Expense reports
• Profit and Loss reports
• Tracking mileage and expenses for tax purposes

Administrative Tasks

The standard duties assigned to a virtual real estate assistant involve administrative support. Your VA can act like a virtual secretary or personal assistant for a single agent or an entire team. The typical virtual assistant job description includes:

• Inbox triage and responding to emails (that do not involve transaction details and information they are not qualified to handle)
• Drafting letters and emails
• Answering incoming phone calls
• Setting up team meetings
• Recording meeting minutes

Research

How much time do you spend on research each week? A real estate virtual assistant can help you stay on top of market conditions, prepare for meetings with clients, and give clients the most up-to-date information. Your VA can not only handle research for you, but organize data in reports that are easy to read. Here are some common research points in which your real estate assistant can help.

• Market trends
• Mortgage rates
• First-time buyer programs
• Upcoming development and amenities in neighborhoods
• Gather information for comparative market analysis (CMA)
• Available properties that fit a buyer's guidelines
• Listing research (Which listings are on quiet streets? Which listings are pet-friendly with large, fenced yards?)

Marketing

While there may come a time when you want a dedicated team member for marketing your business with specialized experience, virtual real estate assistants can be excellent at staying on top of your marketing and branding efforts! If this is important to you, you'll want to look for a VA with writing and/or design experience.

• Social media management
• Email campaigns
• Content creation such as infographics, resources, and blog posts
• Researching content ideas
• Listing fliers and listing descriptions
• Direct mail materials
• SEO management
• Track marketing campaigns
• Buyer packets

Data Entry and Database Management

Managing databases and data entry probably take up a lot of your time, yet accurate databases are at the heart of your lead generation efforts. One of the most crucial ways in which a real estate personal assistant can help is handling your data entry and databases to make sure you are always working with accurate, up-to-date information.

• Submit and update MLS listings
• CRM data entry
• Updating your CRM with notes on leads
• Cleaning up your CRM to remove duplicates and errors
• Reporting

Sales Support

Did you know a virtual assistant for real estate can be a valuable part of your sales team? Here are some virtual assistant duties that help you close more deals.

• Research seller and buyer leads
• Make sure your CRM is updated with notes on leads
• Cold calling and prospecting
• Weekly performance updates
• Lead screening to make sure your time is spent on qualified leads

Scheduling and Calendar Management

A successful real estate agent has a busy calendar. It's easy to miss an important deadline or appointment without someone staying on top of your schedule.

Realtor assistants are helpful for finding the time you need to meet with a client and avoiding double bookings. Their virtual assistant responsibilities can also include tracking important events, tasks, and deadlines. These events may not require specific action or the agent's presence and otherwise wouldn't show up on their calendar.

For example, listing agents can benefit from a VA scheduling home showings to make sure sellers have time to vacate, prospective buyers have time for a walkthrough, and there are no overlapping showings. A VA in real estate can even handle booking and scheduling a listing photographer, cleaner, and home stager.

Other Real Estate Virtual Assistant Tasks

A virtual assistant for Realtors can handle almost any task within their ability to support your business. Here are examples of other duties you may include in your real estate assistant checklist, depending on their skillset.

• Updating your website with fresh blog posts, sales statistics, team information, and more
• Solicit feedback and reviews from customers
• Arranging closing gifts for buyers or sellers
• Making travel plans
• Personal assistant duties like scheduling family events
• Onboarding and recruiting agents

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant: Creating a Real Estate Assistant Job Description and Pricing

Is it time to hire a virtual assistant? As you can see, there are many ways virtual assistants for real estate can help you grow your business and improve your work/life balance. A real estate virtual assistant is also a cost-effective solution with duties that are easy to tailor and change to fit your needs.

Follow these easy guidelines to get the most benefit from real estate virtual assistant services.

Know What Services and Help You Need

Before starting your search for virtual assistant real estate services, have a good understanding of the tasks and duties you want to assign them. If you're struggling to decide what you should delegate, you may find it helpful to track how much time you currently spend on the tasks above.

Which tasks take up the most amount of time and can be done by someone else?

Don't make the mistake of trying to assign too many duties to a single personal assistant. Not only will they be overwhelmed; they will also be ill-equipped to best handle the duties they are assigned. Try to focus on one or two areas above to manage or a range of similar tasks.

Make sure you are assigning tasks that can be performed by an unlicensed real estate assistant. NAR provides a helpful overview of state regulations for unlicensed real estate assistants. For instance, Georgia does not allow unlicensed assistants to make cold calls, but California allows assistants to make cold calls with some guidelines.

Create a Clear Real Estate Assistant Job Description

The next step is creating a virtual real estate assistant job description. This is a useful step even if you are hiring through a VA company because it clearly defines your expectations and helps you find the right person for the job. Your job description may include a real estate assistant checklist of duties you want your VA to perform.

As you prepare a job description, you can make sure you create clear procedures for each duty that are easy to follow. This will help your real estate assistant seamlessly become a part of your business.

Finding the Best Real Estate Virtual Assistant

With a good idea of the help you need, you're ready to start the search for the real estate administrative assistant of your dreams.

You'll find several options for hiring virtual assistants. The best option will depend on your budget and job description. Here are some questions to ask yourself to narrow your focus.

• Do you want to handpick a VA or go through an agency? Real estate virtual assistant companies often specialize in certain areas. Some agencies connect you with US-based virtual assistants while others offer overseas VAs. Some have a certification process and specialized VAs if you're looking for a marketing specialist, someone with a graphic design background, or a VA with real estate experience. If you want to do the screening and hiring process yourself, Upwork or LinkedIn may be the best option.
• Do you want them to be US-based? You will pay more for a US-based virtual real estate assistant, but they can be in the same time zone and better suited to more complicated tasks. If you are solely looking to outsource administrative VA duties, an overseas VA can be a good fit.
• Do you want a high-level real estate assistant with industry-specific experience? Look for a VA agency that specializes in real estate. One example is Summit VA Solutions with a 160-hour real estate-based training process, college-educated overseas virtual assistants, and an internal support team.
• Do you want to delegate tasks that require specialized experience? If you are looking for an assistant to primarily help with designing marketing materials, social media management, marketing campaigns, or bookkeeping, this should be the primary focus of your search rather than a general VA or real estate assistant.

Virtual Real Estate Assistant Pricing

How much does a real estate virtual assistant cost? You may pay anywhere from $8 to $50+ per hour. Some companies charge a monthly fee instead with an average cost of around $1,500 per month for a full-time overseas VA.

There is no way to give you a general virtual assistant cost as it depends on whether you need a real estate assistant part-time or full-time, whether you go through an agency or hire an independent contractor, and whether you choose a US-based or overseas VA.

Once you know the virtual assistant tasks you want performed and have a good idea of a job description, you'll be better able to estimate pricing and decide the best option to hire a virtual assistant.

Transaction Coordinator vs. Assistant: Which Do You Need?

Virtual real estate assistants are great for maximizing your productivity and handling time-consuming administrative tasks, but this role isn't the best fit for everything. You should also know when it's time to hire someone with specialized experience and knowledge.

Virtual real estate assistants and transaction coordinators are often confused with each other. While some VAs can and do perform general transaction coordination services, if you are specifically looking for transaction management, it's best to hire a transaction coordinator (TC).

What is the difference between a transaction coordinator versus an assistant? A VA is more like a general assistant that performs a diverse range of tasks like managing your personal and work calendars, updating your CRM and MLS listings, and even scheduling social media posts. A transaction coordinator is a specialized role. A TC handles the administrative tasks and paperwork of real estate transactions. This includes coordinating communication between all interested parties, opening escrow, handling and reviewing paperwork, and managing deadlines.

Virtual assistants and transaction coordinators are separate, supportive members of your real estate team that perform different duties to accomplish the same goal: keeping your business in compliance, saving you time on administrative tasks, and helping your business grow.

To view the original article, visit the Transactly blog.