All across the world, real estate agencies are constantly looking for fresh and creative approaches to increase the productivity and profitability of their business. Outsourcing real estate VA job is one of those tactics. Many real estate businesses work with VAs to streamline the task of managing rental properties. That's exactly what GoCode Solutions hopes to do as well. 

By providing real estate virtual assistants who are specifically recruited and trained for the job, GoCode offers efficiency and profitability to real estate agencies and even other property management organizations. Our motto while providing VAs for any kind of real estate business is to create an optimum balance between process, resources, and training. 

Although hiring a virtual assistant is a widespread practice, there are a few things you should understand before hiring a virtual assistant. Before you outsource, there are five things you should be aware of:

1. Why does a real estate agent need a VA? 

• Cost saving and efficiency

A real estate virtual assistant is a viable solution for agencies that are struggling with workload management or financials. Oftentimes, many agencies employ way too many real estate managers for the total no. of properties being managed. Hence, by outsourcing real estate VA jobs, the budget for wages can be reduced and it’s often viewed as the panacea to the agencies’ problems. 

Additionally, outsourcing virtual assistant jobs does not necessarily solve the issue if there are bad practices within the agency. In reality, the majority of the time when a virtual assistant is introduced into a broken agency, the initial issue will only get worse. Hence, by outsourcing VA jobs, it becomes a prerequisite for the agency to prioritize workflow improvement. Without an optimum workflow model, the VAs will not get enough work and the whole point of hiring VAs loses its meaning. 

2. Is the agency ready to hire a VA?

• Team structure and tasks

There are many different types and sizes of real estate agencies and teams. Fortunately, there isn't one ideal team structure. So, essentially, what this means is every agency should create a custom optimum structure for itself. Therefore, outsourcing VA jobs becomes beneficial if the team structure is changed to accommodate the proper functioning of VAs. One way to do so is by treating outsourced VAs as in-house employees themselves. The distinction should be in the types of work assigned to them and the distribution of work, not how the agency should treat them.

Similarly, real estate agents have core tasks and subtasks. Core tasks include money-making activities like meeting clients, meetings, marketing, and networking, and subtasks are mostly admin and operation duties like planning, documenting, scheduling, keeping track of things, etc. When there is a good system in place that helps enables monitoring and accountability of all these activities, only then is an agency ready to hire a VA. 

3. Is the VA outsourcing agency credible and reliable?

• Recruiting practices

The most crucial step for a real estate agency when outsourcing VA jobs is checking the reputation of the business that actually contracts out virtual assistants. Such analysis should be done on their recruiting practices, the talent pool they hire from, and more importantly their track record or their success rates. If a long-term partnership is to be established with the outsourcing company, they must identify the ideal virtual assistant for you. This entails conducting numerous interviews with applicants, assessments, confirming the credentials of the virtual assistant, etc.

4. What type of training is provided to the VA?

Not all companies that provide virtual assistants offer the same quantity or quality of training. This is a significant distinction that you should be aware of if you're thinking about hiring a virtual assistant for property management. The training must be designed as per the need of every individual real estate company and it must be practical and relevant. At GoCode, we work closely with every real estate agency so that we can identify the "how" and "why" of every company and train our VAs accordingly.

Conclusion

It makes perfect sense to hire a virtual assistant for real estate businesses! There are undoubtedly numerous advantages. However, there are a few things you should be aware of before outsourcing this job and finding the right VA. If you can answer these four questions listed above, you will succeed, particularly when your research leads you to us at GoCode Solutions.