A majority of real estate agents today are super busy and leading hectic lives. From market research to finding leads, filtering them, client calls, and meetings: there’s just too much work. If this sounds like a position you are in, it's time for you to find a Virtual Assistant who will assist you and take some loads off your shoulder.

Despite the ongoing romanticization of the hustle culture, being a successful real estate agent shouldn't demand you to work 60 hours per week or sacrifice family time. There is no better way to achieve better results than by hiring a fantastic real estate VA. But what type of VA should you hire and where can you look for one? What works should you assign to your VA? Will they be reliable? We’re certain that you might have questions like these. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this article.

What is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Real estate virtual assistants effectively serve as your right hand. They work as administrators who can provide a range of business services virtually. Ideal VAs can handle a variety of tasks, including finance, lead generation, database administration, and customer relationship management.

The Founder of MyOutDesk, Daniel Ramsey describes having a VA as “Once you create a process and delegate a task, you are able to recover your time. And get this, since you have now developed a repeatable process that someone else can handle, you get that time back for the rest of your career!”

What types of tasks should you assign to Virtual Assistants?

Assigning tasks to VAs can be tricky. You’re hiring them so that you can hand over some of the tasks to them. But if you’re hiring VAs, you should also create a training module for them so that you can teach them how you want things to get done, which is additional work for you. However, remember that a little more trouble now can save you a lot of time and resources in the long run. Just create a standardized process that VAs can follow to complete any given task and you’re good to go. With that in mind, here are some of the activities that can be assigned to your VA:

1. Operations

A virtual assistant can be a major help with day-to-day real estate operations if managing projects, deadlines, and other people's schedules are consuming much of your time. These tasks often require meticulous detailing and keeping track of everything can be tough. Hence, if this is something you need help with, hire a VA who has very good attention to detail and excellent organizational skills. 

A real estate VA can assist with a variety of duties that keep your business running properly, including:

1. Data entry in CRM, MLS, reporting, etc.

2. Listing updates and maintaining a cohesive record of information and changes

3. Collecting feedback from clients

4. Bookkeeping along with I&E and P&L tracking

5. Prepare performance and sales reports

6. Manage agreements, contracts, and other related documents

7. Contact concerned parties (inspectors, photographers, etc.) and fix meetings

2. Administrative

Admin duties are the typical duties of a personal assistant or secretary. VAs can provide great help with how you manage your time and workflow. Allow a virtual assistant to act as your Pepper Potts for duties like:

1. Setting up meetings with clients and partners

2. Responding to emails and inbox messages

3. Managing your calendar and scheduling activities

3. Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales are two very core functions of any business that play an important role in its growth and development. Unfortunately, it requires significant time and effort to get your marketing right and increase turnover. Well, a VA can take care of many of those marketing and sales-related activities you have on your plate. Some of the tasks that VAs can help you with may be as follows:

1. Research potential buyer & seller leads including cold calling
2. Record notes on leads, and update the CRM 
3. Help you with follow-ups with leads during times of need
4. Collect and create resources for clients like property details, newsletters, CMAs, etc.
5. Minor graphic designs for social media
6. Research and create content ideas 
7. Scheduling posts and other activities on social media
8. Write and publish blogs and newsletters

Analyzing the Cost and Benefits of Hiring a VA

VAs can be hired for a wide range of prices. Just like any other job, VAs can be entry-level or more experienced. Depending on your needs as a real estate agent or as a business, you must hire the one that best suits your demands. You can find VAs who can work for $5 per hour to five figures per year. While it might seem that hiring the one with the cheapest rate will be just fine, that may not be the right course of action. You should consider some of these things to make the right decision:

Things to Consider When Hiring a VA

1.     US-based VA or Outsourced VA jobs?

First of all, there are many misconceptions about outsourcing VA jobs. Believing these flawed ideas without proper knowledge and information can cost you. If you are unaware of why outsourcing can benefit any business and not just real estate, we have a separate blog on that. But just to clarify our point, VAs that you can find overseas are just as talented (or maybe even more), efficient and they work for way fewer wages. Additionally, you don’t have to settle for whoever is available in your local market - the whole world is your talent pool. Plus, with an outsourced VA, you get the benefit of flexible work hours which means support from your end for your clients can be made available 24/7.

The only reason you might want a US-based or local virtual assistant is that you really need someone ‘in the field’ to work with. For example, assistance with face-to-face interactions with different partners and clients, open houses, etc. They will be best suited for marketing and sales roles since they can put into use their knowledge about the local market and personalize strategies and tactics for your clients or the market, without you having to explain them to the VA in detail. However, again, you should not underestimate the outsourced VAs at all. VAs that work under experienced and well-established agencies have years of knowledge and a database of your local markets which can provide you with great insights that even you might not be aware of.

2. Level of Experience

There are different opinions about hiring VAs of different experience levels too. Some agents prefer hiring VAs who are jack-of-all-trades whereas others prefer an expert in the type of job you’re planning to outsource. There are many service providers specifically for VAs who can match you with a VA with the qualifications and expertise of your need. 

Likewise, if you are hiring a VA for the first time, or want to figure out how you want to incorporate outsourcing into your real estate work/business, then hiring a less experienced VA would be fine. You will get an opportunity to learn from scratch and figure things out on your own. Plus, less professional VA means cheaper wages. 

Conversely, if this isn’t your first time hiring a VA and you are very clear about the parts of your job that you want to outsource or want someone with a little bit of expertise in the field, hiring an experienced VA for a higher wage would be the best way to go.

3. Range of Work

When outsourcing the job for VA, you must really ask yourself what aspect of your work you need the most help with. You must have a substantial amount of work to delegate to your VA or else, hiring a VA would be a waste cause. If you’re not sure how much and what work you need help with, try tracking your work in excruciating detail for a week or two. By doing so, you will also be able to figure out what you are most productive in and what you enjoy the most and so, you simply have your VA do the rest of the work. 

Real Estate Virtual Assistants at GoCode Solutions

At GoCode Solutions, we help real estate agents and agencies connect with virtual assistants of all types of talents for their needs. We have a reliable network of talent pools to hire from where we can find the best candidates with the necessary qualifications and experience levels. Every partner agent and agency is of equal importance to us and we confidently assure the delivery of quality work from our VAs.