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By Antia Clark
Save your time and get a life!
Stop wasting your time on tasks that can be taken care of by a virtual assistant. When you spend your time doing $20 per hour tasks, it limits your ability to increase your sales volume and annual income. Learn how to delegate certain tasks so you can focus on the things that matter most in your business: prospecting for listings, going on listing appointments, and networking for business.
The highest and best use of your time as a local licensed real estate agent is getting listings and serving your sellers. In this article, we will go over the top eight reasons you should hire a virtual assistant to help you with your real estate tasks.
1. Save Time
We are all given the same 24 hours each day. It is up to each of us how we divide up those hours and where we focus our attention. As the saying goes, “What you focus on expands.”
Sometimes when you get bogged down handling paperwork and administrative duties each day, it feels like the pile never ends—as if some minions come along each night to refill your stack of papers. But when you outsource your paperwork, files, emails, and the like, you will discover the magic of achieving your goals because you’re focusing on getting more listings.
One of the pushbacks I hear from agents is that they don’t have time to train a virtual assistant, especially if they have specific ways of doing things with their listing or contact follow-up checklists. However, you can hire a company that specializes in real estate tasks to do the training for you. This will allow you to onboard VAs with very little time and effort on your part.
Look at it this way: It might take you a full six hours to train someone on a specific task, which might feel like a lot of time upfront. But you’re probably clocking two hours every single week doing this same task. If you delegate the task to a virtual assistant, by week number four you will gain two hours a week. You can allot the two hours you gained to more important tasks, such as joining a networking group or getting a designation to build your knowledge and authority in a real estate niche.
It’s a win-win.
2. Save Money
When you outsource your real estate tasks to a virtual assistant, it can lower labor fees by more than 40%. This is because you don’t have to pay payroll taxes, social security taxes, or unemployment taxes and regulatory fees involved with hiring in-house administrative assistants.
The money you pay your VAs is tax-deductible. If your virtual assistant is based in the United States, you will need to send a 1099 to him or her each year. However, if you work with virtual assistants in a country like the Philippines, you will not send them a 1099. (I am not a tax attorney, nor do I play one on TV. It is always best to seek professional legal advice.) You won’t have payroll paperwork to do, and you won’t have insurance paperwork, either. There are no requirements (outside of what you will negotiate with your virtual assistant) to offer paid sick leave or paid vacations.
You will save even more money because you don’t have to be in the office when they are working and you don’t have to sit side by side training an admin. You can be out getting listings.
3. Make Time For Family and Self-Care
When you outsource real estate tasks and projects, you can make more time for what’s important to you—your family.
Self-care tends to get put on the back burner when you are the “be-all, end-all” person to your clients and prospects. Learn to let go, even if you are a perfectionist and have control issues. You simply can’t do everything yourself. Ask anyone who has burned the candle at both ends for too long what can happen emotionally and physically. Make your self-care a priority.
When you delegate your admin tasks, repetitive duties, and redundancies, you will discover that taking care of yourself never felt so good. You will also stop missing your child’s soccer or baseball games. You won’t miss another dance or piano recital. And you will be able to prioritize your family time without interruption.
4. Increase Your Income
You can double and even triple your current income when you start to delegate tasks that are holding you back from your potential to earn. This quote by Jean Paul Getty sums it up: “I would rather earn 1% off 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.”
Research from the Harvard Business Review also found that delegating more of what you don’t have to do yourself, frees up your time so you can spend it where it’s really valuable. Increasing your productivity typically results in an increase in income.
5. Focus On What You Do Best
We each have different talents and abilities. We are passionate about different areas of our businesses.
In real estate, I find most agents are strong relationship builders. In order to get more listings and buyers, it takes time to connect with people and build relationships so they begin to like and trust you. This all must happen prior to the contract being signed for an exclusive listing.
If you are not spending at least 20% of your time building relationships, then you will not reach your income goals. This means time actually in front of people either on the phone or in person. Real estate is still a belly to belly business. People want to know you care about them.
Focus on what you do best and delegate the rest.
6. Reach Your Goals
When you delegate tasks to a virtual assistant or to a team of VAs, you will reach more of your goals.
Imagine being able to set aside “thinking time.” This is my most precious time—it’s when I review my prior week and plan for my week ahead. Thinking time allows me to plan my goals and add them to my daily, weekly, and monthly planner.
Your goals become more attainable since you’re not focused on tasks that don’t get you near what you’re striving for.
7. Expand Your Business
Have you thought about putting together a real estate team? Or maybe hiring a buyers’ agent, or two? The more you delegate to the virtual assistants, the more time you will have to build your business.
Are you ready to make your listings dominate online? Trained virtual assistants can help you do this by marketing your listings for you. Plus, marketing listings is a way to get more listings. When sellers are impressed by your marketing efforts and what it accomplishes for their property, they’re more likely to refer you to others.
A key component is to set aside a specific amount of money for marketing each listing online to ensure it gets adequate exposure to buyers and buyers’ agents. This will lead to more sales and more listings.
8. Explore New Opportunities
When you have fresh energy and aren’t being held down with tasks that you shouldn’t be doing, you can explore new opportunities in your business.
Maybe you want to expand into commercial real estate, property management, or improve your listings with virtual home staging. Maybe you want to learn more about investing in real estate and build your investment portfolio. Whatever you decide, just know you will have infinitely more time to accomplish your important real estate objectives.
In conclusion, I will leave you with a list of some of the tasks you can easily delegate to a virtual assistant.
- Listing marketing
- Social media: designing creatives, creating posts, scheduling posting, and more
- Blogging: writing and publishing posts for the new Google algorithm updates
- SEO and website management: get more exposure on the internet
- Client support and communication: transaction coordinating
- Data enrichment support: CRM, newsletters, email drip campaigns, appointment setting, etc.
- Inside sales agent (ISA): make your lead calls and set appointments
Once you get started, new opportunities open up for you and you’ll start reaching your goals.
Anita Clark is a residential real estate agent with Coldwell Banker SSK, REALTORS®, in Houston County, Ga. She is from Coventry, England, is a retired military spouse, and has been assisting buyers, investors, and sellers in middle Georgia since 2007. Connect with Anita on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or on her Warner Robins GA Real Estate Blog.
Comments 42
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Hello! So I am a BRAND SPANKIN’ NEWLY LICENSED REAL ESTATE AGENT in Texas. How would I go about learning more regarding a virtual assistant and where do I look? What’s a price range I should be looking to spend? Please let me know! Thanks!
Hi Angela- I have been in real estate since 1983 and own a virtual assistant company. Our current rate for real estate agents is $10 per hour. Feel free to text me and we can talk: 561-502-1577.
Hi Katerina…..
We are in need of a virtual assistant. Please send me an email with the services you provide. My email is below!
Thank you!
Hello Emilie,
For Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services, Please visit : https://www.virtualcorporate.org/real-estate-virtual-assistant-services/
or Call us on +1-888-718-0528
Virtual Corporate
Hello! Are you still looking for a virtual assistant?
Hello Angela,
If you are looking for Real Estate Virtual Assistant services, You can contact Virtual Corporate for the services.
https://www.virtualcorporate.org/
1-888-718-0528
Hello Anita…. I’m Karie Jeisel and just launched my VA business focusing on the needs of Real Estate agents.
May I please have permission to use your article on my new website I just created? Thank you fur considering!
Like to have more info and cost
Please hit me up when you need a rockstar Virtual Assistant.
Hi,
In need of one. Can you tell me what tasks are done for you?? Just wondering where I can fit in a virtual assistant. Thank you.
Do you charge by the hour or by the transaction? Skyslope was offering $200 per transaction side, but they quit serving Arizona for some reason.
Great article Katerina, I have been thinking about this myself pass few months. While I know most of the points you made, you pointed out some goods I didn’t think about it. I might do consider it! Thank You!
I’m interested in talking to someone who runs a VA office. I need help! Feel free to message me on facebook Fiona Parsons PARSONS PROPERTIES. http://www.parsons-properties.com Or, email me fiona@parsons-properties.com
Hi Fiona,
You can contact Karen, VA Reps of ,a href=”https://virtualassistanttalent.com/”>Virtual Assistant Talent on info@virtualassistanttalent.com or Call 1-866-596-9041.
And tell her, what you need. She has a lot of REVA to offer, and oh, by the way, you can tell her too, that I, (Mitch) referred you to an outstanding company. No worries, I don’t receive any dime. Just helping!
-Mitch
Our Velan Real Estate Virtual Assistants offer a wide range of administrative support and services so that you can focus more on high priority tasks and grow your business instead of doing the busy work to maintain it.
We have a specialized team that does different tasks.
Real Estate VA Duties
Posting Ads
Meeting Set Up & Calendar Management
List Building
Paperwork Management
Phone Support & Customer Service
Website & Social Media Updates
Transaction Coordination
MLS & CRM Management
Listing Coordination
Jack
Operations Manager
Velan Info Services Pvt Ltd
jack@velaninfo.com
Mobile: +91 786 786 0606
Skype: velan.jack | http://www.velan-virtualassistants.com
I would love some information on your VA business. I’m in the process of seeing where my money is best spent!
Thanks 🙂
Fancy
Hi Fancy,
How are you? I’d love to connect with you more to chat about our services and how we can help you with your business. Please check out our website http://www.go-assistants.com.
You can also send me an email to Christine@go-assistants.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Christine
Very intrested! I am loosing my admin (she is moving out of state) This may be a great fix!
Why doesn’t she work for you virtually?
I would love to see more comments about how agents are using VA’s effectively. What specific tasks are being outsourced, how collaborating works out, just general how it works posts would be great. I can’t seem to get my head around how to coordinate activities with someone who’s working remotely.
I agree with you Debbie Cunningham it would help to hear from agents that are currently using VAs their feedback.
Good read. 🙂 Yes, hiring a VA to do real estate tasks is time-saving and cost-efficient. It helps busy real estate business make more sales and grow their rent rolls by taking care of the back office tasks while their local staff focus on clients, networking and driving profit.
Acquiring the full-service of VA entitles anyone all the benefits presented here. Not just a REVA, but all potential company/individual who needs assistance. In that also, I search and found the following link, maybe this will give additional benefits to us all. 15 Benefits Why Hiring A Real Estate Virtual Assistant is Better Than Hiring a Local In-Office Employee. And additionally from lot of commenters here, need to list of possible task one REVA can ask for there potential VA.
Task include but not limited to:
* updating the MLS system (photos, price changes, status);
* transaction coordination;
* managing the escrow process and communicating with buyers and sellers;
* coordinating and setting appointments (Home Inspectors, Home Repairs, Termite Inspections, etc);
* answering questions on the website’s ‘live chat’;
* data entry (to keep track of new leads and past clients);
* sending out THANK YOU notes and gifts to former clients;
* designing flyers for Open Houses;
* designing JUST SOLD / JUST LISTED postcards;
* managing an email follow-up system;
* managing social media accounts and scheduling posts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the likes);
* graphic design for social media marketing (examples: designing pins for Pinterest);
* keeping track of real estate related expenses and preparing expense reports;
* exporting/importing data to coordinate the mailing of marking materials with multiple vendors;
* researching buyer and seller leads;
* scheduling and calendar management;
* blogging and link building;
* managing website
Mitch can you reach out to me to discuss this? rehomepam@gmail.com , your list above nailed what I need and I would like to know who you work with.
I like what you said about getting a virtual real estate assistant so that you can cut down on labor fees. My sister has been telling me about how she wants to buy a new house in the coming weeks. I’ll share this information with her so that she can look into her options for professionals who can help her with this.
I am an agent in Florida and would like to hire a virtual assistant for marketing and transaction coordination. How do I go about finding a good one?
Hello DON,
if still you are looking for Virtual assistant services. Please free to hit me up.
https://www.virtualcorporate.org/ or call me on +1-888-718-0528 or write me an email.
Thanks
Evan Reed
Virtual Corporate
Hiring real estate virtual assistant services is truly one of the greatest investments you can make. I liked how you said that a real estate VA’s primary purpose is to organize time so you can focus on the functions that matter more to your business. My cousin will be thankful to know this so I will send him the article to help achieve his goal.
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Hello I am a virtual assistant who have been in the real estate business for over 20 years and have the experience of administration, board packages, marketing and handling all aspect of real estate.
Task include but not limited to:
* Research
*Data Entry
*Basic Bookkeeping
*Spreadsheet Creation
*Managing and Organizing Agreements & Contracts
*Setting and Organizing Appointments
*Calender Management
*Online Marketing Tasks
*Website Management CRM
*Prospecting
*Proofreading and Editing
I would be reluctant to hire a virtual assistant who made a grammatical error in the very first sentence of his introduction – such as the one found under ” Norva V. Alleyne
October 1, 2020 at 2:57 pm”
note that “Calender” is spelled incorrectly in your reply
It is very important to hire the correct virtual assistant because your main objective in hiring one is to maximize profit.
Looking for one in Austin TX
Hello!, This is David from We Make Your Calls I’m reaching out to real estate agents like you that may be interested about our appointment setting services, schedule management for your company, email management, databases, events and research.
Also we are also fluent bilingual speakers and motivated sellers. If you are interested about what we have to offer, don’t hesitate to reach back out! A little extra we are offering an exclusive 8 hour trial of our services, just ask about this service and we will gladly include it in your interests And without further do I hope you have a great day!.
Any realtor here who needs a CHEAP and Effecient VA for Social Media and Email Marketing? Hit me up!
Patronecs is the best Virtual assistants providing company. Our company has specifically trained our professionals for Real Estate industry. We can provide 1 to 25 virtual assistants for marketing , cold calling, data management, property management, acquisition management etc. Also you can take our services on hourly basis too.
Thanks for sharing
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Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts on real estate . Your website has quickly become one of my favorites, and I can’t get enough of your insightful blogs.
I couldn’t agree more with these reasons! As a real estate agent, I’ve experienced the overwhelm of administrative tasks that keep me from focusing on what truly matters: getting listings and serving my clients. Hiring a virtual assistant has been a game-changer for me. Not only does it save time and money, but it also allows me to spend more quality moments with my family and explore new opportunities for business growth. Delegating tasks to skilled VAs has helped me increase my income and reach my goals. I highly recommend it to any real estate professional seeking efficiency and success.