The Power of a Great Real Estate Virtual Assistant

If you’ve ever read the 4 Hour Work Week you may have heard of the magic of leverage especially when delegating and automating lower value, repetitive tasks. While we have a separate post on automating real estate tasks here, this post covers how outsourcing tasks to a real estate virtual assistant can create powerful leverage in your business.

From shouldering administrative burdens to executing digital marketing strategies, a real estate virtual assistants (VAs) are becoming common especially for high performing real estate teams. Let’s deep dive into this together, shall we?

• Why Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
• What should I Delegate to a VA
• Best Real Estate Virtual Assistant Agencies/Services
• Tips to Hire a Proficient VA
• How much to Pay a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Why Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Referring back to The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss champions the use of virtual assistants (VAs) to optimize productivity and focus on high-value tasks. The book advises entrepreneurs (of all kinds) to delegate routine and specialized tasks like admin work and content creation to VAs.

While Real Estate may not be conducive to a 4 hour workweek, the principles still apply when it comes to delegation to Virtual Assistants. Here are some of the key reasons:

• Liberation from mundane tasks
• Enhanced time management
• Optimize prospect nurturing and campaigns to stay “top of mind”
• Increased capacity for business expansion

Imagine this – administrative tasks, data organization, thank you notes, review requests, social media management amongst others, are all ticking along smoothly without you in the critical path.

This freedom permits you to focus on your superpower…aka the thing that only you can do to move the business forward. At a minimum it allows you to spend less time on repetitive (usually less engaging) tasks, which Ferriss emphasizes repeatedly in 4HWW.

To do this though you need to overcome common hesitations with VAs such as trust issues, concerns about communication barriers, as well as cost fears.

But once these issues are addressed and you follow the steps below to engage the right real estate virtual assistant, you will be able to concentrate on client-centric activities and cultivate crucial relationships, thereby leveraging your efficiency and productivity.

What Should I Delegate to my Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

In your quest for a boost in efficiency and productivity, recognizing the tasks you should delegate is the first step. Here are the most popular tasks to delegate to a real estate VA:

• Transaction Management: process and document organization usually using a transaction management solution.
• Inside Sales Agent (ISA) Responsibilities: Sales outreach to pre-determined prospects
• Listing Management: Setup/update listing info in MLS and in related platforms
• Client Relationship Management: Database upkeep, Sending follow-up emails post-sale and asking for client reviews.
• Content Creation: Crafting social media content, blog posts, and marketing emails.
• Specialized Skills: Engaging in graphic design, video editing, and managing property listings.

In this video, agent and productivity expert, Lewi Gault, discusses tasks to delegate to VAs and the processes to make it happen:

And since marketing (specifically social media) is such a common activity for real estate agents and teams, here’s a video from social media marketing expert Jen Lehrer just focusing on marketing tasks that are ideal for VAs:

Also there are some best practices to apply when assigning tasks to VAs which can set you (and the virtual assistant) up for success – here are some tips for working with VAs:

1. Set Expectations: Clearly communicate job expectations, company values, and payment details.
2. Use Software: Implement project management tools for task organization.
3. Communication: Ensure clear, efficient communication channels, considering time zones and agreed upon availability.
4. Organization: Develop training manuals and SOPs for consistency and easy onboarding of future VAs.

When done correctly, you’ll find your real estate virtual assistant’s abilities far surpass basic data entry. These digital assistants can undertake a range of activities that free up your time, enabling you to focus on the bigger picture in business growth.

With a real estate virtual assistant handling the right tasks in an organized manner, you can look forward to propelling your business to greater heights and, at a minimum, free up time to take an afternoon off (wouldn’t that be nice?!).

Best Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services

Now hopefully it’s clear that virtual assistants can streamline your operations freeing you and your team up for higher level responsibilities.

But the market is flooded with options for Real Estate VAs so finding the right fit can be daunting. Below we’ll explore the services that other agents have recommended for finding their virtual assistants:

MyOutDesk: Specializes in real estate VA services, focusing on lead generation, customer service, and administrative tasks. Known for its deep real estate industry understanding, proprietary VA management software, and high quality control standards, but services may not fit all budgets due to pricing and the exclusive hiring of VAs from the Philippines for full-time roles.

Approx Cost: $1988+/mo

Key Benefits:

• Deep understanding of real estate needs.
• Proprietary software for managing VAs.
• High standards for quality control.

Summit VA Solutions: Offers real estate-focused VA services to enhance operational efficiency through tasks like email and social media management. Prides itself on providing college-educated and background-checked assistants, but may need customization.

Approx Cost: $1500/mo
Key Benefits:

• Comprehensive real estate training for VAs.
• College-educated and background-checked assistants.

Task Bullet: Provides a broad spectrum of VA services, emphasizing flexibility and cost-effectiveness without hidden fees. Suitable for general purposes including real estate, with a model that supports cancellation at any time.

Approx Cost: $220.00+ (based on pay-as-you-go buckets priced between $7-11/hour)

Key Benefits:

• Specializes in real estate, providing targeted assistance.
• Offers a flexible model with no hidden fees, allowing clients to cancel anytime.
• Provides a money-back guarantee, emphasizing customer satisfaction.

Transactly: Delivers real estate-specific VA services for tasks ranging from marketing to transaction management. Its VAs are trained to help professionals focus on business growth and closing deals, though specifics of services might need more clarification.

Approx Cost: $127+/listing
Key Benefits:

• Tailored to real estate business growth.
• Handles a variety of administrative and client support tasks.

VirtuDesk: Offers VA services from the Philippines, focusing on real estate tasks like lead generation and social media management. Known for its real estate expertise and a wide range of services, it requires careful plan selection.

Approx Cost: $9.55/hr

Key Benefits:

• Real estate-specific expertise.
• Wide range of services from administrative to marketing.

Zirtual: Provides US-based VAs for a variety of tasks including administrative, customer service, and marketing. Appeals to entrepreneurs needing comprehensive task management with personalized support, but comes with higher pricing and potential limitations in real estate expertise.

Approx Cost: $549+/mo
Key Benefits:

• High-quality, experienced VAs.
• Flexible service plans.
• Personalized support.

We’ve also compiled a comprehensive list of the real estate virtual assistant services here:

With these options, hopefully there are a few that seem like a good enough fit to dig deeper on. Make sure to keep your real estate needs and budget in the forefront…and remember the mantra hire slow, fire fast. While it seems brutal, tolerating a bad fit on your team – even if it’s a VA that you never physically meet – is not only a bad use of your time, but also theirs (they’d rather be working for a business that’s a better long term fit).

How to Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Time to drill deeper on the HOW.

With the decision to hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant signed and sealed…now it’s time to deliver.

Hopefully you’ve already identified your specific needs…because in this video Jaime is going to walk through how to select the best VA for your needs.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps covered to hire a real estate VA:

1. Identify VA Needs: Determine specific tasks for the VA, considering if they’ll handle general admin, specialize in certain skills, or interact directly with clients over email or even the phone .
2. Job Description: Based on these requirements, write detailed descriptions including job functions, skills, and expectations.
3. Compensation: Decide on fair pay by considering task complexity and VA location (we dive deeper below on what to pay a VA).
4. Search Platforms: Utilize platforms like the options covered above to find suitable VA candidates.
5. Interview Process: Conduct thorough interviews, possibly including behavioral assessments.
6. Skills Testing: Assess candidates’ abilities through tests or trial projects.

And remember, each time you hire a real estate virtual assistant, setting clear expectations and maintaining open communication is pivotal. Utilizing project management tools, regularly updated organizational documents like SOPs can lend themselves to efficiency and continuity, even across different time zones.

What to pay a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

In optimizing productivity and streamlining operations, the cost-effectiveness of hiring a real estate virtual assistant is an essential attribute to consider.

While hiring a VA, the key factors that affect their pay are:

• Level of English Proficiency: tasks that require only require English reading skills are on the lower end. However, if you’re going to rely on them to make sales calls, their command of English will need to be fairly advanced and these assistants can cost 2-4x what a VA that only needs to be able to understand instructions for data entry tasks.
• Task Complexity: Probably goes without saying but more complex tasks require more advanced skills so cost more. Specialized skills like transaction management, graphic design/editing, multi-faceted operations are examples of more complex tasks that’ll usually cost more.
• Experience: A VA that has more experience and a proven track record will typically charge more based on this.
• Availability: While VAs in Asia cost less, you may end up needing to pay more for VAs that need to maintain your business hours. Similarly if availability (and response time) are more relaxed, the cost usually decreases
• Business Criticality: Back office tasks that are done fairly independently and aren’t in the critical path of a deal are generally less expensive. Time sensitive tasks like transaction management OR brand sensitive tasks like communicating with clients via email/phone can cost more because the level of proficiency is expected to be greater.
• Cost of living where assistants live. This is why virtual assistants have become so popular in the first place. When cost of living is lower in a country, people typically demand less pay. Here are a couple examples of how that plays out:
  • Real estate virtual assistants from the Philippines, noted for their solid English skills and familiarity with western culture, often charge between $3-5 per hour if hiring directly. If going through an agency or service, add 50-100% to this.
  • Alternatively, virtual assistants hailing from Mexico and Latin America may charge slightly more, around $5-7 per hour (same service premium applies). Yet, they typically come with better availability due to higher timezone overlap.

On this final point, many suggest paying more than the “normal rate” to ensure fair compensation, considering the cost of living and economic conditions in the VA’s country. By paying a VA a bit more than the typical wage that a local business would pay for similar services, you can encourage loyalty and ensure a longer more productive working relationship (and often VAs will help recruit for you if you need to staff up!).

While determining what to pay your real estate virtual assistant, consider these key factors – the VA’s location (with respect to wage norms), their level of English proficiency and the complexity of tasks they will handle

Leveraging the skills of virtual assistants (VAs) can be a game-changer. By outsourcing administrative duties, marketing tasks, client follow-ups, and even specialized tasks like graphic design, real estate professionals can focus more on strategic activities that directly contribute to closing deals and growing their business.

Virtual assistants offer a cost-effective solution to manage the overwhelming day-to-day tasks that can detract from more critical, revenue-generating activities.

With the ability to handle everything from posting property listings to managing social media campaigns, VAs can help real estate agents expand their online presence and reach a larger audience. Moreover, by streamlining operations, VAs allow real estate professionals to optimize their work-life balance, focusing on what they do best without sacrificing the quality of their client service. As the real estate market continues to evolve, integrating VAs into business strategies not only supports growth but also provides a competitive edge in a crowded marketplace.

Yet, how can you, as a real estate professional, reap the full benefits of their capabilities? Selecting, recruiting, and seamlessly collaborating with a real estate virtual assistant is an art in itself, demanding a degree of finesse. This blog post aims to demystify the process, revealing how the right VA can not only help you keep your operations streamlined, but also generate stronger business results. Essentially, VAs can be the portal to achieving greater efficiency, freeing up your coveted time to focus on deal-closing and business expansion, the proverbial Dire Straits of every realtor’s Money for Nothing dreams.

Note, however, that like every worthwhile endeavor, the road to reaping VA benefits is seldom a walk in the park. Our guide, layered with practical insights, will assist you in navigating this path, ensuring a productive lifelong relationship with your real estate virtual assistant. After all, as the business adage goes, “you don’t build a business, you build people, and then people build the business.”