One of the ways to set yourself apart from other real estate professionals is to zero in on the activities that bring immense value to your business. There comes a point in every real estate agent’s life where he or she is doing more non-core tasks than revenue-generating tasks. If you find yourself at this stage, then you’re probably considering delegating to a real estate personal assistant or real estate virtual assistant.
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A virtual real estate assistant is someone who works remotely to provide support for a real estate professional. They can provide support on tasks such as prospecting, coordinating transactions, managing social media, scheduling appointments, and much more. Businesses save up to 78% of costs by hiring virtual assistants. That’s probably one of the reasons why most real estate businesses opt to hire virtual assistant services.
Before you dive into finding your first virtual assistant, follow this mini checklist first.
Steps Before Hiring a Real Estate VA
1. Know what skills or tasks you need to outsource
This can be different for each real estate professional. You have to look at what tasks you’re good at and would like to spend more time on. You may need help with doing paperwork, marketing, or lead generation so you can focus on closing deals.
2. Create a job description
3. Decide if you need a part-time or full-time VA
The best thing about VAs is their flexibility—you can hire them on an hourly or project basis.
If you’ve done the steps above, you may start looking for a virtual real estate assistant.
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How to Find a Virtual Real Estate Assistant
Conduct research on freelancer websites
There are many websites where you can find virtual assistants. You can start with Craigslist, Upwork, and Fiverr. Most of these websites have a hodgepodge of virtual assistants with varying skill sets and backgrounds. You can find virtual assistant services for different roles. Hence, it may take a lot of filtering and a lengthy recruitment process before you can chance upon a VA who has in-depth knowledge of the real estate sector.
When hiring a real estate virtual assistant, you want to choose a VA who has basic knowledge of the industry and won’t need much training. This is why real estate professionals often partner up with virtual assistant companies because these companies provide real estate training to their VAs.
Connect with a virtual assistant agency
Virtual assistant services are available on many online platforms. However, virtual assistant companies take outsourcing to the next level. Virtudesk, for example, has a thorough training process. Their VAs are taught the basics of real estate such as the transaction coordination process, MLS, updating listings, creating marketing content, and many more.
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Let’s face it: hiring virtual assistant services for your real estate business is an investment. You have to onboard a well-trained VA who can help you improve your systems and processes and not someone who requires a lot of training. Besides training, virtual assistant companies such as Virtudesk often oversee the productivity of their VAs so that their clients don’t have to.