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Why Your Agency Needs A Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Why Your Agency Needs A Real Estate Virtual Assistant

 

Contracting the services of a real estate virtual assistant can help with those non dollar productive tasks. From taking and making calls, preparing contracts, updating lists, arranging inspections and marketing.

If you can’t manage time efficiently, your productivity will suffer and ultimately affect your agency’s profitability.

There is an option that will enable you to exponentially increase your productivity. This option used to be the well-kept secret of many real estate agencies. But its popularity has grown over the last few years.

If you want to take your productivity to another level and turn your agency into a profit generating machine, it may be time to hire a virtual employee.

What is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Or (VA) is a professional who renders services online and in contracted to manage specific tasks or responsibilities.

There are 5 advantages to having a real estate VA on-board:

1. Lower Cost Option – As a contractor, you do not pay the real estate VA standard benefits. The real estate VA is also responsible for his or her cost of business.

2. Higher Productivity – By delegating services to your VA, you can focus more time on the core functions of your business.

3. Greater Business Flexibility – A virtual PA can run any shift you feel would be more beneficial to your business. If you want after-office client support, your online assistant can manage these services while you sleep.

4. Easily Scalable – If you want to add more services to your agency, simply hire another real estate VA. You can find highly experienced candidates who won’t require much training to get the job done right.

5. Less Stress – Of course, with better time management, you can enjoy more hours in the day to relax and spend with the family.

You will immediately realize all of these advantages when you outsource to remote staff.

Tasks You Can Outsource

Today’s real estate VA is no longer just a secretary or Personal Assistant. High demand for virtual staff has made the industry evolve and open up opportunities to candidates who can offer different skills and competencies.

If you’re contracting a remote employee for the first time, you should start out by outsourcing the basic administrative functions:

  • E-mail Filtering
  • Phone Handling
  • Appointment Setting
  • Calendar Management
  • CRM Updates
  • Sales Follow Up
  • Preparation of Presentation Materials
  • Scheduling inspections
  • Preparation and Review of Contracts

Once you’re comfortable with your outsourced worker, you can delegate more specialized tasks. These could include any of the following:

  • Accounting
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Website Management
  • IT Services
  • Human Resources Management
  • Customer Support
  • Transcription

Another option is to hire a VA with skills specific to the additional tasks you plan to delegate. This way you do not overwork your first virtual employee and ensure continued productivity.

Where to Find Your Remote Staff

You can find remote staff from a variety of sources. Here are among the most popular:

1. Agencies – There are many agencies that provide virtual assistance services. These agencies have amassed a number of virtual employees who have a good track record for providing excellent work.

The advantages of dealing with an outsourcing company are that the virtual assistants have ready references, easily replaceable and come from various industries. You can easily find a suitable online virtual executive assistant.

2. Online Job Sites – You can also hire freelance online assistants. They are generally lower priced but many are also highly skilled. You can find them at online job sites such as Upwork, Guru, Freelancer and People Per Hour.

3. Social Media – Social Networks are also great sources of talent. In LinkedIn, you can connect with community members who are online employees or join focus groups to get recommendations.

Facebook is another great resource. In addition to focus groups, you can ask friends and families to connect you to their referrals.

How to Qualify Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Before hiring a virtual office assistant, make sure you have a strict qualifying process in place. You would not want to hire just any virtual secretary but the one that best fits your business and your personality.

Here is a qualifying process that you may want to use to find the best Virtual Assistants:

1. Make a Creative Job Post – When writing a job post, insert a “pre-qualifying” requirement in the middle of the content. An example would be:

“Write ‘I am Your Virtual Receptionist’ on the upper left hand side of your proposal. Failure to do this will mean automatic disqualification.”

The purpose is to find out which candidates are meticulous or detail oriented. This is a very important quality for a good virtual personal assistant.

2. Create a Short List of Candidates – Do not hire the first candidate that comes along because it will not give you the chance to compare qualifications. Come up with a short list of at least 3 candidates.

3. Schedule Individual Interviews – Each candidate should be scheduled for an interview. While you should determine the technical and fundamental competencies of the candidates, focus more on the behavioral aspects.

After all, you will have to work with the person. You have to make sure you can get along with him or her.

4. Conduct Due Diligence – Do not underestimate the importance of a due diligence check. You might be surprised what might turn up when you do a simple Google check or visit the candidate’s social media sites. Keep in mind more than 70% of HR Managers check social media.

5. Ask for a Test Period – The best way to gauge the performance of the candidate is to subject him or her to a paid test period. 2 hours should be enough to give you an idea of the candidate’s capabilities.

When you have finally found your online assistant make an effort to get to know him or her better. Moderate your expectations; the virtual secretary is not a miracle- worker but he or she will make immediate contributions to your business.

Always make sure the lines of communication are open and that you remain involved in the virtual employees work especially during the first 3 months. It’s always good to get the working relationship off on the right foot even if the venue is the virtual world.

Take your business to the next level today! ENQUIRE NOW

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    Real Estate Virtual Assistant

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