How To Choose the Right VA for Real Estate Business

The real estate business is subject to constant expansion and handling a vast number of clients all at once with regard to a certain property can be somewhat overwhelming. On many occasions, you will have to keep a vigilant eye on all the work, from publicity and promotion to day-to-day operations. The flexibility of the administrative processes helps to determine the success or failure of the business.

However, donning all hats yourself can at times interfere with the quality of the business. So, given the importance of your real estate business, hiring the right Virtual Assistant (VA) to support you can be a major game-changer. 

Why Hire A VA for Real Estate Business? 

Real estate business owners should focus on activities that generate high income. Regular operations like handling phone calls, writing emails, managing listings, and more can easily be delegated to VAs. The skills and experience of a VA can be highly useful to boost your business. Indeed, adept VAs can take care of all the relevant tasks with ease, saving you considerable time and stress in the long run. So it is essential to choose the best suited VA with the required skills.

What Do Real Estate VAs Do? 

VAs can help in several ways in a real estate business. This includes attracting clients, building strong customer relationships, conducting meetings and phone calls, and other related work. VAs are required to manage fundamental areas of your real estate business. Indeed, there is a lot they can do to help you out in your daily operations. It is important for the VA to be aware of your niche in order to understand the nuances. Some of the areas that VAs cover include: 

• Phone Support 
• Graphic Design 
• SEO 
• Email Marketing 
• Social Media Management 
• Data Entry 
• Transaction Management 
• Market Research 
• Conducting Virtual Inbound and Outbound Sales 
• Other Ancillary Work

VAs are highly flexible and have a lot of industry experience in their respective fields. So, real estate business owners can discuss all aspects of running operations and more with their VAs. 

How To Choose the Right Real Estate VA

Hiring the right VA takes much more than interviewing candidates and reviewing resumes. As a business owner, you want to be specific with your needs when it comes to recruiting the right real estate VA. Also, depending on the level of control you would like to give to your VA and the time period for which you would be hiring, there are certain questions worth posing.

Here are some pro tips to choose the appropriate virtual assistant to take care of your real estate business: 

• Identify Tasks To Outsource – This is the most essential step even before you choose a VA. It is essential to distinguish between the tasks that you want to manage yourself and the ones you want to outsource. Consider assessing all the tasks yourself at the outset. Make a wishlist of the tasks you want to be accomplished and then evaluate which of these can be offloaded, either because of your lack of time or expertise in that area. This allows easier management of operations and helps to keep a track of the tasks under your VA.
  

• Pick a VA with Your Niche – A VA who has a background in working in the real estate sector is a better choice than any other. They are familiar with the tasks, management, and communication that comes along with it. It helps them to deal with the technical aspects better due to prior knowledge and experience.
  

• Create a Process Documentation – Documenting the process of your standard operations is highly beneficial for your VA. There are different reasons to apply process documentation to your business tasks. It acts as a handy reference guide for your virtual assistant who is working remotely and cannot interact with you in person. Most importantly, it is a highly valuable business asset that helps to keep your stress at bay and precludes micro-management. Also, it is a great data store that holds your most valuable business track and operations record.
  

• Proactive OR Reactive VA? – This is a vital question to ask yourself before making the plunge. Consider if you are looking for a VA who actively participates in the real estate business or someone who will simply manage your business tasks in a set fashion. Once you have the answer to the aforementioned question, choosing the right VA becomes a lot easier.
  

• Make an Estimate of the Hours to Spend on the VA – This is important for small real estate business owners who are simply beginning their business or struggling to establish their existing business. There are project-based and hour-based plans for more flexibility while choosing your VA. It ensures that your VAs are completing the tasks assigned to them within your time limit.  
  
• Describe Your Requirements – There are plenty of VAs with multiple skill sets to choose from. Since picking the right VA for your real estate business can be overwhelming, it is best to describe the features you are seeking. Some valid questions to consider are whether the VA will be working during the same business hours as yourself and how many years of experience they have in the industry. It is essential that the VA you choose lives up to YOUR requirements and standards. Creating a list of qualities you seek in your VA will help you connect to the right assistant.

Conclusion

Choosing the right VA for your real estate business becomes easier when you have a plan in place. Now you know where to begin. So, get the right-fit VA to lighten your load and experience a significant difference yourself!

Top Rated VA companies

BELAY

Exclusively employing US-based assistants, BELAY began in 2010. The company has since undergone an expansion and is now serving small and large businesses across the United States.

The company boasts of a proven onboarding process by allowing you to speak with a Solutions Consultant and a Relationship Manager. They’ll help introduce you to virtual assistants who are skilled in bookkeeping, web support/maintenance, project management, and social media management to name a few.

Rates for BELAY are a little steeper; think $36 an hour and up.

VAA Exclusive: Mention Virtual Assistant Assistant when you join and get $200 off your startup costs!

Click here to see our full review of BELAY, my interview with the founder, and read real customer reviews.

My OutDesk

MyOutDesk is another virtual assistant company but unlike the others, this company focuses solely on real estate. Founded in 2008 in San Diego by a team of real estate veterans, My OutDesk operates through a group of virtual assistants located in the Philippines.

These virtual assistants are trained in a variety of real estate-specific tasks like broker price opinions, transaction coordination, bookkeeping, MLS listings management, short sale processing, property forms, as well as posting to craigslist.

ShoreAgents

ShoreAgents is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing virtual assistants to businesses in the real estate industry.

The company is headquartered in the Philippines and all of their staff work out of their offices in the same location.

A full-time VA is going to cost you somewhere in the $1,100-$1,500/mo ballpark for most roles.