Real Estate Virtual Assistants can help residential & commercial real estate agents significantly multiply the commissions they earn.
Then why do a majority of agents not use them?
Here are a few reasons agents noted for not doing so:
- Cost
- Not knowing if they’re ready to hire one
- What can they do for me to grow commissions?
- Don’t know how to find one
- Reviewing resumes is time-consuming
- Not knowing if they are hiring the right person (and having to re-hire & train all over again)
- Take too much time to train
- Not being able to talk with them in real-time
Before touching any other questions, let’s start with the most important one
When do I know I’m ready to hire a real estate virtual assistant?
A good rule of thumb we have found here at Digsy is to hire one when you’ve got 20-30% surplus income.
For example, let’s say you consistently earn $100,000 in net commissions each year, and you only need $70,000 per year to live and pay your bills.
Well, that leaves you with a surplus of $30,000.
This surplus is 30% of your income, so you’re ready to hire a real estate virtual assistant!
As long as you’re within that 20-30% range, you’re good to go.
Cost
This is a no-brainer.
You can hire a great virtual assistant with an excellent worth ethic, great english speaking and writing skills anywhere in the world for $3 to $5 per hour.
Freelancer websites like Upwork make it extremely easy to target & find real estate virtual assistants anywhere in the world that fit your budget.
You can even read reviews and look over samples of their work.
What can they do to help me grow my commissions?
It is astonishing how many conversations I have with commercial real estate agents — and even residential ones about this.
What can they do?
All the things you need to do to build your business that doesn’t require a real estate license.
Things that don’t require a real estate license are:
- Update listings across listing services (ahem: including Digsy!)
- Create stunning looking brochures (using Canva)
- Schedule delivery of social media marketing for your listings & content (via Buffer, HootSuite, MeetEdgar, etc)
- Respond to listing inquiries
- Research prospects (so you have all the data you need to turn a cold call into a warm call)
- Send cold sales (via a tool like PersistIQ)
- Send follow-up emails to your past clients & prospects
- Creating & sending email marketing campaigns
- Create physical & email newsletters
- Research & send personalized connection requests to prospects on LinkedIn
- Write blog posts
- Keyword research (so the topics of your blog posts, listing copy & social media content get the widest reach on Google)
And the list goes on and on.
Remember It’s all about ROI
One thing to keep in mind is to NEVER EVER give a virtual assistant a task that is not going to give you a return on investment (ROI) less than 100%.
You should target a return of $2, $3 or more, for every $1 you spend having a virtual assistant do tasks for you.
An agent can create a laundry list of what appear to be “important” tasks for a VA — only to find that they have irresponsibly thrown their money into a black hole.
The best way to avoid this mistake, is to prioritize tasks using the “Impact, Confidence, Effort (ICE)” method used by Product Managers and Software Engineers.
Product Managers & Software Engineers take their time & resources very, actually, extremely seriously.
Time and resources spent on features or bugs that do not drive value for customers, prevents them from generating income they need to survive.
So they review a laundry list of features and bugs that need to be addressed, and the “ICE” them.
Here’s a short video on how the ICE Method works
How to find a real estate virtual assistant
Almost anything you need today, can be found online.
There are websites like Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork and many more where you can post a task and hire someone to help you with it.
At Digsy, we’ve had tremendous success hiring virtual assistants using Upwork.
So naturally, we’re gonna recommend it.
Saving time reviewing applications
Hiring can be time-consuming, simply because of the influx of resumes that come in.
The easiest way we’ve found to help save time screening candidates is to post a short test task in the job description.
Trash the application of any candidate that has not completed the test task (this will save you a TON of time).
Schedule a Zoom or Skype with the first 3 applicants who have completed the task correctly.
Go with the one you like the most.
If they don’t work out, hire the next applicant you liked, and see how they perform.
Simple, dimple! 🙂
Use the test task we use at Digsy to screen applicants
You can use the test task we use here at Digsy for free, by following these steps
1) Go to www.getdigsy.com
2) Create a free lister account by clicking on Login
3) Click on Create an Account
4) Once you’re logged in, click on your initial on the top-right and select Help & Resources
5) Type Virtual Assistant in the search box
6) Select the How to Hire a Virtual Assistant help article
Training
When worried about training a real estate virtual assistant, you can always create a small test task for them to perform.
Also, writing out test tasks and instructions can take time. Internally, we use a video recording tool called Loom that records both our faces and our computer screen.
We make a Loom recording, telling the virtual assistant what the task is, what they need to do, and what we expect as a successful outcome.
If you have any questions, just google, “How to Use Loom with a Virtual Assistant” and you’ll find some resources.
Real-Time Communication Concerns
When concerned with being able to communicate with your real estate virtual assistant in real-time, take a look at the tasks you’re going to give them and ask yourself…
“Do I really need to talk to them in real-time?”
Tasks like creating brochures, updating listing services, writing blog posts, keyword research, etc — do not require someone being on standby at each whim.
Go questions?
Watch our video episode on “When & How to Hire Virtual Assistants” below.
Reach More Tenants & Buyers Online & Double-end more Deals
Start listing your commercial properties on www.getdigsy.com
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