8 Tips to Find the Best Real Estate Virtual Assistant for You

Thinking of getting a virtual real estate assistant for you or your team? According to a study by Small Business Trends, virtual assistants can save businesses up to 78% in operating costs.

Hiring a virtual assistant can be a valuable addition to any real estate business. Virtual assistants can boost team productivity and help reduce costs, giving you more time to focus on commission-generating activities.

What Does a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do?

Real estate virtual assistants can perform a variety of tasks on a daily basis. These tasks would depend on your or your team’s demands.

Since most virtual assistants are known to handle administrative work, real estate VAs usually start out by covering admin work for their clients. Other common tasks delegated to real estate VAs revolve around marketing, property research, and content creation.

You can even hire a specialized real estate virtual assistant for cold calling, transaction coordination, or other repetitive daily tasks.

Here is a list of common real estate virtual assistant tasks:

• Data Entry
• Inbox Management
• Email Marketing
• Circle Prospecting
• Transaction Coordination
• Social Media Management
• Video Editing
• Appointment Setting
• Virtual Tour Management
• Schedule Management
• Customer Support

Top 4 Virtual Real Estate Assistant Qualifications

Before you enjoy the perks of having a real estate virtual assistant, you must identify and select a qualified virtual assistant who is the right fit for your needs.

1. Location

Virtual Assistants are everywhere nowadays – global to be exact! You can choose a remote virtual assistant or someone who is local to your area.

Local virtual assistants may be more expensive, but they can serve as in-person office secretaries, and represent you in your absence.

Remote virtual assistants are often more affordable and cost-effective as you do not need to provide them with office resources. They are usually dedicated and flexible, and communication problems are rare.

2. Cost/Salary

There are market rates set depending on the task and location of the VA. Globally, Asia is one of the top-producing locations for qualified virtual assistants.

Some VAs may charge per day or monthly, depending on the agreement. You may find that local virtual assistants are usually more expensive than remote virtual assistants. For that, salary tables are available to check a virtual assistant’s rates depending on their specialization. 

3. Tasks

There are two types of virtual assistants depending on a client’s task requirements: dedicated and task-based.

Dedicated virtual assistants work on a long-term basis and are focused on the outcome of a certain project. They work like regular employees that can touch base immediately and can be held accountable for their work. 

Task-based virtual assistants work remotely and can do administrative tasks like email management, appointment setting, meeting reminders, and social media management. They are a good option if you are looking for potential full-time personal assistants.

One advantage of working with task-based VAs is that they tend to conform to the client’s style of work. They do this by working on a system or looking for one that matches or caters to your needs as a team.

Finding the best real estate virtual assistant can be tough. That’s why skill is another factor you need to consider when vetting virtual assistants for real estate.

4. Skills

When selecting a virtual assistant, consider both their hard and soft skills.

Hard skills refer to the specific requirements of the job. These can include specific competencies, experiences, and qualifications that a candidate needs to perform their core tasks well.

Examples of hard skills include project management, word processing, and search engine optimization. The best candidate for your team should have skills, experience, or a level of mastery that gives them an edge over other virtual assistants.

Soft skills refer to the candidate's attitude and approach to work. This is where abilities like multitasking, critical thinking, and time management come into play. When hiring a real estate VA, find a candidate whose collection of soft skills indicates a desirable work ethic. 

The right combination of hard and soft skills should help you find the ideal candidate who can not only finish tasks on your to-do list but also help you scale your real estate business as a teammate.

Hiring a virtual assistant is a big decision to make your business grow. It may even increase the profit and maximize your business potential to the fullest.

How to Find the Right Virtual Real Estate Assistant

Here are some tips to help you find the best virtual assistant for your real estate business:

Identify Your Needs

You need to be specific about the candidate you’re looking for. To do that, you need a specific job description.

Build a job description around the tasks and responsibilities your business needs a virtual assistant for. Include the hard and soft skills you’re looking for.

Build a Recruitment Process

List the steps you’d want to take before signing an agreement with a candidate. This will also help you build a schedule around looking for the right real estate virtual assistant. Recruitment can take a long time, so staying organized is imperative.

Shortlist Your Candidates

There are a lot of virtual assistants out there and they all have different sets of technical skills. You may even find applicants with skills you didn’t know you needed.

Create a shortlist of the top 3 or 5 candidates. Conduct interviews to measure their level of expertise and other abilities.

Follow the 80-20 Rule

The Pareto Principle recommends an 80-20 approach to achieving results. In recruiting a real estate virtual assistant, you can follow this by hiring based on a candidate’s capacity for further development.

Of course, you’d want someone with the technical skills you need, but a report from Harvard Business Review suggests prioritizing potential based on soft skills.

Consider hiring with the Pareto Principle and choose a candidate based on 80% character and 20% technical qualifications. The idea behind this is that anyone who can commit to growth can be developed to be the best in their work. 

Here are some more VA hiring tips from CEO Pavel Stepanov:

Bottom Line

The recruitment process for a virtual real estate assistant can prove to be a tedious task (about 80+ hours) for any business owner. 

Want to skip the grunt work? You can work with a company trusted by other realtors, brokers, and agents for finding the best real estate VAs! Check out this testimonial from one of our clients in the real estate industry!

Just fill out this form and a consultant will get in touch with you about our services and a shortlist of the best candidates that fit your needs.

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