Complete Guide On How To Scale Your Real Estate Business With Virtual Assistants

Hiring a virtual assistant could provide a massive boost to any business. However, it can turn out to be a frustrating journey for others who don’t figure it out on the first try. To help you out with that learning curve, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to scale your real estate business with virtual assistants.

How To Hire Your VA

Let’s start out with how to hire a virtual assistant. This process works for any kind of business looking to outsource tasks to virtual assistants.

1. Document The Tasks You Want To Outsource

The first and possibly most important step in this process is to document your tasks. List down which of your daily tasks can only be done by you, and which ones you can outsource to anyone after training them. Read on and discover why this step is fundamental to the hiring process.

2. Create A Job Description

From the list of tasks you will outsource, create a detailed job description for applicants. Among the duties and responsibilities listed, also include background information about the company. Include any software they’ll be using, and the skills and educational background required for applicants.

You can also ask applicants to submit an introduction video to help you assess the best candidates much quicker.

3. Interview Your Top Candidates

From your job ad, interview the people who best fit the bill. Be prepared to receive a lot of applications, and remember to invest time in finding the right one.

Here are some questions you can ask virtual assistants during interviews:

• What type of work are you best at?
• Where are you most comfortable communicating?
• How do you structure your workday?
• Tell me about a time when you’ve faced a stressful situation at work. How did you respond?
• Do you have a backup plan during a power or internet outage?
• Let’s say we started working together today. 6 months from now, what do you think I’d have to say in a testimonial about you?
• What do you do to keep learning?

Read more: Mock Interview with a Virtudesk Virtual Assistant

How To Train Virtual Assistants

There are many different ways to train virtual assistants. The process will depend mostly on their designation within your business or team. Here are some examples of how to train virtual assistants depending on the nature of their job.

1. Administrative Training

Administrative virtual assistants usually provide general assistance to the team, helping everyone work smoothly. As such, they’ll need to be trained on the general aspects of your business operations.

Train your administrative assistant with demos and guides on how to use tools to sort out, prepare, and compile your team’s important documents. Make sure they know where they are at all times and that they learn the organization system by heart.

Allow your virtual administrative assistant to also learn about managing schedules and appointments, your inbox, CRMs, interactions with current and potential clients, as well as your security settings. In the long run, this will help them do their jobs well and efficiently.

2. Marketing Training

During their training, it’s important that your marketing virtual assistant is taught about your company’s branding and public presence. This will become fundamental to their job.

Include in their training a discussion about your ideas for their output, the goals you want to achieve, and how you want them done. If you don’t already have one, build an editorial calendar with them.

It’s also invaluable that they receive training on your templates for marketing collateral. This way, they can show you their proficiency with all the tools they need to use, and skill gaps can be addressed with uptraining. This will also help them become a highly proactive and productive marketer for your organization in the future.

3. Transaction Coordinator Training

In training transaction coordinator virtual assistants, it’s important that they have a very clear understanding of how they should accomplish their tasks. To do this properly, we recommend giving examples using screenshots, resource links, and sample documents.

This way, they can get a good grasp of how to write and update offers, and compile, verify, record, and process forms and documents. Implementing robust training programs is another method of how to scale your real estate business.

Also include calendar management, as well as discussing information about lenders, escrow, titles companies, signing appointments, and preliminary HUDs.

Make sure you check on their ability to understand detailed contracts and make informed decisions based on their content. Explain, as well, how they are to provide information on transactions to brokers directly and during meetings or negotiations.

The VA Training Trifecta

This is the virtual assistant training trifecta. We use this as a guide in building a training regimen during onboarding. Here, you’ll find that there are three main components that help out with onboarding a virtual assistant for any industry. 

First are written instructions. These documents are written materials they can reference for the entire training process. You can write down instructions for self-guided training, or step-by-step checklists on how to complete tasks. You can also as well as provide them with some reading material.

Then there are audio recordings. These can be recorded voice calls from previous training sessions and recorded instructions or lessons. Audiobooks would also fall under this category if you use them for training.

Next are video recordings. These can be recorded conferences from previous training and onboarding sessions. You may also include demos from screen captures to easily show your new virtual assistant how tasks should be done.

Building a program with the virtual assistant training trifecta can help make the onboarding process run more smoothly. You can assign your new virtual assistant to do some self-guided training, and submit progress reports. This way you get to still attend to your daily tasks, and both parties can immediately acclimatize with the remote working dynamic.

Virtual Assistants In Small To Medium Teams

For solo agents and small to medium-sized teams, virtual assistants can offer services to cover a wide range of skill gaps and functions. Here are some common designations for virtual assistants in small businesses, as we’ve arranged on an organizational chart.

1. Executive Admin or Operations Manager

An executive assistant can perform the tasks of an operations manager for a small team. They can be tasked to oversee all operational responsibilities of a small business. 

In a brokerage, this would involve MLS listings, real estate transactions, and the compliance of agents to internal policies and national real estate laws.

2. Transaction Coordinator

A virtual transaction coordinator in a small team will have the responsibility of managing communication and collaboration between parties involved in transactions.

Apart from the responsibilities mentioned above in their training, they will also be responsible for mitigating client concerns, doing paperwork for agents and new clients. Essentially, their contract-to-close administration remains a vital part of their contribution to the team.

3. Sales Manager

Sales management tasks for small teams can also be handled by virtual assistants. They can be tasked with cold calling, processing sales-qualified leads, and handling and updating listings for the team.

4. Lead Gen Specialist

Lead generation virtual assistants take on the task of mining leads from different sources. This involves researching where they are and how to get their attention and commitment. They’ll collaborate with your marketing and sales managers to plan and execute effective conversion efforts.

5. Marketing Manager

Marketing virtual assistants can also oversee and execute marketing campaigns for small teams or solo agents. They do this via email campaigns, social media advertising, designing and producing compelling marketing collateral. More importantly, they can even be tasked with developing a robust marketing plan for your team.

Virtual Assistants In Big Organizations

Bigger organizations have even more tasks and roles that can also be fulfilled through hiring virtual assistants. Especially if an urgent expansion is needed, building a team of virtual assistants can be an easy and cost-effective way on how to scale your real estate business.

As the marketing team expands, more specialized roles can be fulfilled by marketing virtual assistants. These include the role of a researcher for market trends and growth opportunities, an ads manager, a social media manager and strategist, content creators, public relations officers, and web developers.

Concierge virtual assistants can also be hired to have a more organized approach to managing internal and external communications. They can be further assisted by transaction coordinators, as both roles deal heavily with liaison management for internal staff, clients, lenders, etc.

A recruitment manager can also hire human resource virtual assistants to help out with finding talent, nurturing them, and enforcing policies across the entire company. They can also have bookkeeping virtual assistants in the team, as well as a dedicated recruiter and a quality control manager.

Especially for larger brokerages, sales teams can be easily expanded by hiring inside sales agents or prospecting virtual assistants. Apart from delegating those roles to virtual assistants, they can also hire virtual data miners, lead nurturers, and listing coordinators.

A Real Estate Marketing Team With Virtual Assistants

Marketing teams for real estate agents and brokerages can be assembled with marketing virtual assistants. As seen on the organizational chart below, these roles can be fulfilled by real estate virtual assistants. 

From social media management to creating marketing collateral, lead mining, web development, and management, to executing campaigns and copywriting, these can all be done remotely. This means that you can build an entire team virtually to increase your cost savings while also expanding your marketing team’s productivity.

Tasks You Can Delegate To VAs

Virtual assistants have different areas of expertise. Depending on their field of expertise, you can delegate multiple tasks to them. Here are examples of tasks you can delegate to virtual assistants who specialize in transaction coordination and real estate services.

1. Real Estate Virtual Assistants

• Coordinate title/escrow, mortgage, loan, and appraisal processes
• Handle and transfer incoming phone calls and messages
• Schedule appointments and update team calendars
• Lead generation and marketing campaigns
• Create and update internal databases and tracking sheets
• Circle prospecting around new sales or listings
• Create marketing collateral for virtual and in-person activities

Related: Discover Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services at Virtudesk

2. Transaction Coordinator

• Update and maintain communication with clients, agents, title officers, lenders, etc.
• Input and manage all information into the company CRM
• Maintain consistent collaboration between clients, agents, and brokers
• Contract-to-closing supervision and management
• Ensure compliance of all parties involved in a transaction
• Perform 30, 90, and 120-day customer service calls for following up and referrals
• Schedule and coordinate moving/possession processes
• Coordinate title/escrow, mortgage loan, and appraisal processes
• Assist in negotiations and completion of repairs
• Schedule, attend, and coordinate closing processes

Related: What is a Virtual Real Estate Transaction Coordinator? [Plus Tasks To Delegate]

Tips For Managing Your VA

There are many ways through which you and your VA can agree on having their tasks managed regularly. From our years of working with virtual assistants, we’ve come up with three key ingredients needed in order to do this well. Allow the following guidelines to help you build your process of managing tasks and responsibilities with your virtual assistant.

1. Have Daily Check-Ins

Conducting quick daily check-ins with your virtual assistant helps a lot in working smoothly with them. Especially when done during the start of a workday, it can help a lot in catching up with new and ongoing tasks, and managing their respective deadlines. It can also be a great time to deal with questions and additional help your virtual assistant may need for their tasks.

2. Use a Communication Tool

Having a messaging tool for managing your virtual assistant is definitely essential. This can be used for daily check-ins, as well as questions or tasks that come up within the day. Make sure you use one like Skype or Slack so you can also make calls and share files for free.

3. Require Weekly Reports

Conducting weekly reports allow you and your virtual assistant to assess the contribution of their tasks to the company’s larger goals. Doing detailed weekly reports gives way to issues that may need to be addressed, as well as optimizing your virtual assistant’s entire workflow depending on how the week went, considering their ongoing projects and new tasks.

Read: How to Build a Company That Lasts

Key Issues In Managing Your VA

In managing your VA, here are some important issues you should always consider. These can and should be discussed during daily and weekly meetings.

• What tasks or projects did they complete?
• How much time did they spend on each task or project?
• What are they still working on?
• Did they run into any problems or challenges?
• Do they have any feedback, questions, or ideas for you?

Making sure that these are handled correctly and consistently, helps ensure a smooth workflow between you and your virtual team at all times.

Tools For Managing Your VAs

Here are some tools we recommend for managing virtual assistants or teams. These are essential tools that can help with open communication, project management, and the security and accessibility of important documents and resources.

Communications

With tools like Skype, Zoom, and Slack, you can keep communication lines open at all times between you and your virtual assistants. This is essential in building a culture of collaboration between team members. Using these tools also allows you to share files, make calls, and even have conference calls for important meetings.

Project Management

Project management tools like Trello, Asana, and ClickUp allow your team to work on projects collaboratively. Everyone can also track the progress of a group task so no deadlines can be missed. Having at least one for your team will definitely help with developing a smooth workflow, and avoid micromanagement tendencies.

Documentation and Security

For organizing team documents, there’s also Dropbox and Google Drive. These two are helpful cloud storage tools that help with providing access to everyone when it comes to essential documents. Google also allows collaboration on documents in real-time. As for Lastpass, it’s a great password manager to ensure the safety of sensitive information like passwords and login information.

3 Steps To Get Started With Virtudesk Virtual Assistants

It only takes three easy steps to find a virtual assistant for your business. Here at Virtudesk, the process is simple, but also highly considerate of your business’s specific needs. Here are the steps involved in finding the best virtual assistant for you.

Step 1: Sign Up

Fill out the sign-up form. Through there, you can let us know of your company’s specific needs. That will be helpful in tailoring solutions specifically for your business’s needs. One of our Consultants will also get in touch with you for a discovery call to further discuss your specific needs.

Step 2: Matching

We’ll find virtual assistants who match your needs and qualifications. You’ll then receive their DISC assessment profiles and resumes. You can use these to help you build an insightful interview process that will assess their compatibility with your business needs.

Step 3: Meet And Greet

After interviewing the candidates you’ve chosen, you’ll get the chance to decide on the one you’ll be working with. You’ll have a meeting with your virtual assistant and their account manager to talk about expectations and workflow management in depth.

If this simplified process resonates with you, all you have to do is fill out this form, and one of our Consultants will get on a discovery call with you.

Watch this video where Virtudesk CEO, Pavel Stepanov, discusses this guide in more detail.

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