Why Should Your Real Estate Company Use An Off-site Receptionist?
Here’s Why You Should Consider a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
In the game of business — and life — it’s all about growth. Which means the ability to leverage your time is crucial. Only think about it. How do you do about all those meetings that you spent in the evenings or afternoons, gathering paperwork or reviewing your listings? How many calls might you make? How many follow ups would you make? How many deals will you close?
Having a VA lets you gain time back so you can concentrate on the high-impact work that brings money to your real estate business. Truth is, VAs are the best-kept top secret agents we use time and time again to get to the rank of 7 and 8 figures. But you have to be able to do it correctly. You need to have a real need for a VA and a step-by-step plan spelling out with crystal clarity precisely what you need them to do before you run out and recruit your first full-time VA.
What Real Estate Tasks Should You Assign to a VA (Hint: Not Just Phone Calls!)
For the record, when we talk about real estate VAs, we’re NOT just talking about ISAs. If you want help with the lead answer, of course, you’ll probably want to go with an ISA expert. (And if you already have an ISA and want to make sure that you are using it effectively, click here to see how rockstar agents do it, and get ready to DOUBLE your production.) But for most agents, it’s best to start with an admin expert who can take the tiny, death-by-flea-bite tasks off your plate and help lock your workflow so you can concentrate firmly on rainmaking. When you see a measurable rise in transactions (say 30 deals a year or $200k in annual income), now is the time to be innovative and stay.
Here are some of the many things a great virtual assistant can do to help you scale your real estate business:
Marketing
- Create buyer’s packets and powerpoints
- Send mailers to your spheres of influence
- Graphic design for digital and print assets
- Schedule (or even write) blog posts
- Schedule email
- SEO updates
- Post, update and advertise on social media
Operations
- Transaction management
- Data entry
- Listing presentations, coordination and updates
- Research buyer & seller leads
- Update your CRM with notes on leads
- Collecting feedback from your clients and team members
- I&E and P&L tracking
Sales
- Follow up with leads
Admin
- Responding to emails
- Setting up meetings
- Managing your calendar
- Personal admin (holiday cards, organizing family events, etc.)
Best Practices When Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
How do you know if you are really ready for a VA? Which VA you should pick? And once you have found your VA, how do you know that they actually work all the hours they bill you for?
The response to those questions starts and ends with simple results. It’s imperative that you have your house in order first, so you can clearly set your goals from the outset. If you’ve done that successfully, you’ll find it easy to test the deliverables and make sure they’re on the spot. If you’re ever in doubt, a lot of outsourcing platforms have back end applications to track exactly how your virtual assistant uses their time. Start by setting up your own business structure and process, then determine where the key bottlenecks are, and pick out the exact tasks and results that will help eliminate those bottlenecks, and allow more deals to flow in. Then write a job description with specific statistics and understanding of what the performance in this position looks like.
There are some arrangements that you want to make when you hire your contractors too. Firstly, you would need an independent contractors agreement that is signed by all parties. So give you legal cover, this is clearly sound business practice, but it allows making it official in terms of ensuring the contractor knows exactly what he or she will be doing. You can also consider setting up an NDA which means your freelancer won’t be able to reveal competitor secrets or take any of your info.
By Jeffreymendel Jeffrey Nash – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50308966
Does Your Business Need a Reliable Telephone Receptionist?
Reliable Receptionist helps small to mid-sized businesses enhance their professional image, improve customer service, manage workload and convert callers to become loyal clients. At Reliable Receptionist, we not only provide simple answering services but you can be confident your company’s incoming calls will be immediately answered by one of up to five trained representatives assigned to your account. These virtual telephone receptionists are professionally ready to answer questions about your business, provide directions, capture critical lead information, schedule appointments, and forward calls to the appropriate department depending on your set guidelines. Let’s Work Together! For more information or to request a quote and free demonstration, send us a message or call us today at (925) 627-4200. Previous Article Home Next Article
