The everyday life of a real estate agent or broker is nothing but hectic. Between managing properties, relationships with clients, connections with other agents or sellers, paperwork, appointment scheduling, and your own huge marketing efforts—well, let’s just say there are a lot of moving pieces to complete the puzzle.
To be totally honest, sometimes you doubt whether you´re showcasing the houses (and thus, yourself as a professional) correctly. Because you seriously think that there´s much more to be done, right? But there´s not enough time to accomplish it all. The day has 24 hours for all of us and that´s your biggest problem.
Being on the go and showing up on time to meet clients is A LOT of pressure. Not to mention that extra mile of struggling to nurture each and every social media account. You do all this on your own and you´re exhausted. You don´t see the results you want considering all the efforts. The mere possibility of losing important customers is unbearable. You´re a gritty hard worker and you don´t deserve it. You know that a sublime online presence matters a lot. But the same applies to the way you do business face to face.
So, how can you get out of this crazy loop and stand out from the crowd in the super competitive real estate arena of 2019?
You ask yourself repeatedly how to stay on top of the game both in the virtual and the real world...and how you can gain more free time to have a life too!
It´s obvious that at this point you´re in need of an extra hand so you can stop juggling so much. Avoid burnout and move forward in your career performing more meaningful tasks!
In a fast-paced industry where time is of the essence, it can be beneficial to bring in some extra help to manage some everyday chores for you. That way, you can spend your time focusing on core selling activities which will make you more successful as a realtor and why not at a personal level.
Always keep this in mind—truly successful people have learned how to delegate. They´ve been wise enough to face they can´t do every single thing on their own. They simply decided to focus on what matters the most to them.
(And you know what? They don´t want to do boring tasks either!).
Social media management and a killer online presence is just a tiny example of all the duties a virtual assistant can do for your real estate business today. Lower that heavy burden of the plethora of administrative tasks you have on your shoulder. Start a new chapter today by getting in tune only with the activities you´re passionate about!
Perhaps this means taking more detailed pictures of the houses, negotiating your deals better, or building strong relationships with top clients. Or why not, you may want to put six hours of work a day instead of ten because you seek more life quality.
Having more hours for yourself or spending more time with your family sounds like an unattainable goal sometimes. However, at the same time, you keep seeing the multiple stories of other people of your age and niche who´ve made it. And you think, I just don´t know how they do it.
But a new week begins and every Monday you start doing everything on your own. All over again, in the same way. And that´s not what´s going to bring new results to your real estate business!
Virtual assistant services for real estate are helpful and cost-effective. That´s why they make a great option for time-strapped professionals like you. Here are some suggestions on what type of specific everyday work you can delegate to a virtual assistant broken down by area:
Delegating these tasks helps will definitely relieve you of some of the administrative, non-core duties associated with the real estate business, which means you can maximize your time by selling properties to clients. If you’re interested in learning more about using a virtual assistant for your real estate business, please request a consultation.
One of the biggest challenges you have to face as a realtor is balancing the time spent outside and inside the office during your working hours. Self-managing your time is definitely rewarding. But, as years go by, it can also get extremely stressful when you´re pressed by the clock from Monday to Friday. And you already know that every second count in the busy real estate world. There´s no room to sleep in. A virtual assistant can take that work off your plate by managing the entire scheduling process so it’s seamless for both you AND your clients. What a relief, right?
Let a VA help you run your schedule like clockwork! They can easily:
Organize the full agenda for open house days while you're doing core-selling tasks outside the office
Upload 360º virtual tours and videos of your properties so you can filter clients more diligently
Manage your numerous e-mails to answer general questions and also arrange visits if necessary
You can also have your virtual assistant act as an answering service when you’re unavailable to answer phone calls
Take over follow up tasks that commonly take place during the buying process (further visits, new inquiries, submitting paperwork, scheduling walk-throughs, etc...)
A virtual assistant can provide other agents with information regarding properties, MLS, and more.
You already market yourself enough every single day...in the flesh. With the way you dress, through your car, your smile, and how you speak with confidence. And do you really want to spend your extra minutes on Instagram while you could be watching sports, relaxing or having some coffee?
With all the core management work you need to complete, it can be tempting to let marketing and promoting your business fall to the wayside. A virtual assistant can take some of this work off your plate, so you can attract new customers while still helping your current clients.
The more eyes on the properties you’ve listed, the better chance you can sell them! And with so many eyes on the screen, you need to be super active on social networks.
A real estate VA will:
Add one more social media channel that targets more potential buyers. For example, Pinterest!
Schedule content to be posted automatically on social networks to have a strong 24/7 online presence
Manage online questions and comments using Twitter as a support channel
Polish and optimize pictures with excellent filters to highlight those little details your client can´t just miss
Build online relationships with other real estate agents and why not identify new customers
Design and share promotional materials such as e-books, newsletters, signage, or business cards. The same with physical or digital adds
A highly skilled VA can even revamp your whole website/blog so it drives more traffic. Some specialized virtual assistants work on design, development, and maintenance (although these services tend to cost extra)
If your business works in an area with a bilingual client base, you can hire an assistant fluent in that language to help translate listings or communicate with clients. This could save you a lot of communication headaches in the future. The same applies to writing tasks. You could start an e-newsletter with updates on the field, or give away an e-book as a lead magnet, as well as telling your success stories with real case studies.
You know that each property will come with its own set of paperwork and details, which can be difficult to organize. Virtual assistants can manage the finer details like addendums, contracts, offers, and even connecting or disconnecting utilities.
We know how mistakes in paperwork can delay very important operations. Stop filling papers yourself!
Hire a VA who can seamlessly:
Organize your endless online documents, databases, and folders so you know where to find them quickly. Imagine a life with Drive and Dropbox running smoothly!
Do your bookkeeping so your financial records don´t get out of hand. Many virtual assistants are trained in using tools like QuickBooks so your financials don’t get disorganized ever again.
Draft up rental contracts and any other document that can be saved as a template for later use
Property listings are hard to keep track of. They come and go quickly, they update frequently, and they’re hosted in several different places. At the same time, they are a core element of real estate. How can you keep up with these documents?
A VA can perfectly:
Create and update listings: Your virtual assistant can handle the tasks associated with creating, updating, managing, and taking down any property listings you own. He or she can manage this process across multiple programs like MLS, Top Producer, Trulia, Zillow, and more.
Research properties: In addition to managing listings, a virtual assistant can spend time researching properties to provide valuable information like the number of rooms, square footage, occupancy, or the contact information for the current owners. These small details make your job easier when you work with clients. Spend less time researching yourself about the houses. Instead, those hours can be used for showing and selling! Your clients will never catch you off guard again with all their questions about the house.
Aside from the tasks listed above, you can hire virtual assistants with additional skill sets to help with a host of other non-traditional tasks.
So, now that you know it´s your choice to concentrate only on what matters, leave these three areas to a real estate VA. You won´t regret it, for sure!
Managing Clients, Agents and Your Schedule
Doing Digital Marketing Efforts like Social Media and E-mails
Translations and Writing for Bilingual Businesses
Doing the Paperwork
Creating, Managing and Updating Property Listing
Scale up your real estate business today with a virtual assistant! Or why not two? If you have any doubt, don´t hesitate to request a consultation here!
We´ll be more than happy to help you build a super relaxed working lifestyle! We have a plan for every need. All you have to do is ask for help.
The descriptions above are generalizations. We have a team of VA catering for a wide variety of business profiles. Perhaps there are other tasks we didn´t mention but you find them vital for your everyday life. We will definitely take care of them too.