Take a moment to consider how much time you and your team spend on low-priority and administrative tasks each week. Is it minutes? Hours? Days?
Once we add up data management, social media marketing, appointments, customer service, client support, and more, it can seem like there's no time left to work on the high-level operative duties that drive your brokerage to the next level.
While it's impossible to add more hours to the day, leading real estate brokers are freeing up their assignment lists and boosting operational efficiency with the help of virtual assistants. This blog looks at the benefits of using a virtual real estate assistant for a brokerage, some critical strategies for choosing the right assistant, and how a leading remote assistant search platform can help companies find the perfect match for their businesses in the real estate industry.
There is a wide range of benefits a virtual assistant can offer real estate brokerages. Here you'll find the top three.
Brokerages that utilize the help of virtual assistants enjoy significant savings due to the hourly or task-based pay structure of real estate virtual assistant work.
There are also no traditional employee benefits to be paid out and no equipment or office spaces to provide — plus, brokers experience an overall reduction in tax burdens.
Finally, there are additional savings in training and development as the best virtual workers are pre-trained and skilled in their area.
People wrongly assume there is less collaboration because virtual assistants are in a different physical space. While it's true that remote workers can function on a different schedule, and you may need to set up better video conferencing or instant messaging capabilities to keep in touch, this means that your business is effectively running at an almost 24-hour cycle.
Imagine waking up and having your appointments set and new leads coming through your inbox! For example, a remote worker can manage your calendar with express permission for each booking once they become familiar with your typical tasks and obligations.
Whether it's staying on top of emails or chasing leads, every outsourced task is an opportunity for you and your team to use problem-solving skills to work toward the scalability of your business. Remote assistants can conduct data management of updated critical information in your CRM to give a competitive advantage to your brokerage.
There's no doubt that virtual assistants are an asset to any real estate office. Now let's look at what they can do for brokerages in today's climate.
As a real estate brokerage, booking appointments and managing leads is the lifeblood of your business. Unfortunately, poorly timed responses, lack of organizational management, or playing catch up with calendar management are all ways to lose business and damage a reputation.
A real estate virtual assistant can assist your brokerage in the following ways:
Efficient scheduling and lead management—Having leads all over the place and at different relationship stages without a proper tracking system can cause tension and frustration. A skilled virtual assistant can oversee all scheduling duties, so you can focus on building relationships and winning new clients.
Follow-up with clients and prospects—Providing client support while nurturing relationships with potential prospects achieves several purposes. It shows that you care while building rapport and setting your brokerage apart as one focused on organization and values the time of its customers and stakeholders.
Consolidate administrative tasks—Time-intensive admin tasks can be assigned to a skilled remote worker who can handle various typical administrative duties. This takes the time-consuming chores out of your hands so you can focus on achieving your organizational goals.
Delegating these tasks can help move your business forward!
So, how do you find the right remote team members to support your business and agents? Start with the steps outlined below.
Group all tasks by category (i.e., sales, marketing, operations, etc.). From there, collaborate with team members to determine where the most significant time sinks are. These will be repetitive tasks that are necessary but not overly specialized.
An excellent way to do this is to set aside some time (a week or so) and get team members to track how long they spend on each task using a free time tracking app. Then determine if these responsibilities can be automated by streamlining processes or with a software stack. The ones you are left with will be your personal tasks requiring delegation.
Before working with a virtual assistant, determine what you'd like to get out of the relationship. Is it converting leads into customers? Increased productivity?
Whatever it may be, ensure that it is measurable and can be easily communicated to a virtual assistant.
A collaborative software stack that easily integrates remote workers and teamwork will be an essential part of the process.
A tool for planning, processing, and executing projects, such as a project management software such as Asana or Clickup, will help allocate and keep track of all ongoing VA tasks in one central platform.
Finding the right real estate virtual assistant for your brokerage can be challenging. However, without one, you'll be missing out on more time to improve operations and maintain competitiveness in 2023.
If you're interested in benefiting from the services of a virtual assistant, start your Free Company Profile with VPM Solutions. With the knowledge and expertise of one of our expert virtual assistants, you'll enjoy the freedom to take your services to the next level!
Download the "Guide to Using Virtual Assistants for Your Real Estate Business" to learn more about how virtual assistants are ideal for a real estate broker!