Tired of drowning in paperwork, overwhelmed by endless to-do lists, and feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? We hear you.
From managing administrative tasks and marketing campaigns to making high-stakes deals, being a real estate agent is hard work. However, virtual assistants (VAs) can make it easier by rescuing you from the endless email chains and dreaded paperwork pileup, so you can reclaim your time and energy for more meaningful work.
However, you can’t just hand over every task and walk off into the sunset when you hire a real estate virtual assistant. It’s important to know which tasks you can hand over and which ones you should take care of yourself!
Appointment Scheduling and Calendar Management
The risk of double booking appointments is real when you’re a busy broker or real estate agent. While one missed appointment is a mistake, three are a habit—and that habit can sink your career permanently.
A VA can make sure you keep doing what you do best by streamlining and managing all the back-end activities. This includes keeping track of client schedules, no-shows, cancellations, appointments, and the big kahuna: your calendar. They also ensure you don’t double book or miss an appointment because of a meeting you set up three months ago and forgot about.
Email Communication
According to a recent survey, more than 90% of real estate agents prefer email when communicating with clients. However, emails can pile up, and important ones can slip through the cracks, leaving you holding the purse strings when a client gets annoyed and bails.
A VA will save you from the hassle of doing various tasks. They also take over your work email to:
- Make sure every prospect is kept in the loop
- Sort emails clogging your inbox
- Manage your contact list
- Respond to meeting requests and add them to your calendar
- Send prospecting emails to clients
- Auto-respond to clients when you’re on the job
Cold Calling
Cold calling may seem antiquated, but it’s the bread and butter of the real estate industry. Cold calling helps agents land new leads, create agency or broker awareness, personalize calls, and build connections in a way email just doesn’t allow.
This may be why 95% of realtors prefer to also communicate by telephone. Unfortunately, cold calling takes a massive amount of time and dedication; generally, it takes at least three tries to land a lead—and that can take weeks or even months to happen. However, a VA can take over cold calling and generate prospects you can convert to a client without having to spend hours communicating back and forth.
Research
Research is the lifeblood of real estate dealings. Think about it: you can’t answer your clients’ questions if you don’t know the first thing about what they’re asking! However, covering your bases takes time—which you might not have with the amount of time you already spend on home tours and closings.
A real estate VA can make the analysis process easy by taking up the grunt work and digging into the facts. You can also call or text your assistant to ask for information when you’re in a meeting and need quick facts, which can help you to make a good impression on clients.
Social Media Management
According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2022 Member Profile, 45% of realtors use Instagram, 55% utilize LinkedIn, and 72% use Facebook to get leads and increase awareness. This means agents spend hours of their time creating content, posts, and listings on social media platforms.
While social media marketing (SMM) looks easy, it actually is quite challenging. You have to create interesting content, promote listings without sounding too salesy, and whip up catchy social media posts—all when you’re on a lunch break or between meetings.
VAs make social media outreach easy by taking over your SMM efforts. They write posts, promote listings, engage with customers, provide insights into specific areas, create leads, nurture prospects, and convert prospects into customers—without you having to lift a finger.
Bookkeeping and Spreadsheet Management
Bookkeeping is one of those things that frequently fall through the cracks—mostly because it’s almost impossible to keep track of every transaction, expense, and commission if you’re making and closing deals left and right.
When you’re unable to keep on top of your bookkeeping, transactions may not add up, which could cause you to overstate your expenses to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or lead to unclaimed tax deductions. Not only could this bring unwanted attention from taxing authorities, but it can lead to unnecessary losses.
A VA can prevent these problems from happening by upgrading the way you manage your books and tracking petty cash, fuel, and other expenses, enabling you to stay on the safe side of the IRS if you’re audited.
In Conclusion
VAs can take on all kinds of tasks to make your life as a real estate agent or broker so much easier. Before hiring one, be sure to research how much real estate virtual assistants make per hour, where you can find a good one that fits your budget, and why real estate agents should hire virtual assistants in the first place!
