Running a successful real estate business can be overwhelming, especially when you feel there need to be more hours in the day to get all those time-consuming tasks completed.
You may need extra hands, but you can’t afford to employ someone on a full-time salary.
By hiring a real estate virtual assistant to help with all those must-do tasks you dread, you can free up a load of time.
The real estate industry is all about buying, selling and leasing properties; therefore, hiring a VA will free up your time to focus on those dollar productive tasks.
Before you dive in at the deep end and hire a virtual assistant, please read this article to gain knowledge from the top-four tips for finding the right candidates.
1 – Define Your Needs
Before you take the plunge and hire a real estate virtual assistant, you must identify which areas of your working day you need assistance with. You may feel so overwhelmed that you crave help in all tasks but ensure you properly evaluate your needs.
For example, a busy office always has a phone ringing or an unanswered email and those timely data-inputting tasks still need to be done.
So, of course, a real estate virtual assistant can help with all these general administration tasks, but you will be surprised how much more a VA can help your business if you hire the right one.
While data entry and answering phone calls are high on the list of priorities within the job description of a real estate VA, you need to look long-term to get the most out of your virtual real estate assistant.
Depending on your budget, make sure you calculate this correctly. The VA you hire could also be responsible for essential tasks like social media management, database management, market analysis, scheduling appointments and organising open house events.
The person you hire must have more than virtual assistance administrative skills to do these tasks.
However, you can train your hired VA for these technical skills long-term. You can read the following article for more on how to choose and work with a VA for real estate.
2 – Research Virtual Assistant Providers
Due to high demand, the virtual assistant market has become saturated; therefore, it’s vital to do research and due diligence correctly.
Firstly, don’t hire the first person who offers their services at a cheap hourly rate. It may tempt them to engage in the more affordable option, but if they don’t have any experience working for a real estate agent, then things will fail.
Many people are offering to provide virtual assistant services on the internet, so always ensure you check their reviews and references before entering into a conversation.
Often virtual assistants claim they have specific skills, so going through an official freelance provider is vital.
Stay clear if the person has terrible reviews and vague references. However, just because a person lacks experience doesn’t mean that they don’t have excellent qualities to become a highly-skilled real estate virtual assistant.
By doing a simple but effective search, you can gain much information about a person through their social media accounts.
3 – Interview Potential Virtual Assistants
So you have narrowed your search to five potential candidates for becoming your real estate virtual assistant; it is vital to ensure you pick the right person for the job.
An excellent way of assessing their suitability is to set them a few practice tests. One of the tests could be related to how fast they can perform data entry tasks correctly.
Also, assess their knowledge of the real estate agents industry and if they have any enthusiasm for social media marketing, digital marketing and how they come across on video calls.
The real estate virtual assistant you hire must be able to deal with the fast-paced nature of the real estate sector, so assessing the speed at which they perform tasks is essential.
All real estate professionals, including virtual assistants, must clearly understand what is expected of them within their role.
Therefore, it is paramount that you set out easy-to-understand communication guidelines from the start. If the person you interview cannot communicate effectively, they will fail to perform essential tasks to the required standard.
4 – Make Your Decision
Once you have conducted your practice tests and interview process, you must decide which person is best suited to becoming your real estate VA.
It would help if you based your decision on several factors, such as how professionally they presented themselves during the interview, how they performed in the tests you set them and how enthusiastic they appeared to land the job, as well as the costs involved in hiring and on what basis.
The VA role will require the person you hire to perform essential tasks; therefore, you must be sure they display enough knowledge of your industry to commit to a high standard.
Before you hire, ensure you outline an explicit task agreement, which includes the number of hours you need them to work and an hourly rate.
The payment structure you agree on must fall within the budget you calculated at the start of the process.
Let Us Help You Find The Ideal VA For Your Business
Hiring real estate virtual assistants can prove tricky, especially if you don’t have experience conducting searches and interviews.
It is easy to make rookie mistakes and hire someone not suited to the role. Unfortunately, doing this will cost your business time, money and stress.
It will mean you must conduct the whole process from scratch, which is never an inviting prospect.
Avoid this by calling our team to find out how we can identify, interview, hire and train the perfect VA for all your business requirements.
