Looking to hire a real estate virtual assistant? In this article, you will learn about the following essential points:
A real estate virtual assistant is a remote worker who performs tasks for a real estate company. People work from home and may live in various countries with lower living expenses. This includes countries like the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
They help a real estate business by taking on tasks that the business owner wants to outsource. This allows the owner to focus on revenue-generating activities.
A real estate virtual assistant handles phone and online tasks for a real estate business. They can make outbound calls for leads, receive calls, and follow up with buyers through VoIP. The pandemic has made everyone tech-savvy, which opened up a multitude of tasks that can be done online.
Here’s an expert tip for creating a list of tasks for online workers. Focus on those that do not need a physical presence. Then, rank them based on complexity, time consumption, and ease of execution.
VA services and tasks vary. Here are some of the tasks that a real estate online assistant can do:
Lead Generation – help generate leads by researching and qualifying potential clients. They are also often responsible for following up on leads and scheduling appointments.
Listing Management: Update and handle property listings on platforms such as MLS.
Database: Help with maintaining and updating client and contact databases.
CRM Management: Help manage CRM tools, input data, and tracking interactions.
Appointment Scheduling: Schedule appointments with clients, vendors, and partners. They also handle the calendar to ensure that there are no conflicts or double bookings.
Email Management: Handles email accounts, responds to inquiries, and focus on messages.
Social Media Management: Helps maintain and update social media accounts.
Market Research: Perform research on the local market. This includes trends, pricing, and competitor analysis.
Admin Support: They can provide administrative support such as data entry and filing.
Customer Service: Provide support to clients, answering questions, and resolving issues.
Transaction Management: Assist with managing real estate transaction coordination. This involves coordinating with title companies, inspectors, appraisers, and other parties.
Coordination with Vendors: Help coordinate with vendors and contractors. This includes photographers, home stagers, and cleaners.
Prospecting: Identify potential properties to buy and analyzing financial data.
Contract and Documentation: Help with the creation and management of legal documents. An example is ensuring the accuracy and completeness of documents.
Tenant Screening and Leasing Management: Handles tenant screening, lease agreements, and rental applications. This ensures that all the necessary paperwork and background checks will be in order.
Rent Collection and Accounting: Handles rent collection and track delinquent accounts. They are also responsible for ensuring that all rental income is recorded and accounted for.
Maintenance Coordination: Coordinate and schedule maintenance and repairs for rental properties. They also communicate with both tenants and contractors as needed.
Property Inspections: Schedules and performs regular property inspections. They ensure that properties are well-maintained.
Marketing and Advertising: Help create and manage campaigns to attract potential tenants.
Customer Service and Support: Provide customer service and support to tenants. Answering questions, resolving issues, and providing exceptional customer care.
Data Management and Reporting: Manage property data and tenant information. They also create reports for property owners and managers when necessary.
Legal Compliance: Ensure rental properties follow laws at all levels. This includes fair housing regulations, building codes, and zoning laws.
Pre-construction Tasks: Helps with project planning and cost analysis.
Permitting and Compliance: Helps with securing building & environmental permits, and other regulatory approvals.
Project Scheduling: Helps make schedules and ensures timely task completion.
Document Management: Helps with organizing and managing project documentation. This including contracts, change orders, and other task-oriented documents.
Budget Management: Helps with tracking project expenses, creating budgets, and analyzing project costs.
Contractor Management: Helps with coordinating and managing construction contractors. They also ensure quality work and compliance to project timelines.
Vendor Management: Helps with managing vendors, such as suppliers and other service providers.
Safety and Risk Management: Help with meeting safety regulations and identifying project risks.
Quality Control: Helps with monitoring construction quality and building codes and other standards.
Project Closeout: Aids with tasks to wrap up a project, including final inspections.
Client Support and Communication: Answering phone calls and emails from clients. They also provide information on insurance policies, coverage, claims, and payments.
Insurance Market Analysis and Reporting: Conduct research on insurance regulations and market trends.
Claims Processing and Coordination: Process insurance claims and verify the information. They also coordinate with adjusters and clients to ensure timely and accurate settlements.
Insurance Data Management and Organization: Collecting and organizing client data, insurance applications, policies, and endorsements. They also update the company’s databases and filing systems.
Policy Compliance and Renewal Management: Following up with clients on renewals and policy changes. They also ensure regulatory and contractual requirements are followed.
Appointment Scheduling and Calendar Management: Schedule appointments with clients, agents, and underwriters. At the same time, they also oversee calendars and travel arrangements.
Document Writing and Editing: Drafting and proofreading messages, proposals, and other insurance documents.
Marketing and Sales Support: Helping with marketing activities such as creating promotional materials.
Training and Education Coordination: Coordinating training sessions and educational programs.
Data Protection and Security Compliance: Ensuring the privacy and security of client information.
Prospecting and Lead Generation: Conducts research to find potential buyers. They reach out to them via email, phone, or social media to generate interest.
Appointment Setting: Schedule appointments for property showings and meetings with prospective clients.
Database Management: Organize and update client databases. This includes contact information, property details, and other relevant data.
Property Research: Search for properties that fit the client’s preferences and requirements.
Comparative Market Analysis: Generate a report that compares recently sold properties with current listings.
Offer and Contract Preparation: Helping with the preparation of proposals and buy contracts.
Coordination and Communication: Coordinating with other parties involved in the transaction. This include inspectors, lenders, and communicating updates to clients.
Follow-up and Client Management: Follow up with clients after showings and meetings. They also manage ongoing communication to build and maintain relationships.
Marketing Support: Creating and distributing marketing materials to promote properties and services.
Administrative Support: Providing general admin support. This includes answering calls and responding to emails.
Editing: Edit photos and videos to meet business quality standards.
Scheduling: Help schedule appointments and book sessions for clients.
Customer Service: Support and respond to client inquiries.
Social Media Management: Manage social media accounts and create posts. They also engage with followers to help increase the business’s visibility.
Website Management: Manage the business’s website by uploading new photos and videos. They also ensure that the website remains current and up-to-date.
Sales and Marketing: Help with creating marketing materials. They also reach out to potential clients to generate more business.
Research: Conduct research on new photography and videography trends.
Photo and Video Organization: they can help organize the business’s files to ensure easy access and retrieval.
Administrative Tasks: A remote staff can handle the administrative tasks involved in conveyancing.
Document Preparation and Review: Prepare and review conveyancing documents. For instance, contracts, deeds, and other legal forms.
Title Searches: Conduct title searches to verify property ownership. They also ensure that there are no liens or other issues that could affect the sale of the property.
Client Communication: Communicate with clients about the progress of the transaction. They also answer their questions and provide guidance on the conveyancing process.
Settlement and Disbursement: Help with the settlement and disbursement process. They also ensure that all funds are transferred and that all parties receive the payments.
Compliance and Regulatory Tasks: Comply with conveyancing laws including Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).
Administrative Support: Provide administrative support by scheduling meetings and handling other tasks.
Document Management: Handles legal documents necessary for strata management and body corporate. As an example, this includes managing legal documents such as strata plans and by-laws.
Communication: Communicate between property owners and other stakeholders. This includes handling inquiries and responding to complaints.
Financial Management: Help with financial management tasks such as invoicing and processing payments. This includes preparing financial statements and reports.
Property Inspections: Arrange property inspections, communicate with inspectors, and create inspection reports.
Compliance Management: Help ensure compliance by managing paperwork, filling forms, and preparing reports.
Meeting Management: Manage meetings and take minutes of the meeting.
Property Maintenance: Scheduling routine maintenance, coordinating repairs, and handling complaints related to maintenance.
Customer Support: Provide customer support by answering tenant inquiries and addressing complaints.
Data Entry: Maintain corporate property records by inputting data into strata management software.
Researching Potential Properties for Investment: Research potential investment properties based on provided criteria. This can include factors like location, price, and potential for rental income.
Analyzing Market Trends: Analyze market trends to assist informed investment decisions.
Managing Rental Properties: Help with managing rental properties. This includes advertising vacancies and handling maintenance requests.
Managing Finances: Assist with managing the financial aspects of real estate investments. This includes budgeting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation.
Drafting and Reviewing Legal Documents: Prepare and review legal documents. This includes agreements with contractors or property managers.
Networking and Marketing: Assist to find potential investors and partners.
Providing Administrative Support: Provide support to ensure that the investment business runs well. This includes setting up appointments and organizing files and documents.
Property Management: Helps with the management of properties. This includes maintenance, leasing, and tenant communication.
Financial Management: A property bookkeeper helps with financial reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.
Asset Valuation: Conduct research on property values, market trends, and comparable properties.
Investment Analysis: Analyze investment opportunities and prepare reports on potential investments.
Portfolio Management: Monitors and manages a portfolio of properties. This includes analyzing performance and identifying areas for improvement.
Due Diligence: Conduct due diligence on potential acquisitions and dispositions. This include reviewing financial statements and other relevant documentation.
Investor Relations: Engage with investors and deliver consistent updates on asset performance
Legal Compliance: Follow regulatory real estate asset management requirements.
Reporting: prepare reports on portfolio performance and investment opportunities.
Marketing: Preparing marketing materials and coordinating marketing campaigns.
Website and Software Development: Supports with website and software development tasks. This includes coding, programming, design, and testing.
Content Creation: Creates website content, blog post, and proofreading content.
SEO and Digital Marketing: Supports with search engine optimization (SEO) tasks. For instance, researching keywords and optimizing website content for search engines.
Customer Support: Answers customer inquiries, providing technical support, and handling customer complaints.
Project Management: Help with project management tasks. For instance, creating project timelines and coordinating with team members.
Data Analysis and Reporting: Gathering and reporting data on website and software performance.
Quality Assurance: Perform quality assurance tasks. Testing websites to ensure that products meet industry standards and client requirements.
Research: This involves studying industry trends, best practices, competitors, and market research.
Administrative Tasks: Scheduling appointments and managing email and calendars.
But not all tasks that a remote staff can do should be given to them. Companies should choose which tasks are suitable for remote workers based on their skills and experience.
It is important to check these tasks before hiring. They should be rated based on their level of difficulty and how easy they are to teach. By doing this, businesses can make informed decisions about which tasks to assign to a remote staff. This way, they can save time and concentrate on more important tasks to enhance productivity.
Writing a job description for a hiring remote real estate associate? It should be well-written and contain specific tasks that need to be done on a daily basis.
Some of the common departments include marketing, finance, and sales. Regardless of the designated department in the industry, it’s best to elaborate on the specifics.
As the director of ShoreAgents, I have explored other locations like South Africa, India, and Vietnam. I’ve outsourced to the Philippines since 2012 and found Filipino remote staff culturally aligned with the West.
The Philippines is an English-speaking country and is generally a Catholic country. This makes it more compatible with businesses in Western countries such as Australia, the USA, and Canada.
English language proficiency in the Philippines is excellent. This makes it easy to communicate with remote staff. The education level is also high, with many people having college and university degrees.
When you hire a real estate virtual staff from the Philippines, you are likely to work with highly educated people. Filipino virtual staff are creative and very proficient in English. They are also happy to do repetitive and back-office tasks with big smiles on their faces.
Well, the answer to that is all sectors. Remote VA jobs can be done online or over the phone, regardless if it’s in real estate or other industries.
We have successfully partnered with real estate agencies for sales and property management. This is because these areas entail more back-office work.
We have experience in supporting buyers, agents, mortgage companies, and real estate conveyancing. So, a virtual staff can support any sector of the real estate market. Well-prepared tasks, training, and preparation enable successful outsourcing to remote staff.
Our real estate VA services include an entry-level service that comprises one agent. This service is good for smaller businesses that are looking to get some items off their plate. When it comes to using the one-agent service, we provide a whole bunch of support. Generally, the people taking out this service are new to it.
Due to having only one staff member, they are able to handle a wide range of tasks. Instead of focusing on a bigger business where they may be doing just one task.
The staff member and the client generally need more support to succeed. Our dedicated success team ensures that you’re getting the most out of your outsourcing journey and remote staff.
Our secondary service is designed for more support for when your business is expanding. You can hire a completely dedicated team with your agents. We provide scale discounts as you advance to higher service levels and hire more people.
As the business grows, you continue to diversify some of the tasks. You might have started with one agent in the sales admin space and then decided to outsource property management. You might be splitting up your sales admin and your property management to have one person dedicated to each. As the business grows, you can continue to develop your team and, hopefully, a team leader within that new team.
For bigger businesses, we offer a workforce service. A workforce service is for when you’re almost an expert at outsourcing. You’ve got all your systems in place and division heads to take care of your outsourced team.
So, you can cover many sectors within your business. Instead of being limited to back-office support for property management and minimal sales support.
Since online workers can help you with several tasks, you can now expand your focus on other pillars.
Our workforce model has proven to be very successful. We have teams of more than 25 individuals achieving great results.
The first step in choosing a virtual staff is recruitment. Finding someone with the right aptitude for the job and who fits within your business is essential.
The best real estate virtual staff should be able to perform simple tasks in your business. It’s important to find a committed candidate who can learn and be a valuable long-term team member.
Use cloud-based tools and productivity management software to assign tasks easier. Some of the various tools on the market, such as ClickUp, Monday, Air Table, Asana, and Basecamp.
For instance, you can use forms in ClickUp to drive your remote staff. When a real estate agent lists a property for sale within your business, they fill out the new listing form. This creates a task on ClickUp for your virtual workers to complete.
You can also use education software like Udemy to train on tasks they may not be familiar with. For instance, utilizing it to optimize your real estate website.
When it comes to generating content, tools like Chat GTP can help with writing and proofreading. You can use research to create topics that the tool can easily generate unique content. Recording some audio and transcribing it can also help Chat GTP write like you.
Empower your online workers with the right tools and training to make them your best asset in the real estate business.
Well, we are going to be biased and say that ShoreAgents is the top real estate virtual assistant company. As an owner of a real estate company, I found different virtual assistant companies lacking. I was hiring offshore staff in the Philippines and discovered factors related to this.
This includes a lack of in-office staff and poor management. When looking for the best real estate virtual assistant company, you need to look for certain things. Here’s what you need to consider:
First, are they located in an office, and where is their office? Is it situated in a safe part of the Philippines, such as Clark Pampanga, Cebu, or Manila? These things will determine whether they’re the right company for you.
To cite an example, Manila is prone to typhoons, floods, and volcanoes. It is also congested and makes it difficult for workers to get to an office. So this leads to a desire to work remotely with little success in the Philippines. This is also related to living standards, the internet, and the cost of living.
When it comes to recruitment, you need to consider how the company implements its process. This includes testing and filtering candidates, where they advertise, and how they do it. The goal is to have the best remote workers, not just any.
The company should also help you set up your operations in the Philippines and support you. This includes ensuring that your IT and software are both connected. You will also need to be available when the staff member encounters any issues and answer their questions about the process.
The most crucial aspect is how the company engages with your staff. Do they have regular staff engagement? What’s the office environment like? Are your employees satisfied with the environment?
It would be disappointing to find the ideal employee, only to have them leave. Ensuring fair treatment and pleasant work environment is crucial.
Ensure that the company pays the right salary and is transparent with what you’re paying your staff member. Pricing varies according to several factors such as track record & education among others.
This depends on the salary level and the type of remote assistant that you are hiring. Outsourcing a remote assistant can save you about a third to a quarter of the cost compared to hiring locally.
If you go to our website under the roles section, we have cost comparison breakdowns. This involves a huge array of different roles throughout the industry. But it is not solely just about cost savings.
The right candidate can not only save you money but also help you generate money.
For example, hiring remote staff who can boost sales for your real estate company can have a positive impact. Online workers who generate more leads and listings can be a valuable asset to your business.
Reach out to our team for a consultation if you are considering full-time employees or already have a team!
To make sure you’re prepared for outsourcing to a real estate remote staff, check out our outsourcing checklist. Also, consider key factors before deciding. Enhance your enterprise by acquiring a remote assistant today!
Observing your current office setup is important. This way, you can identify team members who might be performing tasks below their abilities, leading to decreased productivity.
Understand the crucial questions to test your real estate business to know if you’re prepared to hire a remote worker. What factors must you consider for hiring offshore? Learn more in this video:
Uncertain whether you’re prepared to hire offshore? You might be considering doing so due to the expensive labor costs when hiring virtual assistants locally and other major factors. We have a free eBook that will guide you through the process!
Discover offshoring insights from ShoreAgents’ Managing Director, Stephen Atcheler, as he shares his outsourcing journey.
A successful virtual staff member should have the following skills:
ShoreAgents is a dedicated real estate offshoring firm that can help you discover qualified online candidates!
You can manage a team of virtual staff by establishing strong procedures. You can’t expect a new hire to know all about your company culture, brand identity, or processes. Remote staff may not have the opportunity to seek clarity on fundamental matters.
To avoid confusion and ensure smooth operations, you need to have written procedures in place for almost all of your processes. Through this, everyone is aware of their tasks and when to execute them. This benefits both your local staff and your offshore team.
The cost of hiring virtual staff can vary depending on several factors. This includes the location, experience, skills, and nature of the work. For instance, hiring a mortgage underwriter based in the USA costs $95,000 annually. But it’s a lot ideal if you outsource to countries with low labor costs like the Philippines.
You can effectively train your virtual staff by developing a training plan and using online training tools. You will also need to provide clear instructions offer ongoing support, and build relationships.
Teaming up with ShoreAgents can offer significant savings in terms of money, time, and resources. By partnering with us, you can benefit from affordable labor costs. Our real estate staffing experts can take care of the tedious training process.
It’s important to set clear expectations and provide the necessary tools. Encouraging a positive work environment will also help.
It’s also essential to consider who will manage the team. Using KPIs and time-tracking software helps pinpoint areas for improvement in productivity. You can provide feedback to your virtual staff and ongoing training if necessary.
Virtual staff can help you grow your business by reducing labor costs and increasing efficiency. This way, you focus on revenue-generating duties instead. You can improve your operations and focus on growth initiatives.
You will need to provide them with a computer and other work equipment. This is one of those obvious things that often gets overlooked. When your team is distributed, you can’t rely on old technology.
You may also need to look at communication tools such as Slack or other messaging platforms. This is because sending text messages might not be ideal if some of your back office staff are offshore. Some of the tools you can use include Loom, Slack, and Asana among others. If you don’t have a process in place, create a logical learning progression for your staff to follow.
Teaming up with an offshore real estate staffing solutions company such as ShoreAgents is a great alternative. By doing so, you can guarantee smooth operations as all necessary tools and equipment are already in place.
Provide clear expectations and offer regular feedback. Fostering open communication is also essential for remote work setup. By promoting a positive work culture, virtual staff members can enjoy working!
Outsourcing to the Philippines is wise due to the country’s vast pool of highly skilled workers. Constant training and supportive environment ensure employee retention as well.
Establish clear working hours for your remote staff. You can also consider using scheduling software for meetings and deadlines.
There are more advantages to hiring virtual staff over in-house employees. This includes cost savings on office space, equipment, and access to a larger pool of talent from around the world.
Outsourcing to virtual staff allows you to focus on core operations. This results in improved efficiency and being profitable. You can guarantee that your operations will run smoothly with the help of our expert team at ShoreAgents.
