If you’re a real estate investor, you’re likely going to be very busy all the time. You have to know the market and understand the risks before deciding whether to buy a property, renovate it, and then sell it or rent it out. The bulk of the work lies in research and planning, and that’s going to take so much of your time. This is why it’s not uncommon to see a real estate investor turn to a virtual assistant for help in managing his/her workload.
If you’re a real estate investor running the day-to-day operations of your properties by yourself, you should consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you out. That being said, before you go on to hire your first virtual assistant, it may be wise to know and understand what you are looking for.
It’s not enough to know what you’re looking for. It’s also important to know what to ask for. So before you hire one, ask yourself these questions: What do I need help with? What do I delegate to a virtual assistant? You need to have a clear picture of your needs to choose the right person for the job.
Here is a list of the common tasks that a virtual assistant is expected to perform for a real estate investor, so you will have an idea of what he can do for you.
To make real estate investing a lucrative business, you need to source leads. And not just any leads. You need to find a way to source great leads to make good money. Lead sourcing is something your virtual assistant can help you with to target motivated sellers and specific homeowners who have equity to sell or invest.
Your calendar can easily fill up once you’re successful in sourcing leads, but your virtual assistant is there to make sure you don’t miss any of your appointments. He can keep things organized and make sure your calendar is always up to date.
The importance of setting the right price for a property cannot be overstated. Overprice a property, and it will not sell no matter how much you advertise it. Pricing too low can be a problem as well because you can lose serious money this way. The right way to do it is to keep the balance between overpricing and underpricing. To do that, you need to do some research.
That’s why you have to conduct a comparative market analysis, and the good thing is that you don’t have to do this yourself. Ask your virtual assistant to do this for you. He can also search the MLS database or portals like Zillow and Realtor.com for comparable properties.
You have to ensure that all your active listings are getting maximum exposure so you can generate more profit, but this can take up so much of your time. With a virtual assistant, you can stay on top of all your marketing campaigns, and he can even create content for you.
Remember, you need to have an online presence these days if you want your business to thrive as a real estate investor, and your virtual assistant can help you optimize your reach. You’re losing out on a lot of potential clients if you don’t have an active social media presence.
Your virtual assistant can handle incoming and outgoing calls, emails, and other messages for you if he can write and speak English fluently. You can let him answer the general inquiries.
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Now that you have an idea of what a virtual assistant can do for you as a real estate investor, here are some of the top sites where you can find the best ones available.
OnlineJobs.ph is the best place to find virtual assistants from the Philippines. The average rate for a Filipino virtual assistant with experience working in the real estate industry is only around $4.5 per hour. That’s only $720 for a full-time employee (160 hours a month). Since OnlineJobs.ph is just an online marketplace, you can recruit and hire on your terms.
While you can browse resumes and make job posts with a free account, you need to upgrade to a paid account if you want to communicate with someone from the site. There are two pricing plans available: the Pro plan for $69 per month and the Premium plan for $99 per month.
The Premium plan has some useful features like the ability to contact 500 candidates per month and a worker mentoring service. However, you don’t need to go for this plan unless you’re planning to hire a lot of virtual assistants. At $69 per month, the Pro plan is good enough if you just want to contact and hire one or two virtual assistants.
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Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services (REVAS) has been offering their services since 2013. They have evolved from a group of local professionals to a thriving international team since they started. At REVAS, they have trained virtual assistants who can assist a real estate investor in whatever tasks he has in mind. Pricing starts at $480 for a US-based virtual assistant and $240 for a person from overseas. That is for someone working 20 hours a month. Prices will depend on the number of hours you need your virtual assistant to work per month.
VirtualStaff.ph is another site where you can recruit on your own terms. Similar to OnlineJobs.ph, VirtualStaff.ph also has a huge talent pool of virtual assistants from the Philippines, and all you have to do is pay $49 to hire someone. You can also pay them $275 per month to handle the recruitment process for you and manage your virtual assistant.
Virtual Assistant 4 Real Estate Investors (VA4REI) is made up of a team of virtual assistants based in the Philippines. They have been helping real estate investors across the United States get the best out of their investments since 2010. They have plenty of services available to their clients.
Virtudesk is a US-based company that provides virtual assistants who specialize in real estate prospecting, marketing, and administrative tasks. Pricing starts at $8.60 per hour for a full-time virtual assistant who takes care of administrative and marketing tasks.
Zirtual only employs virtual assistants based in the US, and each one is a college graduate who is professionally trained for their role. They have an intense screening process, so you can rest assured that you’re getting the best in the business. Pricing starts at $449 per month for a virtual assistant who does 12 hours of task work per month.
MyOutDesk is an American-owned company with a vast team of virtual assistants based in the Philippines. They offer a wide range of virtual assistant services for their real estate clients.
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A virtual assistant can be an asset to your business. Someone who has experienced working for someone in the industry would be a good candidate for the job, especially if he has worked for a real estate investor before. Other than that, it’s not hard to find a general virtual assistant as long as you’re prepared to train him in how to handle the tasks he will be given.
So are you ready to hire your first virtual assistant?