How to find an in-house or virtual assistant who’s right for your business.
By Megan Craig
After 30 years running a successful office, Mia Patch knew she needed help growing her real estate business.
Patch, CRS, and managing broker with S&P International Realty in Miami, felt overwhelmed by the day-to-day administrative functions of running the office.
“I got to a place with my business where I was surviving, but I couldn’t do any more without help,” Patch says. “I was in this total panic mode, and I didn’t know where to go or what to do.”
So she decided to hire an assistant to take care of those overwhelming tasks. Patch says it’s “one of the best things I ever did for my business. My assistant takes care of everything so that I can focus on the business of selling real estate.”
Benefits of Hiring an Assistant
Even if you don’t feel ready to make the commitment, hiring an assistant could completely change your business, says Michele Bailey, CRS Candidate, a REALTOR® at ResortQuest Real Estate in Florida.
During her third year selling resorts and second homes, Bailey decided to hire an assistant when she became overwhelmed with leads and wanted to prevent mistakes.
“I was running around like a crazy person. I felt like I was drowning,” Bailey says. “There’s no denying what getting some things off my plate did for me.” Her business increased 40 percent in her first year after hiring an assistant—a huge bump she attributes to having found the right assistant for her business.
According to the 2015 National Association of REALTORS® Member Profile, 18 percent of REALTORS® use at least one personal assistant, and 43 percent of those assistants work full-time.
“The trick is in creating efficient processes so the work mainly goes on auto-pilot with little management needed by the REALTOR®,” says Rachel Shattuck, marketing manager for virtual assistant company RealSupport, Inc., based outside Chicago.
In-house or Virtual Assistant?
Once you’ve decided you need some help in the office, you’ll have to choose what kind of assistant you need—in-house or virtual.
In general, virtual assistants are self-employed administrative professionals who work remotely. They can be based locally, nationally or internationally, depending on the needs of the REALTOR®, with work hours ranging from a few project-based hours a week to full-time.
Virtual assistants are able to do many of the same duties as in-house assistants, says Bobbi Howe, CRS, a REALTOR® with Keller Williams in St. Joseph, Missouri. In addition to administrative tasks, these assistants are capable of scheduling inspectors, writing property descriptions, preparing flyers and other digital and online marketing duties: “Anything that you use a computer to do, a virtual assistant can do for you,” Howe says.
But virtual assistants aren’t the right option for every office. Patch tried to hire two virtual assistants—one in the Philippines and one in the U.S.—before realizing she needed someone live in her office to communicate face-to-face with her and her clients.
In some cases, REALTORS® use a combination of virtual and in-house assistants. That shared effort works best for Sven Andersen, CRS, a RE/MAX agent in New England, who has several assistants, some outsourced and some in-house. He says he uses in-house assistants “on the client-facing level,” because he wants people with knowledge about the local landscape for those positions, but he has an inside sales assistant who works remotely. He also outsources all marketing for his team.
“I use two full-time, in-house team members—one person to help on the listing front, managing day-to-day calendar and appointments, and a second person as our closing manager, to make sure the transaction process goes smoothly for the client,” Andersen says. “I have an inbound sales team (which I outsource) that qualifies and handles inbound internet sales leads, and hands these leads off to my outside sales agents. I have also outsourced my marketing efforts to a company that helps with all aspects of my marketing. Finding the correct assistant or company to take something off your plate is extremely important, as it allows more face-to-face interaction with your clients. Hire the correct folks and put them in the right seats within your organization.”
And if you’re just getting used to the idea (and cost) of an assistant, using a virtual assistant service means you can ease into the process.
“A benefit of utilizing virtual services is that you only use us when you need us. That means you don’t have to pay for a full-time assistant when you might not have full-time work,” Shattuck says. “You are not responsible for training, restaffing or any of the other overhead of hiring an in-house assistant.”
New Benefit!
Need a virtual assistant? CRS is here to help. Coming soon, CRS will be offering our members a unique program: Specially-trained virtual assistants who are standing by, ready to help your growing business. The program will be rolling out soon, so keep your eyes on emails from CRS.
What to Look for in an Assistant
Your assistant’s qualifications and qualities will vary depending on your specific needs, but the most important quality in all assistants, both in-house and virtual, is their ability to work independently on assigned tasks while also being able to take direction, Howe says.
Obviously, the candidate’s skills also have to match the jobs you have planned for your assistant—whether database management, listing marketing services, updating websites, creating print materials or blogging, the assistant should either already know or be ready to quickly learn how to perform the needed tasks.
Agents should find out what previous work experience a candidate has and decide how important an assistant with real estate experience is to the business. Sometimes it helps to get someone in the job who has an outside perspective and no real estate experience, Howe says. But in other cases, and especially if the tasks assigned to the assistant will require a lot of real estate knowledge, experience is key to the new hire’s success.
“They have to have the initiative to want to make things better,” Howe says. “When you’re bringing on an admin, it’s important to find the right fit where they can grow within your operation to make it better than you ever had it before. You don’t want to have to micromanage every little task they do.”
Comparing Costs
As with any job, real estate assistants are paid based on several factors. According to research from payscale.com, the average real estate assistant makes about $14 per hour, but pay ranges anywhere from $10 to $20 per hour. Some assistants make commission and bonuses, while others are only given their hourly wages.
Virtual assistants are thought to be the cheaper option for people hiring their first assistant, Howe says, but a virtual assistant with lots of experience will cost just as much as or more than hiring an in-house assistant without any previous experience. Longtime real estate virtual assistant Kim Hughes says what makes virtual assistants the cheaper option in some cases is that many are located in areas with lower salaries—after all, someone in rural Texas likely won’t need to be paid as much as someone in San Francisco.
Virtual assistants generally also don’t get benefits like insurance or paid time off, since they’re usually self-employed, which can offer cost savings if a REALTOR® is looking to use an assistant for only certain projects or a few hours each week.
“Each agent needs to understand what their individual needs are and what they are willing to pay to get the knowledge and experience to help them accomplish their goals,” Hughes says. “I wouldn’t suggest hiring someone just because they’re the least expensive. Hire based on their knowledge and experience.”
For a deeper dive on hiring virtual assistants, download the webinar Get the AdVAntage: Working with Virtual Assistants.
