There are a ton of misconceptions about hiring overseas help, and these misconceptions can cost you.

Whatever you do, never underestimate the talent you can find overseas. Not only is overseas outsourcing more affordable, but there are talented VAs all over the globe, who are skilled at various aspects of running a business and more than comfortable delivering results across time zones. Plus, when you hire overseas help you don’t have to settle for whoever’s available in your market — the entire world is your oyster.

But of course, there is a place for local talent. Especially in real estate. For example, if you need to outsource a high volume of client-facing work, it might be useful to go with someone US-based, or even locally based, who has a better understanding of the nuances in your market. This usually makes the most sense when you need full time, client-facing help, or will want to meet with this person face-to-face. For example, if you need someone to help with fieldwork, open houses, etc.

Roles and Responsibilities

I gather some information on the different roles and responsibilities of a Virtual Assistant. Here‘s the following:

CLIENT SUPPORT

• Provide Real Estate Services to clients like Property Management, Listing Management, Transaction Coordination, Real Estate Agent Enrollment, and Property Analysis
• Respond to client’s requests via email and phone.
• Identify and assess the client’s needs to achieve satisfaction.
• Provide accurate information by using the right tools and handling high call volumes.
• Recommend potential products or services to clients by analyzing their needs.
• Go the extra mile to engage clients and exceed their expectations.
• Provide administrative support to Rocket Station clients.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

APPOINTMENT SETTING, SALES, AND LEAD GENERATION

• Contact all prospective clients or leads assigned to schedule appointments.
• Answer inquiries of prospective clients.
• Update all the required documents for each transaction including the CRM tool and spreadsheet to ensure the accuracy of activity logs on the CRM system.
• Keep an accurate record of all prospective clients to regularly update lead status.
• Follow up and qualify leads from online inquiries, marketing campaigns, and other activities.
• Record and accurate call history and customer response in detail.
• Monitor competitors’ products and services and creates a selling strategy when necessary.
• Maintain existing customer database while building a new one.
• Scrub and validate prospect/lead information in the client’s database.
• Source target prospects using a variety of sales tools.
• Reach out to prospects via telephone and email to qualify leads.
• Initiate, build, and nurture relationships to generate fresh opportunities.
• Deliver appropriate sales scripts/presentations.
• Negotiate prices and close sales.
• Effectively overcome sales objections.
• Convert outbound leads into transfers.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

• Assist clients in developing and implementing marketing campaigns through social media platforms to improve branding and online presence.
• Schedule social media posts using applications such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck to maintain all client’s social media accounts.
• Interact and engage external constituents through social media channels.
• Keep track of data and analyze the performance of social media campaigns.
• Create social media reports for weekly business reviews.

How much does it cost to hire a real estate virtual assistant?

You can hire a real estate virtual assistant for between $3.00 and $10.00 per hour, depending on the specific skills and experience that the VA has within the industry.

Suppose you’re hiring a new virtual assistantto the real estate industry. In that case, you can expect to pay lower than if you hire somebody with several years of experience working for realtors.

Where can you Hire a Virtual Assistant?

Where you find your real estate virtual assistant will depend on where you are in your business, just like who you hire. While there are numerous real estate-specific companies to pick from, many new agents have found amazing talent on Upwork or even Craigslist.

To help you restrict your search, here are (just a few) of favorite brands and websites.

Upwork — Best for Your First VA or One-off Hires

This is the freelance-sourcing site we’ve all heard of. You can find pretty much any kind of contract-based talent under the sun on Upwork. Many agents new to outsourcing have found dream VAs to help them with things like organization, admin, and marketing on Upwork.

Virtudesk — Best for a Diverse Range of Tasks

With Virtudesk, you get access to highly trained VAs and a team of support staff to help ensure your VAs have everything they need to succeed in the role. VAs can cover any range of admin tasks as well as marketing and even transaction coordination responsibilities. The team at Virtudesk is highly focused on matching agents with the right VAs and even uses DISC profiles to make sure your VA is the perfect fit.

Timeetc — Best for Flexible, US-Based VAs

Like Upwork, Timeetc is a great source for generalist VAs who can help with a range of admin and operational tasks. Unlike Upwork, they do most of the hunting and pre-qualifying for you (using a process outlined by Richard Branson’s former Executive Assistant — how cool is that?) which can be a huge help if you’re extremely strapped for time.

Rescorp — Best for Real Estate Professional, US-Based VAs

Rescorp solution is designed to help you save time, money and energy by avoiding paperwork, endless meetings and endless emails. Most importantly it will free up your mind to focus on strategic tasks to grow your business. Maybe you want to increase sales or simply want to work less hard!

ClearDesk — Best for Handpicked Help

Want a VA who has real estate experience? A social media specialist? A biz dev whiz? ClearDesk can help match you with a VA who has the right skills for the job, as well as part- or full-time options. All ClearDesk VAs go through a detailed and rigorous certification process to ensure you get the quality you expect.

MyTasker — Best for Quality, Affordable Overseas Help

If you’re questioning whether you can really afford a VA, MyTasker is a great way to start. Their VAs are based in India and are experts at helping you figure out which business and personal tasks to outsource.

MyOutDesk — Best for Agents with More than $200K in Revenue

Ready for some serious boss-level systems? MyOutDesk has a rigorous process for selecting their overseas help and they actively train their VAs to become true experts who can cover the full spectrum of real estate tasks and activities. For expert-level help, this is about as much bang for your buck as you can get (but it WILL cost you so make sure you’ve got the revenue to make it worth it).

Summit VA Solutions — Best for Real Estate Specialist VAs

Summit VAs are given 160 hours of extensive real estate-specific training — meaning they can do a lot more than a generalist VA. In addition, Summit’s college-educated virtual assistants are backed by an internal support team of experts who help your VA get up to speed as quickly as possible.