If you already have a real estate business portfolio or are trying to make your mark in real estate, you might know or have heard, “Doing a real estate business is like juggling multiple hats at once.” Finding properties, handling paperwork, coordinating with contractors, managing tenants, sourcing and nurturing leads, handling customers — the list goes on.
So, should you continue doing everything yourself? No matter what you have heard before or what your intuition says, the answer is no. In the initial phase, as you are starting a new real estate business, you can always do these jobs yourself if you have time and want to go through the learning process. But sooner or later, you will need to delegate and hire a real estate virtual assistant. Read on to understand why.
Why Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?
Here are some reasons why hiring a virtual assistant is the right move for your business.
1. Expertise
If you are starting your real estate business, you might not know much about real estate or you might be in the learning phase. In this case, hiring a virtual assistant can be your trump card. Why? Because there are virtual assistants who have done the same job for years. They might know more about things like lead generation, lead nurturing, or how to talk to people on the phone compared to you.
2. Time
The most important asset for your business is time. You only have a finite amount of time in a day, and spending that judiciously is important. As an entrepreneur, you shouldn’t continue doing a job just because you are good at it. Here, the real question should be, “Is the task worth your time?”
For example, consider lead generation through cold calling. Real estate investors should not spend their time on lead generation activities through cold calling because cold calling is a very time-consuming activity. And you see, time is the most valuable asset that you have. As a real estate investor, your time is better spent elsewhere. You need to make connections, build rapport with agents, find deals, manage contractors — anything that moves the needle or brings in revenue to your business.
You can hire remote staff to handle cold calling for as little as $5 per hour. So, when you do cold calling yourself, you give out the message that your time is worth $5.00 an hour, and it is not. You can do much more activities higher up the value chain within that time.
3. Scale Faster
When you hire a real estate virtual assistant from Remote Resource®, you streamline all the chaos and focus on what really matters: growing your portfolio. Hiring a virtual assistant can be the game changer that takes your business from chaos to control. Moreover, by hiring real estate virtual assistants and delegating menial tasks instead of doing everything yourself, you end up scaling much faster.
4. CRM Management
Virtual assistants can cold call to find out who has a house they would like to sell, get information about the condition of the property, understand their motivation behind the sale, and learn what is happening in their lives. Also, you can reach out to potential clients through email marketing. So, when these emails lead to incoming calls, someone must be there to pick up those calls and initiate conversations.
There are some third parties who offer this service, but you always need someone who follows the leads, manages the CRM, and ensures that no lead falls behind. For example, if someone says, “I need to speak to my wife, please call me after a week,” then you need to make sure someone calls that person after a week. Real estate investors often have a lot on their plate, and they will forget to follow up on these leads. And this is why you need to hire a real estate virtual assistant.
5. Brainstorming
Managing a real estate business as a solopreneur can be mentally taxing and physically exhausting. Initially, while managing one or two clients, you might still be able to juggle multiple tasks. However, as you start handling multiple clients, it can become extremely difficult. Such a situation often results in exhaustion and causes you to miss important tasks.
However, when you have remote staff on your team, you also do not feel like an island. You aren’t working alone. Ultimately, when you hire real estate virtual assistants, you work more efficiently and are able to scale faster.
When to Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?
Most real estate entrepreneurs want to have a perfect system before they hire someone else. They feel, “I want to do this myself and learn the system before hiring a virtual assistant.” However, remember this: If you are starting out, you are building the system from the point you are at right now. Once you get a deal or one or two deals done, then you would be at a different level.
So, your system will look different from a different angle. Instead of focusing too much on the system, you should be focusing on the results instead. You are able to scale faster if you are doing it with someone else. Because, as said earlier, in that case you won’t be alone but will be able to leverage the expertise that the remote staff brings in.
Even if you are tight on money, you should hire a VA because they are very affordable and are a great way to learn to become a better leader and scale faster. However, if you want to do it yourself, a simple rule of thumb you can follow is to do a task for a few months before getting it off your plate.
So, while doing a task, give yourself a deadline and a goal you want to reach by that time. If you aren’t able to reach there, then you should hire remote staff to do it for you.
What About the Cost and Tax Implications?
We know you might be thinking about the cost angle by now. You might also be worried about the 1099, W2 forms, and the tax implications of hiring a virtual assistant. So, let’s lay down the top advantages of hiring a virtual assistant or opting for a virtual assistant service.
Tax Advantage: Virtual assistants are not US residents, so they are not covered under US tax laws. You can simply write off the payments you make to virtual assistants as business expenses in your P/L accounts and balance sheet.
Cost Efficiency: You can hire virtual assistants for as low as $5 per hour. This makes them a highly cost-effective investment. Moreover, you can hire them part-time or full-time and terminate their contracts when you no longer need their services.
Zero Compliance Hassles: When you hire remote staff from Remote Resource® or other top remote staffing organizations, you don’t need to bother about the paperwork. The remote staffing organization handles all the paperwork and legal formalities so that you can focus on what matters most—the results.
Top-Class Infrastructure: Remote Resource® offers top-class infrastructure, superior network connectivity, video-conferencing facilities, and world-class data security at no extra cost to you. You just pay for the resource at the predetermined rates and continue getting excellent service in return.
Business Continuity: Whenever natural calamity hits, your business continuity can suffer. Consider, for example, a cyclone that sweeps through your town, disrupting businesses and livelihoods. During such an unfortunate incident, your ability to serve customers can take a hit. However, when you work with remote staff, they ensure that your business continues to operate irrespective of what happens at your business headquarters.
Fast Hiring: The process of hiring someone locally can be time-consuming, hindering your ability to scale faster. However, by partnering with Remote Resource®, you can experience a quick turnaround in your hiring process, often filling open positions in less than 48 hours.
Final Words
As we discussed in the above pages, hiring a virtual assistant is a very cost-effective and smart way to scale your real estate business faster. Now, if you are wondering where to find the ideal candidate, the answer is simple: partner with a top-rated remote staffing organization like Remote Resource®.
When you partner with us, we source the best talents from the top 10% talent pool. We take care of every legal formality, hiring hassle, and infrastructure expense, while you just pay the predetermined hourly rate. And as you can understand, this is an infinitely better alternative than restricting yourself to a limited talent pool locally or wasting your resources on futile hiring exercises.
So, what are you waiting for? Connect now and enjoy a 1-week free trial on your first hire.
