Real estate agents are perpetually in motion. Mobile phones are ringing every few minutes, and meetings for listings and property presentations are scheduled throughout an entire work week. On top of that, client information and social media have to remain updated. But real agents cannot afford to be held down when real money can be made on the field. Outsourcing services to virtual assistants offer the best solution for managing work. Here are the tasks real estate agents can outsource to virtual assistants.
- E-mail Management
How much time do you spend going over your e-mail in the morning? How about in one day? Some people are so dependent on the e-mail that they check their e-mail five times a day! This is not how you should spend your time because you could be wading through a number of junk or irrelevant e-mails. Let the Virtual Assistant manage your daily e-mails.
- Calendar Management
One of the worst things you can do as a real estate agent is to miss meetings with prospective clients. You could lose out on opportunities to get a property listed or a serious intent to buy or sell property. Worse, it makes you look unprofessional. And in the real estate industry reputation can make or break your career. A Virtual Assistant can clear your calendar every week and organize it so you will never miss a meeting again.
- Appointment Setting
Hand- in- hand with calendar management is appointment setting. How many appointments do you want every week? This can be a challenge to schedule. You would not want your appointments ending up to be a cross continental adventure. For efficiency, appointments should be set within an area. A Virtual Assistant will have the experience to expertly organize your weekly appointments.
- Phone Handling
Can you imagine meeting with an important client and your mobile phone keeps ringing? Not only will this be a distraction but it can put off the client. Yes, it also shows your services are in demand. But generally, having your phone ring incessantly will not contribute to closing the sale. Before your meetings, set your phone to forward all incoming calls to you Virtual Assistant. This is the professional way to handle phone calls during meetings. Your Virtual Assistant has the experience to take down notes and all the important details of the phone call.
- Client Follow Ups
Many real estate agents fail to close a sale for failure to follow up on prospects. It’s not because real estate agents are not capable of closing a sale; they are, but it’s a question of availability of time. Also it is difficult shifting your mind set from presentation to trial closing and expect successful results. A Virtual Assistant who has a background in real estate knows how to approach prospects and do the trial close. Their objective is to slowly push the prospect further down the sales funnel. They understand the culture and know how to carry the conversation.
- Preparation of Presentation Materials
Do you need to have professional looking Power Point slides for your presentation? How about spreadsheets on the average yield per region? A Virtual Assistant can get these done for you in no time at all. Professional presentation materials are not just about looks. Its content, organization and overall structure are very important to create an impact or to elicit positive reaction from the prospect.
- Social Media Marketing
If your real estate agency is not involved in social media, you are denying it a golden opportunity to widen its scope and reach. Social media is one of the most influential avenues to take when marketing and promoting services. But an effective social media strategy isn’t just about posting or sharing content. You must have a plan and a purpose. You can find virtual assistants who have extensive experience managing social media accounts.
- Blogging/ Article Writing
Blogging is another online tool that has found massive success the last few years. In fact, blogging is so effective that it is considered to be the centerpiece of the content marketing process. Many consumers are influenced by the content of a blog. It will help build your number of followers, enhance your reputation as an expert and as a trustworthy resource. But blogging takes a lot of time. You have to blog at least three times a week and the ideal word count is 1,600. This is a time consuming but highly effective task which you should delegate to your Virtual Assistant.
- Research
In the real estate industry, you have to be on top of all developments in the market. Property prices can change without notice. You will need to update your information on the industry based on research because having prior knowledge levels the playing field with other competing agents. Research is another time-consuming task. You are better off hiring a Virtual Assistant who has the experience, competence and disposition to conduct thorough research.
- Bookkeeping
In every business, it is very important to keep track of how your cash is being managed. This will help you maintain payment schedules, validate plans to scale the business and assess the overall viability of your real estate business. Many businesses close down because not much importance was placed on managing the company’s money. A Virtual Assistant can work to make sure you have access to all the required financial statements and other financial data.
- E-mail Marketing
This is the most effective way to connect and communicate with your prospect. Having an e-mail correspondence in an inbox is like being inside your client’s home. Everyone reads their e-mail. If you package your e-mail properly and follow correct e-mail marketing protocols, chances are good that your communication will be attended to by your prospect.
If you want to be more productive as a real estate agent, the first thing you need to do is to identify the non- essential tasks and those that do not fall under your core competencies and outsource these to virtual assistants. Your productivity levels will rise immediately!
