B - great question(s).  I have been considering trying to use a VA this spring and really want to know if anyone has had any experiences and what they liked and didn't like.. and what to pay.

Shelly

Hi Belinda,

I currently use a VA and love it! I hired my VA about 3 months ago and I'm still increasing her workload. The only downside is the time it takes to set up tasks (mailings, website updating, follow up, answering incoming calls, etc....) but once there set up, its like putting your business on auto pilot. Free's you up to do other tasks that make money. Check out www.teamdoubleclick.com. The specialize in real estate VA's for brokers/agents/investors. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Curt Darragh

Good topic Belinda.

We seem to hear an endless string of success stories from members who choose to employ VAs.  

Perhaps the P2 Approved Vendor directory is a good place to start (note that we are not paid by any of the approved vendors in this list):

http://tiny.cc/gPnPl

I am using VA's for a variety of things. I have one lady on retainer as a transaction coordinator and a listing manager. If she doesn't use all the hours scheduled for that month she'll do other sorts of work for me. For instance this month she's writing a customized drip campaign for my condo site. We've been working together since October, it hasn't been without it's glitches, but I think less than I would experience training a new office assistant. So I'm onboard with the concept. You can check out her website www.MannMadeTime.com. I'd certainly recommend her.

Since I refer out a lot of business I had another VA design a referral management system. The system will be up and running by the new year.  I'm about to start working with another VA to round out a marketing plan for 2008. In this case it's mainly the creative writing that I'm really interested in. Also seriously thinking about a lead manager.

I've also had Jaime (manmadetime) contact her network from time to time for feedback on different ways to approach a problem. It's an excellent side benefit.

I strongly considered a VA - and know it works for some - but the going rate of $20 to $40 was just too steep for me.

Several assistants were recommended to me over my years in business, especially ones that had worked for other agents, but they usually were college students and it usually was not ideal.

Finally, I called a local temporary staffing company, found somebody who used to be a Realtor, to work part time for about $14/hr including taxes and agency fees (she got about $10 of that).  She hit the ground running, could REALLY handle people, and took care of detail work in my office better than any VA who would be far away.

Duties:  She was front line on the phone so she could handle all transaction management type calls, and calls from other agents about showings, where to deliver contracts and etc.  She also was able to take calls from any unhappy or impatient buyers or sellers and defuse situations when I was in the field.  She handled leads, filing, forms, scheduling showings of my listings, made feedback calls, recorded feedback notes and reported to sellers, handled all correspondence with title companies, lenders, clients, etc.  

She was able to be at the office to meet with clients when a signature was needed to complete a document now and then while I was out showing houses or listing or taking photos.  She Ran my Top Producer prospecting mail programs, pulled leads from various sources and put them on the right mailing lists, managed JL and JS Postcards, maintained my web sites, posted listings to homes mag and realtor.com, posted virtual tours, etc.  She scheduled my own buyer home tours and mapped them out.  She also did all my printing and mailing.

Now, I suppose a VA could do most of that, except meet with clients.  But it would be hard to trust that mail and data maintenance was being taken care of by somebody who was far away.

If you have enough business to need help, then it might be better to take the plunge and get a really good RA (Real Assistant) for less : )

Great quesion, Bee. I hope to someday have a need for an Assistant. For right now, I just have my husband. Well, actually, he thinks of me as his Assistant/Secretary etc.

A VA sounds  like a great way to get assistance with projects and tasks that you don't like, aren't that great with, or don't have enough time to do.

It's in my business plan for 2008. My current assistant will getting her license soon and i want to try a VA, but it will have to be someone who can do a lot in a short amount of time. I don't want to use one over 12 hours a week -- I think I can arrange the specific duties to maximize her/his use and minimize my cost.

In 2006, I hired a VA for web maintenance.  All website updates were completed quickly.  They created some content for me (old Advanced Access site).  Great job, but as sales volume fell throughout the region in 2007, I had to cut-back. ($45/hr)

In 2008, I'm going toward a different plan.  My former career in consulting had me managing developers in India, so I'm starting a VA business for the web-related tasks (initially) where agents can hire us and get a US-based person to interface with, and a team in India to do the work for $15/hr total, billed monthly via PayPal in US Dollars.  (Minimum 2 hours per month)

I have tested their work for me, and a few co-workers, and it's going well.  We have the MLS updates (entered by the broker's staff) automatically sent to the India-VA-Team, and they add to P2 (or other) website, Zillow (can stop that one if P2 gets that feed fixed), Craigslist, set up open houses online, create fliers, email blasts, e-drip campaigns, update contact info in TP7i, etc.  (Backpage.com prevents users in India from creating ads - so I have to do those here.)

We will initially offer this service for the Tampa area, and then look to expand.

Belinda,

I've been in this business for so long and was proud that I performed so much by myself, perhaps hiring out some very easy tasks. Well, I've stepped into the new age of real estate, hiring a VA last month and asked her to handle some tasks that I was not well versed on. What a gem to have someone take it over and plow through what was overwhelming to me! I gave her direction, with a little leeway, and she's doing wonders for me. When I get worried about the hours she working, she gives me an update. I'm so pleased with her website development, I can't believe what we've accomplished! She's gone into my access to RE/MAX's Design Center, created a brochure for me, and I print it out on my color laser printer. We all have things we'd like to delegate and I think the most important thing is to be as clear as you can so an experienced VA can understand what you want. If you find a VA with skills and honesty, you're going to love this new freedom! If you'd like her contact information, just let me know!

I'm Founder of the world's largest social network for Virtual Assistants ( http://www.vanetworking.com ) and hopefully I can answer all your questions for you so here goes:

Virtual Assistants can do numerous services like email organization (cleaning out your spam daily), transcription, formatting word documents, database management in excel or anything a secretary would typically do for you if you had one inhouse.  Some VAs have more skillsets and you may find one that also does marketing, writing and submitting articles & press releases, web design, 1shoppingcart maintenance, blog maintenance/ghostwriting, online networking, search engine optimization, bookkeeping, etc.  This list goes on and on.

There are even niched VAs ie) Real Estate VAs, Internet Marketing VAs, VAs that work with coaches/speakers, Legal VAs, etc.

With a Real Estate VA for example, they may access your MLS, update listings for you, contact buyer's agents, maintain transactions, make all closing arrangements, market your listings, optimize your website for higher ranks, etc.  It's all dependent on how much you need them to do and finding one that has those skillsets to achieve what you need done.  Anything an in-house RE Assistant, a RE VA (called REVA or PREVA) can do for you too and overall, a VA will cost you less since the overhead is extensively less and you typically pay for time spent on work only via a retainer basis.

I have a free eBook on How To Find the Ultimate VA for Your Business at our website:  http://www.vanetworking.com/find-a-virtual-assistant/   Please check it out and next time you need a VA, submit a RFP through us to find that Ulitmate VA for your business at http://www.vanetworking.com/RFP/