I have posted the second part of my blog series “What can a virtual assistant do for you?” Part 2 on Active Rain. This is the post that deals with what a real estate virtual assistant can do to assist you during the listing phase of a real estate transaction. Please click on the link below to check it out!
February 18, 2007
But I already know how to do this stuff. Why would I need a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?
“Why would I pay someone else to do something that I already know how to do?” This is question that comes up often when I am talking to a prospect about using my virtual assistant services. I saw another virtual assistant talking about it on her Active Rain blog and it really got me thinking.
Many times, when we virtual assistants advertise, and I am guilty of this myself, we list all the programs we know, and we talk about how well trained and proficient we are at these said programs. What we tend to leave out is “But Why?”
A real estate agent does not always need to hire a virtual assistant because we have some vast and unattainable knowledge that will sky-rocket their business into the 22nd century. The knowledge of various programs is always a plus, but the biggest bonus that a real estate virtual assistant offers is more time. Even if you are not a real estate agent, I am sure that you can attest as to how invaluable time is. Furthermore, it is very hard to be a successful real estate agent while you are tied up doing administrative tasks and marketing work. When a real estate agent takes their state exam to receive their license – the questions on the exam don’t have anything to do with what technique is best for marketing a home in the Bay area. The exam deals with terms, legality, ethics, and procedures. That should be the agents focus. If they stay occupied with these items, you can easily see why they wouldn’t have much time to sit down and sent out and email blast after creating a great flyer.
Webster’s dictionary defines assistant as a noun – “one who assists; a helper.” Then I looked up the definition for helper and that was even more interesting. Webster’s defines helper as”a relatively unskilled worker who assists a skilled worker.” Now this is not to say that real estate virtual assistants are unskilled – but instead, it just helps me relate a point. When one goes to hire a real estate virtual assistant, it is not always because the assistant can accomplish something that a real estate agent cant. It just means that the virtual assistant can help agent accomplish more goals by spending less time on time consuming areas.
So, instead of marketing by saying “Would you like me to how you how to make a bigger and better website? Or “Can I help you make a killer drip email campaign?” Perhaps I should ask
“Would you like me to show you how to have more hours in a day?”
Because by handling all the administrative and marketing tasks for a real estate agent – that is essentially what I am doing – giving them more hours in a day to do what they do best – real estate.
