Realtors: Should You Hire a Virtual Assistant?

LOS ANGELES—Keller Williams is one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the United States. So when I saw a blog post on the KW Blog entitled, “Should you hire a virtual assistant?” I was intrigued about the possibilities of virtual assistants for real estate agents.

Keller Williams asked Mike Incorvaia, Jr. about his experience with a virtual assistant. His team discovered virtual assistants two years ago and Incorvaia said it was an “aha moment” for his team.

As his story goes, his office started out working with a virtual assistant for 10 to 15 hours, then transitioned to 25 hours with their virtual assistant. Now, the team is moving up to 30 to 40 hours a week with the virtual assistant.

“Our virtual assistant services run the gamut. She writes SEO-optimized blog posts on real estate which includes local events that have given us first-page positioning on Google. She created an amazing listing presentation for our iPads, posts on Craigslist through eEdge with Market Leader Professional Edition, has made fantastic updates on our WordPress site and generates most of our fliers, as well as promotional and marketing materials,” Incorvaia says. “We were excited when we found out that she could create custom designed backdrops for our Twitter, YouTube and Facebook pages. She also handles database entry and management.”

Incorvaia says his team communicates with the virtual assistant via Skype and uses a Dropbox account to share files. In terms of accountability, the team has a weekly meeting with the virtual assistant—who has never missed a deadline or failed to complete a project to their satisfaction.

Incorvaia’s advice to realtors: Get a virtual assistant you have the means to!

“Have a plan laid out that incorporates your vision, your long-term strategy, and the results you seek to gain with her help,” he says. “If you merely tell them what to do day-by-day, they will run out of tasks.”

About Jennifer LeClaire

Jennifer LeClaire is a veteran business journalist, editor and new media entrepreneur with a strong niche in real estate and technology.