Low-interest rates have helped kick off the 2022 busy season early with buyers rushing to take advantage of affordable financing options. Limited inventory in most metro areas has also created an especially hot market as buyers compete for the best properties.
Keeping up with demand while creating memorable client experiences is challenging. A virtual real estate assistant can tackle your tedious tasks so you can focus on helping your clients achieve their goals.
Here are seven ways a VA can help you thrive in this competitive market.
1) Update Your Listings
The faster you get your listings up, the sooner you’ll start getting offers for your seller to consider. Give your VA the property’s photos, description, and details, and they’ll post it on MLS, Zillow, and any other listing sites you use.
Planning an open house or want to announce other changes to your listing? Let your VA know, and they’ll update your listing on every platform.
Having your VA manage your listings gives you more time to work with your seller and buyers’ agents to negotiate a deal.
2) Manage Your Leads
In a fast-paced market, you can’t afford to wait several hours to respond to new leads. Buyers and sellers typically reach out to other agents at the same time as you so, if you want their business, you need to be one of the first to respond.
However, if you’re busy with clients, finding the time to quickly respond to leads can be impossible.
A real estate virtual assistant can help by reaching out to leads for you and offering to schedule a meeting. When leads don’t respond to the initial outreach email, your VA will follow-up at whatever cadence you prefer. This ensures prospective clients make it onto your calendar even when you don’t have time to reach out.
3) Prepare Documents
Preparing documents is one of the most critical, yet tedious, parts of the closing process. When you’re juggling multiple transactions, it can be very time-consuming to keep track of and prepare all of your client’s documents in DocuSign (or any other platform you’re using).
A virtual real estate assistant can help by setting up all of your documents with the basic information, so all you have to is add any addendums or other personalized information.
Reducing the amount of time you spend on document prep will vastly increase the amount of time you can spend helping your clients with higher-value activities.
4) Create Marketing Materials
Even in a busy, low-inventory market, advertising your listings is still critical to getting your clients the best possible offers.
A real estate VA can save you time by creating templated marketing materials, including:
- Email newsletters
- Open house flyers
- Social media posts
They can also manage responses to these campaigns to ensure you quickly get meetings scheduled with prospective clients.
Offloading basic marketing activities allows you to focus on more strategic efforts, including improving your branding, collaborating with buyers’ agents to encourage more views of your listing, and attending community events.
5) Search for Listings
If you’re serving a low-inventory market, finding listings fast is critical since most properties are only available for a week or two. However, when you’re juggling open houses, contract negotiations, and touring properties, it can be challenging to find new listings for your clients.
To prevent your clients from missing out on great opportunities, have your VA compile listings while you’re working on other activities. All you need to do is give them your buyer’s requirements, including:
- Budget
- Neighborhoods
- Number of beds/baths
- Property type
- Yard and garage sizes, if relevant
And any other criteria that are important for your buyers.
Your VA will create lists of properties that fit those requirements so you can give your buyers the latest options and start scheduling walk-throughs.
6) Keep Your Contact Management System Updated
During the busy season, you’ll meet tons of property owners at various stages of the buyer’s journey. Keeping all of your contacts consolidated and up-to-date helps you maintain a steady pipeline of leads and referrals.
However, when you’re bouncing between meetings all day, you don’t have time to capture information in your CRM or other contact management system. A real estate VA can help by tackling this task for you.
All you have to do is give your VA a quick chat, call, or email with people’s contact information. They’ll add it to your system and create the appropriate follow-up reminders to help you stay in touch.
Even if you’re unable to establish a formal relationship now, you may find opportunities to work with contacts in the future. Sometimes just making a good first impression and checking in periodically can earn you referrals even if you never work with them.
7) Coordinate Vendors
Preparing properties to highlight their best features can make a significant difference in the quantity and quality of offers you receive. Depending on the state of the property when the seller signs on with you, you may just need to get professional photos, or you may need to work with a variety of vendors including:
- Cleaners
- Landscapers
- Painters
And other service providers needed to beautify the property so it can fetch high offers.
If you have preferred vendors, your assistant will coordinate with them and your clients to schedule these services. If not, they’ll get quotes from a few vendors so you can move forward with the one that’s the best fit.
Hire a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Offloading these tasks to a virtual real estate assistant lets you focus on creating memorable client experiences and growing your business.
Our fully-managed real estate virtual assistants are pre-trained in a variety of real estate tools and processes so they can quickly get up-to-speed on your needs.
Contact us to schedule an intro call and see if we're a good fit for your business.