Real Estate Virtual Assistants: Essential Guide for Dallas Businesses

Competitiveness and efficiency are top priorities in the bustling Dallas property market. Virtual assistants (VAs) specializing in the real estate business have become essential partners in this pursuit. 

But what is a real estate VA, and how do they differ from other professionals? 

This guide discusses the importance and tasks of real estate virtual assistants in Dallas, TX,  and other parts of the world. It also explains the benefits of acquiring remote professionals from service providers, equipping you with vital knowledge to harness the potential of real estate VAs.

Read until the end for outsourcing tips and best practices.

What Is a Real Estate VA?

A real estate VA is a remote professional who plays a pivotal role in facilitating the success of real estate firms, brokers, and agents. They offer essential administrative and support services tailored to the distinct demands and requirements of the real estate market.

The real estate VA is indispensable. They can help improve client productivity, customer satisfaction, and workflow efficiency. Property owners and managers seeking to excel in the competitive and dynamic industry tap into these third-party professionals’ remote capabilities and specialized skills.

What Is the Value of Real Estate VAs in the Dallas Property Sector?

Real estate VAs are essential because they can help clients thrive in Dallas’s highly competitive landscape. The local property market is in high demand due to the city’s diverse and expanding population and ongoing economic growth. 

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recognized Dallas as one of the top ten real estate markets in 2021–2022. Roofstock also noted that single-family home prices in Dallas rose 22.5% year-on-year as of May 2022, indicating a rapid increase in real estate activities.

The construction boom is another gauge of this growth. Dallas has the largest hotel-building pipeline among the top five U.S. markets. According to Lodging Econometrics, the city reached a record-high construction and room number of 184 projects for 21,810 rooms.

Due to the intense market competition, third-party assistants and other professionals are increasingly vital. What distinguishes these independent specialists is that real estate VAs can streamline operations and provide client support, helping local companies gain a business edge.

What Are the Tasks of Real Estate VAs?

Real estate VAs perform many tasks. Among them are administration, appointment setting, bookkeeping, calendar management, client relationship management, cold calling, data entry, event organizing, marketing, project management, and property research. 

Let us take a closer look.

Administration

What sets real estate VAs apart is that they can assist in efficiently running office affairs and improving internal and external communication. If your company addresses various clients and workers, the VA can disseminate information and handle other relevant duties to maintain smooth operations. 

Administrative tasks include: 

• Sending and responding to emails 
• Producing and distributing spreadsheets
• Handling and organizing online data and records
• Notifying staff members of their responsibilities
• Attending and responding to voicemails
• Keeping track of everyday workplace expenses 
• Shopping online for gifts and office supplies

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The real estate VA collects client, customer, and prospect information to improve business interactions. CRM data administration is necessary but tedious, so delegating it to an expert VA is an excellent idea.

CRM comprises the following tasks:

• Speaking with clients directly to resolve difficulties and concerns
• Keeping track of client information and additional documentation for customer self-service portals
• Improving CRM database administration processes  
• Removing irrelevant database entries to deliver accurate information
• Developing sophisticated data reports using details from the CRM platform 

Bookkeeping

Real estate VAs can organize your funds without a costly accountant or financial advisor. They perform simple yet time-consuming accounting duties, such as maintaining financial records with software such as Oracle NetSuite, Freshbooks, Xero, or Quickbooks. 

The following are the tasks of a bookkeeping VA:

• Recording and overseeing standard payments, including salaries, overtime compensation, and incentives
• Billing customers, clients, suppliers, and other business partners 
• Helping with tax administration
• Assisting with banking procedures, including bill payments and cash transfers
• Reviewing and balancing financial information using your preferred accounting software 

Calendar Management 

Real estate VAs are skilled in various administrative or clerical activities. What differentiates these independent contractors is that the real estate VA can help busy entrepreneurs and business leaders arrange their schedules professionally. They allow you to stay on top of affairs and devote yourself to more complex duties such as strategies and board meetings.

A calendar management VA can help you with the following tasks:

• Setting preparations for social gatherings
• Keeping track of all of your meetings, activities, obligations, and deadlines
• Supervising payroll, invoicing, and periodic bill payments 
• Crafting plans to let you enjoy vacation days
• Arranging due dates according to relevance and timeliness
• Confirming meetings and assignment deadlines

Appointment Setting

A real estate VA frequently serves as a sales development representative, setting up meetings with the sales crew and potential prospects. They usually conform to a script when making arrangements for the sales staff, who will finalize the transaction. 

Appointment setters are responsible for the following tasks:

• Dealing with sales rejections and objections
• Developing and distributing daily appointment reports
• Showing a pleasant attitude to potential customers
• Clarifying prospects’ products and services during meetings

Cold Calling

Do you wonder what separates real estate VAs from regular employees? The answer is that they can contact prospective consumers or clients to convince them to purchase or invest in your product or service. They can carry out this sales plan using phone calls, email, social media, and other communication methods. 

The following are some duties of property VAs:

• Identifying and qualifying leads
• Discovering customers’ pain points that your organization should address
• Applying modifications to the cold call script
• Assessing and improving their calling approach
• Cross-selling and upselling to potential buyers
• Listing best practices and suggestions for cold calling after evaluating the calls

Event Planning

Real estate VAs can be beneficial when organizing a promotion function or a memorable occasion for prospective clients. They can help you refine the details and manage the affair. 

Consider the following activities:  

• Building an invitation list
• Designing a theme
• Producing a timeline and action plan
• Selecting a venue for the event
• Negotiating with food, photography, and entertainment vendors
• Issuing guest invitations 
• Using social media to advertise and record the event

Marketing

What makes these third-party workers valuable is that real estate VAs can increase sales by promoting products to specific customer groups. They can employ appealing advertising slogans or messaging to attract new customers. They are also responsible for developing strategies to keep existing consumers and upsell or cross-sell to them. 

Here are some tasks you can delegate to marketing VAs:

• Recognizing direct and indirect market competitors
• Putting together celebrity and influencer promotions
• Implementing techniques to improve marketing activity
• Reaching out to the target market via multiple communication channels 
• Conducting product launches and other similar activities 

Data Entry 

Data entry is one of the most laborious duties. Real estate VAs are familiar with using software to collect, organize, encode, and digitize data. They assist you in this process so that you can allocate more time and energy to pressing, high-value tasks. 

VAs are responsible for the following tasks:

• Extracting and checking initial data using data analysis software
• Inputting data into files and spreadsheets 
• Assuring the encoded information is correct 
• Authenticating outdated data and editing or upgrading records

Property and Business Research 

What enables these subcontractors to stand out from others is that real estate VAs have impeccable research skills. While this activity might be daunting, third-party professionals assist clients in making decisions by gathering timely and appropriate information. 

The following are some examples of typical research jobs:

• Seeking reliable information from the internet, books, and other sources
• Studying business-related academic and technical articles
• Interviewing appropriate authorities, such as subject matter experts
• Putting together research resources for presentations 
• Checking the integrity and trustworthiness of sources 

Project Administration 

Real estate VAs can oversee business projects, assisting you in formulating and executing your ideas. They work with you from the project’s beginning to its completion.  

Consider the following project management activities that VAs can assist with: 

• Handling everyone and everything working on the project 
• Generating and sticking to a budget to minimize expenses
• Putting efficient methods and established procedures into action
• Checking for quality assurance
• Verifying finished projects and accomplished client deliverables

What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing Real Estate VAs?

The benefits of outsourcing real estate VAs are reliable workers, elevated customer experience, affordable work-from-home (WFH) professionals, diminished running expenses, and adaptable third-party teams. 

Partnering with a business process outsourcing (BPO) company is one practical approach to acquiring real estate VAs. What is BPO’s particular role in this process? When adopting this strategy, the BPO provider manages and maximizes these third-party specialists’ performance and productivity. 

Staff outsourcing services are one of the functions that BPO firms offer to real estate clients in Dallas. These involve recruiting, training, and managing VAs to assist them in elevating output and efficiency while lowering costs.

Let us discuss the benefits in detail.

Effective and Reliable Remote VAs for Improved Performance 

Real estate VAs from BPO providers operate with flexible schedules under WFH or hybrid work arrangements, giving them an advantage over other professionals. 

WFH professionals can concentrate more on their jobs since they are no longer concerned with tedious chores, including hour-long prework preparations and travel to and from the office.

As a result, they can provide faster and more productive services. Below are the elements that contribute to increased remote job output:

• High data security. Remote workers use virtual private networks and antivirus programs to safeguard company, customer, and client data.
• Organized WFH setup. Many BPO providers enforce WFH procedures to enhance staff collaboration, productivity, and efficiency.
• Periodic virtual meetings. Third-party teams meet to monitor work status and task progress. 
• Regular communication software use. Real estate VAs utilize popular and reliable collaboration software for real-time conversations. 
• Well-equipped teams. The BPO vendor provides the remote groups with the necessary computers, hardware, and software systems to complete tasks. 

Elevated Customer Experience (CX) for More Solid Buyer Loyalty 

Real estate VAs continuously provide top-notch client and customer satisfaction and experience. They simplify all consumer interactions, from the initial contact to post-sale support.

Consider the following upsides to honed CX:

• Better customer satisfaction. Real estate VAs can provide positive CX to foster product or service loyalty. Satisfied buyers return to invest or acquire more.  
• Improved brand image. Superior CX translates to more brand advocates and better competitiveness. A favorable company image leads to increased market share.
• Enhanced return on investment (ROI). High client fulfillment drives ROI as satisfied consumers spend more. Repeat customers recommend your products or services to friends, associates, and family.
• Deeper customer insights. CX reveals customer insights; the third-party team analyzes this data to improve the buyer journey. 
• Decreased running costs. Greater CX raises revenue while reducing operating expenses. You can spend less on advertising to attract new customers.

Affordable WFH Professionals to Optimize Budget 

Offshore companies in the Philippines and nearshore providers in Mexico engaged in customer support outsourcing services and other back-office functions have ample third-party talent. What distinguishes them from Dallas workers is that real estate VAs from these locations have the proper hard and soft skills at more affordable costs.

Compare VA rates in the Philippines, Mexico, and Dallas, Texas, all in U.S. dollars ($).

Source: Indeed

Note: For easy comparison, the hourly and monthly rates for the Philippine VAs were converted to U.S. dollars. 

Per the figures above, you can save $4,134.19 monthly by assigning tasks to a Filipino real estate VA instead of hiring a Dallas professional. Note that these statistics are estimations. Connect with a BPO company for more details. 

Diminished Running Expenses for a Larger Working Capital

What else can you achieve when acquiring real estate VAs from BPO providers? Lower ongoing costs, for one. 

Hiring a team of real estate VAs through a service provider instead of setting up an in-house unit lets you enjoy the following cost reductions:

• Hiring. Lower recruitment costs are a perk of BPO services. The provider handles all of the time-consuming and costly hiring procedures. It also posts vacancies and screens, onboards, and trains candidates.
• Remunerations. An advantage of hiring real estate VAs via a BPO firm is saving money on wages. The service provider also bears other employee-related costs, such as sick leaves and health insurance.
• Skills development. Sending employees to external workshops is costly. Luckily, the BPO provider finances VAs’ skills development and training. 
• Workspace, equipment, and other assets. By tapping into back-office offshoring services and other outsourced functions, the BPO partner harnesses its physical and digital resources for your business.

Adaptable VA Teams and Processes for Improved Budgeting

Real estate VAs provided by a nearshore or offshore BPO company maximize your commercial value while lowering expenses. The service provider can scale outsourced functions based on business demands or conditions. 

The third-party vendor can increase or decrease the number of third-party contractors or procedures without disrupting ongoing operations. Scalability makes the company worthwhile by helping maintain fair costs.

Below are some other advantages of scalable procedures:

• Agility. The service provider aids you in dealing with unexpected occurrences without affecting existing processes. Agility enhances your capacity to stay robust and agile in harsh settings.  
• Cost efficiency. Hiring real estate VAs through service providers lets you save money by employing a suitable number of third-party personnel. The BPO vendor also assists in identifying the precise activities required for better productivity and efficiency.
• Flexibility. When delegating back-office and administrative tasks, the third-party vendor can quickly and effectively modify your operations. More versatility boosts business competitiveness.

Best Practices When Outsourcing Real Estate VAs

Choosing the right BPO partner is challenging in a diverse and dynamic industry. The following six steps can help you find the ideal third-party provider to offer competent and suitable real estate VAs.

• Set objectives and needs. Establish and evaluate outsourcing initiatives and identify crucial elements such as the third-party workforce’s size, communication channels, and the outsourcing model, whether offshore or nearshore.
• Screen and appraise BPO potentials. Examine their qualifications, experiences, and talent concerning your industry. For example, a Dallas property management business must prioritize successful client partnerships by evaluating the prospects’ real estate outsourcing case studies. 
• Develop a detailed analysis of service pricing. To determine the outsourcing budget, obtain an exhaustive list of service costs, extra charges, and hidden expenses from each initially selected BPO prospect. Determine and compare their service prices and pricing structures.
• Compose and send a request for proposal (RFP). Reduce the number of candidates on the list. Send an RFP to each short-listed prospect. In the document, include the scope of the outsourced task, timelines, budgetary limits, and proposed remedies to any challenges.
• Engage the BPO provider that fulfills the defined criteria. Construct a service-level agreement (SLA) with the officially designated provider, outlining the volume and quality of assistance. The SLA establishes the terms for performing outsourced back-office operations and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Maintain consistent interaction with the service provider. Check the performance and productivity of the BPO provider with the SLA. Address advancements, challenges, and goals with third-party vendor management, whether online or in person. 

The Bottom Line

Real estate VAs are indispensable assets for Dallas businesses in the dynamic and competitive property industry. 

These professionals offer various administrative and support services, helping real estate companies streamline operations, enhance client experiences, and maximize efficiency. 

This essential guide provides valuable insights into the role of real estate VAs, emphasizing the importance of outsourcing to acquire the ideal third-party workers. It also helps open up more opportunities in the property business.

Let’s connect if you want to learn more about what real estate VAs are and how they can help your business in Dallas!