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How to Best Leverage a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
In this episode, Shelby Joines explores the concept of hiring a real estate virtual assistant and the advantages it offers to realtors. Shelby emphasizes that a real estate virtual assistant goes beyond general administrative support by having specialized knowledge and licensing in the real estate field. They can handle tasks such as contract management, scheduling, communication with clients, coordinating showings, and managing social media presence. If you’re in the real estate industry, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.
The episode highlights the importance of outsourcing these tasks to a virtual assistant, allowing realtors to focus on customer service and building relationships. Shelby also discusses the role of virtual assistants in maximizing marketing and lead generation efforts, particularly in utilizing social media platforms. The episode concludes with tips for hiring a real estate virtual assistant, including reflecting on business needs, asking creative interview questions, and being open to their suggestions.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Blog Post: Why Real Estate Virtual Assistants Are a Necessity for Smooth Operations
--
Contact Shelby Joines | Joines Administration:
- Website: JoinesAdministration.ca
- LinkedIn: Joines Administration
- Instagram: @JoinesAdministration
- Facebook: @JoinesAdministration
--
Transcript:
Shelby 0:08
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back to another amazing episode of She's Got This: A Journey to Success. I'm Shelby Joines, and we are going to be talking about unleashing the power of a real estate virtual assistant. We're gonna go over a few of the important areas and what the concept of a real estate virtual assistant is, and the importance of having that additional support as a realtor to lighten your load and allow you to focus on the core, customer service, helping your clients out aspects of your business, rather than lead generation, the door knocking, the keeping up with social media, hopping on trends, making those reels, back in financing communication, you name it. Having a virtual assistant in the real estate field can help you scale your business, and today we're going to dive in and discuss this topic more. So, stay tuned and get ready.
Shelby 1:17
Understanding the role of a real estate virtual assistant is the most important starting point in this topic. Now, what is a real estate virtual assistant? This isn't just your everyday general virtual assistant that helps you out, although it is in a sense. But when it comes to virtual real estate assistants, most of them have credentials and licensing in relation to the real estate world. So, they are able to deal with more in-depth things to help a realtor out, such as contracts, doing sale closings, anything relating to the finance and contract and legalities, back End things. They would be able to fully support you on that front. Now, as I mentioned there briefly, some of the tasks that can be delegated to a real estate virtual assistant are things like managing the contracts, whether that is from a buyer or a seller, any type of scheduling of home inspections, communication with the client, whether that again, is a buyer or a seller, looping in meetings, scheduling showings, coordinating with sellers on when they will be available for showings. Honestly, the list goes on and on. They can also help with promotional items, such as any type of marketing, such as flyers, brochures, pamphlets, and signage in creating the graphics around that, getting it sent to a printer, and getting that shipped directly to you. Things like that, as well as managing your social media presence, such as any advertising that you do, any amazing photography or videography that a realtor could get done in regards to showing a home and advertising. And using social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube even is becoming a huge area where real estate is really taking over, not only just for advertising, new sales and new listings and facts about how the market is going in a given area of a country or continent or wherever your clients may be. But it also allows you to show yourself more in a personal way and just reach the overall wider audience at a very affordable and low cost to you. Because we all know, keeping up with expenses can be difficult. So, why not take advantage of outsourcing these tasks that may be eating up a good majority of your time that you may dread doing or you may not be doing as well as you could be? Your consistency is not on, all the things. Outsourcing to a virtual assistant who specializes in real estate can be a huge time saver and a money saver. The hot thing that people are talking about now is you need to buy back your time. You cannot put the sand back in the opposite end of the hourglass. Gravity just won't let you do it. So, having the ability to pay somebody who is experienced and maybe an expert in the field to help support you with this workload, will not only give you a solid peace of mind, and your overall mental health will thank future you. But you get just that, you buy back your time. So, you can focus more on the client relations, going out in networking and making sure that people are aware of your services, who your ideal clients are taking clients out and catching up and following up with past clients. Because just because a sale has been made, whether your client is buying a home, or they are selling their home and planning to move, having and keeping that relationship is a key factor in continuing to scale your business. Having those relationships are so important. And even if it's somebody who you helped six months ago, or six years ago, doing something to reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm thinking about you. How's your property, have you done anything really to be invested in their story? And I can promise you, you will have lifelong clients and referrals coming into you.
Shelby 6:19
So, the second part about the importance of the value that real estate virtual assistants can bring to you is that they are able to assist in leveraging your administrative tasks. So, it may be completely different from the contract side where there may be some licensing or rules and regulations involved and who can touch and see what. There are other tasks that realtors use and go through and have to deal with on a daily basis. That is completely separate from that. Like I mentioned before, social media, following up with leads, keeping a clean calendar, sending out meeting invites, just responding to general emails, whether that may be from a home inspector that is working with a client of yours on a new house that they're buying, or selling, or any type of cleaners that you may have scheduled to come in. Honestly, the list is endless. And I bet if I gave you at least 15 seconds right now, you could think of at least three tasks, as a realtor that you could outsource to a virtual assistant that don't require any type of licensing on the VA side. Now with having a specific virtual assistant who specializes and is niche down into real estate and helping realtors out, is that they are able to help you by maximizing your marketing and lead generations. Now, if you are a real estate agent that is listening to this podcast today, hey, but I'm sure that you can relate that generating new leads and keeping up with your marketing, whether that is print, it is online, it's electronic, whatever it may be, can be extremely time-consuming. And one of those things you may absolutely dread doing, period. Now lead generation has come a long ways in the whole history of real estate. We have gone from door knocking, which not knocking, pun intended, but many Realtors still use that and have great success with it today. But there has been a shift to more of online presence when it comes to marketing. Especially when it comes to reels, short clip videos, whether that is on Facebook or Instagram or any type of social media platform. YouTube even is getting really hyped up on short-form content. But having that ability to utilize these free platforms that we have available to us to showcase educational bits, testimonials from past and current clients or third-party vendors that you have used continually throughout your time as a realtor, showing your most recent listings, like the list goes on and we are in such an exciting time in the world of business and technology and the two blending together. That there are so many interesting ways you can utilize technology to help you with your marketing, maximize your lead generation and just really scale. And having the support of a specific virtual assistant can take all of the guesswork out of that. Have them take the reins and come up with the most amazing ideas and strategies for you to utilize to maybe scale in quarter, four, quarter 120 24, all of next year, like, truly, I cannot say enough. And maybe I'm biased as a virtual assistant, an online business manager myself. But the power of outsourcing these small tasks that you may not realize are little time periods here and there that you kind of pick away at. But if you were to add them all up in a week, how much time are you wasting kind of spinning your wheels and doing things that may not be as important or what you should be focusing on at the time?
Having a virtual assistant, maximizing your marketing and being able to take the reins on posting your content on your social media platforms, getting creative with real ideas on how you can showcase not only your brand and your business, but yourself personally too. Where again, in an age where people are not blindly purchasing and selecting services based on an ad in the paper. They want to know the person behind the brand, behind the business behind the company and really grasp onto that emotional connection. That can be easily and low cost to the point of free for you to do on social media. And having a virtual assistant that can take the reins, be creative, and just knock it out of the park for you, while keeping you on a consistent schedule to really build your following and build the awareness around not only you but your brand, is the key to really taking your business to the next level as a realtor.
Shelby 12:07
So, we've talked about why it's been great and why it is the best thing since sliced bread to hire yourself a virtual assistant if you're in the real estate world. But we're now going to talk about overcoming the challenges that I'm sure you've been thinking about as you've been listening to this podcast. And one of those is overcoming the challenge of hiring a real estate virtual assistant. Where do you start? What are you looking for? What do I need? And as I say I am speaking in your personal view. But where are the areas that you spend unnecessary amount of time spinning your wheels on repeating steps, sending similar messages out every time to new clients or clients follow-ups, whatever it may be. And not knowing exactly where to even begin. You know you need one, but how do you get from point A to point B. So, the best thing that you can start off with and these are going to be my three biggest tips that you can do. First one being is take the time, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever you can spare, and really take a good look at your business. Where are your struggles? Where do you think that you need the support right now? What areas of your business do you maybe dread doing or you're just not excited to do but it's one of those things you have to do. Make out a list. Really take the time to reflect and dig deep into yourself. Dig deep into your business. And write out tasks areas, jot note it, paragraph form, make a video about it. Record yourself, reading out what you need done, whatever it takes, but really sit in the moment with this and try and detail out as much as you can. Now, if you have to come back and revisit this several times, not a problem. Remember, this is your business. You want somebody who is caring, understanding, trustworthy, can handle those confidential little things that pop up in real estate. All these little personality traits that would fit and vibrate with how you see your business and aligning with you as a whole and any other team members that you may have working with you. So, once you get that initial part written out, whether it's chicken scratch or a 10-page paper thesis about it, at least get that first draft done, then you can kind of come back, tweak things, reorganize. Don't let the stage drag out for too long, I'd give it a week tops, unless you're one of those people who's like, Nope, this is the list, I'm done, next step. So, once you finish that, the second step that I have, is to take an opportunity to really dig into what you would like to ask through the interview stage. Now, this, the beauty of outsourcing is that this does not have to be a stiff corporate interview. I want you to have fun with this, because this is going to be somebody who will be your right-hand person, they are going to be with you and you want them almost to be a duplicate of yourself. That's doing all the amazing backend work for you. So, make sure that you take an opportunity to really think about your company's mission, vision and value statements. Now, whether this is in paragraph sentence form, or you just have a bunch of jot notes on your website, whatever it may be, really take a solid look into this as well. And evaluate what are the characteristics in a person that I am looking to hire would align the best with what I am currently envisioning for my company. Also take a moment to really dive into yourself here and get a little personal with this step because you, again, are going to have this be your right-hand person in business, you really want to have, in my case, anyways, a little bit more of a personal relationship outside of just the business of being your virtual assistant. So, really dive into those three points of your company, if you do not have a mission, vision and value statement or any kind of notes on that, this is also a great reminder and a great opportunity for you to think about that reflect on it and really get something written out in paper form or on your computer, typed, whatever it may be that tickles your fancy, but get it out into the universe because this is a really important step in you branding yourself as a business, solidifying who you are, what you stand for, what are your beliefs and values, and how you see the future of your company going, or your business, whatever it may be. But people want that emotional connection, just as I mentioned earlier. So, take the opportunity, think through that and really have fun with these interview questions. That is, I guess, part 2.1 of step two. But think of some fun interview questions. This is an outsource opportunity, you are hiring a subcontractor position, you may be hiring an internal position and doing it as an employee thing. Cool. If that tickles your fancy, go for it. But really do not use this as an opportunity to ask the same old stuffy corporate business job questions, you know, the ones I'm talking about? Tell me a bit about yourself. Tell me about a time that you were faced with a situation with an employee that involved conflict, and how did you manage and overcome that? I, one of the greatest things about being out on my own, sidetracking here for a second, is that I do not have to have those types of interviews anymore. I have been fortunate enough to have discovery calls and what you would quote unquote call an interview. But they're a conversation. They're getting to know one another. Each other's business, getting personnel, talking about our families and what we do outside of work, and turning in some really interesting questions like, what are your top three favourite apps that you are using in your business, to help keep yourself organized and on track with your goals? Or what do you enjoy doing on your weekends or outside of your business hours or throughout the day, when you take breaks? Do you go outside, make it personal. And those are just random examples I'm pulling off my head as we're talking. But really get unique with it, have fun with it. Ask silly questions that may have nothing to do with the actual position, how to do the job, anything like that. But getting to know how the person would act or react in a certain situation, make it fun, make it light. Help people feel more comfortable in situations like this by having a lighter vibe to any type of interview or screening questions. One thing that I do when I am hiring along with the job posting, obviously, is I will fill out an online form with just some random brief fun questions, where you get to know their character and personality more so than their hard skills. You're learning more about their soft skills, and just who they are. That is more important to me. Because programs, things I do in my business, all that can be taught and trained. And with the amazing leaps and bounds we've made with technology and new apps, it is so easy to make quick and easy tutorials that you can send videos to record, looms, anything you name it. So, that's the easy part. But being able to understand their character, and really having them connect with me on a deeper level and being personal with them. That is the most important part to me, when hiring. Low food for thought you can take that into your hiring process as well. But having those forms where you can learn about their character and personality, outside of the actual hard skills and technical skills that they may possess, from previous work experience in the job description that you've been asking for. Get to know them. It is so refreshing, honestly. And the last third step that we're going to talk about when it comes to challenges that you may have. And tips that I can provide when it comes to hiring and working with the virtual assistant is be flexible. When you have that first interview, or if you've already gone through that and you're finally done your little breakthrough about your top people you want to have for a second or that final question period. Have an open mind and understand that they may come at you with ideas and really listen. And that seems to be another hard thing too, but be open to their suggestions. They are the virtual assistant. They are the specific person that can help you build your business, reorganize your business, get back on track, buy you back your time, and so many other things that they are the experts in this field. So, don't take what they may say as a suggestion like you're currently using monday.com. And they suggest notion, don't stick your nose up at it. But really dive into it a bit more and ask them what their reasoning is behind it. Do they have more experience with that platform? Maybe? Is it a better-suited platform for your specific business needs and tracking needs, client management that you didn't consider before because Monday was the hottest thing on the market at the time. Go in with that open mind and really bounce some great ideas off them. If you're going back for a second interview, or second screening or whatever it may be. Obviously, there was something there that really piqued your interest that they either said, they wrote out in their forms, or they may have emailed you about or anything along those lines. But there was a reason you're back talking to them again. So, really take this opportunity to listen to suggestions because those suggestions could save you more money. It may be a lower subscription than what you're currently using. Who knows. And it could be a program where you can compile three of your other apps or programs that you use on a daily basis into this one program. Again, saving you money, saving you space on your phone, saving you from remembering another password. Because we all know that there are multiple different apps we have and I hope you all have different passwords on every single one of those apps, if not, we need to have a conversation. But really, overall, have fun with it, be open, be receptive, be courteous. There may be some VAs or admins that deal specifically in real estate that are new to the world, but they're excited and keen to get started. Don't push those people off to the side, give them at least a chance. Yeah, hiring a virtual assistant, if you are in real estate, a real estate agent, anything along those lines, can not only save you, your time, your money, but it can buy you back your sanity. Having somebody who specializes in areas that you need support in. You will not realize how much you needed this until you have it. But they will completely change your world, their expertise, their skills, the value that they bring. It just mind-blowing, mind-blowing. And really, if you're a real estate agent, you're a realtor, you are in any sort of market that deals with home buying, home selling, anything like that, you need to outsource your tasks to a virtual assistant. Especially if you are hoping and wanting and planning and aiming to scale your business, whether it's the next quarter, the next two quarters, year, you name it, you will not be able to do this, if you do not have a team of support that it's there that sees your vision, cheers you on and is there to truly and 100% drive you to those goals and get them to completion.
Shelby 27:08
Thanks again for tuning in and listening everyone. I hope that if you work in the real estate world, whether you are an agent or you own an agency, or any other the moving bits that go into buying and selling a home, that you got some great value, tips and tricks on how you can outsource some of your tasks to a real estate specific virtual assistant. As always, I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for listening without you, She's Got This: A Journey to Success wouldn't be such a success. And if you haven't already, please go ahead and like this episode, follow and subscribe to me on Amazon Music, Apple, Google and Spotify. Under She's Got This: A Journey to Success. Your support means so much to me. If you want to learn more about this topic, about outsourcing and the tasks that a virtual assistant who specializes in real estate can do for your business and your overall well-being. Check out my latest blog post in the comments below and get to reading. Once again, thanks so much. This is Shelby Joines with She's Got This: A Journey to Success.
View all episodes
By Shelby JoinesIn this episode, Shelby Joines explores the concept of hiring a real estate virtual assistant and the advantages it offers to realtors. Shelby emphasizes that a real estate virtual assistant goes beyond general administrative support by having specialized knowledge and licensing in the real estate field. They can handle tasks such as contract management, scheduling, communication with clients, coordinating showings, and managing social media presence. If you’re in the real estate industry, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.
The episode highlights the importance of outsourcing these tasks to a virtual assistant, allowing realtors to focus on customer service and building relationships. Shelby also discusses the role of virtual assistants in maximizing marketing and lead generation efforts, particularly in utilizing social media platforms. The episode concludes with tips for hiring a real estate virtual assistant, including reflecting on business needs, asking creative interview questions, and being open to their suggestions.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Blog Post: Why Real Estate Virtual Assistants Are a Necessity for Smooth Operations
--
Contact Shelby Joines | Joines Administration:
- Website: JoinesAdministration.ca
- LinkedIn: Joines Administration
- Instagram: @JoinesAdministration
- Facebook: @JoinesAdministration
--
Transcript:
Shelby 0:08
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back to another amazing episode of She's Got This: A Journey to Success. I'm Shelby Joines, and we are going to be talking about unleashing the power of a real estate virtual assistant. We're gonna go over a few of the important areas and what the concept of a real estate virtual assistant is, and the importance of having that additional support as a realtor to lighten your load and allow you to focus on the core, customer service, helping your clients out aspects of your business, rather than lead generation, the door knocking, the keeping up with social media, hopping on trends, making those reels, back in financing communication, you name it. Having a virtual assistant in the real estate field can help you scale your business, and today we're going to dive in and discuss this topic more. So, stay tuned and get ready.
Shelby 1:17
Understanding the role of a real estate virtual assistant is the most important starting point in this topic. Now, what is a real estate virtual assistant? This isn't just your everyday general virtual assistant that helps you out, although it is in a sense. But when it comes to virtual real estate assistants, most of them have credentials and licensing in relation to the real estate world. So, they are able to deal with more in-depth things to help a realtor out, such as contracts, doing sale closings, anything relating to the finance and contract and legalities, back End things. They would be able to fully support you on that front. Now, as I mentioned there briefly, some of the tasks that can be delegated to a real estate virtual assistant are things like managing the contracts, whether that is from a buyer or a seller, any type of scheduling of home inspections, communication with the client, whether that again, is a buyer or a seller, looping in meetings, scheduling showings, coordinating with sellers on when they will be available for showings. Honestly, the list goes on and on. They can also help with promotional items, such as any type of marketing, such as flyers, brochures, pamphlets, and signage in creating the graphics around that, getting it sent to a printer, and getting that shipped directly to you. Things like that, as well as managing your social media presence, such as any advertising that you do, any amazing photography or videography that a realtor could get done in regards to showing a home and advertising. And using social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube even is becoming a huge area where real estate is really taking over, not only just for advertising, new sales and new listings and facts about how the market is going in a given area of a country or continent or wherever your clients may be. But it also allows you to show yourself more in a personal way and just reach the overall wider audience at a very affordable and low cost to you. Because we all know, keeping up with expenses can be difficult. So, why not take advantage of outsourcing these tasks that may be eating up a good majority of your time that you may dread doing or you may not be doing as well as you could be? Your consistency is not on, all the things. Outsourcing to a virtual assistant who specializes in real estate can be a huge time saver and a money saver. The hot thing that people are talking about now is you need to buy back your time. You cannot put the sand back in the opposite end of the hourglass. Gravity just won't let you do it. So, having the ability to pay somebody who is experienced and maybe an expert in the field to help support you with this workload, will not only give you a solid peace of mind, and your overall mental health will thank future you. But you get just that, you buy back your time. So, you can focus more on the client relations, going out in networking and making sure that people are aware of your services, who your ideal clients are taking clients out and catching up and following up with past clients. Because just because a sale has been made, whether your client is buying a home, or they are selling their home and planning to move, having and keeping that relationship is a key factor in continuing to scale your business. Having those relationships are so important. And even if it's somebody who you helped six months ago, or six years ago, doing something to reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm thinking about you. How's your property, have you done anything really to be invested in their story? And I can promise you, you will have lifelong clients and referrals coming into you.
Shelby 6:19
So, the second part about the importance of the value that real estate virtual assistants can bring to you is that they are able to assist in leveraging your administrative tasks. So, it may be completely different from the contract side where there may be some licensing or rules and regulations involved and who can touch and see what. There are other tasks that realtors use and go through and have to deal with on a daily basis. That is completely separate from that. Like I mentioned before, social media, following up with leads, keeping a clean calendar, sending out meeting invites, just responding to general emails, whether that may be from a home inspector that is working with a client of yours on a new house that they're buying, or selling, or any type of cleaners that you may have scheduled to come in. Honestly, the list is endless. And I bet if I gave you at least 15 seconds right now, you could think of at least three tasks, as a realtor that you could outsource to a virtual assistant that don't require any type of licensing on the VA side. Now with having a specific virtual assistant who specializes and is niche down into real estate and helping realtors out, is that they are able to help you by maximizing your marketing and lead generations. Now, if you are a real estate agent that is listening to this podcast today, hey, but I'm sure that you can relate that generating new leads and keeping up with your marketing, whether that is print, it is online, it's electronic, whatever it may be, can be extremely time-consuming. And one of those things you may absolutely dread doing, period. Now lead generation has come a long ways in the whole history of real estate. We have gone from door knocking, which not knocking, pun intended, but many Realtors still use that and have great success with it today. But there has been a shift to more of online presence when it comes to marketing. Especially when it comes to reels, short clip videos, whether that is on Facebook or Instagram or any type of social media platform. YouTube even is getting really hyped up on short-form content. But having that ability to utilize these free platforms that we have available to us to showcase educational bits, testimonials from past and current clients or third-party vendors that you have used continually throughout your time as a realtor, showing your most recent listings, like the list goes on and we are in such an exciting time in the world of business and technology and the two blending together. That there are so many interesting ways you can utilize technology to help you with your marketing, maximize your lead generation and just really scale. And having the support of a specific virtual assistant can take all of the guesswork out of that. Have them take the reins and come up with the most amazing ideas and strategies for you to utilize to maybe scale in quarter, four, quarter 120 24, all of next year, like, truly, I cannot say enough. And maybe I'm biased as a virtual assistant, an online business manager myself. But the power of outsourcing these small tasks that you may not realize are little time periods here and there that you kind of pick away at. But if you were to add them all up in a week, how much time are you wasting kind of spinning your wheels and doing things that may not be as important or what you should be focusing on at the time?
Having a virtual assistant, maximizing your marketing and being able to take the reins on posting your content on your social media platforms, getting creative with real ideas on how you can showcase not only your brand and your business, but yourself personally too. Where again, in an age where people are not blindly purchasing and selecting services based on an ad in the paper. They want to know the person behind the brand, behind the business behind the company and really grasp onto that emotional connection. That can be easily and low cost to the point of free for you to do on social media. And having a virtual assistant that can take the reins, be creative, and just knock it out of the park for you, while keeping you on a consistent schedule to really build your following and build the awareness around not only you but your brand, is the key to really taking your business to the next level as a realtor.
Shelby 12:07
So, we've talked about why it's been great and why it is the best thing since sliced bread to hire yourself a virtual assistant if you're in the real estate world. But we're now going to talk about overcoming the challenges that I'm sure you've been thinking about as you've been listening to this podcast. And one of those is overcoming the challenge of hiring a real estate virtual assistant. Where do you start? What are you looking for? What do I need? And as I say I am speaking in your personal view. But where are the areas that you spend unnecessary amount of time spinning your wheels on repeating steps, sending similar messages out every time to new clients or clients follow-ups, whatever it may be. And not knowing exactly where to even begin. You know you need one, but how do you get from point A to point B. So, the best thing that you can start off with and these are going to be my three biggest tips that you can do. First one being is take the time, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever you can spare, and really take a good look at your business. Where are your struggles? Where do you think that you need the support right now? What areas of your business do you maybe dread doing or you're just not excited to do but it's one of those things you have to do. Make out a list. Really take the time to reflect and dig deep into yourself. Dig deep into your business. And write out tasks areas, jot note it, paragraph form, make a video about it. Record yourself, reading out what you need done, whatever it takes, but really sit in the moment with this and try and detail out as much as you can. Now, if you have to come back and revisit this several times, not a problem. Remember, this is your business. You want somebody who is caring, understanding, trustworthy, can handle those confidential little things that pop up in real estate. All these little personality traits that would fit and vibrate with how you see your business and aligning with you as a whole and any other team members that you may have working with you. So, once you get that initial part written out, whether it's chicken scratch or a 10-page paper thesis about it, at least get that first draft done, then you can kind of come back, tweak things, reorganize. Don't let the stage drag out for too long, I'd give it a week tops, unless you're one of those people who's like, Nope, this is the list, I'm done, next step. So, once you finish that, the second step that I have, is to take an opportunity to really dig into what you would like to ask through the interview stage. Now, this, the beauty of outsourcing is that this does not have to be a stiff corporate interview. I want you to have fun with this, because this is going to be somebody who will be your right-hand person, they are going to be with you and you want them almost to be a duplicate of yourself. That's doing all the amazing backend work for you. So, make sure that you take an opportunity to really think about your company's mission, vision and value statements. Now, whether this is in paragraph sentence form, or you just have a bunch of jot notes on your website, whatever it may be, really take a solid look into this as well. And evaluate what are the characteristics in a person that I am looking to hire would align the best with what I am currently envisioning for my company. Also take a moment to really dive into yourself here and get a little personal with this step because you, again, are going to have this be your right-hand person in business, you really want to have, in my case, anyways, a little bit more of a personal relationship outside of just the business of being your virtual assistant. So, really dive into those three points of your company, if you do not have a mission, vision and value statement or any kind of notes on that, this is also a great reminder and a great opportunity for you to think about that reflect on it and really get something written out in paper form or on your computer, typed, whatever it may be that tickles your fancy, but get it out into the universe because this is a really important step in you branding yourself as a business, solidifying who you are, what you stand for, what are your beliefs and values, and how you see the future of your company going, or your business, whatever it may be. But people want that emotional connection, just as I mentioned earlier. So, take the opportunity, think through that and really have fun with these interview questions. That is, I guess, part 2.1 of step two. But think of some fun interview questions. This is an outsource opportunity, you are hiring a subcontractor position, you may be hiring an internal position and doing it as an employee thing. Cool. If that tickles your fancy, go for it. But really do not use this as an opportunity to ask the same old stuffy corporate business job questions, you know, the ones I'm talking about? Tell me a bit about yourself. Tell me about a time that you were faced with a situation with an employee that involved conflict, and how did you manage and overcome that? I, one of the greatest things about being out on my own, sidetracking here for a second, is that I do not have to have those types of interviews anymore. I have been fortunate enough to have discovery calls and what you would quote unquote call an interview. But they're a conversation. They're getting to know one another. Each other's business, getting personnel, talking about our families and what we do outside of work, and turning in some really interesting questions like, what are your top three favourite apps that you are using in your business, to help keep yourself organized and on track with your goals? Or what do you enjoy doing on your weekends or outside of your business hours or throughout the day, when you take breaks? Do you go outside, make it personal. And those are just random examples I'm pulling off my head as we're talking. But really get unique with it, have fun with it. Ask silly questions that may have nothing to do with the actual position, how to do the job, anything like that. But getting to know how the person would act or react in a certain situation, make it fun, make it light. Help people feel more comfortable in situations like this by having a lighter vibe to any type of interview or screening questions. One thing that I do when I am hiring along with the job posting, obviously, is I will fill out an online form with just some random brief fun questions, where you get to know their character and personality more so than their hard skills. You're learning more about their soft skills, and just who they are. That is more important to me. Because programs, things I do in my business, all that can be taught and trained. And with the amazing leaps and bounds we've made with technology and new apps, it is so easy to make quick and easy tutorials that you can send videos to record, looms, anything you name it. So, that's the easy part. But being able to understand their character, and really having them connect with me on a deeper level and being personal with them. That is the most important part to me, when hiring. Low food for thought you can take that into your hiring process as well. But having those forms where you can learn about their character and personality, outside of the actual hard skills and technical skills that they may possess, from previous work experience in the job description that you've been asking for. Get to know them. It is so refreshing, honestly. And the last third step that we're going to talk about when it comes to challenges that you may have. And tips that I can provide when it comes to hiring and working with the virtual assistant is be flexible. When you have that first interview, or if you've already gone through that and you're finally done your little breakthrough about your top people you want to have for a second or that final question period. Have an open mind and understand that they may come at you with ideas and really listen. And that seems to be another hard thing too, but be open to their suggestions. They are the virtual assistant. They are the specific person that can help you build your business, reorganize your business, get back on track, buy you back your time, and so many other things that they are the experts in this field. So, don't take what they may say as a suggestion like you're currently using monday.com. And they suggest notion, don't stick your nose up at it. But really dive into it a bit more and ask them what their reasoning is behind it. Do they have more experience with that platform? Maybe? Is it a better-suited platform for your specific business needs and tracking needs, client management that you didn't consider before because Monday was the hottest thing on the market at the time. Go in with that open mind and really bounce some great ideas off them. If you're going back for a second interview, or second screening or whatever it may be. Obviously, there was something there that really piqued your interest that they either said, they wrote out in their forms, or they may have emailed you about or anything along those lines. But there was a reason you're back talking to them again. So, really take this opportunity to listen to suggestions because those suggestions could save you more money. It may be a lower subscription than what you're currently using. Who knows. And it could be a program where you can compile three of your other apps or programs that you use on a daily basis into this one program. Again, saving you money, saving you space on your phone, saving you from remembering another password. Because we all know that there are multiple different apps we have and I hope you all have different passwords on every single one of those apps, if not, we need to have a conversation. But really, overall, have fun with it, be open, be receptive, be courteous. There may be some VAs or admins that deal specifically in real estate that are new to the world, but they're excited and keen to get started. Don't push those people off to the side, give them at least a chance. Yeah, hiring a virtual assistant, if you are in real estate, a real estate agent, anything along those lines, can not only save you, your time, your money, but it can buy you back your sanity. Having somebody who specializes in areas that you need support in. You will not realize how much you needed this until you have it. But they will completely change your world, their expertise, their skills, the value that they bring. It just mind-blowing, mind-blowing. And really, if you're a real estate agent, you're a realtor, you are in any sort of market that deals with home buying, home selling, anything like that, you need to outsource your tasks to a virtual assistant. Especially if you are hoping and wanting and planning and aiming to scale your business, whether it's the next quarter, the next two quarters, year, you name it, you will not be able to do this, if you do not have a team of support that it's there that sees your vision, cheers you on and is there to truly and 100% drive you to those goals and get them to completion.
Shelby 27:08
Thanks again for tuning in and listening everyone. I hope that if you work in the real estate world, whether you are an agent or you own an agency, or any other the moving bits that go into buying and selling a home, that you got some great value, tips and tricks on how you can outsource some of your tasks to a real estate specific virtual assistant. As always, I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for listening without you, She's Got This: A Journey to Success wouldn't be such a success. And if you haven't already, please go ahead and like this episode, follow and subscribe to me on Amazon Music, Apple, Google and Spotify. Under She's Got This: A Journey to Success. Your support means so much to me. If you want to learn more about this topic, about outsourcing and the tasks that a virtual assistant who specializes in real estate can do for your business and your overall well-being. Check out my latest blog post in the comments below and get to reading. Once again, thanks so much. This is Shelby Joines with She's Got This: A Journey to Success.