How Real Estate Agents and Developers in New York Save 20 Hours Every Week by Using Virtual Assistants

"It was 9 p.m. on a Tuesday when Priya Malhotra finally closed her laptop. The Indian-born agent and owner of a five-person agent team working out of a small, Astoria-based office was already stressed and tired from the day's work. She spent the last three hours editing listing photos, chasing down a lender for a closing document, and manually updating her CRM after an open house."

Does this sound familiar?

If you are a real estate agent, or even a developer trying to navigate the five boroughs of New York, you know all too well that a real estate deal, at least as far as the administration is concerned, is never really finished until your signed papers are tucked away in a safe deposit box. This is a story about Priya and a small development company based in Brooklyn, New York, and how they navigated the busy world of New York City real estate while outsourcing their administrative needs to a virtual assistant for a real estate agent in New York and later a real estate virtual assistant developerin New York.

The Problem:

"Although Priya had five people working in her office, she still felt swamped with work. She wasn't struggling with actually selling properties, but she had little time to actually do so given the additional tasks that came with each showing, call, and negotiation. These included, but were not limited to,

·       Updating her Zillow, StreetEasy, and MLS listings

·       Qualifying leads

·       Following up on every email after each showing

·       Managing her photographers, stagers, and inspectors

·       Maintaining her CRM

None of these tasks was required to actually sell a property and a valid real estate license, but none were less necessary to her business.

A similar situation was taking place in Brooklyn, except instead of an agent, a small development company known as Halcyon Development was struggling with similar tasks. They had a project manager who spent hour after hour responding to emails at midnight to make sure the pre-construction sales, contractor work, and government paperwork were proceeding smoothly for the 40-unit condo they were developing.

The Resolution:

"When Priya decided to hire a virtual assistant, she was a bit reluctant. Although she had heard great things about VAs, she was afraid that they would need a lot of hand-holding or that they would not be able to understand the intricacies of her work, especially regarding the New York City market, where the pace is as fast as the traffic.

She decided to start slow by outsourcing her lead qualification and CRM maintenance to a virtual assistant for a real estate developer in New York, and what she found was that her response time for leads was faster, her CRM was more organized, and her listing photos were posted the same day they were taken. By the sixth week, she started outsourcing more tasks, such as transaction coordination and social media, and she found that she could dedicate almost 20 hours a week to her core competency: selling real estate, which in turn increased her production.

Halcyon Development took a different approach by outsourcing more complex tasks, such as permit tracking with the DOB, managing the investor reporting needs for their development, and keeping a buyer pipeline of would-be condo-unit owners for their soon-to-be released pre-construction sales. The project manager who used to be answering emails at midnight now has someone monitoring the emails 24/7, and only he responds to ones that require his attention."

The Metrics:

"Here is what Priya's five-agent team and the small development company in Brooklyn saw after approximately three months of working with a virtual assistant for real estate agents in New York and a virtual assistant for real estate developers in New York:

Priya's Agency:

·       Leads responded to in less than 15 minutes as opposed to hours before

·       Listings were posted faster

·       Closed two additional deals per month due to the faster response time

·       More than 50% in overall costs if she were to hire an in-house assistant

·       Halcyon Development:

·       Improved reporting for investors: reports that used to be generated weekly are now real-time dashboards

·       Near-zero errors when it comes to permits and inspections

·       Improved buyer response time, which has resulted in faster unit sales

No additional in-house W-2 employees had to be hired for either company, which meant no additional taxes and no extra overhead. A competent virtual assistant for real estate agents knew how to work in New York, which saved the companies both time and money since they did not have to spend hours upon hours instructing an untrained assistant in the intricacies of every single task they handed over.

Why it Works Specifically in New York:

New York is not like other places, and the administrative work required for a real estate deal here can be exponentially more complex than in, say, Los Angeles or Chicago. A generic administrative assistant might not be able to understand or handle the nuances of co-op board packages, rent-stabilised apartments, or the myriad regulations facing real estate developers in NYC. This is why most agents and developers who are seeing success with VAs are working with people who have specific expertise in the New York market, and specifically the local administrative tasks that come with being a developer or an agent here.

For an agent, this might mean knowing about the intricacies of StreetEasy listings or how to properly format a co-op questionnaire. For a developer, this might mean knowing how to keep track of a construction timeline or how to keep investors engaged without crossing into the realm of self-promotion.

Click here  to learn more about how virtual assistants are reducing the workload of real estate developers.

The bigger lesson to take from Priya's story is that she did not need someone to take over selling properties for her. She needed someone to protect her time so that she could actually do more selling, which is exactly what a good virtual assistant for real estate developers in New York can help you with.

FAQs:

1. What tasks can a virtual assistant for real estate agents in NYC handle?

Some of the common tasks that a virtual assistant for real estate agents can handle include, but are not limited to,

·       Lead qualification and follow-up

·       CRM maintenance

·       Listing creation, including StreetEasy MLS and Zillow updates

·       Showing scheduling

·       Transaction coordination paperwork

·       Social media

In general, tasks that don't directly involve showing or negotiating a property or require a real estate license are what a VA can typically handle.

2. How is a virtual assistant for real estate developers in New York different from one for agents?

Although both would have some overlap, a virtual assistant for real estate developers would be handling different tasks, such as pre-construction sales pipelines, investor reporting, permit and inspection tracking, contractor logs, and buyer follow-up.

3. How much does it cost to hire a virtual assistant for real estate agents in New York?

Compared to hiring an in-house assistant, most real estate agents and developers see a reduction in costs, typically between 40-60%, since there is no salary or overhead to worry about. You typically only pay for the tasks that you need a VA to perform.

4. How long does it take for a virtual assistant for real estate agents in NY to start making a difference?

Most real estate agents and developers see an improvement in their organisational and response time capabilities within two to four weeks of working with a VA, and after three months see improvement in additional areas, such as increased sales and faster closings.