Should You Hire an Assistant?
Hiring a real estate assistant may sound like the answer to the pile of busywork that greets you every morning. Wouldn’t it be incredible to have someone to help with admin duties, leaving you free to pursue leads and close on listings? When executed skillfully at the right time, hiring a real estate assistant can be instrumental in growing your business. Today, we’re going to help you assess: should you hire an assistant this year?
1.) Evaluate Your Workload
Do you close 25 – 35 deals annually? Have you kept this pace consistently for several years? If so, and you’ve felt constrained by all of the administrative tasks that accompany every deal, this may be the year to hire a part-time assistant.
Here’s a complete readiness checklist:
Your schedule is well-organized, and people can contact you easily.
Your transactions are organized and logged into a user-friendly system.
Your lead generation system is strong and thriving.
You can project your monthly and annual profits accurately within 10%.
You have spoken to your real estate mentor and trusted peers about your decision to hire an assistant.
You can spare an hour per day for at least two weeks to train your new assistant.
You are clear on how much you can pay your assistant.
You are ready to delegate your daily tasks without it adding to your stress levels.
You have created a detailed job description that outlines your assistant’s responsibilities and compensation.
Keep in mind that your assistant will not be working on commission. You’ll be expected to pay hourly, whether or not you’re successfully closing deals, and most likely you’ll add a bonus when you—as a team—execute a sale.
For this reason, it’s rarely worthwhile to hire an assistant if you are merely looking for help answering phones and handling your scheduling. On the other hand, if you have a multitude of tasks you’re eager to offload, you’re far more likely to find the cost vs. benefit ratio advantageous.
Your most time-consuming tasks are likely answering phone calls, managing your marketing, answering and composing emails, scheduling appointments, touching bases with your existing client roster, and managing your lead generation services. These are tasks an assistant can handle.
If you are just under the threshold that would justify your hiring part-time help, keep pushing to meet your goal. Once you’ve met and maintained this level of transactions, you’ll be thrilled by the benefits of having an assistant on your team.
2.) Decide What Kind of Assistant You Want to Hire
When it’s finally time for you to hire your real estate assistant, review the tasks you want help with. It’s time to analyze whether you’re looking for an assistant with a real estate license, an administrative assistant, a virtual assistant, a freelance worker, or an educated intern.
An assistant with a real estate license will understand the industry mechanics and language from the jump, so they’ll be ready to hit the ground running. They’ll also be able to handle more complex work for you on an ongoing basis.
Administrative assistants are ideal for managing office-related tasks like emails, phone calls, scheduling, and filing.
A virtual assistant can work from anywhere, which will typically give you a better chance of finding someone with ideal work experience and qualifications at a competitive rate. Unfortunately, someone who works remotely won’t be able to help you with any on-site work (e.g. setting up signs, managing open houses, and attending networking events.)
A freelance worker can be hired quickly for specific jobs or lengths of time. This option permits you to limit your expenses to your busiest weeks of the year but may yield workers who can only handle limited tasks. Freelancers can typically assist with open houses, property showings, document drop-offs, work-related shopping, and scheduling.
Perhaps the most bang for your buck can be had when you can choose to hire an intern. This strategy can be especially successful if you’re located near a university or college campus. A student who has just graduated with a bachelor’s degree commands $15/hour, and will be current on social media trends, the real estate market, and software systems you use in your work.
3.) Plan for On-the-Job Training
We recommend hiring your assistant toward the tail end of your slowest season. This timing will ensure that you aren’t paying for help you can do without for a few more months, while also giving you plenty of time to train your new assistant.
Even if the assistant you hire has worked with another realtor before, they still won’t know the finer points of your own business processes. You want your assistant to function as independently as possible once the busy season hits, so take the time to cover everything you expect them to know. It will be well worth the time you’ve invested when you’re able to hand over work and not receive three emails and a text, each asking a question about how to handle the task you’ve assigned.
4.) How to Locate Candidates
Reach out to your real estate network. Send out feelers. Let people know that you’re looking for an assistant and be specific about the type of job you’re offering. Wait for referrals to come through before you post on public forums; you may be overwhelmed with under-qualified candidates and waste weeks wading through applications.
If you can’t find a candidate through these private channels, post your job listing on Indeed, LinkedIn, and sites specific to real estate hiring. If you’re looking for an intern, reach out through colleges and universities. Job fairs, online bulletins, and communication with the staff who lead real estate education are all great avenues to pursue.
The Takeaway
Agents who are just building a consistent career may not be ready to hire an assistant. Still, it’s a goal to strive toward, because hiring a great assistant will free you up to focus on catapulting your business to the next level – and beyond.