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Virtual productivity
Let Your Virtual Assistant Do It

Sure, software makes you more productive, but only if you have time to use it.

BY MICHAEL J. RUSSER

Too many tech vendors make the false assumption that real estate professionals want to devote hours to evaluating, learning, and implementing ever-more sophisticated high-tech solutions. Most salespeople want the productivity benefits of these products but don’t want to spend valuable selling time learning every new program.

There’s a solution to this digital dilemma, and it’s one that serves both your interests and the technology vendors’. Instead of the frustrating and expensive exercise of trying to become proficient in half a dozen real estate applications, hire an expert or two. An increasing number of tech vendors is making this easy by training virtual assistants to use their product or service. In turn, these expert VAs offer training to other assistants—virtual and otherwise.

The training programs—which can run from a few hours to as long as a week—are primarily Web-based, but also may include conference calls and e-mail exchanges with an instructor. Depending on the program’s length, the cost can be as low as $35. Look for real estate VAs who indicate that they’ve received special instruction at sites such as REVA Network or Military Spouse Virtual Assistants. REALTOR.com also posts a list of VAs who are trained in working with its site. If your current VA would like specialized training, he or she can find VAs who provide instruction on various software programs at REVA Network and AssistU.

Not convinced you’ll benefit from expert help? Here are some specific examples of how technology vendors and virtual assistants are teaming up to make your life easier and far more productive:

Elaine Stewart, a Colorado-based military spouse VA who graduated from the REALTOR.com training program , enhances listings and tracks leads for Jack Dice, a broker-associate with RE/MAX Premier in Dulles, Va. Dice e-mails Stewart specifics about the home, digital photos, and a short list of key selling points, then lets Stewart “enhance” his REALTOR.com listings as well as his other Web sites to increase their appeal to buyers.
In the seven months he’s been working with Stewart’s company, eOffice Visions, visits to Dice’s REALTOR.com listings have doubled, and the links Stewart has created to Dice’s other sites also have produced increased traffic. “She’s so much more knowledgeable about the program than I am,” Dice says. “What takes her a few minutes would take me hours.”

After a couple of false starts in which he tried to “overcontrol” VAs that he’s worked with before Stewart, Dice found that having a very specific plan on exactly what the assistant should do, and ensuring that each task is understood before adding another, are key to working productively in a virtual environment.

April Boomer, a South Carolina VA, completed special training from Imprev.net, a multimedia marketing materials company. This enables her to quickly put together stunning print and Flash promotions aimed at FSBOs for Rebecca Levine of RE/MAX Best Associates in Overland Park, Kan. “I’d seen Imprev.net demonstrated and was interested in using it, but I didn’t want to spend the time to learn it,” says Levine. Instead, she obtained a software license and let Boomer do the rest. Levine, who uses several VAs for different marketing and administrative tasks, likes the fact that she benefits from ideas and new techniques Boomer learns from working on marketing materials for several real estate practitioners. “This is her business,” says Levine. “If I worked with an in-house assistant, she’d never grow any more than I’m able to teach her. With April, I get the best ideas from several top practitioners in other markets.”

Karen Drebes, a VA in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages transaction flow for Damian Janssen of Keller Williams Group One in Reno, Nev. , with the help of an online transaction management system from GURU NETworks Inc. “The key to using a VA is that you get specialization—someone who’s really experienced in a program and who does the same work for top performers in other markets. Otherwise, you’re trying to fly the rocket without the pilot,” says Janssen.

The benefits of specially trained VAs to both practitioners and tech vendors are only going to grow. The constant introduction of new technologies makes this approach an ideal solution for shell-shocked and weary real estate professionals who don’t have time to learn “just one more new thing.”

Editor’s Note: Michael Russer and Karen Drebes are also founding members of REVA Network.

Mr. Internet’s Tip of the Month
Next to spam, pop-up ads get my vote for the biggest nuisance and timewaster when browsing the Web. Now there is an easy and—best of all, free—way to eliminate these annoying intrusions to our Internet experience. Google, a popular search engine, now offers a free toolbar that gives you control over pop-ups. Just go to http://toolbar.google.com, and follow the downloading and installation instructions. It will only take a few seconds to install. Then, unless you click on an option that lets pop-ups appear on a site you’re visiting, your Web browsing will be ad-free.

In addition to eliminating pop-up windows, the Google Toolbar also allows you to auto-fill any online form with your standard contact information just by clicking a button on the bar. It automatically colors the form fields it recognizes and is able to complete. If you subscribe to a large number of e-newsletters or order quite a few products online, as I do, this can be a great timesaver. The program also makes online shopping easier because it will even store your encrypted credit card information and auto-fill it into an order form once you enter a password you set when storing the card data. Since the credit card information is stored on your computer instead of on the Internet, you’re also safer from unauthorized users accessing your information.

For people who use the Internet a lot, installing the Google Toolbar probably will save you hours of time and frustration a year and make your online experience that much more productive and enjoyable. Not a bad payoff for free!