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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®





How to Work With an Assistant

Tasks to Delegate to an Assistant

When you’re accustomed to doing the work yourself or think that no one else can do something as well as you can, it’s often hard to delegate. “Letting go is never easy, but it is the only path to true growth and a well-run business,” writes Robert L. Herd in his book, Become a Mega-Producer Real Estate Agent: Profit From a Licensed Assistant (Thomson South-Western, 2004).

Fear of losing control and poor planning are the two principal barriers to successful delegation. Don’t let these barriers hold you back from greater success by keeping these tips in mind:

  • Don’t expect the assistant to do the job exactly as you would do; what you want is a positive end result.
  • Match the jobs that you delegate to the skills and experience of the assistant.
  • Spend enough time training the assistant to ensure that he or she understands the job well.
  • Don’t be concerned if it takes the assistant longer to do the job, at least at first. In learning a new task, most people concentrate on quality first and then work on speed.
  • Discuss scheduling with your assistant to make sure you’re not delegating too much work.
  • Monitor your assistant’s work and offer constructive feedback to improve performance.
  • If possible, delegate tasks that are of interest to your assistant.

    Here are some ideas for the specific tasks you can delegate to your personal assistant:

    Personal Marketing
    Prospecting
    Listing Support
    Closing Coordination
    Web Site Maintenance
    Manage Incoming Calls
    Event Planning
    Company Volunteer Efforts
    Administrative Duties
    Tasks for Virtual Assistants
    More Than One Assistant

    Personal Marketing

    Mailings such as brochures, flyers, just-sold postcards, and personal letters allow you to stay in touch with former clients and build relationships with prospective customers. Your personal assistant can play a vital role in coordinating these efforts. Your assistant could:
  • Locate vendors to produce and distribute marketing materials and request prices from them.
  • Maintain routine contacts with graphic designers, printers, mailers and other vendors to ensure that deadlines are met.
  • Keep track of production, billing, and shipping dates for advertising materials such as flyers and brochures.
  • Enter new contact names, addresses, and e-mails from information requests, open house guest books, and other sources in your contact database. Make address corrections as they are received.
  • Track and execute a mailing schedule that you have devised. Use a program such as Top Producer or ACT! to sync with your database to create merged letters and other correspondence.
  • Create marketing materials such as writing copy for a newsletter, laying out your newsletter using a pre-designed template, and producing property ads for newspaper placements. (These duties would require an assistant with an advanced skill set.) If you’re lucky enough to find an assistant with a strong eye for graphic design or a perceptive ear for persuasive language, these skills can provide a boost to your business.
  • Respond to phone requests for information about your services by sending out a standardized package of information.
  • Follow up on marketing materials with phone calls to make sure that customers received the letters and see if they are a current prospect for you to contact.
  • Carry out clerical tasks such as stuffing envelopes and getting new postage in the postage meter.

    Prospecting

    Your assistant can be a valuable resource in researching, executing, and tracking your lead-generation efforts. For instance, your assistant can:
  • Develop prospect lists. Locate addresses and phone numbers for targeted seller categories to use for direct mail. Your assistant might scan the MLS for expired listings, comb public tax records for out-of-state owners, check local newspapers for FSBOs, and search crisscross directories to find prospects by neighborhood or Zip code.
  • Analyze market demographics to look for new niches. Contact local economic development councils or community groups to find demographic information about your community. You can then match those demographics to categories of properties. For example, if your area contains a high percentage of high-income home owners over age 50, vacation homes might be a great niche.
  • Make follow-up phone calls. Create a warm-call list from responses to mailings or other promotions. If your assistants are licensed, they can use these calls to evaluate prospects’ interest level. Your assistants can return calls for prospects who indicate that they aren’t interested at this time, but would like information about your services.
  • Manage database entries. Record which marketing category or contact method netted a particular sale. For example, your assistant should note if a client found out about the salesperson through an ad, direct mail, or a lawn sign. Your assistant can take this information from call sheets and enter them into a database. Having this data allows you to evaluate how much time and money was spent prospecting to each category vs. how much commission income was generated from transactions closed in that category within a specified period.

    Listing Support

    Listing presentations are your chance to promote yourself one-on-one with sellers. Assistants can provide behind-the-scenes support to pull together presentations that will project a professional image for you and convert prospects into clients. These background duties that your assistant can perform include:
  • Assemble prelisting and listing packets. The assistant should follow a standard format that you devise. Prelisting packets contain information that underscores salespeople’s qualifications and communicates their values. These packets should include:

    o Sample advertising materials
    o Letters of reference
    o Personal marketing materials
    o Information on your team members

    Prelisting packets also might contain a list of paperwork that the sellers should bring to the listing presentation, such as:

    o Mortgage papers
    o House title
    o Recent utility bills
    o Most recent tax bills

    Many of the same items will probably be included in your listing presentation. Your assistant also might include:

    o Listing agreement
    o Disclosure forms
    o Mock-up of property marketing brochure
    o Comparable market analysis (CMA)
  • Conduct primary CMA research. The assistant should follow a preprinted form you create. You should provide guidelines for what information the assistant should gather. This will include searching the MLS for relevant pricing data on recent sales and listings. Additionally, you may wish to instruct your assistant to delve into your own previous sales figures for similar properties. Once the data is compiled, practitioners can step in and apply their interpretive skills to the material.
  • Distribute the prelisting packet. A few days before the listing presentation, the assistant should deliver the packet via express mail or in person, then follow up with a phone call to make sure that the seller received it.
  • Rehearse listing presentations. Ask your assistant toassume the role of the seller and present you with objections. This role-playing strategy can be an effective way for you to work out kinks in a new presentation or to prepare you for any objections you’ve frequently encountered. Even experienced salespeople can benefit from occasionally brushing up on their presentation skills.

    Closing Coordination

    Even a signed purchase contract is no guarantee that a sale will go through; the final mile to closing is littered with details that could potentially wreck a deal. Your assistant can help you guide the customer through this paperwork and ensure as smooth a transaction as possible.

    An assistant can shoulder much of the responsibility in getting to a closing, says Barbara Jean Pickens, a Wichita, Kansas-based practitioner. The assistant’s role in this phase of the transaction will be to coordinate communications between the practitioner, customer, and the various vendors involved in the closing process. “I negotiate; [my assistant] gets the paperwork in,” Pickens summarizes. Both licensed and unlicensed assistants can carry out these duties. However, only licensed assistants can negotiate issues that may arise before the closing.

    You should prepare a closing checklist with items your assistant may need to track. The assistant can be responsible for monitoring:
  • Loan documentation. Your assistant can double check that clients submit all relevant paperwork to the loan officer, such as tax returns, employment verification, and bankruptcy dispensations.
  • Appointments for inspections. Your assistants can make appointments with vendors to evaluate the properties, then make sure that reports are received promptly and that sellers perform necessary repairs to their properties, if required.
  • Important dates. Your assistant should keep tabs on your calendar, and if applicable, make sure that appointment dates are transferred from the office computer to your PDA.
  • Coordinating the schedule for the closing. Your assistant can follow up with all parties related to the transaction to make sure they will be present at closing. Typically, this includes sellers, buyers, attorneys (for the buyers and sellers), real estate professionals, and a closing representative from the lender or title company. The assistant also should make a final check to be sure that every vendor and party to the transaction has supplied all paperwork needed to close.

    Web Site Maintenance

    Your assistant’s role in regards to your Web site will probably focus on keeping the site current. This doesn’t necessarily require a high level of technical expertise, but if that’s one of the primary tasks your assistant will be responsible for, advertise for someone with prior Web site maintenance experience and experience in the specific Web authoring tool you use, such as Dreamweaver, PageMaker, or Composer.

    If you can’t find someone with these qualifications, look for a person skilled in other programs, such as Microsoft Office suite or financial software — something to demonstrate general computer savvy. Then you'll either have to invest time in training your assistant yourself or invest money in hiring an outside training company. Many community colleges offer relatively inexpensive classes.

    Your assistant's Web site duties might include the following:
  • Check links. Make sure that URLs to outside sources of information you list on your site have not ceased operations or changed addresses.
  • Add listings. Enter new listings onto your Web site, the MLS, and any other listing sites you use.
  • Delete listings. Monitor when houses are sold and remove them from all sites where they have been posted.
  • Collect and add new content. Research and secure permission to use content such as real estate articles from local newspapers and national publications, links to local chambers of commerce or school districts, as well as other content that may enrich your site.
  • Create a Web site and an e-mail version of your newsletter to send to clients. Of course, your assistant also could create the copy for your snail-mail newsletter.
  • Respond to basic e-mail requests for information in a timely fashion. Create standardized e-mail documents describing your services as well as a prelisting package, and instructions on how to locate your listings on the Web that your assistant can use.

    Manage Incoming Calls

    You should establish clear guidelines to help your assistant prioritize incoming calls. This way your assistant will know when to turn a query over to you and when to handle it alone. Set up parameters so that your assistant knows how to handle different type of calls:
  • Priority requests. These calls demand your immediate attention. This category might include repeat clients and buyers interested in high-priced properties. Have assistants forward these requests directly to you and answer them as soon as possible, preferably within the hour.
  • Personal response. This type of call also requires a direct response, but aren't as time critical. This might include potential customers who want to make an appointment or who have in-depth questions about the homeselling process. Everyone who requests a personal response should receive one. You should, however, respond to these messages as quickly as time permits, by the close of business the same day, if possible.
  • Informational response. Your assistant can probably handled this type of call, which typically includes basic questions about your services, general information about the community, and requests for a basic listing sheet and brochure about a property.Create standardized forms for letters and materials that address frequently requested information — such as the steps involved in selling a home — for your assistants’ use. Be sure to have your assistants personalize letters with the requester’s name and address using a mail-merge feature. If you’re technologically sophisticated, you might even want to set up an automated response feature in your e-mail to send some types of information in response to certain key words in the subject line.

    Event Planning

    Whether you want to hold a seminar, sponsor a charity event, or organize a past client get-together, event planning requires keeping tabs on a multitude of nagging details. Your assistant can coordinate the finer points of arranging your event so that you’ll have time to talk with clients and prospects.

    Seminars and conferences provide an excellent networking forum, boosting your recognition within your field. Your assistant could keep an eye out for announcements in trade publications and online venues about trade events you might be interested in participating in. Once you are confirmed for the event, your assistant should handle logistics such as flight arrangements, accommodations, and rental cars. Your assistant also can let clients know when you’ll be out of town.

    If you are conducting an event on your own, your assistant can be responsible for coordinating these elements:
  • Reserving a room and any equipment, such as sound equipment, that you or other presenters may need.
  • Finding a caterer to provide refreshments. No matter how fascinating a speaker you are, your attendees will likely be grumpy without pastries and coffee.
  • Sending announcements to local press to promote the event.
  • Distributing invitations and following up with invitees.
  • Securing the services of a photographer to capture the event for future promotions.
  • Preparing materials for the presentation, such as copying handouts and arranging slides.
  • Gathering feedback after the event through attendee surveys.

    Company Volunteer Efforts

    Charity eventsraise your profile in your community and make you feel good. Volunteering also demonstrates your commitment to your community and may put you in touch with potential clients and business contacts.

    Your assistant can perform a number of duties to support your community involvement efforts. These tasks include:
  • Soliciting donations of food or raffle prizes from local businesses to use at the event.
  • Transporting prizes or volunteers to the event.
  • Hanging posters and handing out flyers to promote the event.
  • Sending invitations and following up with invitees.
  • Distributing announcements to local press to promote the event.
  • Coordinating food, equipment, and facilities for the event.
  • Arranging for a photographer to record the event for use in future promotions.
  • Sending thank-you letters to donors and attendees.
  • Creating and distributing a press release on the outcome of the event.

    Each year, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® sponsors the Good Neighbor Awards, a program to recognize REALTORS® for outstanding community service.

    For more information about how you can volunteer in your community, visit our Good Neighbor Tool Kit .

    Administrative Duties

    Time-sapping administrative tasks are a distraction for any real estate professional. Give yourself more time to sell by delegating these duties to your assistant:
  • Coordinating mail flow by scheduling and tracking direct mailings to prospects and past clients.
  • Updating mailing lists by adding new prospects and making address changes as needed.
  • Managing advertising production by keeping a log to ensure that advertising materials and related billing are mailed to printers and newspapers on a timely basis.
  • Proofreading materials, such as advertising copy, personal letters to top clients, and direct mail promotions, for content and clarity.
  • Coordinating appointment schedules for open houses, listing presentations, showings, closing meetings, and other appointments. An assistant can call to remind clients and prospects of scheduled meetings and keep you informed of changes.
  • Maintaining a document log for each transaction as a way of ensuring that necessary materials are being received and filed properly.
  • Acting as an office manager by supervising other full- and part-time assistants and issuing progress reports, as well as bookkeeping and payroll duties.
  • Running errands, such as putting up and taking down “For Sale” signs, picking up and dropping off contracts, and adding and removing lockboxes.
  • Fulfilling miscellaneous administrative tasks, such as ordering stationery and supplies, accepting deliveries, screening phone calls, and making copies.
  • Following up with buyers and sellers after the transaction to solicit feedback on the transaction experience.

    If your assistant’s workload will primarily consist of administrative duties such as these, it would probably be less expensive to hire an unlicensed assistant to fill the position. There are no legal restrictions on unlicensed assistants carrying out some purely administrative activities.

    Tasks for Virtual Assistants

    When evaluating which tasks to outsource to your virtual assistant, consider whether the task can be completed with minimal supervision. You’ll need to provide clear directions and a specific time schedule. Remote work is well-suited to tasks that are self-contained, such as Web design and maintenance, or creating marketing materials like flyers or newsletters.

    Here are some examples of what VAs can do:

    Pre-Listing
  • Get a lead from your Web site and send you an e-mail with the name and address of the lead.
  • Add the lead to your contact management system.
  • Customize your prelisting documents with photos of the home.
  • Add home photos and your potential client’s information to the cover sheet of your pre-listing package. Print the package in color, bind the document, and send via express mail to the potential client.
  • Make a follow-up call to the potential client after receiving confirmation that the package was delivered.

    Marketing Presentation

    Your VA can create a PowerPoint marketing presentation for you to use during your initial meeting with prospects that outlines all the marketing activities that you offer to sellers.

    Market the Listing

    Once you take a listing, your VA can implement steps from your listing checklist, which can include:
  • Entering the property in the MLS.
  • Adding property on your Web site.
  • Creating a virtual tour.
  • Designing and sending an e-mail to your database of prospective buyers.
  • Sending e-mail to other real estate professionals.
  • Producing color property flyers.
  • Faxing a flyer to a list of real estate offices.
  • Writing and place classified advertising.
  • Sending you a hotline script to record.
  • Enhancing the listing on REALTOR.com and other listing sites with copy, photos, links, etc.

    Listing Marketing Activity

    Your VA can e-mail or snail mail weekly reports to sellers with the following information:
  • REALTOR.com traffic to the listings
  • Virtual tour traffic
  • Web hits
  • Showing feedback, gathered by phone or through an automated showing feedback service
  • Hotline calls

    More Than One Assistant

    If you decide to work with more than one assistant, how you parcel out tasks among your assistants will depend on the size of your operation and your management style.

    Some salespeople have found success by developing specialized assistant positions. This approach allows each assistant to concentrate on one distinct area, such as buyer's representation, closing, or advertising. But this approach isn’t right for everyone. You might not have enough business to justify employing a large team or you may not want to take on the added management responsibilities.

    Dividing a range of activities as diverse as closing management, marketing, and working with buyers among a limited number of people requires you to match assistants’ skills sets with job functions. Begin by listing which jobs you want your assistants to perform. In compiling this list, consider which tasks require less skill but take your time away from such revenue-generating activities as listing. Also consider which parts of real estate sales you are best at and enjoy, then delegate the ones you find less rewarding. If you already have a job description for your existing assistant, this may be a good time to re-evaluate what each assistant will be doing.

    Isolate which skills and personality traits are vital to completing each of the tasks you want to delegate. For instance if you need somebody to making follow-up calls, then your criteria might include persistence, salesmanship, and the ability to work independently. Next, evaluate your assistants’ background and job performance to determine which assistant is best suited to each job. For instance, a low-key, highly organized, patient assistant might be the perfect choice to guide sellers through the sometimes stressful and complex closing process. This person also may be able to handle other secondary client-contact duties that don’t require selling skills, such as arranging schedules for out-of-town buyers, picking them up from the airport, and giving them a preliminary tour of the town.

    Unless your assistants are Jacks (or Jills) of all trades who handle every area of real estate with equal aplomb, their workloads will probably include some tasks that they are better at than others. This is inevitable, but as long as assistants perform the most critical job tasks well, you may have to be satisfied with adequate work in less important areas.

    When hiring new assistants, you need to prioritize the tasks assigned to each person and hire first for the most important job skills. When one assistant leaves, you also should consider re-evaluating the division of responsibilities again based on the job candidates you have available.

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