Educational
August 27, 2025

The Realtor's Guide to Working with Remote Talents

Delegate admin work securely to real estate Virtual Assistants (VAs) and focus on closing deals. Realtors and real estate agents spend countless hours on “back-office” tasks data entry, lead follow-up, listing paperwork, and more instead of meeting clients and closing deals. By hiring a virtual assistant to perform these routine tasks, agents free up time and cut costs. Experienced real estate VAs can handle everything from MLS and CRM updates to scheduling showings and managing leads. As a result, agents can concentrate on what they do best: building relationships and selling homes or commercial property.

Why Hire Remote Talents for Back-Office Tasks?

The modern real estate market, whether selling houses for sale or managing commercial property listings, generates enormous paperwork and admin work. Instead of bogging down your day with routine chores, your remote talent will allow you focus on clients. A virtual assistant with real estate experience can use industry platforms (like MLS listing systems, LeadSimple or AppFolio CRM, and popular marketing tools) to keep your databases, documents, and schedules up to date. This approach is applicable to all real estate specialties: from residential “homes for sale” listings to complex commercial transactions. In short, delegating back-office duties is a fast path to increased productivity for any realtor.

Top Benefits: Save Time and Money

  • Save Time: VAs handle low-value but time-consuming chores (paperwork, emails, cold-calling buyers, etc.), freeing you to win new listings. Agents who delegate paperwork and follow-up discover they can spend those hours prospecting or networking, accelerating business growth.
  • Save Money: Working with a remote talent can slash admin labor costs by ~30% to 50%. For example, hiring a virtual assistant often costs far less per hour than a local hire, and you avoid payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits. One realtor forum notes that using a VA can “lower labor fees by more than 40%,” since you pay only for actual work (often tax-deductible) and skip overhead.
  • Expertise on Demand: Many virtual assistants specializing in real estate already know industry platforms. They are trained on tools like Asana for project management and real estate CRMs for lead management, and can learn your local MLS quickly This means agents don’t have to spend weeks training an in-house assistant: a good VA hit the ground running.
  • Flexibility & Scalability: Need extra support during peak seasons (spring selling frenzy or when commercial projects heat up)? You can scale your VA team up or down. No lengthy hiring process is needed, just assign more hours to your VA or onboard another assistant. This “on-demand” support helps smooth busy periods without long-term payroll.
A virtual assistant (VA) can take over routine tasks like scheduling property showings, freeing the agent to focus on client meetings and closing deals.

Real estate VAs routinely coordinate transactions, manage leads, schedule showings, enter MLS data, organize documents, and more. For example, a VA might update “homes for sale” on your CRM, post new listings to Zillow or Realtor.com, and answer routine inquiries. By offloading these tasks, you gain hours each week to focus on selling homes, whether it’s residential properties or commercial property listings.

Common Back-Office Tasks to Delegate

Virtual assistants can handle virtually any administrative duty in a real estate back office. Typical tasks include:

  • Transaction Coordination: Processing paperwork for new listings or sales, following up on closing documents, and keeping track of deadlines.
  • Listing and Data Management: Entering property details into MLS, updating photos and descriptions for houses or apartments, and maintaining client and property databases.
  • Lead Generation & Follow-Up: Researching new properties, qualifying buyer leads, and even acting as an inside sales agent (making introductory calls and scheduling appointments).
  • Marketing Support: Managing social media posts for “homes for sale,” creating listing flyers or email campaigns, updating your website or SEO to attract buyers VAs can boost your online presence to generate referrals and increase your leads.
  • Client Communication: Sending email newsletters to past clients, responding to basic inquiries 24/7 (a global VA team can answer tenant or buyer questions at any hour), and booking showings or open houses.
  • Reporting and Accounting: Compiling weekly/monthly sales reports, tracking leads, and even basic bookkeeping or invoicing.

Notably, many of these tasks rely on specific software. Professional real estate VAs are often trained on MLS systems, CRMs (like Salesforce or BoomTown), transaction management platforms, and marketing tools. This means they arrive ready to hit platforms that agents commonly use. As one firm puts it, their team “pairs you with a VA who brings relevant real estate expertise”,even background-checking candidates for your confidence. In practice, agents find that with a VA taking care of listings and follow-ups, they have more time to expand, perhaps adding more listings in a new neighborhood or exploring commercial property deals, secure in the knowledge the back office is covered.

Cost Savings vs. Investing in Security

The financial upside of VAs is clear: realtors report saving thousands per year. Since virtual assistants are often freelancers, you pay only for the hours/tasks delivered, not for benefits or idle time. Some analyses estimate that a U.S.-based agent can save over $60K per year by using VAs instead of hiring full-time staff. In addition, agency fees for recruiting and onboarding a VA are typically one-time and far below recurring payroll taxes. These savings can be reinvested in marketing, hiring more agents, or simply added to your bottom line.

However, cost-saving should not come at the expense of security. Handling client data and property deals involves sensitive information and agents rightly worry about confidentiality. The good news is that professional virtual assistants firms take data security seriously. Reputable VAs sign strict non-disclosure agreements before starting work, legally binding them to keep your data private. Many agencies conduct police or background checks on their staff.

Additional safeguards include:

  • Secure Workstations: VAs work on dedicated laptops with up-to-date antivirus, firewalls, and encrypted drives to keep client files safe.
  • Role-Based Access: You can limit each VA’s access only to the platforms and data needed for their tasks. For example, a VA may only see current listing files, not your entire client database.
  • Encrypted Communication: Instead of sending passwords and documents by plain email, VAs use secure channels (e.g. Slack with two-factor authentication, encrypted email, or business cloud storage like Google Drive/Dropbox with 2FA). This keeps buyer lists and contract details encrypted in transit.
  • Ongoing Cyber Training: Virtual assistants are often trained in best practices like recognizing phishing emails, using strong passwords, and following strict file-sharing protocols. This proactive approach prevents mistakes that could lead to breaches.
  • Regular Backups: Agencies routinely back up data and have recovery plans in case of any incident. Even if a ransomware or hardware failure occurs, you won’t lose critical documents because there are secure copies stored safely.

By combining these measures, agents can enjoy the time-and-cost-savings of working with remote talents without sacrificing security. In fact, one expert notes: “When you hire the right virtual assistant, you won’t need to compromise on security to achieve efficiency. You get more than just support, you get peace of mind. In short, due diligence pays off: a well-vetted VA or agency will guard your data just as carefully as you would in-house.

Finding the Right Virtual Assistant

To maximize benefits, realtors should seek experienced real estate VAs. Look for assistants (or agencies) with proven track records in property support. There are thousands of VAs available on platforms like Upwork and Guru, as well as specia. These networks span dozens of countries even one firm boasts real estate VA teams in 192+ countries, giving you access to global talent. This “enlarged hiring pool” means you can find VAs with specific skills (e.g. Spanish fluency for a local market, or expertise in commercial listings) at affordable rates.

Whether you choose an independent VA or go through a staffing agency, confirm that candidates know real estate tools and practices. The VA should be comfortable with MLS data entry, client follow-up scripts, and the nuances of listing homes vs. selling commercial property. Many agencies now even specialize by industry, so a “real estate virtual assistant” will already understand terms like escrow, listings, or property management.

Ultimately, virtual assistants can work with all kinds of realtors and agencies. Big or small, every team has routine admin that needs doing. Start by listing tasks you dislike or that pull you off the phone, and look for a VA who can do those daily. With clear instructions and the right security protocols, you’ll quickly realize that a talented VA (vetted and overseen remotely) can become your right-hand assistant at a fraction of the cost of an in-house hire.

Conclusion

Delegating your real estate back-office to virtual assistants is a smart way for U.S. realtors and decision-makers to cut costs and boost productivity. By handing off transactional coordination, data entry, marketing, and more, agents reclaim valuable time for client-facing work. With modern security practices, from NDAs to encrypted communications, working with a remote VA can be done just as safely as hiring local help. The result? You delegate admin work securely and focus on what really moves your business forward: closing deals and growing your portfolio.

Forward-thinking real estate professionals will find that seasoned VAs (especially those sourced through reputable partners) provide a powerful competitive edge. The combined benefits such as substantial cost savings, extra time for sales, and the peace of mind from robust security make it well worth exploring. As one expert advises, “Delegate what others can do, so you can do more of what only you can do”. In real estate, that means leaning on experienced virtual assistants to handle the back-office, while you focus on winning those listings and growing your business.

Discover more about hiring real-estate virtual assistants today.

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