A skilled real estate virtual assistant can respond to and nurture your Internet leads until they become ready, willing and able buyers. The leads can be pre-qualified by your lender, sent relocation information, put on drip email campaigns, set up on automated property searches, sent newsletters, called at pre-determined intervals, and made to feel like they are your only client and you haven’t even talked with them yet.

Watch this power point presentation below and see how a real estate virtual assistant helped Leigh Brown with RE/MAX Signature Properties in Charlotte NC take her Internet business for 6% to 24% of her total business in one year.

Have questions about how a real estate virtual assistant can help you convert more leads. Contact us at info@myreassistant.com. We are glad to answer all your questions.

The first question most people ask is, “What is a real estate Virtual Assistant and what can you do for me?”

First, a real estate VA, or Real Estate Virtual Assistant, is an independent contractor providing administrative, creative and technical support for real estate professionals. I work off site…at my own computer in my sweatpants. Believe me, this is one VA who will never use a webcam!! Thus, saving you overhead costs. You don’t provide space or equipment for me.

And because I am an independent contractor, you don’t pay benefits, vacation time or employee taxes. I’m the best of both worlds! I offer the benefits of outsourcing along with the dedication of a valued Team member. You can find a more detailed explanation on my website, myREassistant.com.

What can I do for you as your real estate Virtual Assistant? My specialties are systems development, marketing, listing coordination, Internet marketing, lead coordination, and blogging. The only thing I can’t do for you is make copies and put up signs & lock boxes.

If you are wondering if you need a real estate VA, ask yourself how much time you spend sitting in front of a computer or fooling with paperwork instead of being in front of Buyers and Sellers. If your answer is “too much”, then you need my help.

Learn more about me and my services by clicking here. Then e-mail me or give me a call and we’ll figure out how I can help YOU!

We tend to put our efforts into generating leads and not much real effort into converting that lead into business that actually puts money in our pockets. We are all guilty of letting leads fall through the cracks because we are either too busy or because we really think that the drip email campaign we set up will do all the work for us. My experience as both a licensed Realtor and as a Virtual Assistant (myREassistant.com) tells me this is not the case.

When I was out in the trenches selling and had a buyer in my car or was sitting at a prospective sellers kitchen table, I would always ask, ˜Why are you in my car and not some other agents? or ˜Why am I sitting here in your kitchen and not some other agent? The answer was always the same, ˜Because you called me and no one else did.

I may have been lucky and made an appointment after 1 or 2 phone calls or it may have taken calling for 1 or 2 years. But, I never gave up. I always remembered what my first managing Broker ever told me when I asked, ˜When do you stop calling? She said, ˜When they buy, they die or tell you to stop.

I keep hearing that in this slower market we need to get back to basics. Phone calling is basics!! and it works.

These days, my Real Estate Virtual Assistant Team follows up on Internet leads for a number of our agent clients. I must admit, I wasnt sure how this would work at first. As I am in Virginia and my agent client is in Charlotte NC. But you know what? The buyers in North Carolina are the same as the buyers in Virginia. They have the same concerns, the same needs, and all they really want is for us to be attentive to those needs¦no matter where we are located.

Lets face it, those first contacts with a prospect are about connecting and giving what my husband calls ˜warm fuzzies and it really doesnt matter if the call is coming from VA or any other place, as long as it comes.

The agent I started this experiment with is Leigh Brown, www.LeighBrownAndAssociates.com. Here is what Leigh has to say about our Internet lead follow-up program:

˜The best investment Ive made in my business-EVER-was in my virtual assistant team. They were great anyway, but we discovered an amazing opportunity when Ruth Ann and her Team started doing the initial contact and follow-up on the website leads. Since the incubation period is longer than ˜normal leads, its too time-consuming to do a good job when youre currently working with clients. They have allowed us to actually convert ˜B and ˜C leads throughout the year, in a seamless manner. In fact, our buyers are sad to learn that after talking with Ruth Ann and her Team for 8 months, they have to go find a house with me!  Our conversion ratio on web leads is naturally higher than ever, and we are able to cull the leads before spending money on relocation packages.

Im sure that some of the credit is mine, but Im only as successful as the people who work with me as a part of my team. But the numbers do speak well-8% of my 2006 business was website related, in 2007 it was 23%.

So, I encourage you to pick up that phone, call those leads and dont give up until ˜they buy, die or tell you to stop. Or give me a call and my Team will do it for you:  Ruth Ann Macklin, www.myREassistant.com, ruthann@myreassistant.com, 757-271-6047.

Also read Speed Counts.

Then, back in December, I switched to an HTML email campaign. I figured if I got 1-2 requests from the unsophisticated campaign, this should produce 3-4. The emails looked great, but definitely more commerical. Content was the same, just packaged differently. Result: no requests for information in 30 days.

Needless to say, I have gone back to my more homey emails and my information requests are back on track.

So, keep it simple! Forget the fancy stuff and stick to a more personalized approach.

If you would like help from a real estate virtual assistant with your real estate prospecting campaigns, give me call, 757-271-6047 or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.