Anyone have any luck with virtual assistants? Looking to hire one.
I'm diving into the world of virtual assistants but it's a bit overwhelming. There are so many out there and it's difficult to tell who's actually qualified and who's not. Are you hiring them directly and if so, how &amp; where? Or, are you using a site like Upwork, [Onlinejobs.ph](https://Onlinejobs.ph), etc?
[{"id": "i3krjk3", "text": "I considered this myself with much hesitation. \ud83d\udc40", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i3ktmh3", "text": "Go through an agency. Don't waste time hiring 1 direct. It will be a bit more expensive, but save you money in the long run and you can just pay with a credit card.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i3ldu3b", "text": "Do a lot of people (brokers?) use VAs?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i3mdftk", "text": "We have a commercial brokerage business and small syndication and management business. In the past we have tried to keep up with properly databasing (updating new owners, new developments, etc.) in our database for brokerage while also trying to reach out to buy new deals for our portfolio but it became time consuming while simultaneously raising funds, managing the assets and on site managers/maintenance but its very time consuming. Having use virtual assistants for one off jobs in the past (mainly data entry for thousands of lines of information) three months ago we decided to hire one to assist with databasing and prospecting.\n\nWe interviewed several agencies including ones we have worked with in the past, eliminating those who didn't have experience in real estate. Most agencies will send you resumes of all of their employees along with voice recordings. We approached it similar to hiring a full time employee from the US reviewing the resumes of all the potential applicants and eliminating those who had little or no experience with prospecting. Since this was going to be someone also cold calling we also listened carefully to the voice samples for clear communication ability. Once we narrowed it down the agency allowed us to schedule phone interviews (im sure zoom would have been possible as well but since we were going to be hiring someone to make cold calls not cold zooms we decided against it). This is where obvious differences in communication ability really stood out. Asking questions on the fly allowed us to better understand their ability to communicate as its much harder to this during a conversation than reading from a script. \n\nSo far I have been very impressed. My VA, her boss, and bosses boss all text me when they are ready to start every morning and send detailed end of day reports. We have set up a fairly complex databasing system of multiple product types and databases which she caught onto fairly easy. Prospecting has turned up a few leads and is more of an experiment to see if we keep her cold calling for the long term or just reduce to emailing.\n\nI think regardless of what you are hiring for writing clear directions for the process is essential. Most of our communication is whatsapp and email. Have someone you know who isnt aware of the process review and see if there is any confusion. Check in early and often to ensure you and your VA are on the same page as there can be confusion with even the best written directions.\n\nI think the hard part (for me at least) about managing a VA that you havent meet in person and rarely speak to is that its harder to develop the \"relationship\" with that employee like those you see frequently. These are people who take pride in their jobs and expect constructive feedback and praise and all of the other attributes good managers should provide employees.", "replies": [{"id": "i3oetbt", "text": "I appreciate your detailed post about this. Are you willing to send me her name &amp; company that I would need to contact? (Unless of course she works full time for you).", "replies": [{"id": "i3wfkum", "text": "Sent you a DM", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i3u5pw7", "text": "Can you tell me the name of the company? We are looking for a skilled VA", "replies": [{"id": "i67ghdn", "text": "Are you still looking to hire a VA ?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i57ev3o", "text": "Hi I\u2019m a professional virtual assistant, you will be pleased to work with me.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]