Hiring a Virtual Property Management Assistant Can Save You Time and Money

If you’re a property owner or a property manager who needs to delegate more of their work, you’d be surprised at what can be achieved through virtual property management. Virtually every aspect of the real estate you own—from dealing with bookkeeping to handling rent payments—can be handled online these days. Consider what you can accomplish by moving some of your essential services online:

Easier (and even automatic) scheduling and follow up. Property management can sometimes feel like juggling—and it can be just as stressful. Virtual property management software and practices make it possible to do much of the juggling for you.
Incorporate property management marketing. Want to reach new and potential renters more quickly? Outsource much of your marketing to prospective tenants with effective scheduling and online lead capturing systems.
Better systems for maintenance requests. A maintenance request shouldn’t be an unexpected event. It should be a simple way to provide outstanding services for your tenants—with minimal interruption.

But setting up a virtual property management system doesn’t happen by snapping your fingers.

One of the best ways to make sure that you’re capable of doing all of the above is to work with a property management virtual assistant. That’s a virtual assistant with a background in the property management systems, data entry, and rental property quirks unique to your industry. Here’s how to get started.

The Goals: What You Can Achieve with a Virtual Property Management Assistant

Too often, people who hire a virtual assistant find themselves struggling to come up with tasks. The good news in property management is that this won’t be a problem for you.

But it does help to have an idea of what a good virtual property management system should look like. Here are the various tasks you can improve and automate:

Onboarding to property management software. You don’t get to be a $76 billion industry without some software companies designing products to make your life easier. There is plenty of software that a property management company like yours can use to automatically make life easier—hire a virtual assistant to perform any required data entry and you won’t have to keep procrastinating the act of onboarding your company onto that software.
Automatic scheduling and follow-ups. You want to save time, but you also have to make sure that you remain responsive and flexible with the schedules of prospective tenants. Outsource your schedule management to a virtual assistant to automatically schedule everything during your working hours, while also handling follow-ups on those prospective tenants that don’t respond. You’ll be more efficient in less time.
Automatically forward maintenance requests. An old system of handling maintenance requests might forward all tenant calls to the maintenance professional you hired. But what if that maintenance professional is on vacation or too busy to respond on time? Hiring a virtual assistant to look for other contractors in the area will help fix the issue. Their research may also help you discover contractors offering lower prices.
Smoother property management marketing. When you own a property management company, you don’t always have time to do the marketing that brings in additional prospective tenants. Outsource it! Have a virtual property management assistant work on your Wordpress blog, for example, or update your social media accounts with new listings. This kind of engagement will keep your property in the public eye and ensure that the “contact us” forms always have tenants offering up applications.

How to Get Your Property Management Service into “Virtual” Mode

Why does your property management service need to be virtual? Consider that while millennials are an important tenant segment now, future trends will take us toward Generation Z. Says Mashvisor: “Gen Z is expected to grow from 8 million to over 55 million in the next decade.” Gen Z is tech-savvy and will expect features like online rent payments.

The more virtual you can make your property management business now, the better. You’ll be one step ahead of the curve.

The only remaining question is how. What are the steps to get your property management business into a “virtual mode”? During the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have noticed that there are some aspects of your business that can be handled virtually. But let’s explore a comprehensive list that will help you adapt to the virtual future:

Supplement your staff with a virtual property management assistant. Having an extra pair of eyes to manage your virtual systems while you’re away helps ensure that the entire process is smooth.
Make your existing tenant services virtual. Can you handle online rent payments, or do you still insist that tenants mail your checks? The way you handle rent payments will be a reflection of the way your entire business works.
Create a web presence that can handle new tenants. It’s not enough to have a website that shows pictures of your properties. Create a unique, responsive web presence. There are plenty of WordPress templates that make it possible for you to accept new contact forms from anyone visiting your site. A virtual property management assistant can help you with this.
Install a property management system. We’re not going to tell you with property management software you need to install. There are plenty of options that can help you manage work orders, data entry, and even social media accounts with ease. What’s more important is that you get in the habit of using such a system.
Create a scheduling system that makes sense for your hours. The beauty of virtual property management is that you can let the system remain responsive to people. You can incorporate software systems that automatically respond to tenants in off-hours and let them know that their message has been heard. Work with your property management virtual assistant to create a scheduling system that works for your hours.

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Why You Need to Think About Virtual Property Management

All of the above is primarily concerned with how. But what about why? What are the benefits of moving your property management systems into the virtual environment?

More efficiency. The greater your virtual reach, the less you’ll have to spread out your hours. Property management software like Manage Casa, for example, will summarize all of your active leases and monthly earnings into a single dashboard.
Measure your success. When you do everything by handshake and paper, it’s tough to measure your results. You have to go by your gut feelings—and there’s no way of verifying how accurate those feelings are. Using virtual property management software lets you track variables like online conversion rates and how often you schedule visits with prospective tenants.
Keep property management alive even when you’re on vacation. When you immigrate your property management services into software, you can hand it off to a virtual assistant with minimal interruption to your workflow.
Better communication. With a virtual response system, your tenant communication management will work better. According to Manage Casa, “8 out of 10 customers” say their services make tenant communication easier.

Start Your Own Virtual Property Management Empire

Once you have the properties in place and you have a handle on how to manage scheduling, tenants, marketing, and more, the simple question is: how do you make it virtual?

The good news is that it’s much easier than it sounds. And as we explained above, the first step is to get connected with an experienced virtual property management assistant who can help you with the tough work of data entry, importing to property management software, and more. Here are the essential steps for identifying a virtual assistant who’s right for you:

Sign up. It’s that easy. Signing up to Delegated will give you access to specific virtual assistant profiles so you can find one that fits your needs to a T.
Work with our customer success manager. Our goal is to pair you with someone who’s as invested in your success as you are. Our customer success manager will help you navigate the site, sort through potential candidates, and walk you through the hiring process.
Hire a virtual property assistant. Once you’ve worked with the customer success manager, you’ll be able to look through a list of potential candidates and select the one that’s right for you. This will come down to your individual priorities as a property manager. But since you’ll primarily be working with this VA, don’t be afraid to take your time and get it right.
Onboard the property manager assistant. Create an onboarding document that includes all of the relevant virtual information your property manager assistant will need to get “hooked in” to your company.

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Start growing your business and reducing overhead with Delegated

1. Meet your assistant 

We’ll ask you some questions to match you with one our virtual assistants as well as a backup assistant.

2. Create a workflow 

Our platform gives you the power to create a workflow that fits your lifestyle. You choose how to track time, communicate, and share files with your assistant.

3. Start delegating 

You have access to your virtual assistant 8am-5pm your local time. Start delegating tasks and grow as you need.

Get Started »

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) in Virtual Property Management

Still a little unsure about how it all works? Let’s look at some FAQ:

Why do I need a virtual property management assistant?

It’s all about how you see your property management systems working. Hiring someone who can work similar hours and handle inbound tenant requests will help free up your time so you can work hard on the business itself.

What does a virtual assistant do, exactly?

Anything you can think of in the realm of effective property management can fall under this umbrella. A virtual assistant can handle data entry for moving your property management business to new software, for example.

Do I have to hire a property manager assistant full-time?

No. We at Delegated have several options for you to choose from, and you can start with something small if you’re not sure you have enough hours to delegate just yet. Hopefully, as your property management systems grow, your virtual assistant can grow with you!

What do I do next if I want to get started?

The easiest thing to do is to sign up with Delegated. Don’t worry if you’re a little overwhelmed by the process at first. We assign a customer success manager to work with you so you can fully explore the options without feeling like there’s too much being thrown at you at once.

How do I create an onboarding document?

You might be able to get your virtual assistant to help! A virtual assistant will be able to identify what they need to help you work on your property management service virtually. That includes the log-in information might need, the access to certain accounts, and the ability to go in and edit your blog or website so it can be optimized into something more responsive for prospective tenants.

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