A different spin on virtual assistants
Founded in 2000, RealSupport CEO and President, Carrie Gable set out to put real estate assistants in agents’ offices without taking up an extra desk, rather making the process completely virtual. What separates RealSupport in the virtual assistant industry, however, is that they have a brick-and-mortar office location near Chicago where they hold normal business hours so that regardless of the availability of one assistant, others are onsite managing and overseeing each process.
The company current has a team of 15 experienced virtual assistants (VAs) and tells AGBeat that their goals is “to have several offices and hundreds of support staff.”
They offer listing marketing efforts for agents, website design and enhancements, logo design and branding, listing presentations, closing coordination, blogging services, lead management, social media presence (setup, management & campaigns), and many other projects. They offer packages from intro to advanced budgets with a typical social networking maintenance package costing only $116 per week and while their hourly rate is $58, they proclaim flexibility for all budgets in this down market.
“We hold normal business hours and are all completely cross-trained,” the company said. “What this means for anyone that uses us is that no matter what is going on personally in our lives, your agents will remain supported regardless of vacations, sick days, or maternity leave. We are completely trained on most of the top real estate software and technology. In addition, we don’t bill for our learning curve. Lastly, since we are considered independent contractors, your agents would not be responsible for any benefits, holiday pay, taxes, etc. that go a long with having an onsite assistant, in fact, we are a tax write-off.”
With ambitious goals and a twist on the all-virtual assistant model, the company appears to be on task for making waves in 2012.
