Virtual assistants are a flexible administrative workforce that helps you save time and avoid having to hire the old-fashioned way (and all the inconveniences it brings). This is especially important in fields like property management, where a small number of specialists handle so many administrative tasks and are in charge of many high-value assets. So, how exactly are these virtual assistants revolutionizing the property management industry? Let’s see these five examples. 

1. Flexible workforce

One of the best things about hiring virtual assistants is how they make your workforce and business model more flexible. Hiring them is simpler than hiring full-time employees in a conventional sense, and these posts usually have more flexibility (when coming up with workplace descriptions, etc.).

To quickly return to hiring, you usually have two major options: hiring directly or through an agency. While hiring virtual assistants as freelancers has its merits, going through an agency is simpler and gives you fewer administrative tasks.

Another thing to consider is that there’s a lot of talent specializing in this industry, which means that you’re not just looking for virtual assistants. You’re looking for virtual assistants with experience and background in this field/industry.

Lastly, while you’re looking to hire virtual assistants when looking how to grow a property management business, the important thing to keep in mind is scalability. You can always increase or downsize your virtual assistant workforce. 

2. Streamlining administrative tasks

When we started talking about the use of virtual assistants in the property management industry, chances are that the first thing that popped into your mind was help with some administrative tasks. 

First, you need someone in charge of lease management. You need a person to help you handle lease preparation, lease renewals, and lease compliances. 

You also want some help with rent collection. All of it is done electronically, which means that invoicing, payment tracking, and processing take quite a bit of work. Having someone to help you out can save quite a bit of time and effort. 

Most importantly, virtual assistants can help you with document management and financial management. This means that while they can help out with basic bookkeeping and expense reporting, they’ll also assist with file organization, report generation, and data entry. 

Multitasking is a massive productivity killer, and by allowing your staff to handle these administrative tasks, you’ll be able to focus on your core tasks. 

3. Better outreach

Outreach becomes much more efficient when you have a person on top of it full-time. You see, no matter how sophisticated AI gets and how efficient these tools get at personalization and customization, nothing beats an actual human outreach.

First of all, you can start with cold calls. This type of outreach (even if it’s not an actual telemarketing), is incredibly effective. This way, you’re making a contact through a medium that’s a lot harder to ignore and a lot easier to take seriously. 

It also doesn’t matter what kind of medium we’re talking about. It could be emails or SMS. You could also use conventional telemarketing, even if it’s through VoIP and not a conventional phone line.

With the help of modern outreach software (especially tools like CMS), you’ll have a much easier job of making a great first impression on potential buyers. All you have to do is instruct your team on how to improve the outreach and provide them with the right tools. 

4. Research and analysis

The most important task of virtual assistants lies in researching listings for properties. Here, they can find all the info you need and help keep you in the loop. They can figure out which properties are available in your area and create an inventory that you can purchase.

In terms of property management, they can help you keep your rent competitive and even leverage modern AI technology to improve your analytics. This way, you can predict more than just the cost. You can figure out the average monthly cost of utilities and maintenance, thus presenting your tenants with more (crucial) information.

This way, you can even make your properties more marketable. You see, by increasing the amount of information that you’re presenting to your potential tenants, you’re increasing your marketability. This way, you’ll predict their objections and dilemmas and address them before they even get a chance to express them.

Another major task of VAs in property management is actually updating this information. In other words, as the situation changes/evolves, you’re doing your best to keep them in the loop. 

Lastly, they can also research and provide information on your competition. 

5. Marketing and lead generation

Marketing is the key thing in modern property management industry. Why? Well, because you would be surprised at how many people find the place they’re looking for on social media. Sure, sometimes it’s suggestions from their friends but really any of them just needs to encounter your post and share it.

So, the first role of your VA would be to focus on social media marketing. While Instagram and Facebook sound huge, the truth is that in property management, LinkedIn and Pinterest are just as important. The very fact that there are two more important platforms to focus on, means that you just have to find some extra help.

No matter if you’re just blogging or just regularly posting on social media, you need someone to handle the task of content creation and curation. This can be the job of a virtual assistant, a job that’s made so much easier with the existence of generative AI.

Lastly, you want someone to help you out with scheduling and analyzing how well your digital marketing is doing. You have all the analytical tools available; you just need someone to use them and generate reports (or summaries) on a regular basis.

Wrap up

It all comes down to finding the right type of specialized assistance whenever you need it. This is something that, in the property management industry, you can really take advantage of. It’s flexible, scalable, and dependent. Most importantly, it’s rapidly becoming a common practice in the industry, which makes it something you can’t afford to ignore for too long.