Do you feel like you’re drowning in tasks? Thinking about hiring an assistant but unsure where to start? In this episode, we’re diving deep into the world of assistants for Realtors. We pulled stats from a national survey AND our own listener survey (thank you to all 170 responders!) to paint a clear picture of how assistants are used, how much they cost, and what tasks they’re taking off agents’ plates.

We’re breaking down:
The numbers: How many Realtors have assistants, and what are they paying them?
What assistants actually do: From transaction coordination to social media management and everything in between.
Licensed vs. unlicensed assistants: Which is better for your business?
When to hire: Are you really ready for an assistant, or do you just need better systems?
Avoiding assistant regret: How to avoid hiring mistakes and set up a solid working relationship.

Plus, we share a genius exercise from one of our listeners to help you figure out what you should delegate and what you should keep on your plate. You don’t have to do it all, but you do need a plan! If you’re ready to stop scrambling and start delegating with confidence, this episode is for you.

Key Quotes/Takeaways
“An assistant won’t fix a disorganized business. You’ve got to tidy up before inviting someone in.” – Alissa
“The mental load of real estate is heavy. Offloading even small tasks can make a huge difference.” – Katy
“Start small. Test the waters with one or two tasks before committing to a full-time assistant.” – Katy
“If you don’t have systems in place, hiring an assistant might cost you more in the long run.” – Alissa
“There’s no one right way to structure assistant pay or tasks. Do what works for you and your business.” – Katy
Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned
Trello: For task organization and project management.
SkySlope: A transaction management platform.
Homebot: For client engagement and updates.
MLS systems: Used for property input and updates.

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The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

Katy 0:01
62% prepare comps. I don’t know about that. I got, I got some, I got some thoughts on that. Yeah,

Alissa 0:09
not running your business like a business and being disorganized is gonna cost you a lot. Yeah, it is. The mental load of real estate is heavy, is heavy, yeah? So I did. I’m like, who’s gonna do that for $3 No, like, no one’s gonna do that.

Katy 0:28
Very similar to what people wished they had an assistant doing is what the people who have an assistant are actually getting done.

Alissa 0:36
Hi, y’all welcome to hustle. Humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie. And we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market. We

Katy 0:42
work for two different companies where we should be competitors, but we have chosen community over competition. The

Alissa 0:47
goal of our podcast is to encourage you to find your own way in business, so stop

Katy 0:51
comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.

Alissa 0:53
Hi, Alyssa. Hey, Katie, welcome. We have

Katy 0:57
quite the conglomeration of paper on the desk. We do. This is episode number 286, all about assistance, or, I guess it’s more of a sort of a deeper dive. We have talked about assistance before. Yeah, I don’t know that we had an episode dedicated, but it has come up, and we had some requests to dive into it again. So what we did was send out a survey to our email list, and 170 people responded, yeah, we have a lot of data for you. We have so much data. And speaking of data, if you were here last week, you got all the good data on the profile of home buyers and sellers, and we did the membership profile as well. To be fair, we just recorded that. And so I think both of our brains are reeling from information, numbers

Alissa 1:46
and graphs and charts everywhere. So much

Katy 1:49
graphs, so much charts. But the that being said in the 2024 member profile, which I don’t think we said, this is sent out to 150,000 agents, and 6000 participated. Yes, okay, so it’s supposed to be a cross section of all the realtors, but there were questions about assistance, so I thought we could start there, okay, and just quickly get an overview. So by real estate experience, we’re gonna go with the median years in the business is 10, if you didn’t listen last week, the year before, it was 11. Okay. Now the number of personal assistants for all realtors in this survey, no no personal assistant. 86% so 86% of Realtors No Assistant. The survey does not have an assistant. 12% had one assistant, okay. 2% had two assistants. Three or more assistants was only 1% of the respondents, okay. And it does break it down from broker and sales agent and obviously brokers, one assistant. 18% were sales agents. So 18% of brokers had one had one assistant. Okay? Is what for realtors, 9% 9% 9% okay, so, okay, that’s what that is. Now, what else I can tell you about this is the number of personal assistants by years of experience. Oh, okay, okay. So again, remember, 86% said, I don’t have one. Okay, obviously two. They’re in the business two years or less. 95% say, No, don’t have one. Three to five years. 90% no, don’t have one. Six to 15 years. 87% No, 16 years or more, 79% so you can look at the vice versa, right? So that means that 11% 16 years or more, have one actually, I’ll just give you the stats, one assistant, two years or less, 4%

Alissa 3:55
so people who’ve been in the business two years have 4%

Katy 3:59
have an assistant. Well, three to five years, 9% have one assistant. Six to 15 years, 11% have one assistant. And 16 years or more, 17% said they have one assistant. Okay, okay, let me give you the tasks performed by personal assistants per this per the survey, survey, which is obviously a bigger cross section than our 100 although we did have 170 people respond to our survey, which Thank you very much. That helps us what to see what our listeners are experiencing. All right, so we’re going to go through the tasks performed by the assistants based on highest frequency to lowest Okay, process new listings that enter them into the MLS. 82% of responders say that’s what their assistant is doing. Yes, process new listings, enter them in the MLS. Next down. 63% send mailings to past clients or prospects. 62% manage closing paperwork. 62% Prepare comps. I don’t know about that. I got, I got some, I got some thoughts on that. Yeah, 60% place track advertising, of listings. 55% schedule listing, presentations, closings and appointments. Scheduling came

Alissa 5:16
up a lot. I just can’t I have to make my schedule. You’re like, I want to be in charge of that. Yeah, I don’t want people to put things places that I don’t want don’t do that.

Katy 5:25
Okay? 46% check MLS for expireds. 45 send progress reports to sellers. Again. This sounds like I guess that’s something you could have an assistant do if you had like a template and they’re just filling in the blank spot. Do. 45% photograph listings. So the assistant is photographing, but maybe they’re just meeting the

Alissa 5:49
photographer, just meeting the 40% order inspections.

Katy 5:53
40% write ads. 26% prepare escrow files. 25% check newspaper websites for for sale by owners. That’s a waste of time per last week’s episode.

Alissa 6:08
Do you remember that time I showed a for sale by owner, and he was so mean and terrible and yelled at me? And this was years and years ago, and then I had my assistant. Because I had, I had an assistant. I was trying to be all official, you know. And I thought, What is something I could do, right? So that my business give her to do to grow my business, I want to be there was, I was like, Look, these are the zip codes I like, if you see for sale by owners, write this letter to them. And she freaking wrote a letter to that guy who called and yelled at me again, again, and was like, I told you to leave me alone. I’m like, I know I didn’t write that letter. I don’t want to

Katy 6:48
talk to you. Nobody wants to talk to you. Okay, so that was 25% we’re checking for sale by owners, 22% other, not sure what task that is, but 14% prospect for sale by owners. What is cracking me up, y’all, if you can afford an assistant, we learned last week, only 6% of listings are sold for sale by owner. Yeah, so you need to be prospecting some other type of person, not a for sale by owner. Okay, now let’s go through how they Oh, you’re gonna like this, licensed versus unlicensed assistant. 54% the assistant is licensed. Okay, 46 licensed. I would have to have a licensed someone, okay. Then the salary expenses were either paid by the realtor, paid by the company, or both, okay, and it was pretty evenly split. 31% by their agent, 36 company, 33 both, okay, okay, employment, full time, 47% part time. 53% okay, exclusivity, exclusive assistant. 50% shared with others. 50%

Alissa 7:58
Wow, 50, 5050,

Katy 8:01
this is so fast, I guess it could be

Alissa 8:03
like TCS and Right, right. You’re sharing assistance like you’re paying a service, yeah, employment

Katy 8:09
arrangement, independent contractor, 52% employee, 49% which I thought was pretty high. It is high. That means you’re paying their like taxes, like a real check, with taxes taken out and all that jazz. Okay. Compensation structure, hourly, 28% salary, 20% arrangement varies, 18% per task, 20% and percent of the commission, 14%

Alissa 8:38
Whoa, that’s a huge number. Yeah, so

Katy 8:41
those were the numbers as reported by the member profile 2024 which from the NAR survey, correct. Very helpful for us to have the bigger cross section, right? So now our 170 responders answered these following questions. Okay, I’m gonna tell you I was looking

Alissa 8:59
for our assistant episode. And if you go back to Episode 81 it’s, is it time for an assistant? So that’s like, yes. We talk about like, how do you know when it’s time? Yeah, I do feel like people hire assistants prematurely before they need them. If

Katy 9:18
you don’t have systems in place, yes, and you just get an assistant, you could have saved yourself some time and some heartache and some money long term by just getting the right systems in place. If

Alissa 9:29
you can just, I think an assistant is sort of like a thing where people think, if I just have that, I’ll be good, my business will be good, right? And it’s like you still have to be the boss of your business, yeah, and you have to have your systems in place ready for someone to come in. For sure, you can’t just be like, Okay, Assistant, do my work. To fix it. Make this work. Make it work. Make it work. Here’s my desk. Get me business. Yeah, do all the things. That’s not the answer. I almost feel like you really have to get things tied. 80 before you invite an assistant into your business for

Katy 10:04
sure, for sure. And the last one I had was in 2016 and that was the longest she was working 30 hours a week. That was the the biggest time frame, almost basically full time. And during that time, I put so much, so many additional systems into place, including jazzing up and really honing in on my email templates, that when she left, it was summer and it was the busy time of year, I didn’t have time to hire another assistant. And then I realized I don’t really need this. Yeah, like I’m doing okay, right?

Alissa 10:36
Once you got organized and got a system in place, yeah, it was very manageable, for sure, and that’s the thing too. If you’re not organized, you’re gonna have to pay an assistant way more money, right? If things are running themselves and you just need someone to help with the fine tuned details or checklist items. Yeah, that’s not very expensive, no, and it shouldn’t take them that long. So not running your business like a business and being disorganized is gonna cost you a lot. Yeah, it is

Speaker 1 11:03
all right. So our 170 friends who responded to our survey answered the following, okay. Do you have an assistant or transaction coordinator, which we will lovingly call it TC going forward, TC transaction coordinator? 59% said none. Okay, okay, so they didn’t even match up. It was 80 something percent that said none on

Alissa 11:26
the NAR. So 59% of our listeners, none not don’t have an assistant. 10.7%

Speaker 1 11:32
have an in person assistant. Okay, that’s where I fall, right. 25% have a transaction coordinator. And then this tiny sliver that they didn’t even tell me how big it was. Is the virtual assistant? Okay? Now, if not, if you don’t have one, would you want one? Is the question? 42% maybe, okay. 45% yes, yes. And 12% no. Thank you. Only 12% said, I got this. They’re like, Nano, I think we all feel like an assistant would be nice. Brian, like, what? Of course, I would love an assistant. Yeah, you have that stuff I don’t want to do. If you do, if you do have an assistant, okay, how many hours a week do they work? 60% 61% said they don’t have one, so it doesn’t apply. 16% said zero to five hours, yeah. So that’s pretty

Alissa 12:24
short. Was that the most? Yeah. So the majority of people who have one one use their assistant, zero to five hours, correct? What’s the next level? Six to 10

Katy 12:35
hours was eight and a half percent of the people. Okay. And then what I mean. That leaves me with, you know, little tiny slivers for the more than 11 hours. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 12:46
yeah, okay.

Katy 12:47
How do you pay them? 57% pay per transaction. 27% were paying hourly and 15.7% salary. Okay, now, those are our pie charts. I had one that didn’t fit on there. I’m gonna tell you, if you’re paying by the hour, how much are you paying? Okay, so if you were paying by the hour, 48% said 11 to $20 an hour. Yeah, that seems like the right range. 21 to $30 an hour was 26% Yeah, 31 to $40 an hour, 7% 41 to $50 an hour, 7% and I left behind the people less than $10 an hour, 11% Wow. So it was a pretty big number there too.

Alissa 13:38
I struggled. So, you know, I got my first assistant when I was pregnant with Haven, right after I had Haven, okay, because I had my friends that got me through my maternity leave right and then I was back to work, and I got Whitney, and Whitney worked with me for several years, and that was great. I realized I can never go back to not having some sort of help, yeah, and my assistants and I have one now also my assistants are for, like, non client facing, right? I came across that a lot, yes. So I don’t want me personally, you know, I don’t want a online virtual assistant emailing the lender and me at the same time being like, Hey, this is alyssa’s personal assistant. How’s the loan going? Right? I would rather someone be like, hey, it’s time to check on that loan. You just want them to trigger you to do it, yeah, or put it in my calendar, or I’ll put it in my calendar. But like, I don’t want it to be like, This person must be copied on all emails, because then I feel like it’s too out of sight, out of mind, because I’m like, Oh, the TC has it right? Like I still and it’s not about being a control freak, which maybe a little bit of I do like to be, but I want to be in the know of my business, right?

Katy 14:55
I think also because you’re building a relationship business. I mean. Not just with your clients, also with your lenders and your vendors. And you’re like, you you want to have that forward facing experience and be building relationships. Yeah, you’re not trying to put that off on someone else. So to go back to the payment,

Alissa 15:13
I think that it was all it’s still always evolving, yeah, depending on cost of living, are they driving a lot this week. Are they? So my goal, where I’m at now is I’m paying a certain amount per week, a minimal amount per week. Let’s call it $100 a week. Okay, then if there’s other bigger tasks within that week, I pay per task. Okay,

Katy 15:37
about how many hours a week would you say they are working

Alissa 15:42
some weeks? I would say like, five to eight. Okay, I think that’s probably my average. Okay, all right, and it could probably be done quicker. What I

Katy 15:51
would like to tell you is that the person who asked a question, and who’s what we get the most is the pay. How much do they work? Right? How much do they get paid? How much do they work? How much do they get paid? If they’re paying by salary? This is what our 22 responders said, $700 per month, $400 per transaction.

Alissa 16:10
400 per transaction. Yeah, wow. Then this

Katy 16:14
one said, I’m not sure I don’t pay them, and they support a team with about 10 full time agents, so I’m guessing in the $30,000 range, but we don’t actually know. Okay, I pay a combo of hourly and bonus per closing. So if I don’t have closings, my payroll is less, and if she’s more efficient, I should have more closings. That’s

Alissa 16:33
a great idea. Great point, like a bonus every closing, $100 per

Katy 16:38
transaction. She’s heard other agents do 250, to 300 per transaction. This person does 2500 a month, $25 an hour for 25 hours a week. Like it’s worked out that way. Yeah, 2000 per month through a VA company. So that’s a virtual assistant. 180

Alissa 16:55
every how much a month. 2000 $2,000 a month for a virtual assistant. Whoa,

Katy 17:02
that felt like a lot, right? Yeah, yeah. I wonder how many it doesn’t say. How many hours, $180 every two weeks for a virtual assistant per transaction, for TC and showing partner, $100 per transaction, that doesn’t seem like a lot, if I get a showing partner for 100 bucks a transaction, yeah, this one pays $51,000 a year. Wow. Brokerage team pays or the brokerage pays them, and then the brokerage is paying them and including it in the split. And one said $450 per transaction. So it is a range, and I feel like I’m not answering the question for the person who asked Yeah, it’s a range. I will say that it appears the most likely thing is to be paying per transaction. First of all, that seems and the nice thing about that is you wouldn’t be paying if you’re not producing, right? Okay, so that seems like the most common and then hourly, and then the most common price, I mean, it was between under $20 an hour. Yeah,

Alissa 18:05
I think for me, it’s like, if I’m happy with my assistant, I want to pay them well, right? You don’t want them to leave. That’s so much turnover, and nothing is more stressful than retraining. And you know, it’s so time consuming. That’s why, you know, at first, with my newest assistant, I like having newer agents as assistants, right? Because the goal is that you’re not super busy because you’re new. Hopefully you’ll want to be with me at least two to three years, right? Like, I think that’s a good chunk of time to be with the same person. I would love it to be longer, but I also understand that they’re growing, but that allows them to be licensed. They’re excited to work with the agent that they can learn from, and they’re making a little bit of extra money, but it’s also not their sole income, like they’re trying. They’re also trying to get their own transactions right. So the way I have it structured right now is like $100 a week, plus any additional extra task, right? So if we have a new listing coming up, I’ve already been to the house twice, and, like, done the staging and this and that, she goes well. When I say staging, I mean with the seller, okay, if the house is going to be staged with our staging stuff, like our, you know, remember, we don’t stage with furniture, yeah? You’re just doing like, the Yeah, orchids, towels, the bookshelves, right? She can do that. But on photo day, she meets the photographer, because I make my sellers leave for photo day, and she does the input sheet, yeah? So everything, so that’s like a big chunk of time, right? Yeah. So if we have a new listing, I’ll add $50 okay, if she has to help me with showings or unstaging a house, maybe that’s an extra 25 I see. So it’s just like different tiers, okay? And who’s recording that, who’s keeping track of what’s going. On, well, I pay her weekly, okay, because of that, so every week I log in and I say $100 plus 54 you’re just, you’re

Katy 20:10
just, like reminding yourself, like you’re, you’re not keeping a running tally anywhere. She’s not turning in hours, per se,

Alissa 20:17
right? No, no, there are not tracking hours. Okay? Because that I’ve done that before, too, and that was a nightmare. So you’re paying per task, and I feel like it’s hard to track hours in real estate, because one task may take 15 minutes, yeah, but it’s the stopping your day, getting in the computer, getting the task done. The mental load of real estate is heavy, is heavy, yeah? So I did. I’m like, who’s gonna do that for $3 No, like, no one’s gonna do that. You know what I mean. So that’s what I learned about tracking hours. Yeah, that didn’t go well, and it was a headache, not only to me, but to the assistant, right? So I’m like, if you’re guaranteed 100 bucks a week, and then I’m like, Oh, you did this and this, I asked you to do these three things this week. So here’s your other three. Got it. So some weeks it’s just 100 bucks, yeah, some weeks it’s more. Some weeks it’s gone up to like 200 bucks that week, or 250 got it. It just and I think paying weekly helps keep me in check, in check with what she did that was fresh in your mind. I don’t want to have to go back a month and figure then I would have to track every Yeah, so that would be a pain. That’s how it’s going right now, and I think it’s going well. And if she drives somewhere super far away, like, I give her some extra for gas, yeah, it’s, like, keeps them happy and appreciated. And then on top of payment, I include sign calls got it or like, if somebody comes through a web without a referral fee, right? Okay,

Katy 21:44
that makes sense. I have to share with you in getting the survey, our sweet listener, Debbie, is a mother, daughter team, okay? And she sent us the most fantastic thing. It is how she and her daughter decided what they were going to do and if they needed an assistant. Okay, okay, I’m going to tell you what she said. We recently completed an exercise where we listed out all the things we do in our business. We put a check mark next to the ones we individually loved, loathed or were okay with doing this allowed us to see where we could divide and conquer. So how they figured out? How are we going to divide the task between the two of us based on our skills or passions, or where we could delegate? So if they want to get someone else, even if we love doing it, we can do many things, but we can’t do all things. As as she heard, we can do anything, but not everything. They created this task audit sheet and thought they would share it. Okay? So she sent me the actual, oh, I know, right. Oh, my, that’s beautiful. She sent the most Debbie sent the most beautiful sheet where she put out the task. I’m gonna look at it. Here. You can look at it. She put out the task, and then they had to check off in the column who liked if they both liked something, if one of them liked it, or if nobody liked it. And then it was how they figured out how to divide power and and, I guess, hire out. Yeah. Give us an example. Okay,

Alissa 23:18
I was trying to find something they both loathe. What did they both load on? I need to. It’s so tiny. Let’s see. All right, magical activities like pop buys. They both loathe doing those and planning them. I would too. Yeah.

Katy 23:39
Okay, they said, No, thank you. To

Alissa 23:41
go to the store, you have to buy 50 wrapping show up to people’s house, to show up to people’s houses with tags and making it they were like, No, thanks, yeah. They didn’t want to do that. Update. Home bought and CMAs, okay. They both load. What do they both love? Tell me something they both love. Okay. They both love listing presentation prep. Oh yeah, me too. Me too. They both love buyer, consultation, prep. They both love shopping for closing gifts, cute, I don’t they both love assembling closing. Oh, fine. They both love New Client Onboarding, which is like adding their lead to flow desk and doing their whole system. Okay, so the systems part of having a new person, I love it. Quarterly accelerator, I

Katy 24:27
love it. I guess my point was, we don’t have to go through their whole shit, yeah, but they also had a cop. So their columns were the task. They were the description of the task, the category that that fell into love, me, loathe and delegate. So the last column is delegate, and they had a checkbox off of everything that they wanted to delegate.

Alissa 24:48
Delegate, yeah, so ordering gifts. So if they have to shop, that’s one thing. But if they have to order it, like, here they have, like, crumble cookies. Or things like that. Like they don’t like to order it. It’s just not a fun shopping. No, it’s not fun shopping. Something else they would be able to delegate, even though they both love buyer consultation, preparation, it’s something that could be delegated, okay, like making your buyer folders and listing once they’re there. That’s, yeah, it’s, it’s more of a menial task, yeah, buyers showing prep, I would love to delegate that. They both hate doing that, and they checked that they were going to delegate it, like printing out the MLS sheets, putting them in order, scheduling the appointment, yeah, yeah, all of that, I would probably have to schedule it, but just getting it ready, signs that could be delegated per their task.

Katy 25:44
I love the idea of just writing down all of your tasks first. Yeah, just write them all down

Alissa 25:50
see what you’re actually doing. And I feel like it would take maybe even two or three weeks of tracking yourself. You’re gonna have to try. You’re gonna sit down and make an initial list and be like, well, that’s not that long. And then as you go through your days, you’ll be like, oh, I need to add that to the list exactly. I need to do that

Katy 26:06
exactly. Okay. So the last two questions from our survey were, if you could get an assistant, or were getting an assistant, what would you want them to do? And vice versa, if you do have one, what are they doing? Yeah, so why don’t you share with us the things people want to get an assistant for?

Alissa 26:26
Okay, so if you’re thinking about getting an assistant or have one, these are things that people want to have an assistant for, right? I tried to delete the redundant ones because you got 127 responses, right, okay, paperwork, emails, social media, CRM, organization, listing, input, marketing, scheduling appointment, creating emails, taking care of closing gifts, putting out sign, signs, non client, facing tasks, office, organizing, making my listing, books, streamlining systems, keeping track of all deadlines, especially collecting receipts, doing tasks in a timely fashion, so I don’t have to scramble every time, scheduling contractors like photography or house cleaners, all the behind the scene tasks after an offer is accepted, such as sending out email templates like, you know, when you first get an offer under contract, it’s so much to do. All these emails need to go out. Remind me of documents needed check for compliance on those documents that no signatures are missing, brochures and mailing, cooking, cleaning, dog walking, sorry, couldn’t resist haha. How to organize my leads like, I guess that’s like BYOB sort of like, is this need to go on my daily putting these people okay, um, handling emails, staying on top of deadlines, clerical work is that word still used? Clerical handwriting cards, birthday and house anniversaries, website stuff, even things like making seasonal guidebooks, building out tabs on my website, lead capture tools like landing pages, Link trees, etc, wow. Like you could really do so many, so many things. They could do tasks that are tedious or monotonous, or tasks that I’m not naturally good at, ads, pop, buys, admin, work, cold calling, that’s funny. Oh, painting reviews for me, so sort of like building out your Google profile. Yeah, okay, we’re almost done, guys, property research. Okay, I wrote down this because I use my assistant for this a lot. When I’m working with a new buyer and they send me, like, 10 houses, I ask Ellie to go into MLS to make notes on all of them. Okay, for me, because, I mean, that’s gonna take me, like, 45 minutes. I wondered how you had time for so many of those. This makes sense. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I do them, but if it’s a long list, I’m like, hey, yeah, I need, like, check the PDD type stuff. Yes, yeah. And I have a list. I have a little template of things I want her to check. I love that, sending newsletters, QuickBooks, getting property information while I’m on the go, event planning. Second set of eyes on all my contracts. Send me a list of weekly what’s needed. So she does that for me. Every Monday, I get a weekly summary of all my Oh, stuff like, what’s needed, all my actives. It’s sort of like a recap of my Trello, okay, but then it’s like she ends with, do I need to order any closing gifts? Are you doing any open houses? Oh, for each one, got it? Got it? Open House preparation, like, like, she’ll put out all my signs, run all the ads, update the MLS, yeah. Like, we have a checklist for that too. Okay, open house preparation, anniversary gifts, DocuSign, sending things for electronic signature. And that was like half Yeah, of things that they wish their assistant could because and and

Katy 29:50
so many of them were repetitive, right? I felt like things. There was a lot of repeats in my what does the assistant do? And it is marketing. Yeah, social media, scheduling, document prep or keeping up with documents, and then just general transaction coordinator. There was a lot of people who had a transaction coordinator, yeah, I think the easiest way for anyone to figure this out is to do what Debbie did. Yeah, list out your task this is beautiful. List out everything you do in your business, or everything you want to do in your business, and then you go back through and you label them as, I like this, I don’t like this, or however you want to label it. And then I could delegate this actually in task frequency. When we do that episode on task frequency, we talk about this a little bit, I think, in agent systems, when I cover it and go through the task frequency, it has your task broken down by, you know, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. And you your exercise is to go through it and mark off all the things that you can batch things that you can delegate things that you like, same diff, same vibes, yeah, yeah. So maybe we’ll need to share that task frequency list again. Yeah,

Alissa 31:08
that’s that’ll be a good episode to go re listen to, because

Katy 31:10
that will help jog your memory or figure, help you figure out what are the lists of things you want to do. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about the people who responded and said, what their assistant is doing,

Unknown Speaker 31:23
okay, okay, okay.

Katy 31:26
Again, very similar to what people wished they had an assistant doing is what the people who have an assistant are actually getting done.

Alissa 31:33
Yeah, and I feel like we have read things off in a list format. It feels that way, so maybe we don’t need to. I’m

Katy 31:38
not gonna go deep into it, okay, but how about this? I’ll give you one that responded with what I would say is a, yeah, sometimes this happens. I think the best label would be transaction coordinator, but she does social media marketing and keeping up with my online leads until they are ready to view. She does help with keeping clients under contract, updated during a process, but does not fill out paperwork, get signatures, do showings, or any of the day to day running around, right? Okay, I really regret hiring someone, and am struggling with the letting this person go because I don’t want to hurt feelings or cause a big blowout. You didn’t see that coming, did you? No, I didn’t. I know she looks at herself as being an equal in the team I created. And often calls it our business, but in reality, I’m the only one licensed and doing the hard work that’s in quotes, hard work, yeah, like the real estate, right? And funding the entire thing, yeah, it’s gotten a bit out of control, and I don’t know how to reel it back in. This is on my mind daily, and I feel like, because I’m stressing over this, my productivity has definitely gone down because I’m looking for a way out. Oh no, I know I need to just rip off the band aid, but I don’t want to hurt the friendship. Help. I’m like, What are we gonna do? Help? I know Alyssa,

Alissa 33:00
I think that’s a tough one, but I think it’s a good thing to hear that this happens. And I know this isn’t an episode about teams, but we’ve read very similar things about if somebody leaves the team, yeah, who gets to keep the database? Oh, yeah. Do they take something with them that they shouldn’t? Right? All those there’s there’s turmoil, yeah, there’s, it’s always a tough transition. Yeah, I don’t think hiring an assistant is something that should be taken lightly, for sure, especially if you’ve never had one, lest you end up like this poor, sweet person. Start off very slow. Start off by maybe just finding a new agent in your office, or even just, I even had an agent one time that was my assistant for a minute, that wasn’t with my brokerage, yes. So it’s like it just worked out

Katy 33:49
right. And I’ve had great assistance, and I’ve had not so great assistance. And I will say that the majority of mine early on were more like internships, so they were only usually planning to stay for a semester, and so then you could, if you liked them, you could convince them to stay, or if you didn’t, it’d be like, Okay, we’re parting ways. No big deal. But I mean hiring and especially firing is really tough. It is so hard and and the worst, a part of all of that is that being in an uncomfortable and unproductive work environment is even tougher. So like, this person is doing worse than if they were just on their own, because they’re stressed every day about, how do I get out of this situation I don’t want to be in anymore. So I think you’re right to say, Yeah, it sounds great. Let’s have an assistant. But then it really does make you think maybe, maybe that paper transaction TC isn’t a bad idea. I

Alissa 34:46
also think just starting smaller and adding tasks as you go, yeah, you know, seeing how they’re doing with carrying the load, you gotta ease into it, yeah? But I think sometimes people think, oh, I need to, like, make this super official. Yeah,

Katy 34:58
you’re gonna do all this stuff. Off.

Alissa 35:01
Let’s let’s see if there’s anything else. Let me read this one to you. Please go. I have someone wrote in. I have both a transaction coordinator in town and a virtual assistant. My TC offers a full service package where she does some of the communicating with my clients, title and lender as Mel, as well as making sure that we’re in compliance. My virtual assistant handles all my marketing, social media, video editing, text blasting and figuring out new tech platforms to maximize my time, back end stuff, uploading listings to MLS and skyslope, closing out files, rarely, drafting documents if I’m traveling and cannot get to a computer.

Katy 35:42
Hmm. I like hearing the way it’s broken down between those two positions, right? That also alleviates you from having one assistant doing all of this, and then if they leave, it’s like, the whole thing crashes and burns, correct? So it’s like, well, this person’s doing this, this person’s doing that. Probably a little bit more affordable that way. Yeah, breaking it down instead of being I just remember feeling when I had one assistant who’s working a lot of hours, like, I knew I wasn’t paying a lot. And I just remember being like, Oh, I really wish I could pay more. This is the only job that they have. Like, I just, for whatever reason, felt like a level of guilt or like, like, I just wished I could do something. So I think having separate might be nice, and that you’re like, well, that’s okay. Or having an intern, we’ve had real, huge success with an intern that’s in school. This isn’t like, you know, trying to sustain a family. They’re just trying to learn. They’re excited about the job, typically, and that environment of learning, and maybe it doesn’t bother them that it’s a lower pay, yeah. I mean, it just depends

Alissa 36:46
on what’s their situation. Is this just extra, you know? Or, I mean, do you know how valuable it would have been to do that for somebody before you were licensed? You would

Katy 36:55
learn so much. Oh, you would learn so much. I have an interesting way one is broken down. I’m a licensed agent and part time photograph real estate photographer who also works as an assistant for an agent in the same brokerage as I assistant, I as an assistant, I prep all listing and purchase documents, do some of the photography show houses when the agent isn’t available, cover for or is on call when they’re out of town, sets up listings on the MLS and handles updates to the MLS. Create and send mailers, postcards, creates and mails year and thank you, letters to clients, schedule some inspections, forwards paperwork for listings, purchases to Office Manager for the brokers, files updates and follows up with on anything missing, forwards purchase paperwork, and does some follow up with title companies, making sure they have all necessary documentation. She’s doing it all mortgage payoffs, etc, gathers information and documents from condo associations, if needed, attends all office meetings and functions and helps keep the agent organized. It’s like a super woman, and this is an assistant someone has, yeah, a licensed assist, see, now, I do think that’s probably where it’s at for most of us. If you can get a licensed assistant, that means they can run and do the showing, yeah, they can meet your, you know, Inspector, if needed, like they’re it just you they can open these doors, and it just opens a different world. They can take these calls and tell people about your listing. Your unlicensed assistant can’t go, you know, answer that call and give all the information. I think they’re allowed to do an open house, but it’s very like, specific about what they can and cannot do. Yeah. What’s your preference? Licensed or unlicensed? Definitely

Alissa 38:36
licensed. Yeah. I need them to have that lock box or, yeah. You know, if there is a time, like, if I’m out of town and I have to let somebody else show I’m like, Hey, listen, my assistant can show you the house. Yeah, I do need that help. So that’s important.

Katy 38:51
Here’s an interesting take. Frankly, not sure the TC is worth it, unless I’m swamped, and then it really helps. Yeah, I don’t use them on uncomplicated cash transactions, mainly, they organize the files, making sure they get where they need to go and aren’t missing signatures, and then at certain checkpoints throughout the transaction, send emails. These are things I used to always do myself and find easy to do, but as a solo agent, when very busy, sometimes it’s just nice to have another person on the team, so making sure nothing falls to the cracks. That’s a great point, too. Yeah, if you go the route of a TC or someone that you pay per transaction when you’re slow, you can handle it. You don’t need them. When you’ve got several transactions in your busier or maybe you’re having a busier season in your life, then you use them, right? It’s a low commitment way to get what you need. Well, one of our people that wrote in has three unlicensed assistants and one licensed assistant. Wow. And it’s just to me, I don’t know that I could pay four people enough to make it worth it for them. I would really want to know what the transaction load is on this. How do you pay four people enough money to stay they’re not and that’s why the. Of all, like, Wouldn’t it be better to have two people making more than four people making yes less Yes? It feels like you’d be more likely to keep them. I look, I don’t know that I’ve cracked the code on this, but for years, I’ve been like, what is the code on getting a real estate admin or assistant that stays long term? Yeah, I don’t. I’ve tried them all. Single single mom retire, more like a retiree, new agent, yeah,

Alissa 40:24
oh, like, right. It’s a short term position. It’s a short term. I think if you make it to four or five years, you are lucky. Yeah, right, right, right, right. I’m trying to think if I know anybody who has an assistant that has been there long, a long, like long term, and not a team, yeah, an assistant? Yeah, yes. I don’t know, no.

Katy 40:44
And when you think about it, I think at the end of the day, eventually all assistants will go, Hmm, you’re making this, and I’m making this, and I now basically know how to do what you’re doing, because I’ve been watching for so long,

Alissa 40:59
though. But they don’t. They don’t. Some people are made to be really awesome assistance. I agree. There’s that’s part of whatever personality, personality type. I mean, they could, that’s my hope with a lot of the new ones, yeah,

Katy 41:13
but they go spread your wings, yeah, do what I’m doing, succeed, yes,

Alissa 41:17
but it’s just, I’ve had so many, yeah,

Katy 41:21
I think the best thing that I would recommend to if you’re going to have an assistant is to take the time, whether it’s your first or your fifth one, to really get aggressive about describing your standard operating procedures. What are the SOPs for every piece of your business, so that when set assistant inevitably leaves, or you have to let go, or they just move on, it’s so much easier to train the next person. If you’re like, you’re going

Alissa 41:51
to do this. Here’s the description of that list for every single open house. This is what we do, yeah? This is what you do. Here’s the new listing checklist. Like, everything needs, yeah? Because

Katy 42:00
you almost need to also make your SOP for, how do I train a new assistant? Yeah? What are the steps? What do they need to know? Right? Because it’s the training that’s the hardest part. Anything else?

Alissa 42:13
I think it’s great. We did this episode, our notes, our spreadsheet has been pretty full of questions about,

Katy 42:21
I know, I know. So you know, you and I are both solo agents. We don’t have a team, yeah, and we have experience with assistance, for sure. But everybody does it so differently. That’s what I have most noticed from this, yeah. And everyone does it differently. Everyone pays differently. The structures are, like, all over the board, but it was helpful to just be like, oh, there’s so many possibilities. There is just not one right way to do this. Yeah,

Alissa 42:49
you have permission to do what you need to do for your business. Whichever

Katy 42:52
works for you. Start small, work up to that would be the number one tip. Don’t get stuck in a situation you’re gonna regret later. Yeah, I think that’s it. I want to say a final thank you to everyone who responded to the survey. It’s always nice to source this kind of data from our actual listeners, because that typically means they are like minded to us. But it’s still helpful to see the Yeah, the realm of what’s possible. So

Alissa 43:20
thank you, yeah, thank you for doing that. Okay, shall

Katy 43:23
we do a toast? Yes. Okay, goodbye. Hey,

Speaker 2 43:26
it’s Kizzy Alexander. I am from Pearland Texas. Today I am wanting to toast my super sweet friend Christy Perry, who’s also from Pearland Texas. Christy is out here killing it. She is being a inspiration to other newbie realtor. She’s incredibly supportive and affirming, but I just want her to know that everything that God has promised her is going to come to pass because he is a promise keeper and he doesn’t play about us.

Alissa 43:52
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please go to rate this podcast.com/hustle,

Katy 43:59
humbly and leave us a review or drop a comment if you’re listening on Spotify, if

Alissa 44:03
you have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team. At hustle humbly podcast.com Find

Katy 44:10
us on social media at hustle humbly podcast, don’t forget to find all of the free resources at hustle humbly podcast.com/resources,

Alissa 44:19
see you next week. This is the good life.