My suggestion typically is to hire a buyer’s agent first because you don’t have to pay them a salary. They are free to your business and may help bring in additional commission income. The price you have to pay for a buyer’s agent is your time. You’ll have to invest time to teach and train them how to handle leads and clients for your business.

The problem with hiring a buyer’s agent first is you still have to deal with a great deal of administrative “stuff” that isn’t income-producing. This is definitely not a good use of your time. My first hire was a buyer’s agent. My second hire was a part-time administrative assistant. This was back in the 1990s, before virtual assistants were around.

Had I to do it over again, I would probably hire a part-time virtual assistant. I absolutely love virtual assistants for many reasons:

1. You can find someone with a ton of experience, which adds tremendous value to your business. This is because you’re able to hire anyone from anywhere. You’re not stuck looking for someone with experience who is living in your home town.

2. You can hire them for two hours a week or 10 hours a week. You have complete flexibility and don’t have to be locked in to a certain number of hours a week. This will help you save a great deal of money.

3. You don’t have to provide any employee benefits, such as medical insurance. This is very big savings!

4. If you don’t need them or they aren’t performing, simply stop sending work to them. You don’t have to “fire” anyone and have an ugly situation in your office.

5. You don’t have to set up payroll and deal with payroll taxes. This will save a great deal of time and money.

A virtual assistant offers so many benefits to small businesses. It’s like having your cake and eating it, too!

My assistant, Trish Lewellyn, recently decided to offer virtual assistant services to other real estate agents. I notified a few of my coaching students, and two or three of them quickly hired her to help with their businesses. I believe she can handle a one or two more agents. If interested in hiring her as your virtual assistant, send her an email at:

TrishLewellyn7@aol.com

I’ve worked with Trish for over five years, and she has a ton of experience. She tracks leads, maintains my database and has processed home sales for my agents. She already understands how we operate and what’s important in our businesses.