By Lani Rosales, AGBeat
RealSupport CEO and President Carrie Gable set out to put real estate assistants in agents’ offices without taking up an extra desk, making the process completely virtual. What separates RealSupport, founded in 2000, in the virtual assistant industry, however, is that it has a brick-and-mortar office location near Chicago where it holds normal business hours, so that regardless of the availability of one assistant, others are on-site, managing and overseeing each process.
The company currently has a team of 15 experienced virtual assistants (VAs), and told AGBeat that its goal is “to have several offices and hundreds of support staff.”
RealSupport offers listing marketing efforts for agents, website design and enhancements, logo design and branding, listing presentations, closing coordination, blogging services, lead management, social media presence (set-up, management and campaigns), and many other projects. It offers packages from introductory to advanced budgets, with a typical social networking maintenance package costing only $116 per week. While the hourly rate is $58, the company proclaims 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 along with having an on-site assistant; in fact, we are a tax write-off.”
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