“COVID-19: Are you going back to the office yet or not?” I recently posed this question to more than 500 business owners in the real estate industry.
The results were scattered almost evenly across the board. Twenty-seven percent of business owners indicated that they were already back in the office—and to my surprise, tying for first place, another 27 percent responded that their business was operating via remote work before the pandemic.
Another 23.7 percent responded that their business would permanently transition to remote operations, and 12.3 percent are enacting a transition plan to return to their office.
Working From Home: Collaborative and Productive Teams for Virtual Real Estate
Today, many leaders are faced with the challenge of fostering a sustainable and productive environment for both physical and remote employees. A variety of organizational tools will help employees and the business stay productive. Managers can recognize patterns with several tools, such as task lists, daily individual reports and companywide activity reports.
Remote work requires an adjustment period for all employees. Thus, a business cannot expect the same productive output immediately while undergoing this transition. Find more information about strategically fostering a remote culture in MyOutDesk’s “20 Steps to Remote Culture” blog post.
Reducing Churn and Recruiting Talented Staff for Virtual Real Estate
I believe the best organizational strategy is to integrate a “blended business model” wherein teams can leverage the power of working remotely in any profitable business, especially for businesses still requiring physical commercial space. This allows businesses to maintain uninterrupted service and remain flexible during today’s government-mandated lockdowns.
More importantly, virtual assistants for real estate—once a niche service—have become increasingly popular and an indispensable tool for many real estate businesses.
As part of a unique model for recruiting and retaining local agents, Long Doan, broker and CEO of Minnesota’s fast-growing Realty Group Inc., has several MyOutDesk virtual assistants on his virtual real estate team. His team leverages virtual assistants in a process that is one fourth the cost of other brokers, which generates over four times return on investment.
Embracing Virtual Tools and Fostering Talent
In today’s work-from-home culture, experienced virtual assistants are well-practiced in maintaining an effective virtual operation as the key to business growth. Partnering with providers such as MyOutDesk gives entrepreneurs the power to find remote talent quickly—all while costing up to 70 percent less than a traditional employee.
As remote work is now necessary, leaders need to have a flexible state of mind to succeed. Encourage a reasonable adjustment period for offering training, allowing mistakes and consistently repeating key messages in order to foster a collaborative remote workforce.
After several years of working in the real estate industry, Daniel Ramsey—founder and CEO of MyOutDesk—realized that REALTORS® spend too much time doing tasks that are necessary but highly administrative, routine and time-consuming. In 2008, he founded MyOutDesk with a vision to provide REALTORS® with indispensable leverage through real estate virtual professionals to aid them in regaining time and freedom and have the ability to grow their business, all while reducing costs. To learn more, please visit www.myoutdesk.com.
