124 – How To Use Virtual Assistants To Create A 7-Figure Business With Juan Diaz

Synopsis

When you are swamped with work and your business seems to be spiraling out of control, your best bet would be to hire a virtual assistant. Simply, a virtual assistant is an employee who works for you from an offshore location. He is there to assist with the administrative tasks of an office or business. Usually, virtual assistants do not specialize in one task. He generalizes and is 100% dedicated to helping you achieve the goals you set for your business. You do not have to handle every minute detail of your business for it to succeed. Chances are that you will become lethargic and begin to hate the task of driving your business. The real estate business is rather competitive and having someone to handle certain mundane tasks can be extremely helpful. That is why it is necessary to consider getting a virtual assistant for your real estate business.

Juan Diaz is a real estate investor from the Bay Area who knows just how beneficial a virtual assistant is to the real estate sector. The mogul shares with us some insight into the value that a virtual assistant brings to a business; especially real estate. He discusses in the podcast host how using virtual assistants have aided him in creating a successful business and how it helped him grow in real estate.

Key points

Juan’s Journey To Becoming A Real Estate Investor

He gives us a brief history of how he delved into the business of real estate and transportation and how he managed to stay afloat despite the toll the two companies took on him. Juan ventured into real estate by taking up trustee sales and investing in them. He worked on real estate partly and partly ran a transportation company. His transportation company, as he puts it, steered him and his partner ahead of his competitors. He says, “They would send us pictures of the houses and where we had the cutting edge is that we had 50-60 drivers.”

He also explains that trustee sales are a public auction in real estate in which the owner is in default on their mortgage. A trustee facilitates the foreclosure of the deal on behalf of the lender or mortgage company and after the sale ownership of property is transferred to the highest bidder. Juan decided to focus more on real estate because of the lucrative sales and income as compared to his transportation company.

Realizing The Need For A Virtual Assistant

Juan realized the importance of delegating duties at an early stage in his real estate career. That’s when he started using VAs ‘services. He and his partner would have his workers look at the properties. He had a team of people turning comps, some evaluating the properties and two others with their checks for bidding. Bids could increase in any increment and once the trustee sale was complete the property is recorded in the new owner’s name. The highest bidder was automatically the new owner and could immediately claim ownership of the property.

Juan Diaz used virtual assistants in finding properties and checking them out and analyzing them. He would then go and repair them and flip them right back in the market. He explains that “In that business, it’s about how fast you can it take it back to the market.” This was his reason for picking houses that only needed minimum repairs like carpet and wall repairs. Virtual assistants helped him carry out his businesses without really being there. He invests his money and expects income by not having to overexert himself. Juan says that a virtual assistant helps him to remain headstrong in his business. He realized he does not have to overwhelm himself with duties that he can delegate. Although he left the real estate business he says he is considering coming back and expresses his regret in leaving the business.

Delegate Tasks To The Virtual Assistant

Juan Diaz shares with us that a virtual assistant is someone who takes off excess responsibility off your plate. They ensure that you handle only what is necessary while they take care of the remaining duties. When you delegate all the administrative tasks to the virtual assistant it gives you time to focus on your productivity. You organize your time to create space for you to concentrate on your work. The key role of a real estate virtual assistant is to manage your time efficiently. This is so you can concentrate on the tasks that require your utmost attention in the business. Rather than spending a huge chunk of your energy absorbed on paperwork, you can now concentrate on getting ready for your meetings.

Your Virtual Assistant Is In Charge Of Communication

From Juan’s point of view, you should trust the virtual assistant to be in charge of communication within your real estate business. Give them the responsibility of interacting with people through your official real estate business e-mail addresses. Juan also suggests that you divert incoming calls to the virtual assistant too. They have the essential skills to facilitate communication and make real estate inquiries. They also take messages and are also equipped to take note of every important detail. The virtual assistant acts as a human reminder. Their job is to inform you beforehand of meetings and important obligations that require your attention.

The real estate Virtual assistant is simply like an executive assistant; except you do not get to see each other or work within the same office space. You will observe a noticeable change within your real estate business when you enlist the services of a virtual assistant. One of the benefits you will record when you have a virtual assistant is accomplishing more tasks in a day than you normally would without one.

A Virtual Assistant Saves You Time

The success of a real estate business relies heavily on the concept of time. As a real estate investor, you know how essential time is to secure a deal with a customer. A virtual assistant, therefore, assists you by planning your time according to matters that need your attention. They also create time for you to address these important concerns. This is at a pace that also allows you to attend to your other real estate activities.

Your Virtual Assistant Will Generate Leads

Virtual assistants possess various skills that have been developed through training in institutions of higher learning and certification in their different fields of expertise. When hiring a virtual assistant for your real estate business, you should take into consideration the role you need them to play in your real estate investor’s business. You can hire a virtual assistant who has experience generating leads through online and traditional methods.

Diaz knows the significance of incorporating both traditional and current lead generation methods in the real estate sector. He advises that you consider hiring a virtual assistant who knows how to incorporate the new and old to cohesively generate leads; especially for you as a realtor who wants to reach a wide customer base. He hence suggests finding someone who is not only familiar with various social media platforms but also planning and executing content marketing procedures. Mr. Diaz thus emphasizes that it is vital to find a virtual assistant who can handle these crucial activities for lead generation to drive your real estate business to success.

The Virtual Assistant Converts Leads To Sales

Juan Diaz stresses that leads tend to fail if you cannot transform them into sales. A virtual assistant in the real estate business should possess the ability and expertise to change leads to sales. As the lead continues to generate sales for you, your real estate virtual assistant can proceed to kick off actions that will help to maintain your position amongst the realtors. Juan emphasizes the significance of social media as a tool for real estate investment. He explains that platforms such as Pinterest come in handy in searching for designs and he forwards it to his virtual assistants. He trusts them to change or fix where they do not agree. The VAs reach out to him only when the process is done. His suggestions coupled with the efforts of his virtual assistants all merge to drive sales and visibility for his real estate business.

In Conclusion

Juan Diaz encourages fellow realtors to enlist the assistance of VAs on platforms such as Upwork to expand their reach in real estate. He says that the best thing about virtual assistants is that many people give up. VAs come in handy because he only needs a few workers. He also says that he enjoys hitting people with good business sense; one of the best lessons he has learned is that he does not have to be involved in everything. Juan Diaz uses Upwork to pay his virtual workers instead of apps like PayPal. He prefers Upwork because he knows how it works and is 100% sure it would work.

Virtual assistants’ fees today run from 1 to 100 dollars per hour. It is a lucrative job compared to working for a whole month and earning less. Your productivity is determined by the effort you put in which ultimately defines the minutes you log in. Mr. Diaz hence assures business owners in real estate to consider hiring virtual assistants to help steer their businesses in the right direction.

References

More from our guest

• Email Juan at jdiaz@equitytrack.com
• Or you can reach him at 510-867-3040