Yesterday I gave a brief overview about the what of this whole virtual assistant business. I answered the question, "Dustin, what will you do for me?" Today I am going to answer the "How much is it?" question. And piggybacking off of that question, I will answer the "Why is this beneficial for me?" question, just in case there is some possible ambiguity.
I am a bottom line kind of a guy. So I will give you the bottom line $, and then go into a little more detail. Bottom line, the fee is $250. Now, most people respond by saying, "That's it?" And quite honestly, about 5 days into the process the agents are saying to me, "This is awesome. You should charge more." Definitely not the poker approach, huh? 
But the truth is that the agents see the value in this. And compared to the other Virtual Assistant vendors out there, I am far less expensive. The reason that I don't charge as much is because, to me, this isn't about money, ultimately. Ultimately this is about people. If I service the people with high caliber efficiency, professionalism, and integrity, then the people will multiply. When the people multiply, so does the money.
Ok, some agents out there may be thinking to themselves, "Well, I do see the value, but $250 is still a lot of money." Let me give you a solution...in fact, it's a very exciting solution. Then let me shift your paradigm, hopefully:
- Charge a transaction fee -
If you were to charge the buyer or seller a transaction fee on the Listing Agreement or on the Buyer's Rep then the money does not come out of your pocket, it pays for my services, and you get a licensed agent with years of experience, FREE, as an assistant. A transaction fee is common practice these days because an agent having an assistant is also common practice these days. The typical commission on a real estate transaction (after broker fees, E&O, taxes, etc) is fairly minimal. The transaction fee is considered payment for the assistant.
Here comes my attempt to shift your paradigm...
- The Reality of Things -
Let's say that you are a fairly high producing agent who does 5-6 deals a month. Calculate $250 times 6 deals. That comes out to $1500. Multiply that number times 12. The total is $18,000. Where are you EVER going to find a licensed agent as a transaction manager for only $18K a year. Plus, you don't have to deal with micro-managing a person within your office. There are no HR issues. And then there's the tax issue to consider for having an employee, which you won't have with me. I am a business owner, not an employee. There's a huge difference. Imagine the motivation I have vs. an employee who is punching a clock. Does this shift your paradigm a little?
Time for my piggyback question, and then I'm done for today. Someone may ask, "Why is this beneficial for me?" Honestly, I can't see how someone could not see the value at this point, but I'll suppose, hypothetically, that the value is still amgbiguous. Let me bullet point the value:
- You have a licensed real estate agent for FREE
- You are out doing the 20% to be more successful while your personal assistant does the 80%
- The client loves you because you have a staff who treats them with respect and care
- Your referral base grows because you think big picture
Does this make sense? It makes a lot of sense to a lot of agents. For instance, Cathy Naiser, Angela McCray, Heather Oliver, Tom Guajardo, Richard Zepeda, Robert Elder, Linda Tobias, et al, see a great deal of sense in this.
Next I'm going to introduce Diana Gutierrez. Diana does Listing Management within Keller Williams like I doing transaction coordination. She's incredible. She will...well, I'll let her tell you what she does and for how much. I will be posting an article written by Diana. You won't want to miss it. Imagine, you can be a real estate agent who charges the client a transaction fee, the client sees the value in the transaction fee (I will be going over scripts about how to give value to the fee), you have 2 personal assistants with years in the business, and you are out doing what you love to, AND making money doing it!!!
Dustin Curlee
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