I have read many complaints from Realtors regarding part-time agents and assistants.  Yes, in every field there are some people that are lazy and should not be in a given field. But, when you do find a good assistant to help you with your everyday things, it is important to make sure that they feel appreciated. 

I am really fortunately in that my wife acts as my assistant. She has been an essential entity especially with linking my website to other sites and finding marketing tools to help me.  Without her, I would have never found Active Rain.  For that I am extremely thankful.  I have made some good associations on this site and learned many marketing tools like the point2agent site that my wife discovered for me.  She optimizes the website and looks for ways to improve it on a daily basis. She also discovered that my ERA company will send monthly newsletters to my clients for free.

Again, I am lucky that my spouse can help me in areas to improve as a real estate agent. However, I do realize that many people don't have that luxury.  But if you can find an assistant that can provide the quality to help handle calls, manage your website effectively, create newsletters and help generate leads then they are worth every penny that you pay them.