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Real Estate Contract-to-Close Assistant
Low-Volume Transaction Coordination Virtual Assistants for Individual Agents & Small Teams
Goal:
The goal of your Contract-To-Close Assistant is to help you manage the transaction process…
… all the way from when you put a listing Under Contract to when that transaction has a final Closing.
The benefit of using a Contract-to-Close Virtual Assistant is twofold:
- You will have help with the menial, repetitive duties to take a property from Pending to Sold, and…Â
- You will free yourself to focus on customer service, relationship building, and sales activities.
By successfully delegating the menial, repetitive duties required to go from Contract-to-Close, you’ll free yourself to focus on mission critical tasks like:
- getting more deals,
- nurturing your database,
- growing your sales pipeline, and
- the tasks that actually make you money.
How It Works:
A Contract-To-Close Assistant is a specialist Virtual Assistant that is trained & dedicated to helping you take transactions from “Pending” to “Closed.”
That means right off the bat, you know:
- They’re most likely going to already be familiar with some of the Workflows required.
- They’ve probably worked in another or the same Real Estate Transaction Management Software as what you’re using,.
- Everything they do will be running off a step-by-step Closing Checklist and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Good documentation is key. You’ll probably want to supplement your standard Brokerage Closing Checklist with a more granular SOP that spells out the finer details.
This can help you achieve two critical objectives:
- Ensure the Contract-to-Close Assistant is not missing steps, and
- Build a repeatable, scalable Workflow that you can depend on for every transaction.
You’ll want to invest extra attention to ensure your Virtual Assistant is focused and trained to be with you every step of the way: from the moment your contract is signed until the final closing of the property.
You can even use a combination of both U.S.-based and Overseas Virtual Assistants for your Contract-to-Close process.
For higher-touch or higher communication skills, a US-based person is ideal, especially when it comes to client-facing communications and interactions.
For the rest of the Admin Tasks, even including talking to vendors, an Overseas Virtual Assistant is fully capable of the Contract-to-Close process for your business.
Pros:
The best part about leveraging a Contract-To-Close Assistant is that you are left to focus on making money!
Especially for those who are not great when it comes to paperwork, having this dedicated & focused Assistant on your team can significantly streamline your Closing process (and reduce your stress about it).
That will free you up to focus on revenue generating activities like:
- getting more deals,
- nurturing leads,
- closing listing appointments (and getting your existing listing sold),
- finding more buyers,
- building your business,
- automating systems and processes,
- and growing your team.
Plus, since it’s so systems-based (following your state-mandated Closing Checklist, which is more or less the same every time)… your Contract-to-Close Virtual Assistant can handle the workload & achieve nearly the same quality of work that you would get with in-house help.
It’s one of the most obvious & consistently dependable Workflows to delegate for Residential Real Estate Agents & Brokers.
It’s also not that expensive, especially if you use only an Overseas Contract-to-Close VA, and have them focus purely on the lower-level Admin Tasks (while you still handle the more critical Client-facing communications).
In addition, it will save you money by freeing your time and energy from these menial Admin Tasks, so you can focus on the more important activities to grow & streamline your business.
Cons:
The downside of hiring a Contract-To-Close Assistant is the setup process.
You’re going to need to carefully build out your training & documentation, including a clear-cut Closing Checklist and all necessary Standard Operating Procedures.
These SOPs are what will be guiding your Contract-to-Close Assistant every step of the way, including detailed training materials & guidance like:
- screenshots,
- every important login detail needed to find documents and where to put them,
- how to examine the documents to be sure that they’re submitted correctly (checking for signatures, etc), and
- even potentially communicating with Clients to chase documents & resolve issues (though this might be better kept in-house until you’re ready to graduate to a full-fledged Transaction Coordinator, or TC).
This setup process is a lot of work, but once it’s done, you don’t really have to do it again.
So, while potentially painful, at least it is a one-time investment that will continue paying dividends for years to come.
Work Estimate:
The work estimate will depend on one crucial factor:
How much of the Contract-to-Close process are you actually delegating?
The work estimate can range anywhere from about 5 – 10 hours per transaction, up to about 20 hours per transaction max.
If you’re going to be delegating the majority of your Contract-to-Close Workflow, you might also consider splitting the “higher touch” Client-facing communications from the more menial Admin Tasks.
In that scenario, you might be working with something like 15 Overseas work hours and 5 US-based Work Hours Per Transaction (and this is likely the absolute high-end of labor… probably you’ll be needing quite a bit less Work Hours Per Transaction than this example).
There will of course also be a learning curve, so don’t forget to factor in the extra work you’ll need to invest for the first couple months.
However, once your Contract-to-Close Virtual Assistant is fully up to speed, you can completely get the process off your plate for a reasonably low-cost fixed fee, and never have to worry about it these headaches again.