Many virtual assistants worked in other areas of corporate America before they went into business for themselves. If your area was real estate, think about the opportunities waiting for you as a real estate virtual assistant.

Real estate agents either work for a company or they can go out on their own and work as an independent. To make money, they sell homes and other properties. Agents stay busy with listings, showings, sales and other projects. Combine that with their office responsibilities and the “little details” and you have way too much for one person to handle.

The Market

As any business owner will tell you, it is hard to juggle promotion, client satisfaction, daily operations and professional affiliations all at once. Many new businesses like an independent real estate agent are not in the position to hire new employees at first. Besides that, the pick of local applicants may be less than qualified to do the job without some hand holding at first.

The real estate industry was among the first to use virtual assistants to meet their needs. Virtual assistants had the necessary skills to handle bookkeeping, accounting, database management and various other office activities. Virtual assistants that once worked in real estate decided to use that knowledge to build a niche business for themselves. As such, they were able to expand their services to real estate agents beyond just the basics.

Duties of a Real Estate VA

Virtual assistants that have been in the real estate industry know that an agent needs help with basic office needs and much more. With that in mind, virtual assistants, like you can offer services like:

• Business marketing plans (creating company logos, brands)
• Website management (virtual tours, website content)
• Contacting potential clients (home sellers, home buyers, FSBOs)
• Coordinating listing activities (data entry, promotional info, presentations)
• Closing activities (escrow, inspections, signings)
• Keep track of appointments
• Create new business leads

With the knowledge of real estate, clients will seek you out to make their job easier. You will be able to propose new areas for business growth, create sales copy depending on the area and the situation with the housing market and deal with the questions that customers ask but agents don’t always have time to answer.

Many real estate virtual assistants work with local agents and develop a professional relationship. With your expertise, you are not limited to that though. Maybe you deal mainly with website services. In that arena, you can create stunning websites and virtual tours for clients in any time zone as long as they provide the needed information for you to get started.

A virtual assistant in the area of real estate is a vital member of the team. Your knowledge helps the agents to concentrate on the business of helping clients to buy or sell property and leave the rest to you.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

One of the easiest ways to get started on eBay is drop shipping. Drop shipping is when you have the manufacturer or wholesaler ship directly to the buyer without having to ship it to you in between. You don’t have to hold inventory, you don’t have to order large amounts from a wholesaler and you save a lot of time and effort all around.

How does drop shipping work? Where do you find drop shippers? What are the pros and cons? Keep reading to find out.

=> The Pros and Cons of Drop Shipping

The main benefit of drop shipping is that it lets you get a leg into the industry. It allows you to start shipping to customers without having to go through many of the hassles that ordinarily come with buying from wholesalers.

You also get the benefit of having wholesalers take care of all the shipping for you. They’ll package everything, put all the postage labels and ship it for you. They’ll often also process refunds and restock refunded items.

There are drawbacks, however.

Drop shipping cuts into your profits. Drop shippers charge a drop-shipping fee. In the beginning, this fee is worth paying because of all the hassles it’ll save you. However, in a low-margin industry as eBay often is, it’s very difficult to compete with competitors who aren’t paying that drop shipping fee.

At some point in your eBay career it will become cheaper to warehouse and ship yourself. When that time comes, make the transition.

=> Where to Find Wholesalers Who Drop Ship

Finding drop shippers can be a little tricky. There are many scams in the industry. These usually come in the form of people trying to sell you drop shipper lists, which are almost always bogus.

There are two primary ways to find drop shippers.

One method is to use an eBay-certified drop shipper directory. Unlike other lists, these lists have to adhere to very strict quality guidelines about the listings in their directories. One such directory is World Wide Brands.

The second method is to subscribe to trade journals and industry magazines. These are the magazines where wholesalers and manufacturers will often advertise. Call up wholesalers and ask if they drop ship.

In the past, very few wholesalers drop shipped. But as the internet grew in popularity, many now realize how much more business they can get by catering to lower-volume online merchants.

Go directly to the source by using industry journals and magazines for the market you want to get into. That way, you’re also competing with fewer other marketers – provided you can find a niche that isn’t in other drop-shipping directories.

In short, drop shipping on eBay takes less effort and money to get started than buying wholesale. It does cut into your profits a bit, but that can be remedied in time. Find your drop shippers by using eBay-certified directories or by looking at ads in trade journals.