Real Estate VA.

Also posted as

ISA, listing coordinator, transaction coordinator, real estate admin, acquisitions VA

Core loop

Lead in → responded fast → logged → nurtured → appointment → paperwork

Hours

Usually 20–40/wk, often anchored to one US time zone's business hours

Hardest part

Being measured on deals you do not control

Easiest way in

CRM cleanup and speed-to-lead response. Small, provable, immediately valuable.

Progress is saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

1. 01

   The industry map and where you legally sit

   You can name every seat on a real estate team, say which one you are applying for, and draw the line between admin support and licensed advice.RatesRed/green flags26 min

   • Agent, broker, investor, wholesaler, property manager. Four of those five make money in completely different ways, and it changes what they will ask you to do.
   • Inside the team there are seats: ISA chases and qualifies leads, listing coordinator gets a property to market, transaction coordinator gets a signed contract to closing, admin VA holds the database and calendar together.
   • You can gather, organise, schedule, follow up, prepare documents and communicate under the agent's direction. You cannot price a home, interpret a contract, advise on tax or negotiate terms. That is licensed work and the licence is not yours.
   • Compliance is not optional decoration. Do-not-call rules, TCPA restrictions on autodialling and texting, MLS access rules and brokerage policy all vary by market and your client is responsible for telling you theirs, in writing.
   • Never share or use MLS credentials casually. If the client wants MLS work done, ask whether their brokerage allows assistant access and get it set up properly.
   • Pick your lane before you apply. "Real estate VA" is a rate-lowering phrase. "Transaction coordination for a three-agent team" is a job with a number attached.

   Worked example — Same request, three different answers

   Before

   Agent: "Just tell the buyer what you think the house is worth, you've seen the comps."

   Agent: "Look at the contract and tell them if the repair request is reasonable."

   Agent: "Can you text this list of 400 numbers about our new listing?"

   After

   "I've pulled three comparable sales and put them in a sheet for you. Sending it now so you can give them the number."

   "I've highlighted the repair clause and the response deadline, it's Thursday 5pm. Your call on what's reasonable, I'll send whatever you decide."

   "Before I send, can you confirm these were scrubbed against DNC and that they've opted in? I'll do it the moment you confirm in writing."

   You never said no. You did the work up to the legal line and handed the decision back with everything ready. That reads as senior, not difficult.

   What this pays

   What real estate VA work pays

   Real estate pays above general admin because mistakes are expensive and deadlines are legal. The jump from admin to transaction coordination is the biggest single pay step available to you in this niche.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Experience	Hourly (USD)	Monthly (USD)	What changes it
   Entry — admin / data entry	$4–6	$650–1,000	CRM cleanup, listing data, scheduling. No client contact.
   Junior — listing + marketing coordinator	$6–8	$1,000–1,300	You run listings end to end and produce the marketing.
   Mid — ISA (inside sales agent)	$7–11 + bonus	$1,150–1,800 + $25–100/appt	You call leads and set appointments. Bonus structure is where the real money is.
   Senior — transaction coordinator	$9–14	$1,500–2,300	You own contract-to-close. Deadline discipline is the entire skill.
   Lead — ops manager for a team	$13–20	$2,100–3,200	You run the CRM, the other VAs and the reporting for a whole brokerage team.

   This table has 4 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Same skill, different client

   • Verse's job board (median)$5.40

     Across live real estate listings. Above the general VA median of $3.50.

   • Per-transaction TC work$250–500 per closed file

     How experienced TCs actually price. A good one runs 15–25 files a month.

   • ISA with appointment bonus$6–9 base + $25–100/appt

     Base plus bonus beats a flat rate once you're good. Negotiate for the bonus.

   • US client, direct$7–15

     The overwhelming majority of this market. Expect to work US hours.

   Sources: Verse's live board (n=2,081), OnlineJobs.ph real estate tiers, and US TC per-file rate norms. Real estate VAs work US timezones almost without exception — price the graveyard shift in.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   A lead asks you a question on a call

   Red flag

   "Based on what I'm seeing in the area, I'd say your house is worth about $450,000 and honestly you should list now before rates go up."

   That is a valuation and it is advice about a transaction. In most US states, doing that without a licence is illegal and it exposes your agent's licence, not just you. It is the fastest way to end this career.

   Green flag

   "I can't give you a value — I'm not licensed and I'd be doing you a disservice by guessing. What I CAN do is get [Agent] on the phone with you, and she does a proper comparative market analysis for free. She has Thursday at 2 or Friday at 10 — which works?"

   Names the boundary honestly, doesn't apologise for it, and converts the moment into an appointment. Your job is to route to the licensed person, and doing it confidently makes you sound more professional, not less.

   The job post says

   Red flag

   "Real estate VA needed. Cold call 300 numbers/day from our list, must have own dialer, commission only, unlimited earning potential! Will train the right person."

   Commission only means you carry all the risk and they carry none. 300 dials a day with no base is a churn model — they expect you to quit and they'll hire another one next month.

   Green flag

   "ISA for our 4-agent team. 100–150 dials/day from our CRM (we supply the dialer and the list). $7/hr base + $50 per appointment that shows. 30 hrs/wk, 8am–2pm EST. Scripts and 2 weeks' paid training provided."

   A base you can live on, a bonus that rewards the outcome, realistic dial volume, they supply the tools, and paid training. This is a team that intends to keep you.

   Do this

   Find eight live real estate VA job ads across OnlineJobs.ph, Upwork and LinkedIn. Sort them by which seat they are actually hiring for, ignoring the title.

   Hand in: A table of eight ads with the real seat, the tools named, the hours, the rate, and one line on whether the scope is defined or a grab bag.≈ 45 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Every row names the seat, not the ad title
   • You flagged at least two ads that bundle three seats into one salary
   • You noted which CRM appears most often
   • You picked one seat to specialise in and wrote one sentence saying why

   Mark module done
2. 02

   CRM hygiene and the pipeline nobody trusts

   You can take an eight-thousand-record database full of duplicates and hand back a pipeline the agent will actually open every morning.WorkflowToolsTime split40 min

   • A dirty database is not a cosmetic problem. Agents stop trusting the CRM, work from memory instead, and then wonder why leads evaporate.
   • Clean in this order: deduplicate, then fix required fields, then fix stages, then tags, then archive the dead. Tagging a duplicate twice just makes two wrong records.
   • Match duplicates on phone and email first, name last. Two people are called Maria Santos. One phone number is one human.
   • Stages must be mutually exclusive and defined in one sentence each. If two people on the team disagree about what "warm" means, the pipeline number is fiction.
   • Tags describe attributes, stages describe progress. Buyer, Seller, Investor, 33606, First-time, Sphere are tags. New, Attempted, Contacted, Appointment Set, Under Contract, Closed, Nurture, Dead are stages.
   • Never bulk-edit without a backup export first. Export, edit a copy, verify a sample of twenty, then import. A bad merge in a CRM is not always reversible.
   • Every record needs a next step with a date, or it is not in a pipeline, it is in a graveyard.

   Worked example — Reyes Group database, before and after

   Before

   8,214 records, 1,190 with no phone number

   412 obvious duplicates (same mobile, three spellings of the name)

   Stages in use: New, new lead, Hot, HOT!!, warm, Warm lead, Nurture, nurture, Closed, Past client, Dead, DNC, blank (2,900 records)

   Tags: 268 distinct, including 'zillow', 'Zillow', 'ZIllow lead', 'z'

   Last activity older than 12 months: 5,100 records

   After

   6,940 records after merging 412 duplicates and archiving 862 with no contact method at all

   8 stages, each defined in one sentence in a pinned doc

   31 tags, controlled list, source tags standardised to Zillow / Realtor.com / Open House / Sphere / Referral / Cold List

   Every active record has an owner and a next-step date

   5,100 stale records moved to a Long Nurture stage on a quarterly email, not deleted

   Backup export saved before every bulk action, dated, in a shared Drive folder

   The number that sells this to the agent is not 6,940. It is "you have 214 people who enquired in the last 90 days and were never called back". Always find that number.

   Workflow

   Weekly CRM cleanup

   Same time every week. A CRM nobody trusts is worse than no CRM.

   1. 1

      Find and merge duplicates

      Search by phone number first, then email, then name. Phone catches the most. Merge, never delete — you'll lose the history.

   2. 2

      Fix every record with no next action

      A lead with no task and no date is a lead that's gone. Either give it a next step or move it to a nurture list on purpose.

   3. 3

      Audit the stages

      Anything sitting in the same stage for 30+ days is lying to you. Either it moved and nobody logged it, or it's dead.

   4. 4

      Fix the bad data

      Missing phone numbers, dead emails, no lead source. Lead source matters most — it's how the agent decides where to spend money.

   5. 5

      Tag consistently

      Agree the tag list once and never freelance new ones. "Buyer-Hot", "buyer hot" and "HOT BUYER" are three tags and none of them work.

   6. 6

      Send the one-page pipeline summary

      Counts per stage, what moved, what went stale, what needs the agent. This is the deliverable — the cleanup is just the work behind it.

   Where this breaks: Cleaning silently. If you fix 400 records and don't report it, the agent thinks you did nothing that week. Always send the before/after count.

   Tool comparison

   Real estate CRMs and tools

   You will not choose the CRM — the agent already has one. Learn the concepts (stages, tasks, drips, smart lists) and any of them takes a week to pick up.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Tool	Best for	Learning curve	Cost	Verdict
   Follow Up BossLearn first	Teams that take lead follow-up seriously. The most VA-friendly of them.	Easy — a few days	$69+/user/mo (client pays)	The one most worth learning first. Clean UI, brilliant smart lists, and it's named in a lot of job posts.
   kvCORE / BoldTrail	Big brokerages. Website + CRM + IDX in one.	Medium — bloated	Brokerage-provided	Clunky, but enormous market share. Knowing it is a genuine differentiator because most VAs avoid it.
   Chime / Lofty	Teams that want AI lead scoring and built-in dialing.	Medium	$500+/mo team	Growing fast. Worth a free trial walkthrough so you can say you've used it.
   Sierra Interactive	High-volume lead gen teams.	Medium	$500+/mo	Strong reporting. Less common, but the teams using it tend to pay above market.
   Dotloop / SkySlope	Transaction management and e-signatures.	Easy — a day	Brokerage-provided	Learn one of these the moment you touch transaction coordination. This is where the deadline discipline lives.
   Canva + CloudCMA	Listing flyers and comparative market analysis packets.	Easy	$10/mo + $30/mo	CloudCMA does in 3 minutes what agents spend an hour on. Offering this makes you instantly useful.

   This table has 5 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Where the hours go

   Where a full-time real estate VA's week goes

   40 hrs/week supporting a small team with 3 active listings and 8 deals in the pipeline.

   • Lead follow-up: calls, texts, emails28%

     The revenue engine. Most agents are terrible at it, which is why they hire you.

   • Transaction coordination22%

     Deadline chasing. Lumpy — quiet until three deals go under contract at once.

   • CRM hygiene and data entry16%

     Boring, constant, and the foundation everything else stands on.

   • Listing coordination and marketing15%

     Photos, MLS entry, flyers, social. Burst of work per new listing.

   • Scheduling: showings, inspections, closings11%

     Constant small interruptions. Batch where you possibly can.

   • Reporting and agent comms8%

     The daily huddle note. Small effort, keeps you employed.

   Half the week is follow-up and CRM. Agents think they're hiring you for marketing; they're actually hiring you because nobody called the lead back.

   Do this

   Build a messy 120-row lead sheet yourself with deliberate duplicates, inconsistent casing, missing phones and eleven versions of four stages. Then clean it in a copy.

   Hand in: Two tabs, Before and After, plus a short cleanup log listing every rule you applied and how many records each rule touched.≈ 80 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Duplicates matched on phone and email, not name
   • A controlled list of stages with one-sentence definitions
   • Source tags standardised to a fixed set
   • Nothing deleted, only archived, and you can say why
   • The log states the one number an agent would care about

   Mark module done
3. 03

   Speed to lead and follow-up that does not die at touch two

   You can build and run a five-touch follow-up sequence, and respond to a new enquiry fast enough to actually matter.Workflow2 templates38 min

   • Speed to lead is the gap between an enquiry and a real human response. Minutes beat hours by an embarrassing margin, and this is the single easiest thing for a VA to be excellent at.
   • First response is short and asks one question. Not a brochure. "Hi Dana, saw your enquiry on 412 Palmetto. Are you looking to move in the next 90 days or just starting to look?"
   • Classify on first contact: buyer, seller, investor, renter, or not a real lead. Timeline, financing status and motivation are the three things you are listening for.
   • Most leads die because nobody touched them a fourth time. Build the sequence, put it in the CRM as tasks, and work the queue even when it feels pointless.
   • Log every attempt with a disposition code, even the no-answers. An unlogged call did not happen, and the pattern in the dispositions is what tells the agent their list is bad.
   • Escalate hot immediately by whatever channel the agent reads fastest, and agree what "hot" means before you start. Usually: ready in 30 days, pre-approved, or asking to see a specific property.
   • Never leave a record without a next step. Even Dead gets a date if the reason was timing.

   Worked example — A five-touch sequence for a Zillow buyer lead

   T+0 (within 5 min) — Call. No answer, leave a 12-second voicemail. Then text: "Hi Dana, Marco's assistant at Reyes Group, calling about 412 Palmetto. Are you free for a quick 2 min today?"

   T+0 (+1 hr) — Email with the listing link, three similar homes, and one question about timeline. No attachments, no PDF brochure.

   T+1 day — Call at a different time of day than touch one. People are habitual.

   T+3 days — Text with a genuinely useful item: a new listing in their price band, or a price drop on the one they viewed.

   T+7 days — Call, then a break-up email: "Are you still looking, or should I stop filling your inbox?" This one gets replies.

   No response after touch five — move to Long Nurture, monthly market email, revisit in 90 days.

   Vary the channel and the time of day. Five calls at 2pm on the same phone number is one touch repeated five times.

   Workflow

   Speed to lead: the first five minutes

   A new internet lead hits the CRM. The clock starts immediately.

   1. 1

      Call within 5 minutes. Not 30. Five.

      Conversion drops off a cliff after the first few minutes — the lead is on three other sites right now. Whoever calls first usually wins, regardless of who's better.

   2. 2

      If no answer, text immediately — before you leave a voicemail

      Text open rates crush voicemail. "Hi [name], [agent]'s office — you just looked at [address]. Is that the one you're after, or shall I send similar?"

   3. 3

      Then voicemail, then email

      All three within the first ten minutes. Different channels, same short message. You're trying to be present, not persistent yet.

   4. 4

      Log the attempt with a disposition code

      Every single time. An untracked call did not happen as far as the agent is concerned.

   5. 5

      Set the next touch before you close the record

      Never leave a lead without a scheduled next action. This is the rule that separates working CRMs from graveyards.

   6. 6

      Run the full cadence — 8+ touches over 30 days

      Most agents stop at touch two. The majority of conversions happen between touch four and eight. This gap is your entire value.

   Where this breaks: Giving up after two attempts because it feels like pestering. It isn't — they asked to see a house. Stop only when they say stop, and then honour it instantly and permanently.

   Copy-paste

   Steal these

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   The 30-day follow-up cadence

   Build this as an automation, but check it manually. A lead who replies to a drip and gets another drip will never talk to you again.

   Copy template to clipboard

   NEW INTERNET LEAD — 30 DAY CADENCE
   
   DAY 0 (within 5 min)
     Call 1 → no answer → Text immediately → Voicemail → Email
     Text: "Hi [name], this is [you] with [agent]'s office. You just looked at [address] — is that the one, or want me to send a few similar? Happy to help either way."
   
   DAY 0 (evening, if no response)
     Call 2 — different time of day. Morning leads answer in the evening.
   
   DAY 1
     Text: "Morning [name] — sent over 3 homes like [address] to your email. Any of them close?"
     Email: 3 handpicked listings. Not an automated blast. Handpicked, with one line each on why.
   
   DAY 3
     Call 3 + text
     Text: "Quick one [name] — are you still looking, or did you find something? Totally fine either way, just don't want to keep bothering you."
     (This "permission to leave" text gets more replies than anything else in the cadence.)
   
   DAY 7
     Value email — no ask. Neighbourhood report, price trend, "3 homes that just dropped in price".
   
   DAY 12
     Call 4 + text
   
   DAY 18
     Text: "[name], last one from me for a while. If timing's off, no problem — want me to just send new listings in [area] once a week?"
   
   DAY 25
     Value email
   
   DAY 30
     Call 5. Then move to long-term nurture: monthly market email, quarterly call.
   
   RULES
   • The moment they REPLY, all automation stops and it becomes a human conversation
   • Stop instantly if they say stop. Tag "Do Not Contact" and mean it.
   • Vary the time of day. Five calls at 10am is one call, repeated.
   • Log every touch with a disposition code, no exceptions

   First-contact text scripts

   Short, human, easy to reply to. Never send a paragraph as a first text.

   Copy template to clipboard

   NEW LEAD, PROPERTY-SPECIFIC
   "Hi [name], [you] here from [agent]'s office — you just checked out [address]. Is that the one you're after, or want me to send similar? Either way, happy to help."
   
   NEW LEAD, GENERAL SEARCH
   "Hi [name] — [you] with [agent]. Saw you were browsing homes in [area]. What's the timeline you're working with?"
   
   NO RESPONSE, DAY 3 (the permission-to-leave text)
   "Hi [name] — still looking, or did you find a place? Genuinely fine either way, I just don't want to keep texting you if you're sorted."
   
   SELLER LEAD
   "Hi [name], [you] from [agent]'s office. You asked about your home's value on [site]. [Agent] does a proper walkthrough valuation free — takes about 20 min. Want me to find a time this week?"
   
   REVIVING AN OLD LEAD
   "Hi [name] — [you] from [agent]'s office, we spoke back in [month] about [area]. Prices there have moved [up/down] about [n]% since. Want me to send an update, or has your situation changed?"
   
   RULES
   • Under 300 characters, always
   • One question, at the end
   • Use their first name once. Not three times.
   • No links in the first text — links look like spam and get filtered
   • Never text before 8am or after 8pm in THEIR timezone. This is a legal issue in the US, not a politeness one.

   Do this

   Write the speed-to-lead SOP for the Reyes Group and the full five-touch sequence for two lead types: an online buyer enquiry and an expired listing seller.

   Hand in: One SOP page plus two sequences with exact copy for every touch, and a disposition code list.≈ 70 min

   Check before you call it done

   • The SOP states a target response time and what to do when you are offline
   • Every touch names the channel, the timing, and the exact words
   • Channels and times of day vary across the five touches
   • There is a defined escalation rule for a hot lead
   • The disposition list has at most ten codes and none of them overlap

   Mark module done