Need a cup of java to get you running in the morning? How about one for your computer, more specifically, your computer browser also. This only works with FireFox, so if you are not a FireFox user, I am sorry but, never-mind.

This is an extension for FireFox that I use every day. It is called Morning Cup of Coffee. If you are like me, you have a set pattern that you go through every morning before you really get up and running. Or, like me, you have a certain number of websites that you have to check to get started. Or, maybe I just have OCD. Probably the later.

But I found this cute way to get things done at the touch of a button. You download this extension, and it puts a little cup of coffee up in your toolbar. You click it, and you can open as many sites as you want (into your tabbed browser.) I have about 8 sites that I open at once. I like to check my local paper, my Yahoo! page with all of my RSS subscriptions on it, my website stats, Active Rain, some real estate forums, and a couple of other favorite pages. You can input whatever sites that you want to open into it, and also on what days you want it to open. For example, you can have sites that you like to open on the weekend, but not during weekdays.

It helps me function while I am waiting on my cup of coffee help me function. How am I supposed to remember all of those websites without it? (either coffee)

Hope you find this useful!

Want to learn how you can do nothing but greatly save time in the process?

Hire a real estate virtual assistant and get back to being a real estate agent instead of a secretary!

Welcome back to my 3^rd post in my series “What Can a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do For You?” This time, I will be covering some of the tasks that a virtual assistant can help you take care of during the under contract/pending or escrow phase of a real estate transaction.

If you would like to see the previous 2 posts in this series, click here to read how a virtual assistant can help you during the “pre-listing” phase, or click here to read how a virtual assistant can help you during the “listing” phase of a real estate transaction. More…

I am back with my second post to answer the question – What can a real estate virtual assistant do for you? This post is going to cover what a real estate virtual assistant can do for you during the listing phase. My previous post covered what a virtual assistant can do to help an agent during the pre-listing phase. If you missed that post, please click here if you would like to catch up.

So the moment is finally here! You have got the listing that you have been working on for quite a while. If you got the listing with the help of a virtual assistant, then the rest of this post is a moot point – you already know the enormous positive impact that a virtual assistant can have on your real estate business. But, if you don’t yet have a virtual assistant, you may be wondering if one could help you at this point. The answer is YES! What do you have to do – NOTHING! Next I am going to take you step by step through the process of listing coordination to answer the question “What exactly can a virtual assistant do for you?”

More…

“Why would I pay someone else to do something that I already know how to do?” This is question that comes up often when I am talking to a prospect about using my virtual assistant services. I saw another virtual assistant talking about it on her Active Rain blog and it really got me thinking.

Many times, when we virtual assistants advertise, and I am guilty of this myself, we list all the programs we know, and we talk about how well trained and proficient we are at these said programs. What we tend to leave out is “But Why?”

A real estate agent does not always need to hire a virtual assistant because we have some vast and unattainable knowledge that will sky-rocket their business into the 22nd century. The knowledge of various programs is always a plus, but the biggest bonus that a real estate virtual assistant offers is more time. Even if you are not a real estate agent, I am sure that you can attest as to how invaluable time is. Furthermore, it is very hard to be a successful real estate agent while you are tied up doing administrative tasks and marketing work. When a real estate agent takes their state exam to receive their license - the questions on the exam don’t have anything to do with what technique is best for marketing a home in the Bay area. The exam deals with terms, legality, ethics, and procedures. That should be the agents focus. If they stay occupied with these items, you can easily see why they wouldn’t have much time to sit down and sent out and email blast after creating a great flyer.

Webster’s dictionary defines assistant as a noun - “one who assists; a helper.” Then I looked up the definition for helper and that was even more interesting. Webster’s defines helper as”a relatively unskilled worker who assists a skilled worker.” Now this is not to say that real estate virtual assistants are unskilled - but instead, it just helps me relate a point. When one goes to hire a real estate virtual assistant, it is not always because the assistant can accomplish something that a real estate agent cant. It just means that the virtual assistant can help agent accomplish more goals by spending less time on time consuming areas.

So, instead of marketing by saying “Would you like me to how you how to make a bigger and better website? Or “Can I help you make a killer drip email campaign?” Perhaps I should ask

“Would you like me to show you how to have more hours in a day?”

Because by handling all the administrative and marketing tasks for a real estate agent – that is essentially what I am doing - giving them more hours in a day to do what they do best – real estate.

Virtual Assistants are getting noticed more and more these days! That is great! However, as a result, I see the same question popping up on real estate forums and blogs around the net - “What is a Virtual Assistant, and what can a virtual assistant specifically do for you?” Or “How can a Virtual Assistant help or enhance your business?” Unfortunately, I sometimes see that this question is not answered very well. Some virtual assistants will post a message on a forum in response to one of the above questions that states - “email or call me, and I will tell you how I can help you.” That’s fine! But not a great “immediate” answer to the question. The poster of the question is still clueless on how a VA can help them.

So, this is what I would like to do. I am going to start a 4 or 5 part “blog-eries” (my term for blog series) on what a virtual assistant can help a real estate agent do. I am going to break it down based on the basic real estate transaction this way: More…