Considerations in Hiring an Assistant

[Frank John]

I am considering hiring an assistant to handle a lot of my administrative functions and systematize as much of my appraisal business as possible. I do not want to spend any more time doing things that I can have someone else do well at a lower rate (e.g., filing, scheduling, pulling public records of my subject, keying that information into the forms, accounts receivable, handling some aspects of marketing campaigns, etc.) I know a lot of us have been hunkering down cutting overhead trying to survive the market the last year or two, but this isn’t working either. My goal is to free up more time to do even better appraisal work and leverage my expertise to develop another stream of income. No more minimum wage activities for me! Seeking advice from others who have all ready done this. For instance, for those of you with assistants or administrative managers what tasks or functions have you been able to delegate? How has it helped you? What problems or issues have you encountered? Any other suggestions or ideas?


Thanks in advance,

Frank

[Tim Ferguson]

Frank,

I have had an office manager ever since I have been in business. She runs my office completely, all I do is appraise, she, accepts or declines orders, sets up my appointments, takes care of the bills and anyother item and no she is not my wife. Yes, you can cut back and still have an office manager. Just recently she has taken a cut in pay and now does this remotely from her house. Thanks heaven for the internet and free programs. So far other than getting use to her running the office from her house, we have had not problems. I ported my office number to a cell phone and if she or anyone else needs to get in touch with my I use majic jack at the office.

[Frank John]

Tim,

Thanks for the information. This is the way I would like to go.

[Brian Davis]

Frank - Hiring the right person is critcal in this process. They HAVE to have many of the technical and research skills that we expect appraisers to have. Possibly a moonlighting sales agent would work? or local college student majoring in finance or real estate?

They HAVE to be able to work INDEPENDENTLY and without constant supervision. If they aren't, you can spend more time holding their hand and directing them than it would take to complete the task youself.

Consider their compensation - I had my local accountant handle ALL of the payroll issues. The assistant maintained a log of hours worked and we submitted that to the accountant on a bi-weekly basis. I did not want to exchange one set of tasks (appraisal) for another (payroll).

Workflow - I often likened the process to that of a surgeon. The surgeon (professional) does NOT make the appointment, ready the operating room, prepare the instruments, administer drugs, etc. etc. They consult, perform the surgery, and relay the results. The same COULD be true of an Appraiser/Assistant TEAM.

The Assistant could accept the order, open the file, make appointments, prepare for the inspection and do preliminary market research. The appraiser would then perform the inspection and the assistant would update the file. This back and forth process would continue until the appraisal was complete. Each member doing their assigned task.

Tim - Like you, I just ported my landline phone number over to my iPhone. I now (soon) will have just one office phone number (my long standing one) and one voicemail system. I was able to drop my office VoiP sytem and my existing mobile phone . . .in favor of the iPhone . . .and save $10/month in the process.

[Frank John]

Brian,

Great info. I am actually looking at using a virtual assistant through a company like www.teamdoubleclick.com. They seem to have a significant number of folks who have a real estate focus. I have interacted with a one virtual assistant affiliated with them and she was quite sharp.

By the way, I too have incorporated some of your paperless office suggestions with some success.

Thanks again,

Frank

[Frank John]

Tim, Brian, others....

Still grappling with the best way to make this happen. Since my office manager/assistant will be working remotely, I am trying to figure the best workflow, etc. A key question is how to setup the system so that the office manager/assistant can login and handle the scheduling, can access the appraisal reports, enter some data, etc? Don't want there to be any rekeying of data in the process. Want the data to be available to me and any other appraisers I might bring on down the line. Trying to keep process as paperless as possible per some of Brian Davis great ideas... By the way, I use WinTotal...

Thanks,

Frank

[Brian Davis]

Frank -

Do you also have an XSite through a la mode? Use their Vault product?

I would suggest using a remote access product like LogMeIn.com or GoToMyPC. BOTH will allow a remote assistant to have access to your office as though they were there. LiveMesh from Microsoft is another option (free) that replaced FolderShare. That's an option that will allow you to synch folder on your desktop with folders on the assistant's desktop.

The Pro versions of LogMeIn and GTMPC allow remote printing (they can print files in your office on their computer) and drag and drop file sharing (along with other enhancements).

[Frank John]

Brian:

Yes, I have an XSite and I use the Vault. I also have GoToMyPC and Horizon folders. Not familiar with the other products that you mentioned. So I guess I have a lot of the components that I need, just not sure from a workflow standpoint how to put it all together. Do you recommend setting up some type of server that we would both access? For example, if I am on the main computer doing work, the assistant could log in using GoToMyPC but we both couldn't be working on it simultaneously, or could we?

Frank