Hire the role that matches where your deals stall: leads that go cold need an inside sales agent, closings that slip need a transaction coordinator, everything else needs an admin.
Short answer
A real estate virtual assistant handles the work around your deals: lead follow-up as an inside sales agent, contract-to-close paperwork as a transaction coordinator, and listings, MLS, CRM, marketing and bookkeeping as an admin. Hire for the stage where your deals stall. At VirtueStaff, real estate professionals are $15 an hour full-time, about $2,600 a month.
Every agent knows the math. Time on paperwork and follow-up is time not spent showing homes or meeting sellers. The question isn’t whether to get help; it’s which help to get first.
A real estate virtual assistant can be three different hires, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake. This guide shows what each role does, how to tell which one your business needs, what it costs, and which work has to stay with a licensed agent.
In this guide
What does a real estate virtual assistant do?
Everything around the deal that happens on the phone and in software. At VirtueStaff, a remote staffing company in Gilbert, Arizona, we place real estate professionals for this work:
| Area | What the remote hire does |
|---|---|
| Lead follow-up | Calls and texts new leads, nurtures past clients, books appointments into your calendar |
| Transaction coordination | Tracks contract-to-close deadlines, collects documents and signatures, keeps all parties updated |
| Listing and MLS administration | Prepares listings, updates the MLS, manages listing paperwork |
| CRM and lead management | Keeps your CRM clean, tags and routes leads, runs follow-up campaigns |
| Marketing | Social media and digital marketing for listings and your brand |
| Bookkeeping and commissions | Tracks expenses and reconciles commissions |
| Market research and skip tracing | Pulls comps and market data, finds owner contact details for prospecting |
| Property management | Tenant communication, maintenance coordination and records |
ISA, transaction coordinator or admin: which do you hire first?
Find the stage where your deals stall, and hire for that stage. The three roles cover different parts of the business.
| Inside sales agent (ISA) | Transaction coordinator (TC) | Real estate admin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owns | Turning leads into appointments | Getting signed contracts to closing | Listings, MLS, CRM, marketing, bookkeeping |
| Hire first when | Leads go cold because nobody calls them back fast enough | Deadlines and documents slip between contract and close | You’re the one updating the MLS and the CRM at night |
| Measured by | Appointments set | Clean, on-time closings | Hours back in your week |
| Best fit | Agents and teams with more leads than follow-up | Agents with steady volume under contract | Solo agents and small teams doing everything themselves |
If you have more leads than time, start with an ISA. If you have deals under contract and the paperwork is slipping, start with a TC. If neither is the bottleneck but your evenings disappear into admin, start there. Hire for the bottleneck, not the title.
Who can you hire?
People who already know U.S. real estate. Our real estate candidates include U.S.-trained transaction coordinators, inside sales agents, marketing specialists and property managers. Many have REALTOR® association coursework or familiarity with Keller Williams, eXp or Compass systems and SOPs, and English-Spanish bilingual candidates are available for wider client reach.
They come from the Philippines and Latin America, and every hire works in your time zone and works only for you. Over 5,000 candidates are screened per week, only the top 1% are presented to clients, and you interview the finalists and choose. For the time-zone side of the choice, see Philippines vs. Latin America.
What does a real estate virtual assistant cost?
$15 an hour full-time, about $2,600 a month, at VirtueStaff. Part-time is $16 an hour with a 20-hour weekly minimum, about $1,387 a month. Rates are flat with no hidden fees, contracts are month-to-month for most services, and as long as the hire agrees, extra hours are billed at the same flat hourly rate, with no overtime surcharge.
The better comparison is your own hour. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national median pay for real estate sales agents at $25.40 an hour, or $52,830 a year, in May 2025. Every hour of admin you hand off at $15 is an hour back for the work only a licensed agent can do. Every rate is on our pricing page.
What can’t a real estate virtual assistant do?
Anything that requires a license stays with a licensed agent. What an unlicensed assistant may do varies by state, so check your state real estate commission’s rules before you hand off work that touches clients directly. As a rule of thumb, unlicensed assistants handle the administration around a deal, while licensed agents negotiate, give advice, show property and hold the client relationship.
Set the line in writing on day one. Our first-30-days onboarding playbook shows how to train one system and one task at a time, and the Hallway Test our clients use helps decide which roles stay local.
Do this week
Count last month’s leads that never got a second call, and the closings that came within a day of a missed deadline. The bigger number tells you whether to hire an ISA or a TC first.
Frequently asked questions
A real estate virtual assistant handles the work around your deals: lead follow-up, transaction coordination, listing and MLS administration, CRM management, marketing, bookkeeping and commission reconciliation, market research and property management tasks. Licensed activities stay with the agent.
Hire for the stage where your deals stall. If leads go cold because nobody follows up fast enough, hire an inside sales agent. If deals under contract keep slipping on deadlines and documents, hire a transaction coordinator.
At VirtueStaff, real estate professionals are $15 an hour full-time, about $2,600 a month, and $16 an hour part-time with a 20-hour weekly minimum. Rates are flat with no hidden fees, and contracts are month-to-month for most services.
Yes. Our candidates include U.S.-trained transaction coordinators, many with REALTOR® association coursework or Keller Williams, eXp or Compass SOP familiarity.
Yes. English-Spanish bilingual candidates are available, which helps when many of your clients prefer Spanish.
Tell us where your deals stall, and we’ll find the hire for that stage. See how our real estate professionals work.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national median wage for real estate sales agents (41-9022), read 23 October 2026.
