My first virtual assistant, I think I'm in love

I currently manage 28 properties including the 10 that came on board with the multi unit purchase. Of those 10, 7 needed a complete remodel. Each remodel has been initiated as we turned over tenants. In addition, of course, the SFH company also needs attention. As you might imagine, I have been busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest.

At the same time, our local rental market has been changing rapidly. Oklahoma City has a significant net influx of population, mostly people moving here for work. In addition the big storms last spring eliminated thousands of housing units from inventory. Those two elements have combined to create a volatile upward surge in rent prices. Volatile, because many appear to be testing the market and seeing what the market will bear. I'm seeing street signs for $200 more than the property would've been listed for last spring. However, sometimes I'm seeing the same street sign for weeks and the property is clearly not renting at that price point.

Meanwhile, because of the new purchases and normal turnovers of properties, I rented five units in February and am looking at renting as many as four in March. Until now, with the other stressors on my time, I've been stuck using my historic pricing model. That's all very well and good but with the market changing so rapidly around us it's time to do some serious analysis on pricing.

Enter the virtual assistant. It struck me that this is the perfect opportunity to test an online VA for this quintessentially mechanical data-gathering task. On Monday, I posted the task on Elance. Because this was my first 'task' I gave long thought to how to express what I needed. I used my notes from The Four Hour Work Week to help construct the task and put it up.

Four hours later, I had multiple proposals and selected a "freelancer." Within four more hours, the freelancer quit, stating the task would make him "work too hard." Wow, this is just like having real employees!

Undaunted, I went back to the pool of proposals and tried again. On Tuesday morning, the new freelancer and I were exchanging emails and agreeing on a spreadsheet format. On Friday, I received in my email a huge excel spreadsheet capturing all Craigslist rental houses, listed in the last 30 days. The properties were screened for my sizes and my part of town; with an accompanying assessment of the quality of the home. Because I had listed some properties in February, I could use those ads as benchmarks and it looks like the Freelancer just nailed it. While I was sleeping. For a modest price. Now all I have to do is sort the data, match it to my inventory and complete my analysis.

It's a win... and I think I'm in love.