Ever since I started mentioning on this forum that I hire offshore virtual assistants to run my STRs, I’ve received a bunch of DMs asking me Qs. So I figured it’s easier to write a post that can help everyone...

Why hire offshore VAs?

• It’s a win-win: it benefits us, and it benefits them
• There's millions of highly talented, high quality people all over the globe, many of whom don't have the luxury of living in a first-world country with a strong economy & tons of job opportunities
• Many talented hard-working people live in countries with very poor economies (and worse), and they simply need a few bucks here & there to feed their kids & pay their rent
• Because their cost of living is low, and the exchange rate heavily favors us, you can typically hire high quality offshore talent at pennies on the dollar compared to what you’d pay someone local
• And, best of all, while it’s cheap to us, it’s a lot of money to them: you’re literally helping them feed their kids and pay their rent!
• I’ve had great success hiring offshore talent in a variety of roles: property managers, project managers, administrative assistants, interior designers (more on that later), bookkeepers, etc!
• Why does this work so well? Bc almost anything can be done over the internet, no matter where on the planet they reside. Recently I hired someone for some work who was based in Bulgaria... but he was traveling in India while he was working for me. Perfect! I was paying for his trip to India while he was doing work for me at a highly discounted rate. A true win, win.

Do you really hire offshore property managers?

• Yep!
• Let’s face it, property management is mostly just scheduling, which anyone can do from anywhere on the planet
• My offshore PMs set door codes, message & call guests, schedule cleaners, adjust the thermostat, monitor my cameras, call plumbers and more! Just as easily as a local PM can, for a fraction of the cost

I wanna do this! How do I find an offshore property manager?

• Thankfully, there’s plenty of web sites dedicated to connecting buyers of services (that’s us) with sellers of services (that’s them)
• Do a quick google search on “offshore virtual assistants”: there are web sites where you can post a job (for free) detailing your exact requirements, and you’ll typically get quite a few responses from applicants all over the globe
• Be very clear & precise in your job posting: I always state that the person must work US hours & speak eloquent English. They also must have US calling & texting capabilities. You can test out their communication skills by having a 2 minute phone or Skype chat with them
• If you want 24/7 coverage, state this in your job post: state that you have 2 shifts (or 3 shifts) that you need covered, so you’ll be hiring 1 person for each shift. Maybe you’ll get an applicant in Ecuador who wants to cover the day shift & an applicant in Laos who wants to cover the night shift. Never know until you try!

How do I know if they’re any good?

• You can hire someone & give them a generic task that doesn’t matter if they screw up. Such as "find me some high quality towels at a reasonable price." Do they ask you follow up Qs? Do they ask too many Qs? Can you understand them & they understand you? Do they know to check Amazon, Walmart.com, etc? Do they ask if you have a Costco membership? Do they check reviews & send you links to products with high quality product recommendations? How long did it take them? Do they work efficiently & expediently? You’re paying them by the hour after all. Are they responsive & available during the hours you need them?
• Honestly, you might have to try a few people before you find a good one. But that’s ok. Because it only costs a few bucks to give them a trial run, and once you find someone good it’s totally worth it because they’ll be with you for the long haul.

Do you really hire offshore interior designers? How does that even work?!

• I’m reaaaallllly bad at interior design
• I thought about hiring a local designer near my houses for $100/hr
• But then I hired an even better interior designer in the Middle East for $10/hr
• My handyman or cleaners take pics, videos & measurements of my rooms. Then I email those to my designer who puts together mockups & 3D renderings for me, complete with links to Benjamin Moore paint colors, links to the products on Wayfair, etc. I hit the add to cart button & ship everything to my handyman or cleaners.
• I send my handyman and/or cleaners images of the renderings & tell them “I ordered you a bunch of stuff - make the room look like this please & send me some updated pics when it’s complete”
• The nice thing about this too is the large margin for error when the prices are this low. I can have my designer mock up 3 or 4 designs for each room just to see what I like best & it hardly costs me anything. Very tough to get 3 or 4 designs per room if you’re paying a local designer $100/hr.

How do I find an offshore interior designer?

• Do a quick google search on “virtual interior designer” or “offshore interior designer”; there’s tons of talented people all over the globe who are willing to work at quite affordable prices!
• Before you hire anyone, ask to see their portfolio of work - there’s many highly impressive candidates out there with impressive portfolios of work!

It's a great big world out there filled with talented people who'd love to help you make your STR way more profitable. Good luck!

Bravo

@Mark Miles this is great. The first time I heard of doing something like this was Neal Bawa discussing that a lot of the number crunching for his data analysis and research is done by individuals he employs in the Philippines. With the ease of accessing individual contractors via the internet and various platforms such as Upwork, I have to imagine there are economical options for a large number of tasks we pay for.

I know people who do this with long term rentals and with research.

I have systems in place to allow me to manage many properties with a few text messages per week.

STRs are more hands on. I can see the value of a VA here if you have too many properties to easily manage by yourself.

@Mark Miles thanks for sharing your strategy and recommending tactics.  Good stuff.  

I would add that there are also some pretty awesome offshore architects.  While you might not want them to handle the full set of final plans, it's particularly great if you want a few initial concept ideas and visualizations, which would otherwise be cost prohibitive on most smaller projects.  The low cost makes it more feasible.  Especially if you want only a certain room or exterior elevation visualized.  Arcbazar being a top example.

Thanks @Mark Miles informative and inspiring!

1) automate as much as possible. software, self service, etc.

2) get good systems and process in place

3) have good cleaners and handymen in place

4) handle things that need your attention.

I really don't see any need for virtual assistants. I wouldn't have nearly enough for them to do.

people constantly needing to put out fires or manually handle guest needs haven't arrived at the point they should be yet.

@Mark Miles I have been toying with this for a while. Thanks for the post! Can you recommend your favorite sites for finding assistants?

Originally posted by @Tim Schroeder :

@Mark Miles I have been toying with this for a while. Thanks for the post! Can you recommend your favorite sites for finding assistants?

onlinejobs.ph (philippines)

your man friday (india)

You can also consider an auto attendant, which is a phone answering service that does things like press 1 for press 2 for. You could give an address, check-in check-out hours, directions, restaurant or other recommendations,. Check out evoice.com for example. You don't always need a real person

Originally posted by @Tim Schroeder :

@Mark Miles I have been toying with this for a while. Thanks for the post! Can you recommend your favorite sites for finding assistants?

For general use, freelancer.com, fiverr & upwork seem to be best at the moment. There’s also tons of specialty web sites (99designs to hire designers, there’s a few sites to hire coders if needed). You can always google for offshore specialties as well - tons of options. Way more of them than us!

@Mark Miles what do you use to find interior designers? 

Originally posted by @Anand S. :

@Mark Miles what do you use to find interior designers? 

Also curious about this... haven't had any luck as of yet.

Hi @Mark Miles , great posts on the general benefits of offshore. I’m curious about your specific use cases in performing complex tasks in real estate (beyond finding towels or messaging a maintenance person). 

I’ve been hiring offshore for years for software development and I’ve found it’s very difficult to find someone good and the turnover is really high (they can go dark at any point without warning). It’s also difficult to introduce new tasks because you usually end up micromanaging and spending your day just making sure simple things get done. For example I’d assign them a task but because I didn’t spend enough time writing out the parameters they end up billing 5x more hours on the job - is it really worth it if I have to spend that much time spelling out the job and micromanaging? 

With software out there like Smartbnb I guess I'm curious where you find value in these VA's and whether you feel it's more trouble than it's worth.