When I interviewed several companies about this a few years back there was one that had employees in the Phillipines that stood out. I tried to find them again on Google tonight to help you out and couldn't...sorry.
We have had great success with ODesk on a lot of our projects. That may be a good place to start. I really think it depends a lot on what you are trying to get done. Do you just need someone to answer the phones or will the be doing a bunch of different tasks?
Another option you may consider right now is hiring interns. We hired one several months back and he is EXCELLENT at tasks I wouldn't really trust a VA with. Students are hungry right now in the recession and many will trade resume filler for quality work. There are several good sites to help with this if it is of interest.
I don't personally know of any, but in Tim Ferrise's book "The Four Hour Work Week" he talks about VA's and has some recommendations in there.
That's his website below, he might have information there also...
If you haven't heard of him check out the website, he's all about outsourcing as many tasks as you can to free up time for the tasks that are most important to you.
I have one that I have used in the past for a few projects and I still use her when I need something done. Her name is Rebecca Thompson and her email is [EMAIL REMOVED] She is awesome!
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What kind of tasks is your friend looking to outsource to a Virtual Assistant? Depending on the services required, I could point him in the right direction. I'm a Virtual Assistant, I specialize in Virtual Administrative Services, Virtual Bookkeeping and Internet Marketing. Virtual Assistance is kind of like the medical industry in that there are lots of different specialties and even sub-specialties. I belong to several different Virtual Assistant Networks and Forums. Have your friend contact me and I can refer him to whatever type of Virtual Assistant he needs.
For all the people who are joining to promote themselves or their companies, please note that I'm looking for recommendations from established members of the site.
Please also read the forum rules that you agreed to follow when you signed up to participate . . .
Josh,
At a recent seminar I attended, Dan Stijadinovic (Internet Marketing for Real Estate Investors) stated to look for a Va on the site www.elance.com. He reccommended this site to not only find a VA but to also get info about them from clients. I have not used the site, but the other info that was given out has all turned out to be very good.
Time to revive this dead thread . . . I'm thinking about using a VA for myself (despite my SERIOUS reservations). Does anyone have a recommendation?
Again, I don't want people to pitch themselves here. If you've worked with a VA or work with one and are pleased with them (I don't care where they are located), please pass the word.
When I interviewed several companies about this a few years back there was one that had employees in the Phillipines that stood out. I tried to find them again on Google tonight to help you out and couldn't...sorry.
We have had great success with ODesk on a lot of our projects. That may be a good place to start. I really think it depends a lot on what you are trying to get done. Do you just need someone to answer the phones or will the be doing a bunch of different tasks?
Another option you may consider right now is hiring interns. We hired one several months back and he is EXCELLENT at tasks I wouldn't really trust a VA with. Students are hungry right now in the recession and many will trade resume filler for quality work. There are several good sites to help with this if it is of interest.
Once you get the ads up they will get picked up by Indeed.com and other sites that aggregate content and you will get floods of resumes. if you have a local college I would also suggest circulating the req there too.
Campus2Careers has some great content to help you write the ad for the job if you don't have one already.
Hi Joshua,
So I have been doing a lot of research on Virtual Assistants for Real Estate Investing for a program I am writing.
I would be happy to make some recommendations if you can answer a couple of questions
[b]
1) What kind of tasks are you going to ask them to do and how specialized are they?
1) Do you want a freelance virtual assistant (an individual who has the specialized skills you are looking for) or hire a Virtual Assistant Service firm?
2) Do you want to work with virtual assistants, from US, Canada or UK or from countries where English is a second language?
BTW - there are no wrong answers, to these questions, it really depends on what your needs are and your personal preferences.
So if you take a moment to answer I would be happy to provide some suggestions.
My one and only go to source for getting virtual assistants is odesk.com. I have been using odesk for the past 3 years and have not had a single negative experience. I recommend them whenever I get the chance because not only are the reps helpful, but they're professional.
Hope that helps and good luck :)
ODesk and Elance. I've used them both and they've been great. Both have ratings systems so you can see how the VAs are rated by the people that have hired them.
There are 2 ways to go. Get your own off shore person for 500 per month and hope for the best, or get a pimp! LOL! I have the connection that actually screens there people and makes sure they are on their "A" game!
Dave Stack. His email is [REMOVED]
He is a good guy, and a genius at web stuff! Tell him Rob sent ya! ( I get no affiliation pay) LOL!
I completely agree. I've hired 14 interns to date to help me out in my real estate wholesaling business. They sort through all of my calls, put up my bandit signs, post my craigslist ads, etc.)? I used to go at it non-stop for 12-16 hours a day. When the amount of calls and emails started piling up for my business, I decided to hire some interns and have them do all the day to day tasks and teach them how to run their own wholesaling business. Hiring interns has freed up a lot of my time and allowed me to focus on the most important things. I pay my interns on a commission base (20-50% of the profits of the deals that come through them).
I have a recently been helping other people hire their own interns by giving them all the files and resources that I use to hire and manage my interns (job descriptions, interview script, email templates, list of tasks, etc.) I'd be more than willing to share any and all these files with you or anyone else that desires them.
I completely agree. I've hired 14 interns to date to help me out in my real estate wholesaling business. They sort through all of my calls, put up my bandit signs, post my craigslist ads, etc.)? I used to go at it non-stop for 12-16 hours a day. When the amount of calls and emails started piling up for my business, I decided to hire some interns and have them do all the day to day tasks and teach them how to run their own wholesaling business. Hiring interns has freed up a lot of my time and allowed me to focus on the most important things. I pay my interns on a commission base (20-50% of the profits of the deals that come through them).
I have a recently been helping other people hire their own interns by giving them all the files and resources that I use to hire and manage my interns (job descriptions, interview script, email templates, list of tasks, etc.) I'd be more than willing to share any and all these files with you or anyone else that desires them.
Let me know!
Sure send any info to my email address in my signature.
I'm using a VA recommended to me for another established RE investor. She now has several VA's working for her and she trains them in the RE investment area. I basically use her to make calls to leads I find and complete the lead sheet.
I tried ODesk and, although is a LOT shipper, didn't work for me. The VAs there dont have any RE skills and they could barely get enough info out of the sellers.
I'm actually no longer looking for a VA. I've had some limited success on small tasks with VAs, but have not been able to locate anyone that I can pawn important tasks off to.
I've never personally used them but I have several friends that use a company called myoutdesk.com. Several of them have built entire businesses with VA's. Good luck
I have been using internships.com to hire my interns. This is the best site to generate applicants as I'm getting at least 10 new ones per week now. You can upload as many job descriptions as you want for free and it is a very high traffic site. This is the #1 site that comes up when you search "internships" on Google.