Program Overview 6

Characteristics of Personal Assistants

It was also found in this survey that personal assistants have the following common characteristics:

Employee or Independent Contractor

Professional Assistants may work as either an independent contractor or an employee of the real estate agent. Unless also licensed as a real estate agent, professional assistants are not permitted to receive a portion of any earned commission. Professional Assistants and agents should consult with the Principal Broker of a firm to ascertain what is permissible under the provincial law and the policies of the Brokerage as it pertains to what, if any, portion of a real estate commission can be paid to the professional assistant.

As an employee of an agent the professional assistant is paid either a salary or an hourly wage by the agent or the firm. The agent or firm is responsible for the tax withholdings of the employee, as well as other associated costs as required for an employee by the Government of Canada. This may include healthcare benefits, sick leave, and personal paid time off.

Independent contractors are those who work for one or more agents and are paid a gross amount without any withholdings. The independent contractor is obligated to pay their own taxes, provide their own equipment, and are generally not provided with any benefits or paid time off.

32% - Employee

▪ Worker receives instruction and training form employer. ▪ Tools and supplies are provided by employer and worker receives reimbursement for business-related expenses. ▪ Works for one employer on a continuous basis and performs a key function in the business. ▪ Worker has set hours, is paid on a regular basis and receives an hourly wage or salary. ▪ Worker receives benefits such as insurance and paid time off. ▪ Employer is responsible for withholding taxes and T4 Slip on wages paid to worker. ▪ Employer files a T4 form for the year. ▪ Worker provides skills and expertise and decides how the job is done. ▪ Tools and supplies are provided by the worker, and they cover their own business-related expenses. ▪ Works for multiple employers for a given period and performs a supplementary function. ▪ Worker sets own hours and receives a flat fee or paid an hourly, daily, or weekly amount. ▪ Worker does not receive benefits. ▪ Worker pays their own employee and selfemployment taxes. ▪ For workers paid $600 or more, employers file a form T4A for the year.

The CRA has established a litmus test to determine if an individual can qualify as an independent contractor. In most instances, professional assistants do not meet the CRA standard and should be considered employees.

68% - Independent Contractor

The CRA Standard for Independent Contractors

The CRA will determine an assistant as an employee or independent contractor based on: ▪ The degree of control exercised by the alleged employer ▪ The extent of the relative investments of the alleged employee and employer ▪ The degree to which the employee’s opportunity for profit and loss is determined by the employer ▪ The skill and initiative required in performing the job ▪ The permanency of the relationship.

Licensed and Unlicensed Assistants

As mentioned earlier, about half of professional assistants possess a real estate license. Professional assistants with real estate licenses generally are more sought after by real estate agents because they can perform more functions under the laws of most provinces. A professional assistant with an active real estate license can perform all the same tasks that a real estate agent can, including meeting with clients, procuring written agreements, negotiating on behalf of the client and more.

Tasks an Unlicensed Assistant Can’t Perform

Most provinces have guidelines for what tasks an unlicensed real estate assistant can and can’t do. You should check with your province’s real estate commission or licensing authority for the most current information.

1. Host open houses, kiosks, trade-show booths, or fairs. 2. Interpret information on listings, titles, financing contracts, closings, or other information related to a real estate transaction. 3. Show property. 4. Measure homes. 5. Give an opinion or advice. 6. Explain or interpret a contract, listing, lease agreement, or other real estate documents with anyone outside the employing licensee’s firm. 7. Negotiate or agree to any commission, commission split, management fee, or referral fee on behalf of a licensee. 8. Perform any other activity for which a real estate license is required.

Tasks an Unlicensed Assistant Can Perform

The following list is a summary of limitations that most professional assistants should adhere to if they do not have an active real estate license.

Please keep in mind that this is not an all-inclusive list and provincial statutes, and regulations should be consulted. The employment or affiliation of a professional assistant and if they are permitted to be licensed or not is subject to the policies of the Principal Broker.

1. Answer the phone, take messages, and forward calls to a licensee. 2. Submit listings and changes to an MLS. 3. Follow up on a transaction after a contract has been signed. 4. Assemble documents for closing. 5. Secure public information documents from a repository of public information. 6. Have keys made for a company listing.

7. Draft advertising and promotional materials for approval by licensee. 8. Place advertising. 9. Record and deposit earnest money, security deposits, and rents. 10. Complete contract forms at the direction of and with approval by a licensee. 11. Monitor licenses and personnel files. 12. Compute commission checks and perform bookkeeping activities. 13. Place signs on property. 14. Order items of routine repair as directed by a licensee. 15. Prepare and distribute promotional information under the direction of and with approval of a licensee. 16. Act as a courier to deliver and pick up keys, etc. 17. *Schedule appointments for the licensee. (*Does not include making phone calls, telemarketing, or performing other activities to solicit business on behalf of the licensee.) 18. Sit at a property for a broker tour that is not open to the public. 19. Gather feedback on showings. 20. Provide security. 21. Perform maintenance, engineering, operations, or other building trades work and answer questions about such work. 22. Provide concierge services and other similar amenities to existing tenants. 23. Manage or supervise maintenance, engineering, operations, building trades, and security. 24. Perform other administrative, clerical, and personal activities for which a license is not required. 25. Respond to questions by quoting from published information.

Virtual Assistants

As the online world has evolved, some professional assistants have found that offering a specific menu of tasks that can be completed and managed through the internet and offsite from the agent is a profitable business model. The Virtual Assistant concept is growing in popularity and profitability as the agent can pick and choose specific tasks that they need help with and not have the financial obligations of a full or part-time professional assistant throughout the year.

Even though the Virtual Assistant concept is growing more popular it still has several limitations.The Virtual Assistant is not fully dedicated to one agent, only performs a set number of tasks, and doesn’t learn the agent’s preferred way of doing things.

Dedicated professional assistants can create their own unique value proposition through dedication to an agent or team, learning the local MLS, contracts, and policies to better assist the agent with a wide variety of tasks and services.

Crafting A Career as A Professional Assistant

Throughout this course you will be introduced to a variety of tools and new skill sets to establish yourselfas a valuable resource to an agent or team. You are the CEO of your brand. You can choose to work for one or more agent’s, work virtually or directly for a team or agent, or specialize in a particular niche within the real estate environment.

Now is a good time to begin thinking about how you can capitalize on your value to potential agents and teams and present yourself as an invaluable resource.

SWOT Analysis

Every business or professional should start with a SWOT Analysis. The SWOT analysis was established to assist you with evaluating internal factors that influence you and your team’s success, such as your personal Strengths, Weaknesses and external influences that contribute to successsuch as Opportunity and Threats.

When evaluating yourself and your team as part of the SWOT analysis it is important for you to be honest in this assessment. This is an opportunity for you to reflect on yourself and your team and those things that you can bring to the table or those areas you need to improve upon.

PERSONAL or INTERNAL FACTORS

STRENGTHS

Strengths are things that you or your team do particularly well. These can be uniquely distinguishable and mark you as more valuable than others in the same competitive position. Your strengths are critical parts of your team. It’s what you do better than everyone else that is also trying to get the same position or do the same job. Strengths are part of your unique value proposition. Example of the strengths may be your ability to be organized or to handle stress in a positive manner. It may also be your ability to use technology to a higher level than most other people.

WEAKNESSES

Weaknesses are what you need to put a little bit more effort into working on and are often curable. They are limitations that place the business in a disadvantage situation over others. There are also times when we have a tight schedule, a limited number of resources, or lack of finances in order to really expand the business.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES and FACTORS

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

Opportunities are those things that are outside influences or situations that arise. They may be something that a team or individual can take advantage of to improve their position in marketability to a perspective employee or client. Opportunities may be market driven or a result of geography. For example, a large military installation being built in a given market area may mean an increase in business to a team that specializes in military relocation. That means that they will need to expand their team.

Threats are outside influences that may negatively impact or affect the ability of a business entity to flourish or grow. Threats could be obstacles that a person or business needs to consider and develop strategies on how it can be overcome. A threat to a professional assistant may be a change in the market the causes agents to consider cutting back on their staff or team and re-focus their business to a different type of client.

Once a SWOT analysis is completed, it’s time to sit down and decide what areas a professional assistant should focus on. How do you best present your strengths in your marketing and interview for a new position? What do you need to do to overcome your weaknesses? How do you take advantage of opportunities and ward off threats? The SWOT analysis has now become the foundation of your marketing and business strategy as a professional assistant.

Vision and Mission Statements

Most professional assistants are individual entrepreneurs and may not consider a vision or mission statement as important. But developing a business mindset and being the best you can be at your career requires focus. A vision statement and mission statement will help give you direction and function as the north star giving you guidance on what choices to make to maximize your career opportunities and strive for the next level of success.

Sample vision statements:

“Squarespace makes beautiful products to help people with creative ideas succeed.”

“To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”

A vision statement describes where an entrepreneur aspires to go and what goals they wish to achieve. It establishes your destination.

Mission statements are a declaration of your purpose as a business professional and lets others know who you are as a professional.

▪ What do you want to become? ▪ How do you want to be seen? ▪ What do you want to accomplish?

Why Should an Agent Hire You?

Almost all real estate agents need a qualified and competent professional assistant to help them and grow their business, but many agents are unsure how to best utilize the assistant’s skillset or what it will mean for them as a business professional. Professional assistants should learn how to market themselves and communicate their value to an agent or team. There are many reasons why agents and teams need a qualified assistant. Just a few of those reasons are listed below.

Organization

Marketing

Technology

Processing Transactions

Managing Seller and Buyer Clients

As stated early in the chapter, real estate agents are required to wear a lot of hats and to organize a lot of different transactions and aspects of their business. The professional assistant can bring those various roles together and create systems and tools to help the agents stay on track and develop better business practices.

Of the many tasks that agents should be doing, marketing is at the top. Keeping potential clients engaged, developing new business opportunities, and marketing their listings is an overwhelming process for many agents and often they do not have the time to do all that they wish to do each day in this area. Many agents also lack the time to really learn how to be experts at marketing and could benefit from a professional assistant who can focus on doing marketing well and consistently.

Agents are very often eager to adopt new tools and technologies into their business but lack the time to master them or understand the full benefit. The professional assistant can help an agent manage, understand, and implement a variety of technological tools into the agent’s pool of resources.

From acquiring a new listing agreement to getting a contract ratified, a real estate agent has a lot of processes that need to be put in place to ensure that nothing is missed, and that paperwork is organized and processed accordingly. Managing vendors, clients, support services and ensuring trust funds are deposited and tracked, can be overwhelming to a high performing agent. The organized professional assistant can be a hero to the agent with a well-defined system to process transactions.

At the core of the real estate industry, it is a people business. Day in and dayout the real estate agent is engaging and serving people. Too often the need to be in more than one place at a time is a very real necessity for an agent. A professional assistant can help agents by answering routine questions and providing information that clients need, that a real estate license isn’t required to provide. The agent will also benefit by having a professional assistant prioritize the needs of the current and potential clients that are seeking to do business with the agent and to keep them engaged in the process until they are ready to sell or buy a home.

Saving Time

Work-Life Balance

Risk Reduction

Business Generation

Time is something that most people never have enough of. Real estate agents spend a lot of time in meetings, training and with clients doing various tasks. It often leaves little time for an agent to acquire new skills, find information they need, fine tune their marketing campaigns and any numberof other tasks that need to be done. A competent professional assistant willact as an extension of the agent and will be sure to handle the things the agent doesn’t have time to get to.

Many agents work very long hours and often need to give up traditional work schedules to meet the needs of their buyer and seller clients. This creates a hardship on some families because the agent’s need to meet their client’s schedules may conflict with the agent’s own family’s needs. A professional assistant will help the agent create a stronger balance in their day and make it easier to prioritize family time throughout the week.

Because of the nature of the duties imposed upon real estate agents, there are a great deal of national, provincial, and local regulations involved in the practice of real estate. It can be challenging at times for agents to keep track of all that they must do and to ensure all their legal obligations are met. From trust money deposits, marketing disclosure and turning in paperwork, a professional assistant can help ensure that an agent remains in compliance.

Creating marketing resources, newsletters, brochures, maintaining CRMs, meeting materials, and more are all important tasks that need to be done on a regular basis to ensure that a real estate agent or team have new opportunities and inbound consumers that can become clients one day. The role of the professional assistant in these tasks can be crucial in ensuring that these assets work as they should and are being maintained.