Maximizing Your Virtual Assistants in Your Real Estate Business with Bob Lachance

Good morning and welcome back, Wicked Smart listeners. It's Chris Pree again, your host, and I'm going to be bringing back an awesome guest, Mr. Bob LeChance. Bob and I did not talk hockey on this one, but Bob has a new podcast specifically for pro athletes in the, in the hockey space. And I forgot to jibber jabber on this, on this episode with him about that. He's a well-known speaker, mentor. He's a trainer. He specializes in business automation through his company, Riva Global. That's Riva Global. We're going to give you a link where we're chatting because what I wanted to do, just coming off of some live coaching calls this week where some of our associates were in that mode of— and we all do it in that mode of, well, I don't know about hiring any more virtual assistants or any virtual assistants if you're brand new because it costs money or because I don't know what I'd give them. Well, Bob owns 4 businesses similar to us, several businesses. He played a key role in starting one of the nation's largest real estate coaching programs. So he's in the trenches doing real estate as well as running this Amazing, high-quality virtual assistant program company. And after leaving college to pursue hockey, as I alluded to earlier, he did transition into real estate investing. And since then he's done over 1,500 transactions. He's also founded this assistant staffing company. Simply amazing. He's resilient. His commitment to the daily process, which running VAs is not an easy process, guys, and to constantly improving his business. Is just unmatched. So can't wait to chat with him. You guys are going to enjoy this a lot. We're going to give you some links to go ahead and learn more about him as well. Hey, Bob, welcome back to the show, buddy. I don't know how long it's been. I actually should check my notes on that, but I'm so glad you're back here with us. And it's been over a year. I got to think it's been that long.

A little bit over. A little bit over. But thanks for having me back.

Appreciate it. Yeah, you bet. Let's, let's dive in because just this week we're on like our highest level calls. And I start talking about virtual assistants and you guys again. And what comes to mind every single time is their fear of, oh, I got an expense. And I, and I go right to, no, they're dragging your revenue up. So I just want to talk about sort of the, the, the best uses, if you, if you will, and how someone that's really good in your world, trained VA with, with talent can help. Any thoughts? Like just general for now, 10,000-foot view, and then we'll just start ripping it apart. Yeah.

You know, you and I have been working together for, geez, going back a little while, right? So We do everything. And you and I have businesses that we run that we use virtual assistants in as well. We use them all in front of— we, we go branding, we go, which is social media and things like that, because obviously we need to have our faces out there to, to gain more business on the brand side, then lead generation. So for us, we use a lot of lead generation, a lot of lead management, phone work, you know, texting, calling, etc., taking inbound calls, setting appointments. Those are really upfront, the most important parts of our business, because we always look at it. You don't have leads, you don't have a business, right?

Any business, right? Any business.

It doesn't matter if it's real estate, right? Whether it's inbound, outbound. We also have, you know, calendar management. We have VAs working on expired listings, both on the pre-foreclosure. We have absentee owners, things like that. And they also help on the transaction coordinating list. But I know that's kind of a list of what we use in our office and how we use virtual assistants. But I know you and I have talked about that before and also implemented that in our own business.

Yeah, because you're doing— I guess for context, I mean, these guys can go back to those episodes, but for context, you're doing a bunch of deals, right? You're doing over 100 deals or whatever it is. And so you're using the same stuff in your business. I love— I always love bringing guests on that are in the trenches like that. So, all right, let's talk about that, though. If you're doing it with your own biz, real estate biz, for these guys to hear, What are some of the challenges that they should look out for? How involved does your company get at the beginning, like for training? Like talk about the onboarding setup, if you will, and any challenges.

Yeah, it's very simple. And I think, you know, the reason why I started this business back in 2014, one of the challenges that I had, I went out to get my own virtual assistants and it was just— for me it was a nightmare because I don't like recruiting, I don't like sourcing, I don't like you know, going through all the applications and resumes only to find, you know, you go through 100 to find one. I don't— I personally don't like doing that. I was burnt out. So, you know, a light bulb went on and said, hey, you know, why not set up a company to do that all for you? So, so to answer your question, we do that. We have a whole sourcing and recruiting team that goes out every single day that posts on different sites, that recruits, that sources for, you know, resume— resumes that fit the type of tasks that we all as investors want and need in our business. And then once those resumes come through, then we interview each and every one of them. As soon as they pass that couple point checks, goes to our training team and they train for about 3 to 4 weeks and then they're ready to go to start with clients like we just talked about.

And excuse me. So when you went through your laundry list of tasks, right, there was from admin to social to So you must keep, I don't know, like a reservoir of each on hand. So these guys that are listening shouldn't care about that. They should just go to you and go, here's what I need. Bingo. Right. And you guys can handle it.

Yeah, we do. We do a predictive index. So every time we get a profile, like, so for instance, if you want cold calling, we do predictive index with our virtual assistant team. So you get a list of what those PIs come out as and you feel— so we put you on 3 interviews if you want one. We put you on 3 interviews so you can interview 3 different people because sometimes you'll look at one, you'll be like, not the best fit for me. Then you'll interview another one, you'll be like, wow, very good. So then you'll pick— maybe it's your 3rd interview that you get on that you feel is your best fit for you. So we put you on 3 interviews and then you pick the best one, then you get started. We have a team that also helps manage your virtual assistant as well.

I'd like your opinion on this. I tell especially my High Six associates, Like they'll get in, they're trying to watch their budget. I'll say, let's get you to your first 3 payday deal, which is super lucrative for us, as you recall. So they get to like the second deal. I want them to bring on someone quality, like from some— from your company. And in my opinion, to do everything, literally everything. So they're staying on the phone. What do you suggest as kind of like the first few things? Any, any thoughts there? Like the initial thing, like they're a solopreneur.

So yeah, I would say lead generation. And here's the only reason why I say that is because I know we touched upon at the beginning, if we don't have leads, we don't have a business. And I always look at any virtual assistant, if they could drive you leads, it's our jobs to get on the phone to close those deals, right? I want someone that raises their hand that says, yes, I'm interested in hearing more about your company, or I'm interested in selling my property. That's all I want from a virtual assistant upfront, because that is my job or my acquisition individuals in my office His job to lock that up into a contract and into money.

Yeah, I positioned that incorrectly the way I asked that. I'm sorry. So the solo printer has the lead gen. You're 100% right. I agree with you. So I should have said the second. So they got that, they got their first 2 deals. What would you say the next tier up or task would be?

So if you have it under contract and you're looking to sell, it's assisting on either disposition or transaction coordinating.

Yeah.

Well, it's, you know, marketing the property. Creating flyers, however that is in your business. But it's that piece. It's both dispo and transaction coordinating because at that point now you got to get paid.

Yeah. No, I love it. I love it. And I got to, as I said to you off air, I got to make sure you're coming. So the listeners here to one of the Wicked Spot sit-downs coming up so you can dive into this, you know, a little bit deeper with them and take their questions, not just me and you jibber jabber.

Yeah.

How do you guys— and this is just behind the scenes. I'm curious, how do you guys I hear how you get them in and then how do you manage them? I know it must be a lot of work managing all those people. So how do you guys do that and maintain that and retain that to retain them? Yeah.

So we have a whole process in the background. I mean, we, we offer a lot of benefits to our virtual assistants for them to stay with us for long term. We have a yearly event, we, we pay for their insurance, you know, HMO, etc., etc. But on the management side, so just to give you a quick overview of the structure, We have recruiting and sourcing team, right, that rolls into our training team. And then we have a placements team. As soon as someone— we have a new sign-up. So obviously every sales team, new sign-up goes to our placement team and our placement team places them with the perfect virtual assistant that fits within the skill set that you need for those tasks. So it's almost like Match.com. It's kind of the placements team. And then as soon as you pick somebody, So, Chris, you say, hey, yep, I picked, you know, Jane. Jane's the best for my company. Then it goes to what we call a client service manager. That's the manager that helps you manage the virtual assistant. So on a daily basis, you'll get a start of day report. At the end of day, you'll get an end of day report. You can always connect with your CSM or your virtual assistant, obviously in real time, because they are your team member at that point. So your client service manager will help you and whatever needs you have. If you want to add in more training, there's a new task that you want to teach them. The CSM, we call it client service manager, can help them do that. And then that's, that's the easy part of the management. And we've been doing this, like I said, since 2014. So we've, we've worked through all the kinks through the years and it flows very, very seamlessly now.

Okay. Who wants to be the next apprentice? Pretty interesting, guys. We started this apprentice program back as a July 4th, 2024 promo. That's where it started. And it was so incredibly effective. We were just going to run it for the summer. It was so effective immediately we kept it. It's in place now. And what is it? It allows you to get into the community, the Wicked Smart community, for less dollars than the QLS home study course sells for right now on our site. In fact, when you go to smartrealestatecoach.com, Forward slash apprentice-pod. Apprentice-pod. When you go there, you're going to see that as an apprentice, you're going to get over $13,000 worth of coaching, the possibility for you to touch base with us if you want to, 4 or 5 times a week. And it doesn't exist anywhere out there, frankly. That's why we did it. We did it for 2 reasons. One, no one is giving you the support out there. We keep hearing feedback, which is how this was born. That other educators are not giving support. They're just selling stuff. So it doesn't exist anywhere and nowhere in the real estate education or coaching space. And we want to help you do one thing: deals. So we've wrapped the support mechanism around this. We've allowed you to get into a Slack community with the other associates who previously were protected in Slack, and now you get to jump in there and experience that for 12 weeks. You also get to come to the In the Trenches boot camp, which is private. It's a chance to hang out with the family team in one of the coaches for 2 and a quarter days in our conference room, roll up our sleeves, get calls done, get deals done. If you come with leads, you leave with deals. Absolutely incredible. I could go on and on. Go to the website right now, check out more information about the Apprentice, and I'm going to give you the In the Trenches boot camp site because you don't have to become an apprentice. It just happens to be free with Apprentice and Associate. So 2 links I'm going to give you, super important. smartrealestatecoach.com/ittb-pod. That's going to give you some information about the boot camp. If you want to buy a ticket to the boot camp, it's more expensive, but you can just come check us out. About 1 or 2 people every time we run it do just that or become an apprentice and it's for free. smartrealestatecoach.com/apprentice-pod. How often do you get— think of that community— how often do you get some of that investor that says, okay, I got a virtual assistant and they— the think they're not working out properly or they, they truly have an issue? You know, I mean, how many, how many times do you see the hiccups?

I mean, everyone's different. I mean, you do have some hiccups different times of days. We have right now, we have on the real estate side, we have over 500 clients and virtual assistants. So you're going to get some, you know, you're going to get some individual that, that feels that they're not working. And what we do as a company is we make sure on a daily basis, maybe you're not set up with WhatsApp, maybe you're not set up with Slack, maybe you're not set up with Viber. So those are the communication tools that I use in my own business and I recommend clients use. But we, like I said, we have start-of-day reports. These are the tasks that are expected to be done. And there's also an end-of-day report that's sent every day to make sure, hey, if you want a virtual assistant to cold call, how many cold calls were made, how many connects were made, and how many leads were sent? So those are really the things that you want to look at. Yeah.

And I like these guys to be thinking about— I keep saying these guys, the Wicked Smile listeners. I'd like them to be thinking about return on investment. So I'll relate our 3 paydays to it. So for us on your end, what's on average this going to cost someone for a whole year?

Whole year. So it's $10.60 an hour. That's how we put it at. I tried every other formula and every other, you know, per day, per week, per month. We do 20 hours, 40 hours a week. And that's the easiest way for me and my company to manage it. And I've seen that to be more standard, standard around the industry. So what's that, about $1,600 a month for a full-time employee? That's for me, it's pretty cheap. We live in New England, right? We have— my minimum wage just went up here in Connecticut to $15.99 to a non-4-year college-educated individual. So our virtual assistants are all 4-year college-educated.

It's crazy. Okay, so this is important. So 20 hours a week, if somebody was like, I'll dip my toe in, Chris, you guide me, you help me. Because the first thing I always hear people say is, yeah, but I don't know what I'd give them. They all say it. I don't care how many times you and I can spit it out, right? So I say, okay, I'll show you. Just trust it. 20 hours a week, $200, it's $800 a month, right? Times 12 is what, $10,000 a year? So just for shits and grins here for the listener, our 3 paydays run a low of $45,000 per deal and a high of $350,000. So let's just say $50,000. Let's be obnoxious. I haven't had one that low in a long time, but $50,000. One deal. Do you think maybe perhaps with the lead gen from your company that they could get one extra 3-payday deal?

It's $50 grand. I mean, I'm assuming the answer is yes because I know they're well-trained underneath you and they could close the deals that actually come through. So yeah, I mean, I always say this and even guys in my office, so we have acquisition, you got dispo, and I say I don't make any money unless they make money. So if our virtual assistants that are sending in these leads, if I don't train them enough to be able to close those deals, I'll take responsibility for it. So for me, for me, answering that question, 100%, they should. And I never guarantee anything, right? I'm— you and I never guarantee anything, but I would say they should be able to do that.

Yeah, it's a no-brainer. So if you're listening, you're a little bit unsure about that, I'll tell you what I'll do. Just set up a call with me. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/chrisprecall. I'll personally do the call with you. And whether you're in our community or not, I'll outline exactly how you can and should put this into play. And then Bob and I are saying to you, pretty much unless you go south on us, you're going to have several deals, but not just one. And the prepaid is too lucrative for you to be messing around with other stuff. So, Bob, let me give them the link so I don't forget as I'm jibber jabbering here. So they want to learn more about you. I think it's for a strategy call, right? And I'll give the link. Yeah. So free strategy call. Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/reva if you're listening, not looking at the Beautiful sign behind Bob's head. It's R-E-V-A. So, and you should go to YouTube and watch this anyway. But what else did, did I not ask that you'd like to share so we make sure we button up any holes here?

Yeah, I would make sure that, you know, every virtual assistant that you work with, make them part of your team. I think it's very, very important. It's kind of, you know, since COVID a lot of individuals, whether investors or other, you know, any other industry, it's getting more and more prevalent in the industry, easier to understand that remote work is normal now. So no different. So if you have an employee literally a mile away that doesn't come in the office, how are you going to manage them? You're probably going to jump on a Zoom. You're probably going to include them into your morning huddles. You're going to include them into your meetings. So I highly recommend that because a lot of people forget that fact that they're actually part of your team. And the way you treat an employee is the way you should treat a virtual assistant.

I agree. It's the biggest thing I saw change in our company. I mean, we went from an office building and I don't know, 3 floors full to myself, my son, and one of our partners. That's it. So I sold the building last year. Everybody's around the country and it's acceptable now and it's productive.

Yeah. As long as you manage it right, you have to obviously have to make them feel they're team members, they're part of your company. So make them feel that way and they will produce the highest amount of what you need them to do.

Bob, any other links you want to give them? They got smartrealestatecoach.com/reva. Anything else you want to share or give them for ways to contact?

Yeah, we have a bunch of content. I mean, we have so much content online. Just, you know, Google my name, Google Revo Global. You'll get a lot of free, you know, free training, free stuff like that. But obviously good for you, contact you because we do a lot of work together.

That's awesome, Bob. And I want to make sure these guys— I said you were going to have you on the Wicked Smart Sit Down, but you guys, if you're not familiar with that, you're new to the show, it is every Thursday, has been since like 2017, 4:00 Eastern time on Zoom. You can contact support@smartrealestatecoach.com if you're not seeing it or not getting a message for some reason. Bob, really appreciate hooking up again. I can't wait to do some more things together this year and beyond.

Awesome. Thanks for having me again. Thanks, buddy.

Thanks, Chris. Okay, guys, we can start listening. That does wrap up our time today with Mr. Bob Chance. If you enjoyed the show on any level, I always say just take a few seconds, rate and review it, share it with others. I don't care what business people you know are in. If it's not real estate, it's other businesses. They can utilize Riva Global and should, because he can provide assistance at any level. And if you're not sure if that fits or they're not sure if it fits for them, just do the free strategy call. smartrealestatecoach.com/reva. R-E-V-A. Guys, I would love to, as I mentioned in the show with Bob Live, chat with you personally. Get on my calendar. It's me. I don't— I'm not in the sales department, okay? I've been at this for 33 years. I have one goal in mind: get you doing deals. If you want, you can go to smartrealestatecoach.com/chrisprecall. If you don't want to chat with me for whatever reason, you want to chat with someone on the team, just go to smartrealestatecoach.com. I did a video there about applying to work with us, whether that's at the apprentice level, which is group coaching, or that's on the more aggressive associate level where we're doing deals with you worth, you know, $45,000 to $350,000 and up. It doesn't matter. We'll find out what the best fit is for you because we care about one thing: you doing deals, not selling you a program, not selling you this or that, but getting you to do deals. And lastly, if I haven't done it lately on these shows, I understand that you have about 10,080 minutes exactly this week and you take about 30 of those with us every, every week to listen to the show. And we really appreciate it. We literally meet on a regular basis to see how we can uplevel this. We want to hear your feedback. Rate, review, give us feedback. My personal email is chris@smartrealestatecoach.com. And I also gave you how to get a free call with me. Look forward to seeing you on next week's show and look forward to seeing you on the Wicked Smart Sit Down every Thursday. Make it a great week. Hey guys, are you simply sick of juggling a dozen different software tools for your real estate business? I know I was, and I know I'm not a tech person, so it was frustrating. A subscription for this, you got a subscription for that, and they don't even work together out of the box. That's very frustrating, especially in the real estate world where your best time spent is going to be out in the field or on the phone with sellers. And now you're stuck hiring a tech guru just to make all that sync up. So let's ditch the chaos and let REI BlackBook handle everything. Automate your lead follow-up, track every deal, analyze things quickly for you, make offers all in one platform. In fact, with the Wicked Smart platform, we now have access— if you're in the Wicked Smart community, to all the other associates' properties. Can you imagine that? So you're brand new in the business perhaps, and your seller looks on your website and sees 20, 30, 40 properties, instant credibility. So you're going to get everything on REI Black Book from our custom workflows for lead generation all the way to closing. It has it covered. Try it today for just a buck. $1, guys. Visit smartrealestatecoach.com/reibb. hyphen D-D. smartrealestatecoach.com/reiboy-boy-dog-dog. Thanks for listening to the Smart Real Estate Coach podcast. If you're ready to invest in yourself and take your investing to the next level, check out our 90-Day Jumpstart Program by going to smartrealestatecoach.com/jump. That's smartrealestatecoach.com/jump. Because now is the time to act boldly in this unprecedented market shift.