Posted on: Friday, March 5, 2004

Assistant key to success of busy broker

By Alan J. Heavens
Knight Ridder News Service

Two years ago, Rebecca Halloran was in a management job and looking to get out. "The hours were too long, and the job had become a bit monotonous," she said.

At the same time, Vincent Tagliente, completing his first year with Coldwell Banker Realty Corp.'s Center City office in Philadelphia, was in the market for someone to handle the details of the job while he devoted his time to selling real estate.

"I had been a broker-owner for five years before merging with Coldwell Banker," Tagliente said. "I arrive, and become a salesman again, and find myself overwhelmed with business."

He began searching for an assistant.

"I needed someone who could take the initiative, someone who was a quick learner and who had an evenhanded personality," he said. "Since clients can be rough sometimes, that meant someone who could quickly put them at ease."

Someone like Halloran. Tagliente said he already had been through three or four assistants "before I found the right match."

Working a seven-hour day at the office is a plus for Halloran, although she does devote time on weekends handling Tagliente's e-mail and telephone calls and working open houses.

"The job can be difficult at times, but it is challenging," she said.

About 10 years ago, some agent came up with the idea of the personal assistant to ease his or her burden. Over the decade, the job has evolved into a formal part of the business.

A survey of its 930,000 members by the National Association of Realtors showed that 20 percent use at least one personal assistant. More than 50 percent are part-timers. And 60 percent of them work exclusively for one agent.

The chief reason for using personal assistants is that they allow agents to boost productivity by assuming responsibility for the ever-increasing number of details involved in each real estate deal.

According to association surveys, those employing personal assistants reported securing 50 percent more listings and selling almost twice as many of their own listings as those without.

John Q. Podesta, a Palm Beach, Fla., real estate broker who conducts seminars for the Realtors group on the subject, said job descriptions for real estate assistants should include "all those nonproductive tasks that take up so much of your time without any immediate return, such as preparing promotional mailings, maintaining client databases, searching for listings, and answering questions from prospective clients."

Although Podesta suggests hiring college students with computer skills and retirees ("the most dependable"), his job description is similar to those for assistants in any field.

But there is a big difference when you get to real estate: The license.

Only 46 percent of personal assistants have real estate licenses. Concerns about unlicensed real estate office help venturing into forbidden territory have been an issue for as long as there have been personal assistants.

Licensed agents typically are held accountable by state real estate commissions when their personal assistants cross that line.

Before Halloran obtained her license, her duties were limited to what the state law allowed, such as scheduling termite and home inspections, processing loans, paying bills, and forwarding calls and e-mail to Tagliente.

The job's scope has increased since she got her license.

"After the listing agreement is signed, I take Rebecca to the property so she can check it out," Tagliente said. "She then sets up virtual tours and takes photos of the property for advertising and the MLS (multiple listing service)."

When someone who is interested in the property calls, she can provide the details from personal experience. She also can host open houses by herself, and communicate with buyers and sellers, as well as rewrite contracts and agreements of sale to reflect any changes that occur.

Pennsylvania, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and more than two dozen other states have established guidelines for unlicensed real estate assistants. New Jersey has not.

To avoid possible legal ramifications, many real estate companies encourage their personal assistants to obtain licenses and will pay all the costs associated with it.

Although having a licensed assistant offers him "the ultimate flexibility, it's tough for someone to come into the business without experience, and this is a good way to enter," Block said.

Larger real estate firms often pair licensed agents without enough sales to make a living but who have all the organizational skills with agents who sell a lot but are short on detail skills.