The pros and cons of each and what I recommend to successfully launch a profitable online business
Well hello! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I’m guessing you’ve been doing some research on work from home jobs/training and you ran across the terms virtual assistant and transaction coordinator on the internet. I’m so happy you found me and are here today!
My name is Joni and I am the founder of the Transaction Coordinator Bootcamp and have been a licensed Real Estate Broker since 1987 so you could say I've been around for a while.
I know a thing or two about organizing and processing a real estate transaction from mutual acceptance (buyer and seller agree to all the terms of a purchase contract) and additionally what it takes to see it through to closing efficiently.
In this blog post, I’m going to talk about the differences of working as a virtual assistant vs working as a transaction coordinator. This blog post will go over the differences along with the pro’s and cons of each so you have a clear idea of what each job does.
Working as a Virtual Assistant
Many people have heard the term virtual assistant or “VA” for short but may not know exactly what a virtual assistant is so let me give it to you in a nutshell.
Here is my definition of a Virtual Assistant: A virtual assistant is someone that works remotely (VA’s typically work from home) as an independent contractor or freelancer and provides administrative, technical, social, or creative assistance for clients.
Virtual assistants can do hundreds of different tasks and work in hundreds of different industries and businesses. Both online and in brick and mortar. For that reason, it can be overwhelming when you first start out to define your target client and how to charge for your services.
Working as a Transaction Coordinator
Transaction Coordination is a little-known niche inside of the real estate industry. A hidden gem within the real estate industry. Someone that wants to work from home doesn’t even know this exists as an online business.
Working as a transaction coordinator is a very targeted and specialized niche working only for real estate brokers and agents.
If you don’t know what a transaction coordinator is here is my definition: A transaction coordinator or a “TC” for short is someone who assists a real estate agent by performing the administrative duties required and keeps the contract timeline intact during each stage of a transaction from contract to closing.
There are several steps in the timeline of a transaction in which the TC keeps track of. It is also the TC’s job to keep the agent/broker in compliance with their state requirements for each transaction.
To learn more about what a TC is you can read more about it here in my blog post: What is a Virtual Transaction CoordinatorThere are pros and cons to being a Virtual Assistant and a Transaction Coordinator. Keep reading if your interested in starting a business and don’t know which direction you should go to find out the pros and cons of each.
I will go over some pros and cons of each and at the end, and let you know my recommendation of which one I would start out with if you are interested in starting your own home-based business.
Virtual Assistant Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Work from home
- Literally 100’s of different types of jobs you can do
- Many different industries to work in
- Choose the hours you want to work
- Set your own rates
Cons:
- It is overwhelming deciding where to start defining the services to offer
- Unsure of how to price your services
- Having to bid against other VA’s for jobs
- A lot of competition from other VA’s consequently cutting their prices to get the job
- Competing with VA’s from other countries that charge $5.00 an hour for the same services you offer. Check out Upwork and Fivver and search for virtual assistant services if you don’t believe me!
- Doing lots of one-off jobs vs do consistent jobs for someone
- Can take a while to build up consistent clients to make a consistent full-time income
- You have to be willing to continuously keep up with technology and expand your knowledge
- Starting wages of $15-$20 dollars an hour before taxes doing general admin tasks
Transaction Coordinator Pros and Cons
Cons:
- Unless you are organized and detail oriented this isn't the job for you
- The TC fee is paid when the transaction closes
- Can be stressful, after all this is the biggest purchase or sale that people usually make and tensions can run high if things go wrong during the transaction (that’s where the agent comes in)
Pros:
- You get to work from home and set your own hours and rates
- Established real estate niche and easy to find clients
- Easily scale your business by word of mouth with no advertising
- Not a lot of competition
- It's not required to have a real estate license to work as a transaction coordinator in most states
- Work with agents all over the United States not just in your own city or state
- The pay is anywhere from $300-$500 average per transaction depending on your location in the US. The fee is a set fee per transaction.
As you can see from the pros and cons I have listed above what the clear winner is. Most importantly, Transaction Coordination is an awesome niche in the real estate industry to get started in right away and grow your business easily by word of mouth and simple marketing strategies that don’t cost anything.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this blog. Have you thought about being a transaction coordinator or a virtual assistant? Share your thoughts or leave a comment below. If you want to get in touch with me directly please email me at hello@inspiredhouseandhome.com. I would love to hear from you and I will respond back!
If you're interested in learning more about The Transaction Coordinator Bootcamp you can check it out here.
