Watch: Watch how property VAs and virtual teams can scale your HMO business

Jane Scroggs (00:04.792)

Good afternoon.

Jane Scroggs (00:09.743)

I’d like you to imagine that you’re sitting here watching me now. Thanks for coming, by the way. You’re fully present with no work distractions, no thoughts of your emails, no thoughts of answering WhatsApp or returning any calls. Imagine that you have every area of your business covered. You can relax and you’re trusting a team that are handling everything for you while you’re here. Well, not just handling, but moving your business forward.

I’m going to share with you how in 2024, a new shape of virtual support is transforming the property sector.

Jane Scroggs (00:51.904)

If we compare two, remember 2020.

the world shifted dramatically that year. We experienced a zoom boom and the realization that productivity didn’t depend on the physical presence in the office.

People awaken to virtual assistance, whether that’s in Phoenix, France or the Philippines.

Jane Scroggs (01:20.886)

I started BEAM, Virtual Property Support, that year on the back of this boom.

We saw an opportunity for building a virtual team. We started out as a solo person in business. Our team client base was a small portfolio of owners of property portfolios. They wanted to gain control of their properties. We grew and our clients evolved as well. So now, typically larger agencies or landlords with larger portfolios.

supplementing their teams or replacing them entirely. So now we’re 20 VAs. I have my own VA. We have an operations manager and a recruitment manager.

Jane Scroggs (02:13.93)

It’s really important to look at bigger companies for inspiration, the bigger players in the market. They once relied solely on local hires and now they’re integrating virtual staff. I was really surprised to discover that even high street letting agents are increasingly using a blend of local and overseas staff. Why would that be though? Well, margins are being squeezed and so they have to adapt or die, but also…

They enhance their efficiency and service standards and they reduce their costs.

Jane Scroggs (02:49.875)

This can mean the difference between trapped in a certain revenue range and achieving massive growth.

Virtual teams can also bridge the gap between now and hiring the next employee, or they can be part of the core long-term team model.

Jane Scroggs (03:12.91)

Let’s consider a traditional hire in a business. A four-time property manager, maybe earning about £20,000 a year, would cost the employer about £22,000 including national insurance, pension contributions.

That’s about £11.30 an hour, which is around the minimum wage. But remember that the employer is also paying for 20 days holiday, sick pay and often less than full productivity.

Jane Scroggs (03:46.377)

Imagine hiring a highly skilled virtual team member for the same or less money. The difference is in this scenario is that you’re only paying for the hours you’ve worked. That person is tracking and documenting what they worked on during that time so you can know exactly what they’ve been doing. No longer are you restricted by location. You can take advantage of a global talent pool.

especially with the skills and experience that you require within your business. So this is the virtual advantage.

Jane Scroggs (04:24.406)

But it’s not just about cost saving.

The benefits of virtual support extend far beyond that. You can be highly selective in the skills and experience that you need in your business. If you need someone with a strong work ethic, which is quite rare these days, let’s face it, no problem. You can contract talented individuals. They show up enthusiastic, passionate. They’re excited about the work you’re offering. They’re reliable, punctual and attentive. Sometimes, well…

Usually they stay focused without supervision and maintain that positivity. Would you have that choice with a local workforce on a minimum wage? Virtual teams provide flexibility so you can hire general support or an expert in your field as you need. You have the agility to scale operations in a much leaner way.

Jane Scroggs (05:25.431)

So if the idea of building any team feels like a stretch for you, I’m going to remind you all that you’ve already built one, a virtual one. Your solicitor, your broker, your lender, your accountant, your bookkeeper, maybe your property sourcer. All of these are usually virtual and part of operating your business. So adding another team member is the logical next step.

Jane Scroggs (05:54.593)

Consider this scenario. You’re a single business owner juggling all of the functions yourself. You excel in some areas, but others you dislike or you procrastinate on. You might experience burnout or stagnation, missed opportunities, compliance risk. For example, a new client of ours is buying a letting agency run by just two overwhelmed individuals managing 57 properties.

They’re exhausted, maxed out, and their business can’t grow anymore.

Jane Scroggs (06:33.846)

So if you want to build a structured team to help you grow rather than just plugging ad hoc gaps, so where do you start?

Let’s go back to basics. So think of building a business like building a house. Hopefully you’re familiar with that. You start the build with clear plans and a vision of the end result. The foundations are laid, not just for the kitchen or the bathroom, but actually for the entire house. The walls go up, then first fix, et cetera, et cetera. You don’t just put the roof on top of the walls without everything inside. As you wouldn’t do it yourself.

You shouldn’t expect to handle all your business on your own. Even a skilled handyman wouldn’t tackle every task from the foundation to the finishing touches. So you hire an experienced team for each part of the build. Some might be there every day checking in, others come at other points you need them throughout the build. Everyone is working together to achieve the end result.

So it’s important to apply the same principles in your property business. For example, maybe start with an operations manager to help organise all of the fundamental moving parts. A lettings and property management consultant to get all the compliance and policies, procedures in place. Next, perhaps someone who knows your CRM inside out and can actually optimise it so that you’re not wasting your money on that subscription every month.

Someone may be to track your HMO expenses, your utilities, profitability across your whole portfolio. There may be a lettings manager who understands legislation and then property manager or two or three who care about your tenants and can give you great customer service.

Jane Scroggs (08:32.085)

So there are pitfalls, but they can be avoided. One common mistake is assuming there’s only one type of virtual assistant. In reality, VA’s span from low-cost generalist admin support to highly specialized VA’s who bring a wealth of experience to your business.

The next mistake is expecting one person to be able to do everything in your business. Another mistake is failing to factor in that huge learning curve for team members that don’t understand the industry. Do you have the time and the knowledge to actually train them yourself?

Perhaps failing to first establish those solid foundations, having poorly documented processes before trying to scale a team. If you get those in place first, maybe you can get someone to help you do that, you’ll have much more control over how efficient your business becomes. Also, not establishing clear communication channels and protocols. Key information can get lost in all of those messages across different platforms.

Lastly, leaving a team to work in silos. So with a lack of cohesion, team members become, there’s a lack of harmony. It’s important for your virtual team to feel integrated and valued.

Jane Scroggs (10:01.835)

So, in conclusion, the journey of embracing virtual teams can be transformative. I leave it my own business and I’m sure you are too, but it is a work in progress. So, you have to overcome blocks, beliefs, challenges with delegating, learning to trust people and there’s people relying on you, you’ve got accountability. But it really does help to have a team that are much better than you at many things.

Thanks, everyone. I encourage you to imagine what you could achieve if you apply the virtual advantage in your property business.

Jane Scroggs (10:49.564)

Any questions? Can I ask you questions? you want to questions? Any questions? thought about having a virtual assistant before? Is that something? questions? sure. Shall I stand back up again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do that.

Yeah.

Jane Scroggs (11:13.322)

Builders, electricians, do you think the point to make is for a pair of them to be stand on the stage? We have quite a few team members who actually work with clients who are building. We don’t just do lettings and property management support. I think with all of our team members, no matter who they’re working with, we would make sure that we’re checking in every day with those people. We would make sure that the communication is seamless, as seamless as possible when you’re working with trades, obviously.

Usually that’s WhatsApps, but we’re in the groups, we’re making sure that everything’s tracked and documented using task management tools. So how we work with our clients is very much like getting a sort of a centralised platform where everyone can track what’s going on. And we often the linchpin between the teams on the ground and the client, the person that’s building the properties, etc.

It’s a case of just communication, making sure that everything is documented. We’re one step ahead of what needs to be done.

Jane Scroggs (12:26.25)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s so many, if you think about it, there’s very little, well, I wouldn’t say there’s very little that you don’t have to do on the ground. Of course, there’s a huge amount, but there’s so much in terms of admin that you can do virtually. So all the things that you’re sitting doing at your desk every day, calling people, organizing teams, it could be scope of works, sending tender packages out, looking at the responses, that can all be done virtually.

But if you’re looking at the lettings and management side of things, then it’s really understanding the fundamentals of that business, that foundation. And you’ve got those, like I mentioned, you’ve got those key areas that you need to really kind of get to grips with and make sure that everything’s working, everything’s smooth. And that could be, in reality, could be your files and folders. Maybe they’re a complete mess, but actually what you really need is a nice folder structure.

perhaps a naming protocol on every file so you don’t have scan one, two, three. So you know where everything is and that obviously is also a good CRM system, it’s like COHO. But obviously you need someone to put those in there. But it’s setting up those systems, training the wider team to know exactly what you do, creating workflows for X, Y, Z so that it’s then repeatable. Because one of the biggest mistakes is when people actually…

hire maybe a VA that doesn’t really understand the industry and that’s their first hire. Then they’ve got to spend so much time training them of their own time. Often the clients don’t always know the ins and outs of lettings legislation for example. They’re training with information that maybe isn’t correct. I think it’s important to get those foundation hires in first for the time that you need them. It doesn’t have to be full-time obviously. They can then train that team down the line.

Jane Scroggs (14:24.41)

lots of questions. Kate.

Jane Scroggs (14:33.384)

Yes.

Jane Scroggs (14:42.661)

Yes, we have done that. Quite often we’ve gone into a business and looked at all of the file structure, but more importantly looking at things like making sure that all the documentation is correct, so the tenancy agreements are accurate, all the right information has been sent with those tenancy agreements in the first place, deposits have been registered and just highlighting any issues that you could come across down the line.

So that’s typically where we come in and also a lot of work with upgrading systems, perhaps making sure that the information is on the CRM correctly, et cetera. So we have worked, usually we do a sort of minimum three months and then usually clients take us on for an amount of time thereafter just to make sure that everything’s coordinated. And as I said, train maybe a wider team.

Hi.

Please.

Jane Scroggs (15:49.852)

Well, you’ve got, I mean, if it’s on the payroll, you’ve obviously got those costs that I mentioned, the pension contributions, national insurance, the physical person in the office. I mean, it’s very hard to say exact…

I don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out and I will tell you after. No, I don’t because there’s a lot of variables. I would say that I think where the biggest advantage is if you’re looking at a direct full-time employee to full-time employee, obviously a full-time UK based virtual assistant is going to be much, much more. So if you’re looking at a direct cost, yeah.

it’s going to be more, but then you wouldn’t necessarily need a full-time expert in the business because you’re just going to call those resources in as you need them. So it’s about agility, it’s about scaling teams without having to hire everyone. We all start out. My business can’t necessarily afford to hire lots of employees. It’s about being lean. And like I mentioned, all the big players are doing the same thing.

Jane Scroggs (17:21.607)

Well, just disappear or… Yeah.

Well, we run what you would call an agency, suppose. So with us, it’s like a seamless service. you know, holidays, I’ve got a team member on holiday at the moment and she’s got five clients. So I’m having to fill that, you know, make sure that those clients have got seamless support. And to be able to do that, it’s about having everything documented, like I mentioned, so we can just switch on, do maybe a half an hour handover.

but they’ve got a general inbox that we can access. There’s a sauna or trailer or something that’s documenting all the processes. You’ve got the CRM set up. all you need to do is just get share on the last pass or something, the logins with the new VA, and they can just have a quick handover and just manage everything. So it’s about keeping things centralized and not everyone having all information on their WhatsApp. And it’s the same with, as a landlord, what happens if you couldn’t answer?

doing something that you couldn’t avoid one day and you had a tenancy agreement to do or you had something else to do. So that’s why it’s important to have a team that all understand what’s going on, all have access to the same systems and are following those same procedures. So that helps with the redundancy side of things.

Hi.

Jane Scroggs (18:51.36)

virtual assets of 2008. Have you?

So we’ve got a team in England, a team in North America. So what’s amazing is you wake up.

because people calling you and people are going after you. I love that. mean, yeah, global teams, absolutely fantastic. So we’ve recently taken on a lot of team members from South Africa as a separate side business. So yeah, have a UK team which are really highly specialist in lettings and property management and another team which are also very experienced, but obviously they’re overseas, so they can’t always have that same understanding.

Yeah, I mean, it’s the way forward, I think.

think that’s it. Thank you very much.