I have been a member here for awhile, but truthfully, I forget to come back and participate until something happens to pop up in my Google Alerts that brings me over to the site :-( I need to start adding it to my networking schedule.

Regardless, I don't think I ever officially introduced myself, and if I did it was long ago and a re-intro won't hurt ;-)

I have been a Real Estate Virtual Assistant for 10+ years. I serve clients nationwide with listing management, general administrative duties, marketing, social media development and maintenance, website needs, ghost writing / blogging, etc. What sets my business apart from other Real Estate Virtual Assistants, is that I operate on Value Based Retainers. This means that my clients never have to worry about how much their bill will be each month, because we come up with a set list of services that I will provide to them each month and their retainer cost is based on that. We can renegotiate their retainer monthly as needed based upon how busy they are at that time, etc...

I look forward to becoming more active here.

Replying to my own post to apologize for not setting up a signature first! I have done so now...sorry about that!

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Christine Wade - Real Estate Virtual Assistant
http://www.eRealtyAssistance.com

Welcome!

I absolutely love the idea of a value based retainer and you inspire me to rethink that option.

I always return to the fact that I can't see how writing can always be value-based. I write ghost articles for newsletters but I find that each article is not so cut and dry. Some require research which becomes the 'unknown' item that is difficult to bill.

However, I can see how many of the other options you offer do indeed fall under value (flat fee based) option.

So I welcome you (again) to VAF. I look forward to hearing more about your business.

Regards,

Janine

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Janine...thank you. I can guestimate how much time it will take because I allocate so much time for each ghost writing piece that they will expect from me. Some clients send me a link to an article on a topic and ask me to write another article on the same topic...other times they just have a list of topics that they want me to write x # of articles on over the course of the month. The second example obviously takes more time than the first...so we build their retainer accordingly, based around the working style of that client. Take care!

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Christine Wade - Real Estate Virtual Assistant
http://www.eRealtyAssistance.com

Hi Christine,

I understand completely.

I am referring to the writing topics which I must come up myself in addition to the research involved for fact checking. Sometimes that can be 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours.

I also find that if I don't have a time frame I am much more creative and my work is best. If I say an article will be completed in 2 hours, for example as I am composing and am locked into that time frame, I find my creativity is not as flowing. But hourly, (and I'm not talking about taking advantage of the time), I don't feel so restricted and the work (to me) is better. I have fewer rewrites, edits and usually the articles are accepted at one pass.

So although I can do the value based pricing for writing, I'm not sure if that is always the best option for the clients I work with. And I really only want to turn out the best work and not just factory-style writing work (I'm not implying that is the case in your situation). That's how fee-based writing makes me feel...at least at the moment...

But you give me great food for thought as this is a direction I feel is the best way to go. I know that clients like flat based pricing. I do this for article marketing, which is cut and dry but ghosting is creative writing and not so cut and dry.

My dilemma!

Thanks!

Janine

__________________
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I can totally see your point, Janine...but my writing revolves around one industry, real estate, or the technology used to work in that industry...so it's all pretty standard in my brain. Now if another industry came up and asked me to write an article, I would have to switch gears and do more intensive research, etc...then I would completely agree with you! I am a contributing author on RealBlogging.com and have several other real estate blogs running, so writing on this topic to me, is second nature and I have pretty well got the timing locked down. Have a great day!

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Christine Wade - Real Estate Virtual Assistant
http://www.eRealtyAssistance.com

Ah, now I see the difference. I don't write for only one industry as you do. But when I wrote for real estate, it was pretty standard.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm always interested in how others handle fee/value based services.

Janine

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WRITE FAB RFP PROPOSALS & land THE VA job. WinningRFP unveils soon! SignUp www.WinningRFP.com

Hi there - I'm in Southern California and as well and I'm interested in becoming a real estate virtual assistant. I need to take some classes I believe to get certified. Just not sure where to begin and wondered if you might give me some direction. Thanks so much - I look forward to your reply.