Outsourcing is no longer a luxury for real estate investing it is a necessity. However, there is a big difference in doing it well and reaping its benefits and rewards and approaching it blindfolded and suffering the consequences that can bring.
So what can go wrong with outsourcing and how can you prevent it?
Outsourcing Gone Wrong
1. Misuse of Information
A new title company recently hired an outsourced assistant to assist with building their social media fan base. Unfortunately the VA from Bangladesh decided access to the owner’s Facebook account was a great way in hit on her single friends!
2. Poor Content
Opting for the cheapest writers for reports, ebooks for opt-in teasers and blog posts has frequently landed real estate investing companies with copied or simply junk content causing lost time and money as well as competitive edge. In one recent case for a Las Vegas real estate investing ‘guru’ this meant masses of content and so much time that they were simply out of budget and couldn’t afford to have it fixed or re-written.
3. Bogus Billing
Other real estate professionals have found freelance contractors billing for an obscene amount of hours, many of which were clearly spent doing something completely different than the task requested, if work related at all.
Smarter Outsourcing Solutions
The good news is that this can all be pretty much avoided and those who have already invested in a good and up to date real estate investing program or coaching are probably aware of some of the better options.
6 quick tips for better outsourcing:
- Use a professional platform like UpWork and monitor work
- Focus more on what you get for your hour of work or results of the work rather than hourly rates or bids (e.g. will one person’s work yield greater end results?)
- Offshore workers can be great but you won’t have any luck suing them so consider U.S. based freelancers for the most sensitive and critical information
- Hire better by looking at length of history as well as feedback ratings. It’s easy for anyone to keep up great feedback for a couple of months, not so easy for 2-3 years
- If you don’t have time to hire a team carefully then hire one person well who knows how to hire great for you
- Don’t get too tough or bitter or you’ll scare off the best talent
