Ready to teleport your real estate office into the 21st century, all while lowering your overhead expenses? If so, a remote setup may be the missing puzzle piece in your financial picture. For those real estate agents lagging behind, follow in the footsteps of real estate moguls nationwide and transition to a virtual office. Dipping into the benefits of a virtual office, complete with a digital mailbox, is a move that many businesses are making, thanks to the developments in technology that make it possible. 

If the 30-second commute time and workplace flexibility pique your interest, here’s a list of the five things you should know before you get started.

A digital mailbox is an invaluable tool 

While you may have a fully-furnished home office footsteps away, you don’t necessarily want to use your home address for mailings and deliveries. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for business owners looking to acquire a virtual mailing address. 

The first step in protecting your privacy and building a professional business image is securing a digital mailbox from providers like iPostal1. By selecting a digital mailbox strategically and choosing an area where you'd like to establish a business presence, you’ll reach your target market and feel ready to accept letters and packages from customers and prospective clients across the globe. For those real estate agents looking to build a global empire, there are even options for digital mailboxes outside the U.S—freeing working professionals from the shackles of local workspaces. 

You’ll need a phone service

To present yourself as a professional, you’ll benefit from having an answering service that can handle your calls. You don’t want to have to interrupt a meeting or a showing to answer the phone. Having an answering service means that you never miss an important call. With the help of virtual office services, you can set up a company phone number, complete with a  personalized greeting and digital voicemail. 

You’ll need to establish a social media presence

Along with a digital mailbox, you’ll need to refine your social media presence before leaning into a fully remote setup. Photos are a great way to entice prospective buyers to come and see a property. You can leverage social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube to gain more visibility for your properties. You can even conduct live virtual tours on any of the platforms mentioned.

If you’re unsure where to start when it comes to social media, click here for eight social media marketing tips to help you get started.

You need a website

Even with a thriving social media presence, you still want to allocate time for website development. Anything can happen, and if any of those social media platforms shut down tomorrow, you won’t have access to the people who follow, like, or subscribe to your account.

With the unpredictable nature of social media platforms in mind, you’ll want to build a website and have an opt-in form so that you can collect email addresses. Once you have compiled an email list, you need to communicate with prospective buyers regularly. Whether you choose to including real estate tips for buyers and sellers or links to current listings is up to you. 

Communicate with your team effectively

In the context of a fully remote workforce, companies have found that email is not enough to ensure streamlined communication between employees. When communicating with internal team members, your star employees may need to send an urgent message to a fellow team member. Should they choose to send questions, comments, or concerns via email, their plea for help may find itself buried in the rubble of hundreds of other messages marked as “urgent.” Fortunately, different platforms allow remote workers to share video and audio recordings. 

Because emails are likely to gather dust in your team member’s inbox, platforms like Slack and Asana have swooped to the rescue. These programs allow members of any given team to send messages privately or to the group. Additionally, these messaging apps provide you with a central spot for all company or project-related communications.

In light of remote work complications, such as inhibited productivity, designating a central hub for all interactions between team members is essential. These messaging hubs will help employees feel connected even though they aren’t working in the same space. With the help of effective communication, your employees will feel prepared to tackle the workload at hand and won’t succumb to an overwhelming sense of isolation. 

Before you go

By transitioning to a remote model—with the help of a digital mailbox—you post virtual tours and never-before-seen listings in a pinch. Not to mention, you can rocket your digital marketing strategy to new heights. Just make sure that you’ve covered all your bases so that nothing falls through the cracks, especially during the closing of a deal. If you follow the steps suggested above, you’ll be off to a great start.