Quotes for a remote assistant arrive in three shapes: an hourly rate, a monthly plan and a recruitment fee followed by a salary. Comparing them takes some arithmetic, because each one counts different costs.
Key Takeaways
- Through us you pay a one-time $1,997 recruitment fee and then the assistant’s monthly salary directly, and the free consultation ends with a quote for the role.
- Marketplaces charge by the hour: Upwork’s rate page shows typical virtual assistant rates of $10 to $20 an hour, plus fees (as of October 2026).
- Managed services sell monthly plans, such as Fancy Hands from 3 requests for $35 to 15 for $125 (as of October 2026).
- The in-house comparison is a U.S. assistant at a median wage of $47,540 a year (May 2025), before payroll taxes, benefits and a desk.
- Specialized work, such as transaction coordination, may be priced per file or per month, so ask for each price in writing.
Factors Influencing Virtual Assistant Pricing
Four things move the price: where the assistant lives, how much experience the work needs, which tasks are involved and how many hours you want. Our hires usually come from South Africa or the Philippines, and the pay for any one assistant depends on skills and on what you agree. Someone who has coordinated transactions or run a CRM costs more than someone starting out.
Our article on how outsourcing virtual assistants saves money in real estate sets these costs against an in-house hire.
Hourly Rates vs. Monthly Subscriptions
Paying by the hour suits short or uneven work. On Upwork, typical hourly rates for virtual assistants run from $10 to $20 with a $13 median (as of October 2026), and Upwork adds client fees on top. You pay for hours worked, so the bill moves with the workload.
Monthly plans make the cost predictable. BELAY quotes a flat monthly price, and Fancy Hands sells plans by request count, from 3 requests for $35 to 15 for $125 a month (as of October 2026), with each standard request covering up to 20 minutes of work.
A salary works like a monthly plan for one person. You pay the agreed amount in a busy month or a slow one, and you get the same person every day. Through us you pay the assistant’s salary directly after the one-time recruitment fee.
Specialized Services and Their Costs
Specialized work is priced differently from general admin. Transaction coordination is the clearest case: some independent coordinators charge per file, while a salaried assistant does the same tracking inside the monthly salary. Social media management and lead follow-up can be sold as monthly packages or form part of an assistant’s regular duties.
Ask each provider to price specialized work in writing and to say what is included: how many posts a week, which platforms, how many files a month. A price does not change what an unlicensed assistant may do, so showing property, negotiating and price talk stay with the licensee.
Comparing Pricing Models of Top Virtual Assistant Providers
Compare each option’s total cost over a year. Our guide to the best real estate virtual assistant companies lists what to ask providers.
Say a marketplace freelancer at the $13 median works 20 hours a week. A month holds about 87 of those hours, so the bill is roughly $1,130 before client fees. An in-house assistant at the median wage of $47,540 costs about $3,960 a month in wages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Payroll taxes, benefits and a desk come on top.
Neither figure counts your own time for training and checking the work, so add it to every option you compare.
Maximizing Value With a Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Value comes from what you hand over. List the recurring jobs, estimate the hours each one takes and hand over the ones that repeat every week. Then track how many hours come back and what you do with them, since prospecting, client meetings and negotiating are where those hours earn money. Our comparison of a virtual assistant and a full-time employee covers the trade-offs.
Review the hours each month, and hand over one more task whenever there is room.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Qualifications Should I Look for in a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?
Real estate admin experience comes first: MLS data entry, CRM use, transaction timelines and e-signature tools. After that, look for clear written English and attention to detail. We check the references of every shortlisted candidate and test attention to detail, and you interview and choose.
How Do I Evaluate the Quality of Work Done by a Virtual Assistant?
Check a sample of the work each week against a checklist: names spelled correctly, dates entered right, files in the right folder. Track how many errors you find and how fast the assistant fixes them, and ask for a short weekly summary of what was done.
Can I Hire a Virtual Assistant for a Short-Term Project Only?
Yes, through a marketplace or a request-based plan. A recruited assistant is an ongoing hire on a salary, so a project of a few weeks suits a freelancer better. Hourly, fixed-price and one-off options exist on the marketplaces.
How Do I Ensure Security and Confidentiality With a Remote Virtual Assistant?
Give the assistant a personal login limited to what the job needs, turn on two-step verification and keep client files in your own accounts. The FTC’s data security guide recommends limiting access to what each job needs. Add a confidentiality agreement.
Are There Any Hidden Fees or Additional Costs When Hiring a Virtual Assistant?
Ask about marketplace client fees on top of the rate and about software seats for the assistant. Count your own training time, any tax or payroll duties that depend on how you engage the person, and the cost of replacing someone who does not work out. Through us the recruitment fee is one-time, and an unsuccessful hire is replaced in the first 3 months at no extra cost.
Final Thought
A cost comparison is only as good as the task list behind it. Write the tasks first, ask each provider to price them, and compare yearly totals that include your own time. The free consultation ends with a quote for the role.