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Virtual assistants offer leverage. Local assistants protect your brand. Understanding the difference, Troy Palmquist writes, is what separates scalable agents from overwhelmed ones.

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Invest in yourself, grow your business—real estate’s biggest moment is in New York!

Most agents don’t wake up one day wanting an assistant. They wake up underwater.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine about an assistant role she’s hiring for, and halfway through the conversation, I caught myself thinking: “If she’s going through this right now, she’s not the only one.”

Every year, there’s a familiar moment that hits real estate agents across the country: Business is finally moving, deals are stacking up, phones are ringing, the calendar is full, and suddenly the dream (a steady stream of clients and transactions) becomes the problem.

That’s usually when agents have their first assistant thought:

Am I actually ready for an assistant?
Can I afford it?
What if I hire the wrong person?
What if I hire the right person, and I can’t imagine how I ever lived without them?

That’s why I sat down with top New York City and Miami agent Nicole Gary, who hasn’t just scaled her business with both virtual and local support; she’s also living the reality of replacing a key role right now.

What she shared is something most agents need to hear before they make the assistant leap: Virtual assistance is powerful, but local assistance is still irreplaceable.

The false debate: ‘virtual assistant vs. local assistant?’

For those who’ve never had one, an assistant is an assistant. In reality, different people have different strengths, and virtual assistants have different capabilities from local assistants.

Vague job descriptions, blurred ownership and constant urgency can make it difficult to home in on the type of assistant you need and whether they need to be virtual or local. Figuring out what you need from an assistant and what tasks they own will help you understand whether you need a virtual assistant, an in-person local assistant or both.

The 3 buckets every agent must separate

Use these task lists to figure out what you need your assistant to do. That will help you figure out what type of assistant is right for your workplace and how much autonomy you want them to have.

Bucket A: Repetitive backend work (VA-friendly)

These tasks are process-driven, document-based and easy to standardize:

Transaction paperwork and compliance routing
Calendar and scheduling coordination
CRM updates and database hygiene
Buyer itineraries and show sheets
Vendor scheduling and follow-ups
Template-based marketing coordination

Why VAs work here:

Speed, consistency and cost efficiency
Minimal market nuance required
Clear success metrics

Bucket B: Market execution work (local only)

These tasks live in the real world and directly shape client perception:

Coordinating showings, access, keys, lockboxes
Listing prep and on-site vendor coordination
Pre-show walkthroughs and troubleshooting
Printing, assembling, delivering materials
Physical presence at appointments and pitches

Why local assistants matter:

You can teach systems. You can’t teach local knowledge quickly.
Client experience is built in moments, not spreadsheets.
In complex markets, execution defines your brand.

Bucket C: Judgment work (highest risk)

Here’s where agents lose deals, trust and reputation:

Client communication under pressure
Managing mistakes and near-misses
Protecting the agent’s brand when things go wrong
Making decisions without supervision

The hard truth:

The higher the price point, the higher the cost of poor judgment.
This is the bucket most agents never test — and pay for later.

Why VA-only models break under pressure

While virtual support can handle volume, it can’t always handle nuance. White-glove service requires orchestration, not just responsiveness, and the needs of high-end and complex transactions and clients can make small errors a big deal.

Concierge service isn’t a hustle, Gary notes. It’s a machine behind the scenes. The assistant’s role isn’t just to “help the agent.” They’re there to make the business perform according to the policies and procedures you’ve put in place.

If you’re promising premium service, you’re going to need at least some in-person support.

Real estate is still a boots-on-the-ground business

Doors, keys, lighting, staging, timing: In many ways, real estate is a tactile business. Client confidence is built by attention to detail. While clients might not consciously note the details behind a well-run open house, for example, their confidence in you is enhanced anyway.

Elite agents widen the gap between themselves and their competitors by finding local assistants and service providers who can take care of the IRL details, leaving them more time for the things only they can do: negotiation, strategy and market analysis.

Why AI hiring has made everything worse

Resumes and “real estate experience” don’t mean much now. Many of the candidates you’ll find have learned to fake competence and game AI-based screening.

If you test correctly, Gary said, with an emphasis on judgment, ownership and attention to detail, you’ll get better results. That’s why she moved from a skill-based screening process to situational testing with real-world examples. When she interviews an assistant, she’s looking for how they think under pressure, not how they’d perform in ideal situations.

8 judgment-based interview questions agents should steal

Use scenarios that force prioritization, accountability and discretion. Ask what the assistant would do in the following situations:

Something breaks in a listing
A client is angry about an error
A showing is at risk minutes before start time
Competing urgent priorities
Catching a mistake before it goes out
Handling complex documentation
Describing their own living space in detail
Clarifying what kind of support work gives them pride

The ability to extrapolate and think critically about these hypotheticals shows how the assistant processes information and what their service philosophy (or lack thereof) looks like.

Skills can be trained; judgment can’t. Hire for judgment first.

The real answer to ‘virtual or local’? Both

You don’t lack hustle; you lack leverage. Gary said she wouldn’t trade her assistant for money because the cost of life without an assistant isn’t financial. It’s operational.

If you’re still not sure whether or not you’re ready for an assistant, ask yourself the following questions:

Does my real estate business feel chaotic? If the answer is yes, you’re already late.
Is my business big enough for an assistant? Infrastructure enhancements (like assistants) promote growth; they’re not a reward for growth.

This isn’t about trends or tools. It’s about building a business that can scale without breaking. That’s a lesson top agents and brokers learn early, and everyone else learns the hard way.

Troy Palmquist is the founder and principal at HomeCode Advisors. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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