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In June 2026, the National Association of REALTORS® released its latest Member Profile. One figure from the report has drawn particular attention: 27% of REALTORS® said housing affordability was the leading factor preventing prospective clients from buying a home.
That figure matters. Interest rates, home prices, and down payment requirements are all narrowing buyers' options. Real estate agents cannot change these market forces, but they can help clients make the best possible decision within a limited budget.
Yet the report contains another set of figures that receives far less attention.
According to the 2026 NAR Member Profile, the median gross income of a REALTOR® was $59,200, while median annual business expenses were $9,530. Agents with 16 years or more of experience earned a median gross income of $88,500, compared with just $8,000 for those with two years of experience or less.
The gap is not simply about talent or effort. It is often about having the right systems in place.
Experienced Real Estate Agents: Is There Enough Time in Your Week?
Experienced agents are more likely to have assistants, established workflows, and people they can trust to execute. New agents often have none of those resources, so every task falls on them. Even experienced agents, however, may not be able to afford the way their time is being spent. That is one reason real estate virtual assistants have gained increasing attention among Chinese-speaking agents and brokerages across North America over the past two years.
1. For Buyers, Affordability Is About Housing Costs. For Agents, It Is About Time.
One easily overlooked figure in the NAR report is that the typical REALTOR® works a median of 35 hours per week. That may not sound excessive. The more important question is: how many of those hours are actually spent on work that wins clients and moves transactions toward closing?
Salesforce has reported that sales professionals spend only 28% of their workweek actually selling. The remaining 72% goes to administrative work, data entry, CRM updates, and repetitive copy-and-paste tasks. In real estate, that list becomes even more specific:
Entering listing information into the MLS one field at a time
Updating CRM records after every call, showing, and email
Copying data across multiple tabs to assemble comparative market analyses
Rewriting the same follow-up email templates and scheduling each message
Tracking transaction documents across email threads, DocuSign, and shared drives
Entering buyer feedback into systems that were clearly not designed around an agent's workflow
Cross-checking leads across Zillow, Realtor.com, and the agent's own CRM
None of these tasks directly generates a commission. Every one of them consumes an agent's time.
Another set of figures makes the cost even clearer: real estate professionals spend an average of 6.5 hours per week managing, organizing, or correcting transaction documents. Each transaction requires an average of 3.3 document revisions before the paperwork is finalized, and three-quarters of professionals identify closing paperwork as a major source of job burnout.
While clients struggle to fund a down payment, agents face a different shortage: time. Real estate virtual assistant outsourcing is receiving more serious consideration because it is not simply about adding another person. It is about redesigning how an agent's time is allocated.
Real estate agent, how much of your time is occupied by your personal affairs?
2. A Virtual Assistant Is Not Just Another Hire. It Is a Way to Buy Back Time.
When many U.S. real estate agents first hear the term Virtual Assistant, they think of lower-cost labor. That interpretation is not entirely wrong, but it misses the larger value.
The real value of a virtual assistant is that the assistant takes ownership of delegable work, allowing the agent to focus on the work that only the agent can do.
Showings, negotiations, pricing decisions, and relationships with high-value clients require an agent's judgment, experience, and presence. MLS data entry, document coordination, follow-up reminders, social media scheduling, and open house preparation require reliable execution and consistent processes, not the agent's personal involvement. This is why a real estate virtual assistant does more than complete tasks: the assistant protects the agent's time.
One real-world example is Compass agent Lauren Carroll. After more than a decade in the business and $250 million in career sales, she was still constrained by back-office work. She lacked a consistent marketing presence, a fully developed website, and enough time to manage contracts, schedules, and vendor communication. Only after delegating social media, contract administration, document uploads, inspection scheduling, and showing-route planning to a virtual assistant was she able to return to her role as the public face of her brand.
Her assistant described the role in a way that every U.S. real estate agent should consider: "I take on everything Lauren does not need to do herself. I learn the new software and tools so she does not have to. My job is to free her up to be in the field, doing the work only she can do."
Even if you are not ready to outsource to a virtual assistant, the principle still applies. Divide your weekly tasks into two categories: "Only I can do this" and "Someone else can do this." You may find that the real problem is not personal productivity. It is the structure of the work itself.
What Can a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do for Your Business?
3. MyRemoteMate's Bilingual Real Estate Virtual Assistants Are Built Around the Way U.S. Agents Actually Work
MyRemoteMate is a remote talent brand under Callnovo, providing trained bilingual English-Chinese virtual assistants for Chinese-speaking real estate agents across North America. We do not provide pooled customer support. Instead, we match each agent with a dedicated assistant who becomes deeply integrated into the agent's daily workflow. This is what a Virtual Assistant looks like when the role is properly adapted to North American real estate: dedicated support from someone who understands MLS processes, follow-up timing, and the communication preferences of Chinese-speaking clients.
In day-to-day operations, a real estate virtual assistant can take ownership of work such as:
Administrative and transaction support
MLS listing entry and cross-platform updates
Transaction document organization, uploads, and milestone tracking
Client information maintenance and CRM updates
Lead follow-up and pipeline management
Qualifying high-intent inquiries according to an established process
Sending thank-you emails and follow-up reminders
Prioritizing leads with a clear budget, timeline, and property preferences for the agent
Social media and marketing execution
Organizing listing information and marketing assets
Maintaining a consistent social media publishing schedule
Turning transaction stories and market insights into publishable content
Open house and day-to-day operational support
Coordinating the design and printing of open house materials
Publishing pre-event content across platforms and sending client reminders
Managing on-site checklists and sign-in sheets
Agents do not need to complete these tasks personally, yet the quality and consistency of this work directly determine how much time remains for revenue-producing activities. For many teams, virtual assistant outsourcing does not need to begin with a complete handoff. A more practical approach is to start with the two or three most time-consuming responsibilities, establish a reliable workflow, and expand the role from there. That is the approach we recommend.
MyRemoteMate Virtual Assistants at Work
NAR's 2026 report tells us that affordability is the biggest obstacle facing buyers. For agents, however, affordability is not only about income. It is also about where their limited time is being spent.
While 27% of clients are hesitating because of housing costs, how many tasks that do not require your personal involvement are consuming your day? If that question gives you pause, a U.S. real estate virtual assistant may be worth ten minutes of your time to explore.
