In business, those who are the most successful typically get plenty of help: advertising agencies to handle their ads, marketing companies to promote their services and administrative people to handle the small details.

Interestingly, real estate agents are notoriously reluctant to delegate any tasks and seem to prefer to wear all the hats in their business. When it finally gets to the point where they can no longer juggle all the various demands that the business imposes, and they are completely overwhelmed, they finally decide it's time to get to help.

"Bottom line: If you are truly running your business like a real business and you are still overwhelmed, you're leaving too much money on the table by not adding to your team," cautions Mark Young with Stouffer Realty in Northeast Ohio. While Young's staff members are all employed in-house, he directly correlates a rise in his income to the number of staff members he adds to his team.

But I Don't Make Enough Money

Some of the big real estate coaches used to counsel agents that they needed to reach a certain income threshold and remain there consistently before even thinking of hiring an assistant. What they seem to have failed to realize, however, is that all that time the agents spent doing the work an assistant could have been handling was time spent away from performing the very activities that would allow them to consistently reach the income threshold.

Thankfully, those days are gone. Virtual staffing companies and virtual freelancers allow agents the flexibility to schedule as few or as many hours of assistance per week as needed. Now agents can pick and choose the tasks they need the most help with. No longer do agents have to be sure they can continue to pay an assistant every month. With virtual freelancing assistants, agents can hire help on a short-term or task basis. This is especially valuable for agents who are just starting out; they can get help when they need it and save money when they don't.