How many of you have either part time or full time help? How has that changed your business?

I have part time help for specific tasks. I find it very useful as it allows me to focus on the high paying aspects of the business.

I don't have an assistant but there are two support people at the office - they are not secretaries, they are just so much more - that can help me w/ stuff when I need it. but mostly I do it all myself.

My wife has been my licensed assistant for about 7 years and it has worked well for us. Many of the things she hates to do I enjoy doing and vice versa and we know each others responsibilities without even talking about it very often.
We also have a listing and closing co-ordinator supplied by our office but still do most of the co-ordinating ourselves.

Similar situation here, Summers. My DH is licensed, has sold RE, but doesn't anymore. He keeps his license hung under mine. And he is so handy sometimes! I don't do occ checks alone, especially in bad areas.

It's really nice having a reliable spouse to pitch in & help who also happens to be licensed.

I do most of the showings and listing appointments...wife will take care of all paperwork for me on listings but won't write a sales contract...she will PROOF sales contracts when I write them though and will correct me if something is not correct (figger that one out).
If somebody want to look at condos then she is my condo queen but if it is a home and especially on the lake it is my responsibility. I'm showing lake homes today (in the rain at about 40 degrees) and have my laser level equiptment with me to check a couple of homes for flood plain elevations. (and yes I use a disclaimer with clients)

That's great! Aren't we lucky to have reliable partners in life and in business?

I hired an assistant this year - she works about 20-25 hours a week. She's incredible. Not only am I less stressed and have more time to myself I also quintupled my income this year - I'm sure this is partially because I didnt have to waste my time on the things my assistant now does and was able to focus on other more lucrative activities.

@ minna: You quintupled your income by just hiring an assistant? You must have a massive lead generation system already in place for this to be the case??? What things in particular did you do to see such substantial growth in your sales? Thanks!

She's not the only reason for the increase, but a good part I'm sure. I dont have any fancy lead generation systems. Most of my business (maybe 70%) comes from my site. The traffic is not that heavy but the conversion is very high. The reason for the increase was mostly because I was able to spend a good portion of my time driving more of the right folks to my site and building a solid internet presence. Blogging consistently was key here I think. Anyway I would not have had the time to spend on that if I was bogged down with paperwork and other low producing activities that my assistant now handles.
But seriously - she is the best investment I ever made.
I make 5 times as much before and she gets about 15% of my income. Thats a huge ROI.

I don't currently have an assistant, there are some support staff at the office who are exceptional. One thing I've used a lot lately is etinkle.com to help hold my customers accountable and make sure they're prepared for appointments. I found a lot of them were always running behind, rescheduling etc. Time is money and I didn't have time to babysit :P

My business partner and I have 2 assistance but they are also Licensed Agents.

I'm amazed that Realtors offer to pay assistants to do a lot of things and pay them only $10 to $15 the hour! and they want to have assistants as real estate agents with a license of course! but they want to pay them only $10/hr! RIDICULOUS!

Look at this recent ad for an assistant, $10/hr!

But they'll be able to count on that $10 or $15 per hour for every hour that they put in, whether it is productive and creates any income to the business or not . . . . just from being there.

Sales Agents may put in the same amount of time but only receive an income IF they produce measurable (in money terms) "results". That's the difference. An hourly wage is risk-free and reliable, while commissions are a bit more fickle.

But, if it's so RIDICULOUS, probably no one will apply, right?

I suspect though, that someone else besides you will be reading the ad, and in this economy, they may have quite a few takers.

There's nothing ridiculous about a $15/hour part time job in this economy. NOTHING.

As Vermont said, it's guaranteed income for nuisance work. I see nothing to be offended or insulted by.