What will a virtual assistant cost your agency? My answer starts with the quote itself, because it looks like a price list but works like a scope document. In this guide to real estate virtual assistant pricing, I show you how to take any quote apart. You will also see how to turn it into a cost per property your business partner can check. Read on and compare your quotes with confidence.
Give Your Rent Roll a Predictable Cost Base
We can help you work out what your admin costs per property today. We can also show you what the same work costs with a trained property management assistant.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer on What Drives a Quote
Three things set the price. They are the scope you hand over, the hours you need covered and the seniority the work demands. The costs a provider carries also shape the final price. These include employment costs, equipment, supervision, backup cover and replacement. Once you know which of these sit inside a quote, you can compare it with another. Anything the provider leaves out becomes your cost.
What Sits Behind a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Price
Every quote is built from the same three factors, and each provider presents them differently.
- Scope: One assistant prepares lease documents and chases signatures. Another coordinates maintenance across 400 properties. Both are called virtual assistants, but they do different jobs and are priced differently.
- Hours: Full-time cover, part-time cover and a set weekly block are often priced differently. Shorter commitments can carry a higher hourly rate.
- Seniority: Data entry sits at one point on a pay scale. Preparing an end-of-month pack for your licensee to review sits at another.
At PMVA, we structure this into three package levels, and we tailor onboarding to the results each client wants. A fourth factor rarely appears on the quote. It is the set of costs the provider carries for you.
The Australian Employee Cost You Are Measuring Against
You cannot judge a virtual assistant price on its own. You need a sound number for the option you are comparing it with.
The Award Floor
Start with the award floor. The Real Estate Industry Award 2020 sets minimum weekly rates from 1 July 2026. The yearly figures below are my own estimates, worked out as the weekly rate times 52 weeks. The award itself does not state them.
- Level 1 Associate after twelve months: 1,063.90 dollars a week, or about 55,323 dollars a year.
- Level 2 Representative: 1,119.10 dollars a week, or about 58,193 dollars a year.
Both are base wages before any on-costs. Pay level follows the duties performed rather than the job title, and award minimums reset each 1 July.
The Statutory On-Costs
Then add what the law requires on top:
- Superannuation: The ATO sets the rate at 12% for 2025-26 and 2026-27. On 58,193 dollars that is 6,983 dollars.
- Annual leave loading: Clause 20.6 of the same award adds a 17.5% loading on the minimum weekly wage for leave taken. On four weeks at the Level 2 rate that is 783 dollars.
- Paid annual leave: The National Employment Standards give full-time staff four weeks of annual leave a year.
- Paid sick and carer’s leave: The NES entitlement is ten days a year for a full-time employee, which is 76 hours on a 38-hour week.
Base wages, super and leave loading come to at least 65,959 dollars a year for one full-time Level 2 role. That is a floor, not a market rate. Award rates are minimums, so an experienced hire may cost more.
Paid annual and sick leave come out of that base wage, so they are not an extra salary cost. Any added cost depends on how you cover the work during leave. On top of this sit workers’ compensation premiums and, once your wage bill passes your state or territory threshold, payroll tax. Recruitment and turnover add more again.
The Cost Nobody Budgets For
One more cost gets left out, and I see it often when I go into property management businesses. A new property manager arrives with deep experience in one software platform. They tell the principal the department needs to switch to it, because that is where their skills sit. The principal then spends money changing software and systems to suit that one person.
In my experience, that spend is usually around 10,000 to 20,000 dollars. I have also seen that same person leave 18 months later. Staffing is one of the largest agency costs. I wrote about reactive ways of working in my book, From Stress to Success in Property Management, and the same habit shows up in staffing decisions.
Hourly Rates, Fixed Package Fees and Freelance Marketplaces
Now look at the shape of what you are offered. There are three common shapes, and each carries a different risk. Under all three sits a choice between a specialist and a generalist.
We are a little more expensive than the generalists out there. As a specialist, we provide assistants trained in property management, supervisors on site and backup cover when your assistant is away. You also have access to our Australian trainers and consultants. Together, these are designed to lower your risk and the time you spend getting started.
The Hourly Rate Model
The hourly rate charges for time spent. It suits short-term or irregular work and shows you clearly what the effort costs. The catch is that your cost moves with how long tasks take, which you do not control. It is a poor fit for recurring admin, where a fixed cost helps you plan.
The Fixed Package Fee Model
A fixed package fee covers an agreed scope over a set period. Your cost is predictable and your invoices are clean. This is how PMVA works. A rent roll produces the same admin every week, and a predictable cost lets you forecast your margin.
Your own load drops when the provider handles hiring, training, daily supervision and backup cover, and when the scope is written down. You then manage the work you send rather than the person doing it.
The Freelance Marketplace
A direct freelance marketplace rate can look cheaper, and on the line item it often is. It may leave recruitment, training, supervision and replacement with you, along with the time they take. Principals ask me whether to source and manage an assistant themselves. My answer is that the headline rate is lower, but the time spent and the risk are higher.
A financial benefit of outsourcing can be a lower total staffing cost. Expertise, consistency and capacity matter as much. When one trained assistant handles the same tasks every day, the work tends to be done the same way each time. Your property managers can also get time back for clients. A low rate is poor value if your licensee has to check the work twice.
What to Check Inside a Quote Before You Compare Prices
Two quotes 20% apart can turn out to cover the same work. The cheaper one can even cost more. Four things decide it: staff costs, equipment, leave cover and supervision.
If the provider employs the assistant directly, check which employment obligations it carries. Our Philippines entity is a registered corporation that employs our virtual assistants. It pays their wages, sick pay, taxes and insurance. It also covers office space, equipment, supervision and training.
I run PMVA, so each part below says what to look for first. Then it gives our own answer.
Statutory Employment Costs
What to look for: A price that names the employment obligations it covers in the assistant’s country.
The clearest example is 13th month pay in the Philippines. Under Presidential Decree 851, rank-and-file private sector staff receive at least one twelfth of the basic salary they earned in the calendar year. DOLE’s 2025 guidelines confirm it must be paid on or before 24 December. For someone on the same basic salary all year, one twelfth works out to about one month’s basic salary.
At PMVA: Our no hidden cost policy means 13th month pay is included in your package fee.
Equipment and Software
What to look for: Ask the provider three things. Is any hardware or software billed as an extra? What does it cost you when equipment needs replacing? Who owns the equipment if you end the agreement?
At PMVA: Our no hidden cost policy means you pay nothing extra for the hardware your assistant needs. The basic kit covers the PC, Windows, a headset, a webcam and dual monitors, among other items. If any of our equipment stops working, we have backup equipment on standby. Your assistant works in your own software, under the logins you give them.
Leave and Backup Cover
What to look for: A clear answer on who does the work during annual, sick or parental leave, and whether that cover costs extra.
At PMVA: A trained backup covers the work under our Zero Downtime Commitment, and if we do not cover it, you do not pay for it. Backups only access data from the same unit your assistant uses. If your assistant takes maternity leave, we hire and train a replacement ahead of time, with no extra costs for you to pay.
We ask clients to pay for 10 days of paid annual leave each year. Up to five of those days can be used between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Our backup service provides cover when your assistant takes annual leave, helping your work continue while they are away.
Day-to-Day Supervision
What to look for: A named person or team who manages performance each day. If a quote does not say who supervises, that job falls to you.
At PMVA: Our supervisors on site and our leadership team coach and monitor your assistant through the day. Our supervision structure is designed to reduce the time you spend on daily management. We want you focused on the work you send, with your team keeping the tasks loaded.
Ten Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Virtual Assistant Agreement
Put these to every provider and ask for the answers in writing. They turn quotes you cannot compare into one decision:
- Scope: Which tasks are in the price, and which are billed separately or excluded?
- Hours: What hours are covered, in which time zone and what happens outside them?
- Employer costs: Will the provider confirm in writing that 13th month pay and other local obligations sit inside the fee?
- Equipment: Is the equipment list written into the agreement?
- Leave cover: Is backup cover written into the agreement, and are any leave days billed to you?
- Parental leave: What happens to the price and the cover if your assistant takes parental leave?
- Supervision: Who is named as your assistant’s supervisor, and how often will you get reports?
- Replacement: If the assistant leaves, who recruits and trains the next one and who pays? Include the cost of any system changes, like the software example above.
- Onboarding: What does implementation include, who runs it and is it inside the price?
- Exit and review: What is the notice period, how is the price reviewed and what do you keep if you leave?
A provider who answers all ten in writing is quoting on the basis you are buying on. A provider who cannot is quoting a rate, not a price.
On onboarding, my benchmark for any provider is what we supply. We give you best practice blueprints that map every task and process you hand over. We help you build a rollout plan. We also consult with you twice a week for the first six weeks.
Turning a Monthly Price Into a Cost per Property
Now do the arithmetic that decides it. This is the step that makes your decision sound.
Take the package fee, convert it to a monthly figure and divide it by the properties the assistant supports. That gives you the added cost per property per month. Set it against the fee revenue those properties earn, which I cover in the property management fees guide.
Here is a worked example with an illustrative fee of 3,000 dollars a month. It is illustrative only. I chose it for the maths, and it is not a PMVA quote. Across 400 properties, that is 7.50 dollars per property per month. Across 150 properties, the same fee is 20 dollars. At 150 properties, it takes a far bigger bite out of your management fee revenue for the same work.
Margin is why this matters. Macquarie’s 2024 benchmarking report found a 12.8% net profit margin across 414 residential real estate agencies in FY2024. Businesses that only do property management may differ, and I cover the wider picture in average property management profit margins. At a margin near 13%, a cost you cannot express per property is hard to manage.
Three key factors influence margin:
- The first is revenue streams
- The second is running costs
- The third is technology and automation
An assistant cost sits on the second and third.
The scale effect works in your favour. The more properties you can manage, the more you can spread your fixed costs, so the cost per property can fall as the rent roll grows.
Our ideal client is a property management business owner who wants to cut fixed operating costs by 100,000 dollars a year while growing the rent roll. That describes who we are built for, not a result to expect.
What Moves the Price as Your Rent Roll Grows
As you grow, two things can work in your favour at PMVA:
- The first is volume. We can apply discounts for multiple assistants as you grow your business and your team, so a second or third may cost less than the first.
- The second is building on the role you already have. When your assistant has spare capacity, you can choose more tasks from our lines of business. Our Australian consultants then make sure your assistant is trained on the new work.
That is why implementation is worth doing properly. Our consultant spends time face-to-face in your office. They help you find the bottlenecks and the processes holding you back. Then they prepare process maps to get you ready to hand over your admin.
We saw this with Rheanna, Head of Property Management for a Perth agency. Her property managers were torn between admin tasks and client relationships. Instead of using the freed time to grow portfolios, her agency held them steady and lifted service quality. As she put it, “It has created more time for our property managers to spend with clients, which was our main goal.”
How We Price Virtual Assistant Support at PMVA
We price on three package levels against an agreed scope. These are built on a full-time 40-hour week. Your contract is with our Australian entity, Property Management Virtual Assistant Pty Ltd. You pay a fortnightly package fee by direct debit, and it includes GST.
What Your PMVA Package Fee Includes
Your package fee covers your assistant’s wages, sick pay, 13th month pay, employee taxes and insurance. It also covers their hardware, daily supervision and backup under our Zero Downtime Commitment. If the need arises, it covers a replacement free of charge. Paid annual leave sits outside that list, as noted above. Discounts can apply as you add assistants.
Working Hours and Time Zone Coverage
The Philippines shares Western Australia’s time zone, so we aim to match your assistant’s working hours to your office hours, Monday to Friday. Generally, that means a start between 8.30 and 9.30. The day includes paid morning and afternoon tea breaks and an unpaid one-hour lunch break. Offices in other states and territories are one and a half to three hours ahead, depending on where you are and daylight saving.
Implementation, Contracts and Price Reviews
Implementation includes the consultant visit, bottleneck review and process maps set out above. Before you sign, check the agreement for any implementation costs, the notice period and how your package fee may change over time.
We publish the structure rather than a rate card. A number without a scope produces quotes a principal cannot compare. The figure that matters depends on the work you hand over and the skill it calls for. That is a conversation, not a web page.
What Your Virtual Assistant Can and Cannot Do
One boundary is worth stating plainly. Our assistants handle admin under the direction of your licensed team. They prepare, process and follow up.
Approvals, client relationships and trust account authority stay with your licensee. If you outsource your end of month, we prepare the ABA file, and only you can upload it through the bank. That boundary applies across all our property management administration work.
Real Estate Virtual Assistant Pricing FAQs
How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost in Australia?
There is no single market rate. The price depends on the tasks, the hours and the skill involved. Compare it with the cost of a local hire. At the real estate award minimum, base wages, super and leave loading put a full-time Level 2 employee near 66,000 dollars a year. Other staff costs sit on top of that.
What Is Included in a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Price?
It varies more between providers than the headline price. Check who pays wages and local employer costs, who supplies the kit and who provides backup. Also check who supervises and who pays for a replacement. At PMVA, the package fee covers these items, except for 10 days of paid annual leave each year, which clients pay separately.
Is an Hourly Rate or a Fixed Fee Better Value?
It depends on the work. An hourly rate suits short-term or irregular projects. A fixed fee suits the recurring admin a rent roll produces each week, because the cost is predictable and you can forecast your margin. Most property management admin falls into the second group.
How Do I Compare Two Virtual Assistant Quotes That Are Structured Differently?
Convert both to the same unit. Work out the full yearly cost of each, including anything billed on top. Divide it by the properties the assistant would support. Then compare that figure with your fee revenue on those same properties. Get written answers to the ten questions first.
Why Do Some Virtual Assistant Providers Quote So Much Less Than Others?
A lower quote may include fewer services. Some arrangements leave recruitment, training, supervision, equipment or leave cover with you. Compare what each quote includes, then look at the quality and consistency of the work. A lower rate saves less than it seems if your team has to check the work again.
Does the Price Fall if I Take On More Than One Assistant?
It can. We can apply discounts for multiple assistants as your business and team grow, so a second or third assistant may cost less than the first. Your cost per property can also improve as the rent roll grows, because the same fixed cost is spread across more properties.
Buy on Cost per Outcome, Not Cost per Hour
A new quote will not settle this, so check what each one covers and set its cost per property against your fees. Once you sign, judge the service on what gets done, not on hours. Depending on your package, our team sends a weekly report on what your assistant achieved and the impact on your business. When you are ready to talk about your rent roll, I invite you to book a free strategy session with our team.
Find Out How Outsourcing Can Work in Your Business
Having a dedicated Virtual Assistant in your real estate business can open the door to a variety of new strategies. Learn how you can grow beyond your current limits by booking a private consultation with our CEO, Tiffany Bowtell now.
