Agents get nervous about this, and it stops a lot of useful delegation before it starts. The nervousness is fair — the consequences land on your licence, not your assistant’s. But the list of things they can’t do is shorter and more predictable than most people assume.
One clarification first, because it matters. The line isn’t between “assistant” and “agent.” It’s between licensed and unlicensed. A licensed assistant can do everything a licensed agent can do. Most virtual assistants are unlicensed, so that’s who this is about.
1. Show a property
This is the clearest one. A licence is required to show property for sale or lease, which means an unlicensed assistant cannot host an open house, and cannot unlock a door for a client if you’re running late.
They can prepare the materials, coordinate the timing, and confirm the appointment. They just can’t be the person at the property.
2. Answer questions about a listing
An unlicensed assistant can confirm advertised details — is this property still available, what’s the listed price. Beyond that, they refer to you.
The line is sharper than it sounds. If a caller asks about a property that’s no longer on the market, the assistant can’t start discussing other properties that might suit. That’s the moment it becomes a licensed activity, and it happens naturally in conversation unless the boundary is explicit.
3. Explain or interpret documents
Purchase contracts, lease terms, disclosures. An unlicensed assistant shouldn’t be interpreting or explaining any of it.
They can prepare, format, chase signatures, and track deadlines. The moment a client asks “what does this clause mean,” it goes to you.
4. Solicit or negotiate
No cold outreach that amounts to soliciting business for the brokerage, and no negotiating on your behalf. Some jurisdictions also treat describing the brokerage’s services to a prospective client as a licensed activity.
Worth knowing that this one varies. California, for instance, permits unlicensed assistants a role in contacting prospects that some other states don’t — which is exactly why the last section of this post exists.
5. Sign clients up
Meeting a client to obtain or renew a brokerage agreement or property management agreement requires a licence. So does anything that ends with a signature committing someone to work with you.
The principle underneath all five
If you can only see the list, you’ll get caught out by the case that isn’t on it. The underlying rule is simpler:
If it requires your judgment, your relationships, or your licence, it stays with you.
Everything else — the assembly, the coordination, the data, the follow-up, the paperwork prep — can move. That’s most of the work.
Two things agents get wrong
Identification. In several jurisdictions an unlicensed assistant is expected to identify themselves as unlicensed before answering questions about a listing. Cheap to build into a script, expensive to skip.
Supervision is your job. Regulators put responsibility on the licensee and the broker, not the assistant. In California it’s specifically unlawful for a broker to compensate an unlicensed person for licensed acts, which means an assistant crossing the line is your problem regardless of who suggested it.
The caveat that actually matters
I’m not a lawyer, and this varies more than any single article can capture. New York, California, Texas, Nevada and North Carolina all publish their own guidance, and it differs in the details. Canadian provinces have entirely separate regimes — RECO in Ontario, BCFSA in British Columbia — which US-focused guidance doesn’t cover at all.
Rules also change, so a list you read three years ago may no longer be current.
Read your own regulator’s bulletin on unlicensed assistants. It’s usually two pages, it’s free, and it’s the only version that applies to you. Then write the boundary into your assistant’s onboarding, so it’s a rule they know rather than a judgment call they make at speed.
What this leaves
A long list of work that can move: CRM upkeep, listing assembly, showing coordination, marketing production, transaction paperwork prep, follow-up sequences, database hygiene, reporting.
The restrictions are real. They’re also narrower than the anxiety around them, and once the boundary is written down it stops being something you think about.
This isn’t legal advice — check your state or provincial regulator for rules that apply to you. If you’d like to work out what’s worth handing over within those limits, our two-minute delegation audit gives you the first three tasks, or read why the order matters more than the list.