A Lofty virtual assistant is a trained remote team member who runs the daily work inside your Lofty CRM so you do not have to. For real estate agents and teams, that means keeping smart plans and automations working, sending the right emails, routing new leads correctly and contacting the people who are showing interest.
That is different from Lofty’s own AI Assistant, which is a software feature. We cover the difference below, because the two names collide in search and they do different jobs.
We are AssistantStead, a virtual assistant company for US real estate agents, teams and brokerages. Our delivery team works remotely, and Lofty is one of the CRMs we manage every day.
What we do in your Lofty account
| Area | What we do |
|---|---|
| Smart plans | Build, edit and clean up the plans that decide who gets which message and when, so they follow behavior instead of guesswork |
| Automations and lead routing | Check that new leads reach the right person and the right plan and that nothing sits unassigned |
| Email nurture and campaigns | Write, brand and schedule emails, and test them on phones, including dark mode |
| Daily lead contact | Contact leads the moment your smart plans flag them warm, and pass real conversations to you with notes |
| Database cleanup | Tagging, de-duplication and segmentation, so automation has clean data to work from |
| Lead sources | Facebook lead forms, ReferralExchange and other sources checked so they reach the account |
| Lofty website build | When you need a site, we can design and build one on the platform |
Lofty AI Assistant vs a human Lofty VA
Lofty unveiled its AI Assistant in January 2024, according to press coverage of the launch at Inman Connect New York. Lofty’s Help Center describes it as a tool you direct through chat, for example to draft content. It is not described there as an automatic first responder to inbound leads. As of October 2026, check Lofty’s own documentation for what it does today.
| Lofty AI Assistant | Human Lofty VA | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A feature inside Lofty | A person on our team in your account |
| Drafting | Helps draft from your instructions | Writes, brands and tests emails |
| Noticing who is warm | Smart plans can flag activity | Reads the flag, decides, calls |
| Account upkeep | Not its job | Cleans tags, plans and routing |
| Judgment calls | Needs your direction | Escalates real conversations to you |
Most teams do not have to choose. Our fuller comparison is in Lofty AI Assistant vs a human virtual assistant.
How it works in practice
- Free consult. We look at how you use Lofty today, where leads are falling through, and what you want off your plate.
- Account audit. We review plans, routing, tags and email setup, and tell you what to fix first.
- Scope and handoff rules. We agree what we handle, what comes to you, and how fast.
- Build and run. We fix the account, then handle daily follow-up and upkeep.
- Regular check-ins. We review replies, stalled leads and plan performance with you on a set schedule.
Early on, expect more of your time than later. We need your brand colors, your voice, your market notes and a clear idea of what counts as a warm lead. Once those are settled, the weekly rhythm is short: we show you what changed, what replied and what is stuck.
What it looked like for a real client
Tammy Theis is an agent with Realty ONE Group Visionaries in Augusta, Georgia, serving the CSRA, a market with heavy PCS relocation. Her CRM is Lofty. Here is what we did:
- Built her Lofty website from the ground up.
- Manage her Lofty account, including smart plans, automations and lead routing.
- Wrote a 30-email nurture sequence in teal and tan branding, engineered around Lofty smart plans so follow-up triggers off behavior (open, click, reply) and not a fixed calendar.
- Fixed dark-mode rendering on every email.
- Ran email campaigns that have generated real replies.
- Contact leads daily, the moment smart plans flag them warm.
- Set up ReferralExchange leads to flow into Lofty (below).
- Supported a transaction through to close under a separate contract.
The full account is on her case study page. We do not publish conversion numbers for it, and we would not promise you any.
ReferralExchange leads into Lofty
For Tammy, we set up automation so ReferralExchange leads flow into Lofty and start an email campaign, a workflow and follow-ups. Lofty documents how capture works. According to the Lofty Help Center article on Referral Exchange lead capture, Lofty reads the notification email. You copy the auto-import address from the Lead Capture settings in Lofty and enter it in ReferralExchange as the address that receives lead notifications. The notice subject line includes the referral percentage, so we make sure that number lands in a field or note and does not get lost. We test with a real notice before relying on it. The step-by-step version is in ReferralExchange leads into Lofty.
Why daily follow-up matters
Speed decides a lot of leads. The MIT and InsideSales.com lead response study of 1.25 million leads found that contacting a lead within five minutes made you roughly 21 times more likely to qualify them than waiting 30 minutes. The Inman Real Estate Technology Survey puts the median agent response to a web lead at more than 900 minutes. NAR’s Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report says 78% of buyers work with the first agent that responds. A smart plan can send an instant message, but a person has to notice who is warm. For the trade-offs, read Lofty smart plans vs manual follow-up.
What it costs
We do not publish a price, because it depends on scope: lead volume, how much email work, and whether you want daily follow-up or account upkeep only. A free consult gives you a clear number. Your Lofty subscription is a separate cost set by Lofty. For how scope affects cost across roles, see our virtual assistant cost guide.
Who this is for
- Agents and teams already paying for Lofty who are not getting full use from it.
- Teams whose leads outnumber the attention anyone can give them.
- Agents who want a nurture sequence built around behavior and branded properly.
- Agents using ReferralExchange or Facebook lead forms who want those leads handled the same day.
Who it is not for
- Agents who want someone to run listing appointments or negotiate. That needs a licensed agent.
- Anyone expecting a guaranteed number of leads, replies or closings.
- Very small accounts where you already answer every lead in minutes. You may not need us yet.
If you are thinking about handing off your Lofty work, start with the guide on what a Lofty virtual assistant can actually do, then book a free consult. We will tell you plainly what we would take on and what it would cost for your scope. If you use more than one CRM, see our wider CRM management service.