delay issues with effects

Actually, a physical pedal would give you fewer hassles. It's not unusual, for example, to use a hardware reverb or delay (that isn't recorded, only monitored) for tracking vocals. Some audio interfaces even include built-in effects for that purpose.
 
What you're experiencing is latency, the lag caused by the time it takes for the computer to buffer and process data and spit it back out.
 
You can reduce latency by decreasing the size of your audio buffers, but only up to your computer's ability to keep up with the resulting higher CPU demand. Minimum latency may also be limited by additional buffering that occurs in some plugins, so when you're recording guitar you'll want to disable all other effects.
 
It can be a challenge, using real-time computer-based effects. It's one of the reasons you won't see it practiced in commercial studios.