Over the next few weeks we will look at the 14 Fundamentals Of Effective Property Management with Changing Places CEO and Founder, Cameron Fisher.

Last week we looked at first Fundamental Of Effective Property Management – One Agent For One Property. Today we discuss Qualified Staff – sales skills as well as technical skills.

Real Estate is a little different to many professions. To be a real estate agent or an agent’s representative you only need to do a five day course in most states of Australia. For a profession where there are many laws, regulations, different Acts of Parliament and Consumer Affairs agencies that govern the industry, a five day course is barely adequate to educate someone to manage your investment property – one of your biggest assets. After completion of this five day course, agents can then go out and start offering properties for rent and sale and manage properties, with most starting their real estate careers in property management. The five day course is focused purely on laws and regulations.

It is up to the agency to further educate the candidate on actual day to day property management duties. They learn by their mistakes, with your property acting as the guinea pig. Do you really want them practising on your property? Unless you really need to save money you don’t go to an apprentice hairdresser to do your hair before a big night out, so why have an ‘apprentice’ property manager manage your property?

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There are many companies that have several inexperienced young people working as property managers. Often these companies hire younger people placing them in positions outside their limited expertise to keep their costs down and profits up. However, it is experience that really does count. Someone new to property management should start as an assistant and perhaps after a couple of years can advance to a junior property manager role. Others have advanced to a senior property management role after starting as a receptionist and learning the ropes over years of interaction with senior property managers. At Changing Places, our agents have to have at least 10 years’ experience in property management to be able to look after your property. It is such an important point as there are so many components to look at, including the many regulations and laws that need to be adhered to. I am sure you have all been to properties, whether looking to buy or rent, where the agents have a lack of general real estate knowledge and quite often aren’t very helpful.

What’s really important to me at Changing Places is that our property managers are extremely skilled not only having knowledge of the laws that govern property management but they are also being very experienced ‘sales people’. That might sound odd that a property manager needs to be a salesperson, but they are out there ‘selling’ your property to a prospective tenant, to get them to pay the highest possible rent for you, competing against, often, hundreds of other properties for lease at the same time. I would call many agents glorified ushers: they stand at the door, handing out brochures, saying go and have a wander through, and that’s basically it. The point of difference at Changing Places is that we make sure our property managers hold prospective tenants virtually by the hand and really point out the salient points of the property, whether it be pointing out superior heating and air conditioning services, convenience of transport or something that makes that property unique. We want to push your property to a prospective tenant above all other properties on the rental market. This is why it is so important that you have someone who is a salesperson, who is really ‘selling’ your property hard. That is why we receive higher rents in most developments when we are competing against opposition agents.

The five day Real Estate course barely teaches an understanding of laws and regulations and teaches you nothing about property management sale skills! Believe it or not, some agencies still just hand out keys to prospective tenants to view a property with little interaction with a property manager, usually just the receptionist, who is unlikely to have even seen the property. How is this selling the virtues of your property?

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A property manager with sales skills is paramount but of equal importance is to find a property manager who owns property themselves and better still investment properties. It is then that you can be fairly sure they truly understand the significance of their role and the importance of reducing vacancy periods, raising rents, ongoing routine inspections, reducing maintenance costs and building equity. That property manager can also be a mentor providing you with invaluable advice and saving you a great deal of money along your investment journey.

Click here for more information on property management or call 1300 130 998.

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