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Many property managers are concerned new technology will take over their jobs, but one property manager has a bigger concern.
“I think what will make [property management] obsolete is if we allow these private investor programs to take over our roles,” Active Agents principal licensee Tara Bradbury told Real Estate Business.
For property managers to remain relevant, Ms Bradbury thinks it is more important than ever before for agents to get in front of people and on the phone.
“Property management is about getting into their homes and finding the solutions they need,” she said.
The personal touch is the advantage property managers have over private investor programs because it is hard to compete with them on a Google search as they have more money to spend.
Ms Bradbury has been in competition to secure a listing by one of these companies. While the agency said it would assign the clients a property manager, it did not have one in the area.
“There are a lot of detractions, if we don’t know our own brand niches to present, people won’t find us, and we won’t have the opportunity to tell people what we have to offer,” she said.
Operating a property management agency in the Queensland coastal town of Harvey Bay might give Ms Bradbury and other property managers in regional areas more time to prepare. However, it might not be the same story in the city.
“I would be concerned having a rent roll in the inner city,” she said.
“If you are a property manager in 2019 and you say ‘that won’t happen in our area’, or ‘it’s still working, we don’t need to change it’, those remarks scare me.
“It makes me cringe; it is obvious what is happening.”
With new technology options available to help property managers, Ms Bradbury thinks these are exciting times for property management.
However, all the options will mean property managers will have to make some tough decisions in 2020 if they want to stay relevant, she said.
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