Property managers have been encouraged to move beyond a responsive, maintenance-focused approach to become proactive advisors who can help their rent rolls grow their portfolios and asset values.
As investors’ thirst for growth ramps up, KHI Partners’ head buyer’s agent Ross Le Quesne said the role of property managers was shifting from maintenance to advisory.
Le Quesne said that nowadays, to keep their rent rolls, property managers needed to advise landlords through all stages of the wealth-generation journey, rather than just maintaining the property.
He said that property managers needed to understand their landlord’s motivation, including their primary reason for investing and growing their portfolio.
“They go into investing with an idea and probably can’t even define what the end goal is a lot of the time,” Le Quesne said.
“When it comes to owning an investment property, property management is just one of the things that helps them to get to their end goal.”
Le Quesne said that while inflationary pressures may have made investors feel poorer, their wealth had actually significantly increased.
He said understanding how to help owners achieve the best outcomes would separate a good property manager from a great one.
“I look back at owning properties over the past 15 years and the significant amount of wealth that they have created; those property managers are the custodians of those assets.”
“So it is a really important job.”
Strengthening relationships through communication
While communication has always been a key part of the property manager’s skill set, Le Quesne said it was essential to be proactive when dealing with landlords.
He said that by being proactive and anticipating clients’ needs, property managers could effectively secure a role for themselves by giving investors no reason to look elsewhere, which he had recently seen in practice.
“They hadn’t even signed the agreement at this stage, but they (the property manager) were just constantly following up with excellent communication.”
“So there was no real choice for the client whether they proceeded with this particular property manager because the communication and follow-up were next level.
He said that property managers should be more personal in their communication with their landlords, as it would strengthen the relationship between the pair.
“I am constantly telling my property manager, Don’t hide behind emails. Pick up the phone.”
“Rather than just blindly sending off an invoice and expecting me to say yes and pay, pick up the phone and have a conversation about the different options, rather than just presenting me with one quote.”
Investor opportunity
Le Quesne said the recent changes in the property market had led investors to shift their priorities when securing an asset.
While buyers would previously prioritise capital growth or yields to generate cash flow, Le Quesne said investors were now pursuing an even balance between the two as conditions soften.
“I think the smart investors see value in these terms of uncertainty because less competition creates opportunity.”
He said that he anticipated the owner-occupier market to be a major driver of property values going forward.
“With less investor demand, with the budget changes and so forth, the thing that is really going to cause growth in the market will be continual demand from owner-occupiers.”
As investor activity decreases, Le Quesne said that the tight supply of dwellings would eventually bring the demographic back into play as yields rose.
“If I am going to get a yield of 6 per cent, that makes sense for me as an investor to get back into the market, and this will drive a change that will lead to that next round of growth."
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