The time is ripe for a prosperous career in property management, particularly with the abundant availability of tech and training, according to a seasoned veteran in the field.
Nick Georges, director of growth at offshoring service provider Wingman Group, joined REB’s Alex Whitlock for The Property Management Excellence (PMX) Podcast to discuss how positioning the property management business as a growth engine could transform an agency into a prosperous and saleable asset.
Georges asserted that opportunities abound for real estate professionals to make a substantial impact on the industry and build a business and brand by pursuing property management.
“I don’t think there is a better time to be in property management. There is a huge opportunity,” he said.
“There is an amazing emergence of great tech and great information and great training. If ever you wanted to build a career in property management, now is the time. And there is an opportunity everywhere to come into a business or a brand or do something on your own and make an impact.”
In the podcast, Whitlock noted that property management has often been viewed as a supplementary business to a sales office despite the potential for rent rolls to drive exponential growth in a business. He added that while this requires a cultural shift, changing this mindset is difficult if the principal does not see the value of growing a property management business.
Georges agreed, adding that the next generation of high-performing agencies is on the path of closing this divide between property managers and sales agents.
“Bridging that gap that you mentioned between sales and property management is one way to supercharge your growth,” he said.
Building rapport between agents and property managers
This boils down to a certain level of service, he noted, as property management and the broader real estate industry are built on a robust foundation of relationships.
“[It’s about] the relationship between the property manager and salesperson and actually delivering a quality service to their clients,” Georges said.
“It blows my mind how many sales agents who work in a real estate office are referring outside of that office. Think about all the setup costs of a business, the time put into recruitment, the time put into training. And right under the director’s nose, business is going elsewhere. I don’t blame the sales agent for that. I actually blame the organisation because that sales agent has felt the need to refer outside.”
Georges encouraged agencies to have conversations with property managers about growing rent rolls and understanding the journey and goals of property investors.
“A lot of those investors that come in have been through multiple open homes [and] have missed out on properties,” he said.
“But if you’re a property manager building those relationships off the back of those salesperson intros, it’s only a good thing when they end up buying an investment property because you’ve started to build that relationship already.”
Whitlock said many real estate professionals see the value in creating a new revenue stream and building a saleable asset by growing rent rolls and realise that they could embed simple structures and see tangible results.
Georges continued that this would allow agencies to generate additional revenue streams by building an ecosystem of service providers around the rent roll, including building and pest inspections, mortgage brokers, and tradespeople.
“There are not many industries where you can actually build an ecosystem of businesses,” he said.
“I’m not talking about starting six businesses within your real estate office. Different revenue streams that are done well can add huge amounts of value from a growth perspective, but also to the client.”
Next-gen agencies are thriving
Georges observed that innovative and forward-thinking businesses are succeeding more in real estate compared to legacy businesses because they are open to accessing information and using technology to generate fresh ideas.
“It’s unfortunate because there is a lot of legacy in what we do,” he mused.
“There’s an attitude that we’ve always done it this way. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing over the past few years and will continue to happen is the gap widening between the more innovative businesses and the rest of the industry.”
He concluded: “Ideas from different industries being implemented into our sector is only a good thing. The best businesses and the best business owners are taking bits, implementing, and seeing wins really, really quickly.”
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If you’d like to find out how Managed can help power your growth, call Conor on 0452 298 394 or book a discovery call today.