Grant McKay treats reviews as a sales channel – and his rent roll is built around what most property management businesses still leave to chance.
The founder of NU Management organically grew to over 200 properties under management in under four years in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, one of the most competitive rental markets in the country.
When asked how he achieved this level of growth, he partly attributed it to focusing on earning online reviews, something most principals do not expect to hear.
Indeed, McKay said he treats online reviews the way a high-performing sales agent treats their testimonial pipeline. He also pointed out that most property management businesses are ignoring this channel.
“I’ve been more of a salesperson with the reviews than probably most property management companies or departments,” McKay said in The Property Management Excellence (PMX) Podcast with REB director and Managed co-founder Alex Whitlock.
“You want people to not just listen to my sales talk but actually have a reference point.”
McKay has observed that most property management businesses treat reviews as a by-product of good service rather than a commercial asset to be deliberately built. While property managers (PMs) diligently do the work and earn owner satisfaction, they do not broadcast their achievements and the proof of the work stays buried inside the relationship.
Sales teams have understood this differently for decades. They chase testimonials, push for ratings, and ensure that the market sees the evidence of the deals they have closed. Property management, in McKay’s view, has done the work and left the proof invisible.
The structural opportunity McKay points to is one most agency leaders have not fully absorbed. Review profiles in real estate, in his observation, are dominated by sales commentary, such as vendors praising a campaign or buyers rating an agent.
The rental side of the business, which produces the longer and more consistent client relationship, is largely invisible in that same space. Property management creates more repeated service moments than any sales transaction. McKay said this means it generates more natural opportunities to build genuine, verifiable proof – yet almost no agencies are systematically capturing them.
The reviews are the PM’s audition
The cost of leaving it invisible has changed in the last few years. Owners now arrive at appraisals having already done their research, and the research is not centred on who the top-selling agent in the suburb is. It is centred on whether the property management business has verifiable proof of what it delivers.
McKay said the review profile has become the audition – the part that increases the visibility of the PM before a meeting takes place. However, property management businesses without a deliberate review strategy have been quietly failing the audition without realising it.
McKay said he believes that the commercial value this provides is not just lead volume but a greater quality of leads. He explained that when new business arrives predominantly through referrals and strong reviews, the agency spends far less time at the meeting proving competence and far more time discussing what the relationship will actually look like in practice. The pitch becomes a conversation about services rather than a defence of why the agency is worth listening to.
“The majority of the business is coming to us significantly either through referral – so you’re already qualified – or we get it through the online reviews that we have, which are high,” McKay said.
This shifts the economics of the appraisal entirely, while the fee conversation looks different in that environment as well. McKay positions NU Management within the competitive range in the eastern suburbs rather than trying to command an outright premium, but he faces little of the consistent pressure to discount that most of the market reports.
His view is that owners who have already read detailed feedback from landlords and tenants have done part of the trust-building themselves. There is less uncertainty to overcome before the conversation starts, which decreases the chances of a competitor undercutting him.
Invest in collecting testimonials
McKay recommended that reviews must appear on verified review platforms so that they carry more authority, win owners’ trust, and yield commercial results for PMs. These platforms require reviewers to be linked to an actual tenancy or management address, and as such, are credible as they are more difficult to game.
He warned that agencies that treat reviews as a marketing nicety, rather than as the audition the appraisal depends on, are still walking into meetings with the burden of proof they could have laid down weeks ago.
Agencies that invest in verifiable proof are more likely to enjoy compounding growth through the rest of the decade, McKay concluded.
Managed was built to help next-generation agencies win market share fast. It is the only comprehensive property management platform that exclusively delivers secure, instant, and automated direct payments from tenant to landlord, eradicating the need for a trust account.
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.