Do you have a learning culture in your business?

Having a learning culture in property management will take you one step beyond simply having the skills you need to deliver a good service. It will empower your staff to achieve dramatically improved results compared to traditional businesses. Because as you are enabling staff to anticipate and adapt to change, as well as grow through innovation, they will also become more energetic, loyal and goal orientated.

Creating a learning culture requires a change in the way you see the traditional real estate model – usually heavily focused on sales training. To develop a company wide learning culture, training must become a key focus in the overall business strategy and it needs to be seen as a long term commitment (not a quick fix). A true learning culture continuously challenges its own systems and way of doing things, ensuring continuous improvement for not just the business but the individuals themselves.

Training can be a strong motivating factor for your staff, for some property managers this progress and development will be more important than money, as it helps them grow and gain new skills. It will help their performance at work and make them feel part of something bigger than themselves. Your workplace can become a business that people strive to come and work for.

On a team management level it will also get everyone functioning together, trusting and complementing each other and through having common goals will be able to produce extraordinary results. To be effective, training needs the full participation and commitment of all staff, at all levels – especially you.

To get started on redesigning your learning culture, we have a great analysis tool that can help you to identify where your company is currently at in regards to learning culture, click here to receive the “Learning Culture Audit” checklist!

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real TV where you can watch the webinar, 'Team Management Tools'

So you think you can grow your rent roll?

We see one very common goal amongst many property management businesses across Australia and New Zealand.... Rent roll growth! And why not?

There are many different reasons a business will choose to grow - growth, asset value, profit, sales farming, ego and more... Whatever your reason it’s importantly to firstly be sure of that reason – to establish your WHY before setting your goals, as this will affect the strategies and plans you put into place to get there.

Once you’re sure of your WHY and have set your goals –you will either go down the path of organic growth or potentially look at the acquisition of a rent roll – or perhaps a combination of the two. Which is the better option for you? Well again this will depend on your WHY but it is also vital to weigh up the pros and cons of each strategy.

Organic growth – where a BDM is put in place to prospect, appraise and grow is the most common way of growing your rent roll. The great thing about this option is that you can control quality, location & fees of properties, potentially avoid bad landlords and problem properties – however this option can be a slow way of growing due to the time taken in building landlord relationships and placing a new person on board the rent roll may not be profitable until numbers start to grow.

However more and more agencies are looking to purchase a rent roll as a fast way to grow. According to Harcourts the benefits of buying a Rent Roll include:

Pros
·         Increased size gives business momentum
·         Increases cash flow
·         Irons out fluctuations of a sales department
·         Eliminates a competitor from your local area
·         Increases networks and database
·         More opportunities for sales department
However they advise we must also consider the cons:
·         Landlord rejection
·         Buying existing issues
·         Potentially poorly run portfolio
·         Integration/transition issues

If purchasing a rent roll is something you have considered at some stage this is not something to rush into. There are many factors which need to be considered and it is strongly advisable to have an expert guide you through the process.

Lucky for you, we will have expert Matt Ciallella joining us from MC Rent Roll Broking for our next webinar. He will be on board to take us through all the considerations and variables you will need to consider when purchasing (and selling) rent rolls. Register for the live session here – or Real+ Members can watch the recorded webinar on their Real+ Platform at anytime. 

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar 7 Secrets to Buying & Selling a Rent Roll with our special guest presenter Matt Ciallella from MC Rent Roll Broking.