Award winning PM professional Sarah Latham shares a personal account, with examples of how her specialist property management company has achieved its phenomenal rate of growth.
GROWING A RENT roll from scratch is perceived as a difficult thing to do, and since Latham Cusack Property Services won the 2013 Australian Real Estate Award for ‘Best New Office’ we are often asked how we grew our rent roll so quickly. But it’s really not that hard, and you don’t need to be a gun salesperson or a smooth talker to expand your client base.
How did we do it? It’s simple. Take the time to talk to people.
I’m sure in the early days of our fledgling company we were super-annoying. Every opportunity we had we were asking everyone we spoke to if they had, or knew of anyone that had, investment property.
When I look back it was really embarrassing.
We nagged our tradespeople, we harassed the few tenants and landlords that we had, and we pleaded with our friends and our families. It worked! Our tradies, bless them, were on a mission; every now and then they would phone up with “We’ve got another one for you!”
As you know, the most effective way to grow your client base is by word of mouth. Our friends spread the word for us too and were soon referring work colleagues, friends of friends, family doctors, friends in mothers’ groups and friends at the gym. Anyone who had a rental property was instructed to contact us.
I’d like to share two success stories that really make me smile.
One is how we managed to inherit six extra properties as a direct result of the determination of one very happy landlord (who owned a small one-bedroom apartment, on reduced fees, that didn’t really bring in much income to the business), and the other is a totally random story about how chatting to people can lead to a fantastic management.
STORY NUMBER ONE
One of our landlords was so happy with the level of service and proactive attention that we were giving him that he decided to spread the word and recruit more owners for us. Being on the body corporate, he started there. He worked that AGM like he was Angelina Jolie at a human rights meeting. As a result we got two owners out of that. But there was more to come.
One of those owners had a two-bedroom apartment (worth $650pw) in the same building as his. The other owner had three properties – a one-bedroom apartment in the same block (worth $620pw) and two houses with rental returns ranging from $1,000 to $1,200pw each. This same person also has a brother with rental properties in our area. So far we’ve only managed to get the one from him, but he’s promised us we’ll get the other two in due course. Finally, we’ve just signed up their father’s property and leased it for $1,180pw.
So, because we’d taken the time to chat to this owner and let him know that we were a start-up business and very keen to grow, he said a few nice things about us and a domino effect led to six additional properties, with hopefully more on the way. When you only manage a small number of properties, six new ones is a big deal!
STORY NUMBER TWO
My second success story strangely begins with eBay.
I needed to buy an oven for my kitchen renovation. I saw one advertised on eBay at a house near to home, which is also near to work. I knew the street; there were some very nice properties there. So I made an appointment to check out the oven and got talking to the lady selling it.
Why was she selling the oven? Was she moving? Did she own the house? Yes she did. But she was about to undertake some major renovations which meant moving out and renting somewhere else while the work was being done. They weren’t going far; they were renting the house next door directly from the landlord for six months, then moving back. “In fact,” she said, “the landlord is there right now; you should pop in and say hi.” So that’s exactly what I did. The next-door landlady and I got talking too and by the time I left she’d promised to give us an opportunity to lease it once the tenant moved out.
Sure enough, true to her word, she signed up with us and we leased the house in four days for $1,880pw ($200pw more than the previous tenant was paying).
IN SUMMARY
Sydneysiders love talking real estate and you’d be surprised at just how many people you already know own an investment property, or know others who own one.
Let your tradespeople know that you’re looking for more rental properties; they speak to property owners all the time. Some of our tradespeople have even given us their own investment properties to manage.
We feel really humbled at how many of our clients and tradespeople have referred investors to us and helped a small boutique business like ours grow from nothing to something special that is still growing in a sustainable and exciting way.