The Hot Seat The Hot Seat

Today’s guest Lauren Robinson is an industry pocket rocket growing a rent roll from 0 to 550 in 4 years organically, has a special focus on continuous improvement and has managed to set up a very successful business that practically runs without her.

All of the team at The Hot Seat have known Lauren from many years ago when she used to work for a business you may have heard of called Pro-Rentals. On top of many other points within the interview, we discuss Lauren’s transition from Employee to a business owner.

Highlights within the episode include, why after 17 years, Lauren still enjoys the industry and how Lauren uses personal development to maintain focus and drive, what is High Tech, High Touch and how Lauren empowers her entire team to influence and make decisions to keep driving the business forward, lessons learnt in growing from one team member to multiples, establishing a brand from ZERO to 550 properties organically and the sacrifices in the first year, AND The importance of constant improvement in any business and how Lauren uses that to stay relevant in the industry.

Overall the feel of this episode is a little more serious and we actually discuss some of the harder topics we haven’t before, especially around the profitability of a business and assessing if owning a Real Estate business is actually viable today, based on how you’re reacting to constant threats coming over the horizon.

In today’s interview, we’re interviewing Terri Handy who comes with over 25 years of experience in the industry and works with clients in New Zealand and Australia in her businesses Pm Xcite and Lean Property Management solutions.

One of the key reasons we were excited to interview Terri is her key focus is around the implementing change which is something that really resonates with the industry right now.

A few of the topics we discussed include - The differences between Sales and Property Management the financial balance between the 2 and which of the 2 Terri prefers, Why people that are scared are more resistant to change and what will happen to those within the industry that aren’t prepared to adapt to change, How moving to cloud-based software is allowing agencies to expand the type of people they employ and the type of work/life balance that can be offered, AND Why in Australia 35% of investors manage their own property v’s 65% in NZ and how Terri thinks the NZ PM industry will grow in the future.

In an industry that is under pressure on how to improve efficiencies, Terri is able to offer a number of practical pieces of advice on how to implement those changes from her 25 years in the industry and her strong drive to implement change.

In today’s interview, we’re fortunate enough to be interviewing Brad Filliponi who is co-founders behind a company called BoxBrownie.com who handle Professional high-quality photo editing, virtual staging, floor plan redraws, renders & virtual renovation with clients in over 75 countries.

In our interview, we caught up with Brad in a room that backed onto the beach that had about a dozen kids playing in the sand in the background which made for an awesome interview.

Some of the highlights, the challenges of marketing for Real Estate agents and how Australians set the standard for the rest of the world when it comes to marketing, the initial growth of BoxBrownie.com through an editorial in Inman and how that has flowed onto Brad and others within BoxBrownie.com attending 15 conferences a month across Australia, USA, Chile, Brazil, UK, France and other countries, new Softwares and innovations, how they’re going to disrupt the industry and whether it will still mean you need face to face relationships, AND what is HDR in photography, how you can use it to create a million-dollar image and how smartphones will be the new standard in real estate photography.

Today we have another fantastic guest on what is considered to be a controversial subject… Artificial Intelligence. Yes, we interviewed Patrick Hill from Realm Australia around all things artificial intelligence and what it will mean to the industry.

So a few highlights from this episode include: Patrick’s career in psychology and the natural transition to Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Why many people in the industry use the term AI as a marketing ploy when it’s really just an advanced software that does what it’s told and the true definition of AI, The battle of costs going up, fees going down and the entry of low-cost cookie-cutter service offerings Vs high service and flexible solution, What parts of a property management business is AI looking to replace and the impact on the human side of the business, The future of Property Management in 5 years and while it’s critical to look at a higher-end service to survive AND The change of an Acceptable timeframe to respond to a query and why the demand has shifted to INSTANT as a result of Facebook, Google and Amazon

I have to agree the term AI is overused as a Buzz Word across many industries and Patrick’s company is one of the first actual AI companies to come into Real Estate that I can see disrupting at the same time driving the industry forward. On top of that, Patrick is really able to concisely outline where he sees the industry moving in the future.

Today’s interview is a little different as we're interviewing Julie George who is considered to be a disruptor in the industry as she is an expert in setting up and running an Airbnb business.

As of recording this interview Julie has released a book called Million Dollar Host which I will link to in the show notes and in our interview we discuss how Julie invested $30,000 to get a 5 million dollar return in 2 years.

Anyway, some of the key highlights from the interview include, Julie’s first Airbnb experience where she took a one-bedroom unit in Cairns that was renting for $240p/w to $600p/w consistently through Airbnb, Julie’s first client and how she was able to use Airbnb to create a positively geared property, The realistic risk of whether Airbnb will actually work for an investor and Julie’s formula to make sure the property can at least cover loan repayments, How future competitors like Google are creating platforms to compete with Airbnb and how this will impact their offering AND How property managers are using Airbnb as a ‘Part’ of the big picture of servicing their client and developing stronger long term relationship.

Julie’s interview was very funny and educational at the same time. Her journey is fantastic to listen to and if you are considering adding Airbnb into the range of services you offer within your office then you really do have to listen to this interview. This is one of the best interviews we have had on The Hot Seat.

In today’s episode we’re interviewing Stepfanie Regan who is a Business Strategist at Real Estate Dynamics. Stepf has a large circle of influence outside of the real estate game and was the international property manager of the year in 2014.

Some of the key highlights from the interview include the challenge of sales people becoming principles and that flow on effect around gaining business experience, how the massive changes around trust accounting and other technologies are going to ‘Disrupt’ the industry, the move to an uber style agency and how this will mean agencies will no longer need offices, why Real Estate is no longer just a ‘Once off Moment” and why you need to look at the full experience to better understand what MORE a prospective client will get from your business over your competitors AND how not enough BDM’s invest the time in understanding a client's end goals and why piecing the puzzle together to help them achieve that goal will help you to retain more clients

Stepf’s interview was very clear and concise and the advice she is sharing is incredibly relevant RIGHT NOW. For example, Stepf talks about the clients end goals and mapping out their journey which is next level customer service and will help agencies to massively differentiate themselves from their competitors. Side note... Stepf also smashed the hot seat questions.