What a wonderful episode with Ashby from Whitearch, as he lays out the blueprint for transforming a career in sales into leading a distinguished real estate agency. Ashby, in a candid conversation, shares his experience of fostering a unique brand identity through strategic partnerships and reveals the origin of White Arch's memorable name. We dive deep into the essence of his real estate philosophy, which harmoniously blends sales with property management, offering an inside look at the modern agent's versatile toolkit.
Dress codes in real estate have evolved, and so have we, embracing the shift from strict suits to attire that speaks our brand's language. I recount my personal transition, turning what I wear into a mobile billboard for my business, and Ashby chimes in with his insights on creating a lasting impression. We explore his thoughts with branded merchandise, discussing tactics that go beyond just visibility, fostering a sense of community and connection. From stylish wearables to practical home goods, we share how these items can anchor your brand in the minds (and hearts) of clients.
We shed light on the importance of a solid foundation—strong relationships, robust administration, and a reputation that withstands the test of time—and how it shapes a successful foray into the property management and real estate domain.
If you have been thinking about going out on your own, or creating a standout brand, you will love this episode!
The PIP Advantage for Landlord Insurance
Up to $70,000 contents cover included in our landlords policies
14 months cover for just 12 months premium in your first year
Further discounts when you have three or more properties insured through PIP
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Online Real Estate Agent Portal for easy access and management
Visit their website
Keep your property managers doing what they love and outsource the things they don’t to a company that thrives on positive feedback and guarantees a premium personalised service
www.propertyassistwa.com.au
This weeks sponsor is On Tap Plumbing & Gas - 24/7 Plumbing servicing all of Perth from Mandurah to Two Rocks.
www.ontapplumbinggas.com.au
6206 6888
What a wonderful episode with Ashby from Whitearch, as he lays out the blueprint for transforming a career in sales into leading a distinguished real estate agency. Ashby, in a candid conversation, shares his experience of fostering a unique brand identity through strategic partnerships and reveals the origin of White Arch's memorable name. We dive deep into the essence of his real estate philosophy, which harmoniously blends sales with property management, offering an inside look at the modern agent's versatile toolkit.
Dress codes in real estate have evolved, and so have we, embracing the shift from strict suits to attire that speaks our brand's language. I recount my personal transition, turning what I wear into a mobile billboard for my business, and Ashby chimes in with his insights on creating a lasting impression. We explore his thoughts with branded merchandise, discussing tactics that go beyond just visibility, fostering a sense of community and connection. From stylish wearables to practical home goods, we share how these items can anchor your brand in the minds (and hearts) of clients.
We shed light on the importance of a solid foundation—strong relationships, robust administration, and a reputation that withstands the test of time—and how it shapes a successful foray into the property management and real estate domain.
If you have been thinking about going out on your own, or creating a standout brand, you will love this episode!
The PIP Advantage for Landlord Insurance
Up to $70,000 contents cover included in our landlords policies
14 months cover for just 12 months premium in your first year
Further discounts when you have three or more properties insured through PIP
24/7 Australia-wide claims service
Online Real Estate Agent Portal for easy access and management
Visit their website
Keep your property managers doing what they love and outsource the things they don’t to a company that thrives on positive feedback and guarantees a premium personalised service
www.propertyassistwa.com.au
This weeks sponsor is On Tap Plumbing & Gas - 24/7 Plumbing servicing all of Perth from Mandurah to Two Rocks.
www.ontapplumbinggas.com.au
6206 6888
So I'm really excited today to have a new guest who I haven't met before but I follow on social media and vice versa, and that is Ashby from White Arch. Welcome, Ashby.
Speaker 2:Hi, thanks for having me Very exciting.
Speaker 1:Now you are per face, that's right. Yep, excellent. And I, for those that are listening, I'm getting to know you as well, and just before I hit record, I said don't tell me anything, because you're only going to have to repeat it twice. So, if you can just go through with me, tell me a little bit about your like, where you've been in your career and where you are now, because you've got a really cool what I would call like an uber cool agency from the public looking in. So I'm looking forward to hearing a bit more about it.
Speaker 2:Uber cool agency. That's a bit of a compliment, you know, but we know in our days everything's a bit of a mirage. You know. We do our best but it is well. I'm lucky enough to have partners actually in branding. So when you talk about the uber cool agency and everything you see created, it's all done by her. She owns a branding agency.
Speaker 1:That explains a lot.
Speaker 2:That explains a lot. Yes, so she owns a branding agency. So from the moment I decided that, okay, I've been in real estate 10 years, it's time for me to do my own thing, and so that was about two and a half years ago, you know, I was able to hit the ground running. I didn't have to do which is quite scary for a lot of people when, when I want to start there, an agency where you're going to get your brand, your brand identity, you know websites, digital content, you know all that stuff she was already doing it for me as a standalone sales agent, and then all we had to do was kind of rebrand it for a sales office ownership kind of point of view.
Speaker 1:So I was really lucky in that sense, yeah, okay, so from a sales background, and then you decide next step is to have your own agency. Did you always start off by just doing sales? Did you always have an interest in eventually growing the property management, or is that something that's just become a bit of a byproduct?
Speaker 2:I would say the I've always enjoyed sales because I've always enjoyed property and purchasing property for myself and then also getting to view a lot of different types of property, you know, getting hands on with different different, you know types of apartments or houses or whatever it might be. So sales has always been my bread and butter. But kind of over the years I've always fallen into a little bit of a property management role, not property management per se, but like BDM kind of role at different agencies or just helping where I can. I've always worked at boutique agencies and sure you know it can sometimes be all hands on deck. So I, over the years, have gained an understanding of property management just from helping where I could.
Speaker 2:Obviously, one office I worked at I helped build their rent role, you know almost to what it is today before I moved on, and you know the previous office I worked at before I started White Arch, you know, obviously COVID happened and people were getting sick and all sorts of things. So anytime I could help, you know, do inspections or what it was I was more than willing to do it because they took care of me. So I make sure to help them. So then, just the natural understanding of it and then appreciation of it and then also an appreciation of what it can provide from a business standpoint is kind of how I ended up where I am, where now I do both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing, because it's very much the real sense of the word real estate agent when you are looking after the whole process, or not necessarily saying that you know you're focusing on property management or sales, but you're able to help, help the client in all aspects, which is definitely a true sense.
Speaker 1:I never used to pay too much attention to the actual words that we use in our business until I heard another real estate agent talking about it and explaining it to someone on TikTok and she was saying how the word you know, real estate agent is someone who you know has their license and you know all of has done that extra training. And then how sales rep is someone who's just doing sales, and then property manager, someone just doing property management. And it was weird because after all these years, I never paid much attention to the actual words that we use and what that entails us, the ability to do so. I guess real estate agent means that we really can cover all aspects, I believe. And then, yes, sales rep, you're in a lane, and property management, you're in a lane.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Now I can't go past asking this question and I hope it's okay to ask. Why aren't you Now? I love the name, but I also I have to come back to White Fox, because White Fox is my favorite brands around. I like, I love them, I love their. In her Do you get a lot of like people like comparing you.
Speaker 2:Not really. I mean I had a few people saying, oh, I didn't know. Well, they, they would say white art, just in Perth, and I mean I would say I think you mean white Fox. Yeah, no, not, not really. Maybe it'll happen more now, especially obviously because of the office in Perth now. And a couple of those guys, I know them quite well. I know David very, very well and I know Ryan quite a long time. But David pretty much runs North Perth, which is where my office is. You know, I think he's probably one of the best sellers here. We run in different lanes when it comes to what we actually sell, but you know him being around with his new brand. Maybe people will get us confused, but no, I haven't actually had that much of that yet, I think just because they haven't been here.
Speaker 2:But white arch how it came about, actually nothing to do with white fox, but essentially it's a paper and a pen and we're writing down. You know, colors are liked, shapes are liked, animals are like just words, right in general, and then we're just putting them kind of together until we found something that we felt it sounded good and I mean there is a bit of truth in white arch. So an arch is my favorite architectural feature in a home, and white. If you want to look at it, go to Crib Creative. Our house was just posted on Crib Creative yesterday and it's like white everywhere. So like white is our favorite color, I would say. So that's how we got to white arch and I didn't want to be like white arch property or white arch sales group or one of those. I just wanted to be white arch and then hopefully one day people will know white arch as a real estate firm. Right now, people go to what's white arch, but that's okay, we'll get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's something that when we had a business consultant and this is a little bit of a, I guess, a lesson to those that may be looking at starting their own agency and you know, the name is the first thing you do. But I do remember originally we were Mackenzie Ivanhoe real tools and that was just. You know, as you do, you take your surnames from each business partner. Like, obviously I'm in business with my brother-in-law, ivanhoe was my maiden name and then, you know, as time goes on, those things change. So when we got a business consultant a long time ago, he had told us to pick a four letter word. That didn't mean anything and very similar to what you're suggesting with white arch, where it's just stand alone Soco. We've probably added on realty, but Soco was obviously meant as a logo, was meant to be on its own. We don't have any property or realty under that.
Speaker 2:It happens naturally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but very similar.
Speaker 2:Everyone adds on realty or property for you.
Speaker 1:They do, but like very similar, like my business consultant at the time had sort of said things like you know, coles, qantas, like those names. You know that Coles is referring to shopping center, qantas is an airline, white arch is property, like that's the point that you want to sort of aim to. Obviously that's on a much larger scale, but you get the idea of the cost.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exactly what I was thinking, because you know I was thinking about good brands in Perth. I know we're in a bit of a bubble real estate, so we know all of them and maybe we that's how we think of them. But you know real markers, real mark, acton is Acton. Even Portious is just like Portious and people know it's real estate. You know Ray White's Ray White and I know technically Ray White's. You know Ray White property group or Ray White realty, but you know people just call them Ray White, even like Vivian's office in that's a Ray White. They just be like oh, vivian's, like, you know, like. So that's kind of why we decided to drop all the other stuff. And then also, if we choose to do other things not that we have any plans for that, but if we choose to do other things we can attach the name to it.
Speaker 1:Exactly Like you know, if you were to go into like more like like as a marketing agency or into merchandise or whatever, then you've got all those or hiring we do have merch.
Speaker 2:If anyone wants any what?
Speaker 1:do you have?
Speaker 2:We do have merch. Just call me, I send it to people.
Speaker 1:I absolutely can see that you've got merch, so can we just keep on going on this business side of things, because there's a lot of people that maybe have been thinking of, you know, starting a business or maybe wanting to refresh their brand with merch. And I'm a huge fan of your T-shirt those that can't see Ashree's T-shirt it's just simple. It's just got the simple white arch in the front, and I saw a reel that you did the other day and it must have been an old one that you did with you wearing a suit and maybe a tie.
Speaker 1:I think about how like you don't wear suits anymore, or how times have changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably an old one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was an old one that you were referring to, because you know we've gone from the times of having to wear the suit and now it's just a plain white T-shirt, very simple.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know. So let's talk about the merch and how you use it and what you've got, because I think people find that quite interesting. But if you can also talk to me sort of about, like you know, that transition from going from that formal attire and then going, you know, well, I'm like this is who I am, I'm a T-shirt type of guy, assuming that's what you are and that is going to work for my best interest.
Speaker 2:So we'll start on that point. So I love suits. I have a closet full of suits, like a lot of suits. I have fun colors, I have stripes, I have everything, everything under the sun.
Speaker 2:I always wore suits when you start, when I started real estate 10 years ago not that long, but it was very different. You know, we've had a lot of change in the last decade. We've had a lot of change in the last three, four years, 10 years ago, everyone in the office suit tie, you know, like a boring suit, boring tie, and a white shirt or a blue shirt if you were like a bit flamboyant, so that's what everyone wore. Even I remember one of our like coaching courses. It was like you should wear red ties, you know, because they're power ties. So, anyways, suit tie, and then as the years progressed, all of a sudden people dropped the tie and it became suit and collared shirt. And then people started dropping the suit pants and started wearing chinos and yeah, I think, just through, probably through social media and people wanting to be more in line with their clientele and as millennials became more of the buying power, you know, the suit kind of fell out of love.
Speaker 2:Not many people wore suits a few times a week, but I pair it with a T-shirt. Now, you know, some people say that's weird, but I think it looks all right. I like it and it's got my brand on it. So, like anytime it's got your brand on it, I consider it a uniform, so no one can say anything. So yeah, so I still do wear suits, but now I pair it with like a T-shirt. I wear less button ups, and it also could be just because I'm getting a little bit bigger around the waist and a button up is there harder to fit into nowadays. So that's how we got to that.
Speaker 1:Hold on. Can we just hold that moment? Because my partner was looking at shirts the other day and I said when he saw, I said to him actually I don't think that's an Australian brand, I think it's a US brand. It was a shirt that had a zip. That was a zip shirt, but still with the button. Look so that you didn't get that button pull.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think I saw that on Instagram. I couldn't bring myself to do that. That's like having Velcro shoes as a grown up Like. It's just like I can't.
Speaker 1:I'll make him listen to this and hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell him that's my opinion on it. He doesn't have to listen, but I think it's the equivalent of Velcro shoes on a grown up.
Speaker 1:Got it. I'm gonna pass that on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, yeah. So that's how we got to merch and the merch thing. Merch is great. Everyone should have merch.
Speaker 2:I do merch a little bit differently. I just give my merch away. So it's not it is a brand tool, but it's more just something that I enjoy. I love my brand, I love the way it looks.
Speaker 2:People saw my sweaters when I first got them and when I say I Tiniel, my partner organized it all, so she got me all this merch and I was wearing it and people were like, oh, that looks good, I would love one. And like how much? And then I was like, oh, I'm not really in the business of selling clothes. That would be just another headache I'd have to worry about. Why don't I just order a bunch and just give it away? So, pretty much a couple of times a year I just order a bunch of merch and then I ask people on social media who wants it and I just give it away. Hopefully they're in my core area and they wear it around which a few people you know. They're down at the coffee shop or whatever and say, oh, I saw you jumper. That's kind of it. It's just a bit of fun. It's not like I'm giving away you know a thousand t-shirts, you know maybe 50 to 100 different items of clothing, but you know it's fun, that's it.
Speaker 1:And then I just wear it every day. Yeah, so you've got t-shirt, jumper cap.
Speaker 2:I had caps. I just whatever people want. I had someone ask for a mug, so I got them a mug. Someone wanted a what do you call it? The bonnet hat.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say you know what would be cool? I can see you having a bucket hat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bucket hat. Someone wanted a bucket?
Speaker 1:hat.
Speaker 2:Someone wanted a beanie, like just yeah, whatever we've got. And then also at the same time I order a bunch of merch well, not merch, but items that branded, items from the same place that go into our gift boxes for sales anyway. So it's kind of kill two birds, one stone. You know, if I know someone's got a kid or they've just had a baby, I'll give them I can't remember what these are called A onesie, like a base onesie, you know, in their gift pack. Yeah, just fun stuff. Yeah, details, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's cool. It's good just for people to hear that and know what other agencies are doing. When it comes to merch, I mean and it makes sense, like you know, having I'm buying a heap of t-shirts, for example Obviously you have to have a pretty cool brand like Widearch. They make sure you go over and have a look at the Instagram and see that. Yeah, but you can like anyone's brand.
Speaker 2:you know you can get someone. You know you've got all these options, now you can go to Canva or whatever it is, and you can go. Okay, I've got my logo, but I want to do some merch and so I want to jazz it up and you can get someone to make like a you know, a fun logo or do your you know, if you've got a company quote or something Just for me with like with it. It was more just about having fun with people that supported me, and part, big part, of it was, you know, just, you guys have supported me. A lot of people gave me property management or whatever. It was just like, hey look, I don't know, it's only a jumper, but you know it's fun to put a smile on their face for the day, and that was all it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Really yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. I don't think like an LJ hooker logo on the private T-shirt will have the same interest as what yours would be.
Speaker 2:I'm sure someone could make it look good. But, yeah, I am lucky because my color palette is like super neutral. Yeah, so they're white and I'm gonna. These are not the correct colors. There's a branding guideline, but we're gonna go with. They're white and like a charcoal black. Yeah, Okay, and that's for sales and property management is like this nudie. It's not pink, but it's like a yeah, it's like a nude color. Yeah, and they're opposite black. So the colors are pretty neutral, so it's pretty easy to slap it onto like any jumper. It's not. You know, you don't have to like rate or white. They're branding right now. It's phenomenal. But you know, like a bright yellow jumper might be like a pretty hectic you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, very much. Yeah, canary is the word that comes to mind. Now your property management side of things. If we could just touch on that, which it would from a size point of view. I'm talking numbers, but sort of under 200 or over 200.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, under 200. Under 200. Great.
Speaker 1:And have you found that that's just organically grown as a byproduct, or have you been actively working on building a property management department?
Speaker 2:I when I started it was a big point of mine. Well, part of why I wanted to do it is I was kind of sick of giving property management to an agency. Look, the reality is, you know, that's if you can, if you're capable and you can run it, that is money that could be in your pocket working for you efficiently, right? So, overheads, whatever it is. However, you want to run your business and obviously, as a salesperson over, I worked at, I would say I've worked for four different agencies before selling my own thing.
Speaker 2:I would say only two of those actually was in real estate.
Speaker 2:Like the other two, I was floundering, I didn't know, I wasn't good, right so, but those two agencies, I gave them a lot of business and they treated me very well, but that was business that, if I ever left, it stayed there and unless you're really really good at your follow-ups, you're probably gonna lose those sales to that agency that you left them at, you know, or at least it will go to someone else because you're gonna lose connection with them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so one of the big things for me was, you know, was to have it in-house, because there, especially, the way I do things is, I like to be really hands-on with all my clients, so every single client is super important to me. So every single client on my rent roll is someone that I deal with on a regular occurrence and, yeah, I wanted to make sure that they were getting what they needed, if that makes sense. So from day one, there was a long way to long-winded way, to say. From day one, my focus was getting my clients that had investment properties inside of my business so that I could make sure that they were getting what they needed.
Speaker 1:And are you looking after them yourself at the moment? Do you have some property manager like an in-person property manager, or you just got sort of more outsourced or you know offshore support?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so no, I don't. I look after it by myself. When I started, obviously I knew that I had to keep doing sales because that's my bread and butter, so I had to immediately figure out some systems. So obviously I outsource my inspections, routines and property condition reports and final bonds. They are done by a property assist. Who's amazing. I know, you know them and I now probably probably a year in, I got a virtual assistant, so she does all my admin. She's amazing. Which just means that I can do less busy work and focus more on client-facing work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and any little you know spot fires or things like that that come up, you can sort of handle them. Obviously you can't outsource that. So from a business point of view, I think it's really fascinating to see different people. Everyone has a different business plan. I know agencies where they have a. Their business plan is to have all in-person support. I know other businesses that literally have, you know, one property manager and a whole team of BAs and 600 properties, because that's their business plan is to have it more set up like that.
Speaker 1:So I love, I love sharing and people to share different ways of running the business, to keep people open to other ways that can actually work for you, and there's absolutely no right or wrong with it whether you want a team of BAs or whether you want a team in person, like it's literally whatever you feel comfortable doing. So with your current setup, do you feel? There's two questions, I guess. Do you feel that there's a number in mind that you would get someone in, or would you? Or do you think, like, a offshore team is potentially the future, and do you have like, do you have enough capacity with what you've got now in terms of help to continue growing without getting anyone else in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I originally started the idea was always behind having admin support directly to me and then maybe one property manager. So it was going to be my first step with going to be admin support. I would handle it until it got to a certain size. Size was to be confirmed and then property management, property manager right with that person. So very traditional right. Part of that was in that, especially because I knew a lot of these initial clients were going to be people that I have dealt with for many years.
Speaker 2:A lot of the complaints in the industry that property management turnover is so high and they're not dealing with the same person. So I wanted to kind of limit that in the early stages as much as I could, just because I knew that the clients, every single one of them, were people that had supported me for some of them up to a decade. So that was really important to me. That's kind of changed. The business obviously got to a point where I felt like I was too busy to work efficiently so I had to bring in the virtual assistant right to take some of the busy work away. So now that I've got Christine everything runs a lot smoother and so now probably I will bring in straightaway a property manager, yeah right, and then I will build the property management division and then build admin around that. That way I don't think I'll need as many property managers as some other agencies. I run a trustless property management division, so we don't have, we don't, we don't use trustless software, we use managed app.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's my opinion. I think most platforms will go that way. I think managed apps Really good, but their issue is going to be that their platform is built for being trustless and then they're building the property management software Alongside that. So the trustless off is really good. But then now there's we got a there's manual tasks that we have to do. That, like if I used property me, which I've used in the past, I wouldn't have to do yeah. So their challenge is gonna be, you know, if property me starts to bring in this service and and probably tree and all of that, because they've already got really good platforms, but yeah, so that cuts down a lot of admin work that me, as a licensee, has to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah things like that. I still have said to do bonds, but other than that it's all trustless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am. I always say to everyone like getting the process first and getting the VA in first and all of that before Getting the people. I think is really important because they're gonna be such a support for that property manager come in. And I think people sometimes do it the wrong way around. They think that they need the property manager first, but in fact they actually need the processes and all of that set up.
Speaker 2:And I want to be hands-on as well, like once I got. I've need to understand it right. The reality is it's much so tinkered in property management and did a bit of BADM work, I really needed, as a licensee, to spend some time getting a grasp on all the different things, and we're lucky because the much more than sales property managers are much more willing to help. You know from other offices. So I've had people that I can call that. Will you say oh, you do this ass, do this, you know, get this form, send this, do it in this order. But I needed to have that first so that I could build In a way that I wanted my company to function and then I can actually have those processes for the property manager that comes in, instead of having a property manager come in that's got experience and then does it in a particular way, but maybe it's not in line with how I wanted to do. Why Dutch?
Speaker 1:So important, like the number of Sales lead directors having property management department property management departments and Not Wanting the benefits of the rent role, but also very quick to put the blame on the property manager Not understanding the department enough. And they can actually. Sometimes there's two ways that sales lead directors Will. What can happen with sales of directors? They can either be bullied and pressured from a property manager because you know, potentially the director doesn't know what they're talking about. Property management so they've sort of left with a property manager has been quite dominating, simple we need this, we need that and the director doesn't know, so they just go sure, whatever kicks you happy.
Speaker 1:So you've got that problem. But then you've also got the problem of the director not understanding enough and not interested in putting in the right Technology and all of that procedures for the property manager. So you can become a very toxic and circle if the directors who have got that sales experience don't have a good Understanding. So it's so lovely to hear that you've got you know, you've at least made the effort to have that understanding, you know, in the property management so that you can grow and your business will grow so much easier and more controlled.
Speaker 2:Because, yeah, well, I can't expect. I can't expect someone to Come in and work with me and if I have no understanding of what they're doing or what they're asking, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it would just yeah, it just seems crazy to me that someone would you know I'd come and I'd be like, okay, this is the property portfolio and I want you to manage it and make sure nothing goes wrong. I have no idea what you do. You just tell me what you need and sometimes I'll say yes and sometimes I won't. Yeah, right, at least if they, if I do have someone come in and they're asking for things I'm educated on to an extent on why they might be asking, I can make it slightly a More informed decision on whether or not they need that and we can have a dialogue about it. You know, at the end of the day it's Quite cautious.
Speaker 1:I read a lot about these horror stories about different things happening Money being taken from trusts, property managers doing bad things, so licensee is doing terrible things, and you know, at the end of the day it's always like the buck stops of the last C, and so I'm trying to limit that as much as I can, because if I can understand it, then you know if something does go wrong it's probably because I did something incorrectly amazing and I really want people to focus on on ashes like vocab and interest as a business owner, because so many people are stuck in businesses where they're not like they don't and they Just maybe how to say this they think that what's going on in their office is very normal and I want to really showcase like this is really healthy business ownership and what should be happening in offices and what like what a healthy Business owner looks like. I'm just trying to say that's a big compliment.
Speaker 1:No, it is, but there's just so many toxic offices out there and people just I don't want it properly manages to ever think that what's happening in the office is normal or that's what all bosses are like, like it's so nice for them to really have an insight Into other people's businesses to go oh okay, that sounds really good, like that makes sense and that's what I should be experiencing in my office. Like I just really want to show people sort of like that insights. That's why the conversations are so important to have, so that people that are listening, if they are in it in an environment where they're not experiencing that same sort of level of support, I guess it's really good for them Just to hear from someone else that.
Speaker 2:I mean like Because it comes from a sales background. You know I get a different side of it when it comes to property management. So I refer a client to property management. If the property management office property manager is not working well, my client gets disgruntled and then they come back to me. So part of the whole setup was how am I going to set up one of those offices? And there's there's obviously great offices out there where they do great property management and their clients are very happy and those sales agents flourish because their property management Service is good. And so I came into it with trying to figure out how I can do that. Where you know what do I need to do in order to, when I do, get property managers For them to be happy to work with my clients and the tenants and long term, because that's pretty much my opinion. You might disagree, but I think that's maybe the biggest complaint I get I've had from landlords and tenants that just I don't know who I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to create something where the person would want to come and be like yeah, this is a great working environment, the systems are good. You're always going to have tenants that you don't like dealing with or landlords that you don't like dealing with Like that's just human nature and you're always going to have complaints. That's the business we're in. Property management is majority. They don't really call you to give you a great news or give you some new flat. They normally call you to say something's wrong. So yeah, so I'm trying to create an environment where we can even though people are getting those complaints, they go. It's pretty good here, though, you know like you know exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, I bag a lot for sales lead directors, so that's why I had to highlight that, because I shouldn't bag them after speaking to you.
Speaker 2:You're not going to put a banner across this one saying oh, sales agent director video.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, Maybe they're okay. Sorry, Now to finish off, I would love to hear whether you have gone into the business of, if you've gone into business ownership pretty smoothly, or was there any situation that shocked you that maybe you weren't prepared of that? You should have been better prepared being a business owner.
Speaker 2:I don't want to give anyone any false hopes, but I was quite lucky I was. I hit the ground running. I the property management side has gone from strength to strength. I'd say the last six, nine months been really tough. I know that's been across the board for a lot of agencies, just like kind of zero growth. Obviously, I'm trying to. I'm in a growth phase. I'm trying to grow so that I can get to a point where I have people helping me and I'm not full, like you know, like trying to take a holiday right now it's quite difficult, right, because I don't have that person to lean on. So I'm lucky I've got people in the industry that have offered to help. So if I did need to go away, you know they're on call and things like that. So, but that's still daunting, but besides, kind of those little you know things which you have to figure out anyways, it's been pretty, pretty smooth for me, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a very smooth business ownership journey as well, so it's it is quite normal, the what. So what do you think you were doing before that made it easier for you to hit the ground running? Was it your? Was it a database? Was it your? Like, what was it that you were doing before that you think made it so easy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably like the network, the database and the network. I've I've never been like the highest selling agent or you know doing. You know everyone talks about the gross commission and how many properties they sell and everything like that. But what I've always done is I've always been really good at when I deal with someone. I've always been really good at like kind of maintaining that relationship and giving them, I think, good service, and so I retain a lot of my clients. They call me when they want to sell it and rent it and all of that.
Speaker 2:So when I made the transition, it felt really natural for a lot of them to go yeah, of course, 100%, you're our like, you're our guy for life.
Speaker 2:You know, I hope that actually means that. But you know a lot of people just, you know, within like two weeks I had 20 managements because it was just the matter of a phone call and saying, hey, I've started my own thing, letting you know we're doing property management sales, I'm going to handle the property management for now, like full transparency, and you know, inspections are going to be done by these, these people, et cetera, et cetera. And they go, yeah, cool, as soon as our agreement ends, like we're over. So not like poaching, by the way just, but like actual clients of mine that you know wanted to support me. So that's the main reason. It was smooth and I made a point to keep overheads super low around the business from our laptop for at least eight or nine months. I only got an office space because it was offered to me by a friend at a really good rate. But yeah, for the first I reckon seven, eight months I literally ran the business from like a laptop and I had like a key, safe and that's it.
Speaker 2:And I went to coffee shops and you know wherever I needed to do work so that you know, just keeping overheads low, it's going to obviously benefit. Keep things smooth because you're not. You're not worried about where the next commission is coming from or how quickly you have to get to 100 properties or any of that which you know. I know some people start businesses and they've got these massive, massive overheads and that would be I couldn't imagine. I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1:No, no. So and it is very easy to start with very low overheads. Absolutely, and I think it sounds like that your reputation was really strong before, and your networks, and which is obviously your reputation as well. And I will finish off just by saying that and this was a conversation I was having this morning about reputation. I was listening to a coach and he was talking about as a business owner. When you sell your business, you're left with, you know, cash from a business sale, but then that's all you've got. Then what happens?
Speaker 1:And he was talking about the importance of reputation, like your personal branding. Your reputation is the only thing that you keep. You keep that forever, whether you are in real estate, whether you decide to be a hairdresser in five years, whatever it is, you have that forever. So we need to spend more time on our reputation, our personal branding, because that is going to look after us for the whole, you know, for the rest of our lives. And if you decide not to do our property anymore but want to get into, you know merchandise big, big, bad move, but I don't think you earn as much money doing that. But if you were, you know your reputation brand you'll still succeed, like you'll succeed in everything you do if you have a good personal brand and reputation. It just happens that you know you and I do real estate but in all honesty, we could probably both go do whatever we wanted to do and still succeed.
Speaker 2:I hope so. I certainly know you would.
Speaker 1:I think you would too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, just on that you're 100% correct and I just. The reputation, for me was, is always more important than doing more sales or having a bigger rent roll, because you do see it really good. Agents and offices and things like that. They want to grow and everyone should want to grow. I agree with that. But if you do it too quickly or in the wrong way, you'll sacrifice what you know. You'll sacrifice what got you to where you were. Yeah, does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even know.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's conservative, but I think if you get to a point where you're so big and you've made a lot of sacrifices to get that big, then although you might have this big machine, it'll always have massive turnover because the reputation of the business and whoever's running it is shot. So to keep it where it is, you're just going to be churning instead of you know getting to that. Maybe it takes you longer, but you've done it. In every step of the way, people have felt that you're taking care of them and your churn's less. So that's kind of what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very sustainable. Sustainable business ownership. Well, actually it was lovely to chat to you, so to jump over and check out White Arch. I always love a good Instagram page. Head over and give him a follow as well and if there are any questions, I speak on your behalf. I'm sure you'll be fine. If anyone wants to reach out with a random question on like business ownership or branding, or just to get a bit of advice, I love a chat.
Speaker 2:I just love a chat, so people call me anytime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, excellent.
Speaker 2:It's not what I'm doing and I'll just chat, but they need to be aware that I don't stop talking.
Speaker 1:So you're like the naval version of me on the same Hence why I just press record and started recording. It's easier that way. See how time efficient that is, instead of having like the chit chat before and then repeating yourself. It's wonderful All right.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I'll speak to you soon. Bye.