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Is our real estate culture changing with Buyers Agents?

• Ashleigh Goodchild

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In this episode we sit down with Julie Crockett from API Solutions to explore her transformation from a full-time teacher and property investor to a highly successful buyer's agent. Julie’s journey, which began in 2002, underscores the critical importance of upskilling and leveraging local expertise for property managers. We uncover how these professionals, with their deep-rooted knowledge of tenant demands and property management intricacies, can seamlessly transition into buyer's agents and thrive in this evolving landscape.

Julie shares her insights into the growing demand for buyer's agents and the strategic advantages of having a dedicated professional manage all property needs. We talk about why property managers, valuers, and mortgage brokers are uniquely positioned to step into these roles—offering a fresh perspective on fostering stronger client loyalty and trust. Through Julie's experiences, listeners will better understand the industry's dynamics and the need for continuous learning and adaptability to market changes.

We discuss innovative approaches to expanding real estate services, such as establishing a separate buyer's agency within a sales office. Julie passionately highlights the significance of transparency and collaboration in the industry, encouraging professionals to seize new opportunities and think ahead. 

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to today's episode and I am excited to have a guest. That's a little bit different this time, but a good different, because Julie Crocker is from API Solutions and she is a buyers agent and generally we normally have property managers as our guests, but this one's going to be a little bit more interesting about the changing of our real estate culture when it comes to buyers, agents and buyer management and things like that. And, julie, you are the perfect person to be speaking about this because I know how passionate you are about the industry, so welcome.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you, Ashley, so much. Passionate yes is the word.

Speaker 1:

And I will disclose that I am currently also going through one of Julie's courses, a buyer's agent's course, and I'm mentioning it because I don't know whether there's a huge amount of property managers that go through and upskill themselves in this area, but it's really important to upskill. I know that I'm sort of I don't know if I'm halfway or a third through the course at the moment, but it's been great and I just wanted to do a shout out for you, julie, because it's something that I don't think people really I think property managers it's really crossed their mind that that is a good upskilling option that's quite relevant to them.

Speaker 2:

So how long have you been doing that for? Yeah, I've been. Well, certainly, I've been a buyers agent since 2010 and running my own buyers agency, based here in Sydney, and the model that I use is I only work with property investors who want to build portfolios, and we source property right around the country. So, um, yeah, that that it's an interesting time because, um, we're seeing more and more buyers agents come to the fore and um, yeah, I I just think that property managers are what I call salt of the earth people, simply because they have their finger on the pulse of what's happening in their areas and they understand how property works. So it makes super sense to when I'm looking at properties located all around the country, they're my go-to people as well. I love talking to property managers. They have nothing to sell me. They have everything at their fingertips to help me to understand where the no-go areas are, where better areas are, where the private schools you know what are the draw cards in places and, yeah, I just think they're great.

Speaker 1:

So if we go back to 2010 and sorry, you were a buyer's agent back then it would have been. I'm making assumptions here, so please correct me if I'm wrong it would have been a really unusual industry and position to go in, because I can't see it have been that popular. Or am I just sitting in my own little bubble? And it's always been booming.

Speaker 2:

No, no, it's been a slow burn. It's been a slow burn, but I guess that came on the back of my own experience as a property investor. So I've been investing since 2002 and that's how I bought property. Back in the day I was a working as a teacher full-time. I was raising two kids on my own and I had a real what I think the most powerful thing was that I had a really good friend who had 16 properties herself and she and I. She was a teacher and we would chat, chat, chat, chat, chat.

Speaker 2:

We'd do our research and then come school holidays, we'd jump on planes and we'd go to all these exotic places to sort of check out where we'd researched and make sure that things stacked up, because back in 2010, of course, we didn't have nearly the amount of research, the tools, you know, the stuff we've got now.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it was all hard yakka, but we combined, like school holiday time with all of that. We bought properties pretty much every year. I was buying one a year for years and years and years and that gave me a really good grounding in a where to go, b what to look for, c how to negotiate with um sales agents, who thought you had two heads because a your and mortgage brokers who thought you had two heads because you know your women, you know buying properties and doing all this stuff. You know and and I guess that level of expertise really set me up well for being a buyers agent because it meant that I was very particular about you know where my paid clients were going and investing in Australia. But also I had the confidence to do it because I'd done it sort of many times myself beforehand.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, but at that then I would have suggested that you wouldn't have really spoken to property managers to find out more about the area, like in those really early days, or have you always done that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

It depends on where and what I'm looking to buy, but I've had, I had over the years, many conversations with property managers and it went along the lines of look, I'm, I'm thinking of um, purchasing, you know, in 18 Smith Street and um, I, just um, would really value your uh knowledge on that area. I, you know, from what I've seen and from what I know, it looks to be pretty good, but you would know better than me. You know what and you know is there, and some of them have had history with the property. You know they go oh, we used to rent that. You know manage that property and what have you.

Speaker 2:

So you can always have really good, strong conversations with property managers about all the things I mentioned before. That then gives you comfort, because when you're living in another state, you know it's, you can do all the research under the sun, and even going and visiting may not be that helpful, and the way I've set my business up now is, of course, I don't jump on planes and go and look at these places myself. I do my own due diligence and research, but then I do rely now on property managers as my, my eyes and ears and knowledge in those areas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's very true, like getting on a plane and going to look at an area still can't give you everything. Because I was recently in Hobart and as we were sort of driving on one of the what are the open top buses, you know how you do the drop off, drop off, sorry, the pickup drop off, like around Hobart, and I remember looking at the houses and wondering like is this an expensive area, is it a cheap area? Is it a dangerous area? Is it safe? I wouldn't know just by looking around. I have to ask the bus driver, I have to ask someone local what prices do properties go for? You know what's the area like, so driving through them really is very, very hard. Like you said, you can get a little bit of an idea for a feel, but really you still have to speak to someone to ask them who lives there or knows the area well, 100%. So what year would you have said sorry, keep on coughing every time we talk? What year would you have said that the buyer's agents started to shine?

Speaker 2:

I think they're still on their way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So you haven't hit that peak yet.

Speaker 2:

Not by a long shot. I think we've seen more and more bias agents come on to the scene, but a lot of them have not got the level of experience that other people have got who've been in the industry for quite a while, and that stands to reason. Um and over time, of course you know they'll hone their skills, but they um. A lot of them, I think, have done um various courses and maybe they've bought properties, which is great because it gives you an understanding of the process. But then a buyer's agent, as I said today, I've done a couple of lives today in other platforms and it's really important to understand that anyone in business today is in the business of people, and so if you don't understand the people and the clients and what it is that they need, then yeah, you're kind of it's a tricky one. So it came, I guess, probably about three years ago.

Speaker 2:

Now it's only really quite recent where we've sort of seen buyers' agents come to the fore and the reason for that has been this critical shortage of property right around the country and people who are two kinds of people people who are wanting to buy their forever home and have been staying in a queue with 50 other people trying to buy that one home. They've thought well, maybe a buyer's agent can actually help me to get in and get a place without me having to go through this missing out cycle 50 times over. So they've used buyers agents to help them buy their forever homes. But likewise we're seeing more and more investors do the same thing for the same or similar reasons. They're wanting to get into investing. They haven't got the time or wherewithal to miss out. You know, 25 times in Perth before they actually land something. And then there's always that fear of oh, did I pay too much money? You know what kind of rent am I going to get to try? And you know, hold this property for long Like there's question marks all over it.

Speaker 1:

So using buyer's agents makes sense because you know they can, um, sometimes get off market properties and so on and help in that process so this is a bit of a hard-hitting question, but at the moment, having a buyers agent is beneficial, like you said, because you are having to. You know you are missing out. It's really hard to find something. Is that still going to be the case when the market slows down, the selling market, and it's um, and I guess you'd probably use it now that I'm saying it out loud, you'd probably use it by the agent for a different um pain point, wouldn't you? So that might be negotiating a really good deal and something like that would. As I've said that out loud, I've actually probably answered my own question, but would that be right?

Speaker 2:

I think so yeah, definitely A good buyer's agent in a buyer's market can do brilliantly well. Again, it takes training and a little bit of skill to know how to do that, but that's all. You know. Something to learn, um, I think it's interesting too that what we're seeing now is a change in culture and and you rightly put it right at the very beginning when you introduced this um section here, the segment it's we're seeing a change of culture. We're for, you know, forever. We've had sales agents in this country and you know there's probably 80,000, or there's a lot of sales agents in the country. At the moment there's only a few thousand buyers agents.

Speaker 2:

That culture will, I believe, will continue to grow because people are getting more and more time, for they don't really want to go through the exercise of having to do their own research and their own due diligence and figure out, you know, which property is best to buy and what's going to really suit their strategy moving forward and how, and you know what we're seeing in all property investors here in Australia is around about 71% of all of them only ever own one investment property.

Speaker 2:

So my way of thinking has always been if we can put really good quality buyers agents out there that absolutely know what they're doing, then we're going to change for the better people's experiences, our clients' experiences, but also we're going to add really good value to the real estate industry and people will absolutely use a good service, absolutely and moving forward. I can't see that turning around. But I think the premise has to be just as we have, sadly, really poor sales agents and we know them, we've dealt with them really poor sales agents, and we know them, we've dealt with them. Um, likewise, you know, we don't want really poor buyers agents.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I think, but the culture is changing, definitely changing yeah, I mean, what you said is exactly how I feel about the property management. It's uh, it's about the property manager upskilling with you know a buyer's agent course. And it's about the property manager upskilling with you know a buyer's agent course. And it's not necessarily that they want to become a buyer's agent, but it's that they need to understand the reasoning why people use buyer's agents. They need to understand what benefit the investor's getting out of it so that they can better service that client. And just, you know things like understanding self-managed super funds and you know what restrictions that client may have when it comes to renovations and things like that. You need to know that I've just launched the Property Profiling Pathway and it has interviews with specialists like that so that you can understand.

Speaker 1:

And it's not about necessarily even giving advice to the client, it's about guiding them in the right direction. So if you notice that an investor has a self-managed super fund, that's purchased a property and they've said to you, oh, I'm going to buy it, I'm going to flip it, I'm going to do this big renovation, you might just say, hey, maybe just speak to your accountant about this first, because my understanding is that you might have a few restrictions. You know, like I mean I, as a real estate agent, I'd give them the extra information as well, but I would be guiding them in that direction of getting them to double check, where an inexperienced property manager probably would just go and do it. And yes, you are acting on the owner's instructions and it's not actually probably going to be the property manager's problem at the end of the day.

Speaker 2:

But isn't it really nice to still be able to offer that expertise, like that's what we should all be aiming for in our positions absolutely, and I think, um, yeah, I'm a firm believer in anyway, like if, if um property managers really wanted to um upskill and become a buyers agent, and yes, that's a step that's outside of probably where they're at now um, I don't call it up, I just call it it's really a sideways step to be able to achieve um something that's a little bit different then, yeah, there's no reason why they can't. In fact, I think deep down where I live, they would make brilliant buyers agents because they deal with property all day, every day.

Speaker 2:

They deal with people all day, every day. They know how to manage both. And that's, you know you're stepping in the right direction as a buyer's agent when you can understand all of those principles?

Speaker 1:

definitely yeah, we've got a few local buyers agents in WA and I sometimes see them out and about. But I it's really weird because when I see them out and about I'm thinking to myself you guys don't know what you know tenants are wanting in this area, you guys don't manage properties Like I actually do. Like in my mind I'm thinking what are you actually checking? Like because I can check that, the houses, I can check a lot of things. But I also can add the fact that I know you know that we've got three currently advertised in this area this week and I know what inquiries are, just all of that in-depth, in-depth thing. You know extra information. It's really fascinating.

Speaker 1:

I'm sort of just blurting out my thoughts for you, so I don't mean to put you on the spot with it, but it's just interesting the whole buyer agent culture at the moment, because what I'm noticing and you would know better than me, but it's like a lot of people who are becoming a buyer's agent or upskilling with your course are people that are mortgage brokers, property managers I mean that's sort of the main one that I'm seeing upskilling, which is 100% fantastic, like love that, because I just think it's such an amazing benefit for a mortgage broker to upskill in that area as well. But are we finding any sales agents, for example, that just go in and go? You know what I want to be a buyer's agent Like. I don't want to upskill. This is what I want to do and this is the course I'm going to do to get that extra information. Are you finding a big portion of that, or are you just finding a whole heap of people like myself that want to upskill?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a really interesting question. When I first started promoting the course, I thought in my own mind which we do we think in our own mind that sales agents would probably really jump at this because you know, they know the industry, they know, you know they've got a lot of them, have got their own patches and you know they probably would like to be a buyers agent in their own patch and buy people's forever homes, which is not necessarily my model, but you know, I just thought and then, but there would also be, I thought, you know, real estate agents who would love to jump in and buy properties around the country and understand that model. And, interestingly enough, and I've spoken to principals of sales offices and they've said we're so flat out selling you know, we haven't got time, we need more sales agents, we don't need a buyers agent and I thought, okay, that's okay, really interesting. But the people who are that I've certainly got at the moment coming in are those, yes, who have what I would call aligned businesses with the real estate industry.

Speaker 2:

I mean, property managers are in the real estate industry, but there are others that are aligned, such as a property valuer, mortgage brokers.

Speaker 2:

They're people that have got a little bit more, I guess, of an entrepreneurial mind.

Speaker 2:

So they're saying, okay, I've got this property management business, how can I increase revenue so that I can then, you know, do more for my clients, how can I help them more? And so, interestingly enough, you know, they're the ones who I probably have got a good understanding of business, but also just want to add that other wing which would complement what they're currently doing and bring you know more people in. So and how, obviously, how they would do that would be they've got a database of people the bulk of them, well, they would be investors on their database and it would be conversations around. You know, we have an exclusive buyers agency called XYZ Buyers Agency and what we're doing is servicing, providing an additional service, a value-add service to you because you are our valued and loyal client and we can source property from, you know, in other areas that might suit your diversification strategy. So you know, it's opening up those conversations around having being able to do more to help more people, if I can put it that way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's so fascinating I'm like I genuinely am excited for, you know, the buyer's market to change in Australia, so that sort of brings us to. I want to talk a bit about what we see over in the US and I think this is sort of more. It works. It's like every person has a real estate agent. So, for example, you know, we've all got our own hairdresser, we've all got our own dentist, our doctor, I feel like they all have their own real estate. So if I want to buy or sell or rent, this is my real estate agent that I use and I love that concept. And so, whatever you need, I can help you. And so, whether I help you within my office, or whether I help you because another office has got a better listing or a better rental, and then the real estate agents between themselves they, you know, work out what the referral is, or commission, et cetera. But I love that. That's where I'd love to see Australia head. Do you reckon that would be a benefit for your industry or do you see problems with?

Speaker 2:

that I think. Well, there's certainly as long as we're all playing by the rules, which is a given long as we're all playing by the rules, which is a given. I mean we all play by the rules. So, yeah, you know, if you're in a sales office excuse me, you can't obviously sell, get a commission from one, you know, and be the buyer's agent and get the other commission. You can't do that, but, um, in terms of being able to build loyalty and trust with your existing clients, I think this will smash it out of the ballpark, because what you're able to do and the most powerful thing I'm going to go back to what I said just a couple of minutes ago.

Speaker 2:

You know, 71% of all investors only ever buy one investment property. It will not change their lives unless it's, you know, they end up making millions out of it. It not change their lives unless it's, you know, they end up making millions out of it. It might change their life, but essentially, um, it doesn't change your life, whereas a portfolio of six, seven, eight, nine, etc. That's life-changing and it's generational wealth changing. So we're seeing more and more people come into the investment market that are getting that they absolutely understand that in order to have a better lifestyle in retirement, they need to be proactively investing in. You know, and I go into shares and what have you. I mean they can invest in anything. To be quite honest, I wouldn't invest in anything other than property because it's my love and my passion.

Speaker 2:

But, you know, investing means that you know you're building that portfolio over time and if you've got someone who helps you do that, who actually follows you up and makes sure that you are continuing to invest at times when you're able to, are continuing to invest at times when you're able to, you know, at the moment in this country we've got quite high interest rates and that's really, you know, people are really struggling and in some sectors not all some are cashed up and they're buying like there's no tomorrow, and there's reasons for that too.

Speaker 2:

But there are others that are just sort of sitting back and and not quite ready yet to go again. But if you've got a valued and trusted um bias agent that you're working with, who comes back to you at regular intervals and checks in with you, the likelihood of you building your portfolio over time is much, much greater than if you're just leaving it to your own devices because, let's face it, life just gets in the way all the time. So, yeah, I think that we're going to see this cultural change. We're going to see more and more people coming into the market. We're going to see a lot of people who can't buy their own home start to rent. Best, they are going to start building their assets whichever way they can afford to do it, and that will mean buying in probably more affordable states in Australia in order to achieve that goal. So, yeah, I think the need for people in the real estate industry being a trusted and loyal partner with their clients is absolutely going to happen.

Speaker 1:

And it's a no-brainer as a buyer. If you think about it as a buyer, you are traditionally buying a property through the selling agent, who doesn't have your best interests at heart, like it. Just, it makes total sense that you have someone on your team that that knows exactly what you're looking for and you buy through them. Uh, there was, I think we'll have to see to sort of. I was going to ask you what sort of shift you see that we would need to make in the real estate industry to maybe start getting into that culture. And while you're thinking about that, what I think is I have seen only a couple of offices do this and I think I quite like it. I don't do it personally, but I like the idea. And that's where you've got agents that are really good at listing and you've got agents that are really good at buyer management and you have a agent who lists a property and they get a certain percentage for listing it.

Speaker 1:

This is internally. This is actually what happens internally in this office. So let's say, there is a 80 let's say% commission to be split on this property. No, what am I thinking? Yeah, sorry, no, that is right. 80% commission within the office that gets split. So the listing agent might receive, when this property sells, might receive 50% of the commission but then whoever finds the buyer gets 20% of that commission and then maybe there's an admin support who gets 10% of the commission but then whoever finds the buyer gets 20% of that commission and then maybe there's an admin support who gets 10% of the commission. So something like that type of structure. So if that selling agent you know lists a property and is taking 50% of that commission but also has the buyer and finds a buyer for the property, they start getting the whole commission.

Speaker 1:

If that makes sense and at the moment that's the way our sales agents they just get the full commission when they sell the property. But dividing it up a little bit and being open to other people presenting by it, I find that that's interesting. I feel like if that as a very base level change in our mindset inside our offices happens, then it might open us up to okay, well, I love listing, I'm just going to be a listing machine and let everyone else find those buys Very happy for them to give them 20% of whatever the commission is. We might just get a little bit more comfortable with that whole splitting of our commission. That's where I feel a change in mindset would start. Uh, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 2:

yeah, look, um, the more, the longer I've been in business, the more I I think that there's lots of them. Um, I mean, it's it's a tricky one, isn't it? If, um, I think there's lots of scope, lots and lots of scope for existing businesses to actually set up their own buyers agency so that they're not, um, in any way crossing over or splitting their commissions. They can actually get full buyer's agent commission by charging the buyer a fee, which is whatever they set. You know they can do the 2.2 percent or they can do whatever you know, flat fee, it doesn't matter. Um, but yeah, I, I think what, and and particularly the property management business, or even a sales and property management business, you could actually set up a dedicated buyers agency. I would suggest you change the name of it, but set up a dedicated buyers agency so that you're servicing the same database of people who are buying their forever home, let's say, or they might be buying investments in the area, but then you've got a dedicated buyers agent who is sourcing properties, you know, in other states for those same buyers. So there's no crossover of fees or any kind of.

Speaker 2:

People have said to me in the past oh, you know, there needs to be transparency. 100. There needs to be transparency and that's I've obviously set up in all the marketing material that you use for a buyer's agent all the agreements which are separate. You know that you set up as a buyer's agent so you can run a completely separate buyer's agency. But you know, when you think about it now, a sales office can sell their rent roll. Why not? If they've got a buyer's agency set up at some point in the future and they don't want to run that buyers agency anymore, that's an asset to the business, they can sell that buyers agency. So it's actually combining all of it but making sure that there's a separate sales office, separate buyers agency, still operated by the same principle, no problem. But there are different offerings and each charges a commission for fee.

Speaker 1:

Is this part of our consultancy we were going to do after Julie. I feel like we're having it now.

Speaker 2:

I think we'll be touching on it. What I love to do is put things out there that are food for thought, because some people will go, they'll listen to that and they'll go. Oh, julie, no, I think that doesn't make much sense to me. And that's okay, because in time it may and other people are going to go. Why didn't I think of that myself? And it's because this is all quite new and it's all evolving. But the potential to have this happen, where you're just bringing incredible service to your loyal database, just makes sense to me. Oh 100%.

Speaker 1:

And that's exactly why I love recording these podcasts. It's just to stretch people's minds a little bit further from the day-to-day and it's like when I I love doing demos for product reviews and things like that, and I encourage everyone to do the same. I always say to them you might not need something now, but it's good to know what's available in case you have a pain point in the future. And then you know what's available and you can make a quick decision. And same goes for this podcast, for those that are listening that it's good to know opportunities that are available. It is forward thinking, it is future thinking and you might not be ready for it now, but if it's something that you even have a tiny little glimpse that maybe there's something there, when you do your day-to-day role, or whether it's marketing or dealing with clients, you're always going to have that little niggle in your brain that goes, oh, that would actually, you know, and you'll start building up on that.

Speaker 1:

And that's what we need more of.

Speaker 1:

We need to push our thinking a little bit more with opportunities that are available.

Speaker 1:

Like I always say, like if you, if you're just staying still in your business, you might as well be going backwards, because the world that one of my favorite quotes at the moment is the world's going to change, with or without you.

Speaker 1:

So you need to always make these tiny little steps and for me, like just the fact that you know you spoke about having you know, setting up a buyer's agency different and it's sort of been playing on my mind, but I don't know how to do it.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't matter that I'm not ready or I don't know how to do it, but everything that I do I've got it at the back of my mind and that's more than what someone else has. So it's about those opportunities and also just being aware of the market, what is happening in other parts, whether it's the sales industry, the buyers agency industry, settlement, finance so important for us to all, including you guys, guys, just to know what's going on in our little subsections and, uh, for for our clients benefit, for our business benefit and then for our own personal career. So it's um, yeah, that's. That's the reason why I wanted you on here is because, even though you're not a property manager and I generally have property management it's just that thought, but then I'm naturally like that and some people aren't, so I sort of have to force it on them a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Oh, look, it's good forcing. I think I look back at how I started into investing in property in the first instance and, yeah, I'm an early adopter. If something makes total sense to me, then yeah, I'm in, I'll give it a shot. Um, but I'm 100% in. I'm not 50% warm. I'm all in or all not. And I, had I not stepped into that in 2002 and started building a portfolio there is, I'd still be probably teaching in a school. You know it. It transformed my life because I, I guess I dared to step outside of what most women did back in 2002. And and likewise, you know, there weren't too many people in 2010 setting up bias agencies either. But but, uh it, it.

Speaker 2:

Every little bit leads to the next little bit, if I can put it that way and I think that, um, the power, especially for women, especially for women is when we take those steps, even though they may be a little bit uncomfortable and you're 100% in um, it's incredible where that can lead, lead you to. And it's not really about having the confidence to do it, it's more about having the courage to do it. You can see other people doing it and that's what I love about. You know you cannot be what you cannot see. If you see other people doing it and you know that it's possible, or them, they did it. I can do that too. You know I can model whatever I need to learn from X, y, z, from that person, then you know that's your way forward.

Speaker 2:

And some people will not go there, and that's okay, a hundred percent, that's okay.

Speaker 2:

But there are people listening to this podcast who are going oh yeah, I get that, I absolutely get that. I want you to act on it. I want you to move yourself forward in little steps and just keep going, because that's where you're going to see huge change in you, but you are going to bring change to the world in you. But you are going to bring change to the world. You're going to see people so much better off. So for you, stepping out and taking what you see is, oh, you know, a little bit of scary steps, the, the trade-off for that is massive and when and and likewise. And one thing that I didn't see happening for me was when my kids witnessed this, when my kids sort of saw what I was doing and, um, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, I, I I'll be quiet now because I I kind of go on and on. I love that you can just have impact and influence when you take the steps towards where you're meant to be going and you get there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's people I consider myself one of them that's happy to take the risk on behalf of the industry. And then there's people that do, like you said, need the courage to wait until it's been trialled or tested. And then they get the confidence to do it. And it's okay too, as long as you're sort of quick on the mark and not too far behind.

Speaker 1:

I think when going back about four years ago with pre-purchase inspections by property managers I mean I don't know for sure, but I'm like pretty sure that I was probably the first in Australia to potentially be charging for it and I was I had to go through about three different models with what worked for me and my clients to make sure that I felt valued, and with my time and knowledge and things like that.

Speaker 1:

And then I share that with everyone now and I let them know exactly how much I charge and and what I've done in the past and what's worked and what hasn't worked.

Speaker 1:

But it's those little tiny things that I did because I was quite busy doing it and I didn't feel like I was being valued by the client by doing them for free that I started making those changes. But then I also let everyone know I wasn't afraid to share that information with my industry competitors because I was like no, I want you guys to do it too. Because if you guys do it too, then it looks like what I'm doing is normal and then it becomes a norm in our industry that that's how property managers are valued, and you're just increasing that bar constantly by doing it. So if you are doing something good, uh, that that is benefiting the industry, then share it, advertise that you're doing it. Make, give, give the rest of the property management industry confidence to also do the same. Don't keep it inside like a little secret. That would be my sort of final words on it.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Come on Ashley's podcast and tell people that's right, I'm always looking for guests.

Speaker 1:

It's funny with guests because sometimes people feel like, oh, you know, I don't want to. You know, bother, ash, I don't want to. You know what? If she doesn't want me as a guest, I can promise you guys, every single person I want as a guest on this show because even if you don't have any idea of what to talk about, I always I can tell you.

Speaker 1:

Right now there's probably half of the people that book in for to be a guest on the podcast have no idea what to talk about, and then I just chat to them and I tell them what I'm curious to know about them or what I want to ask questions, but very selfish reasons, and we talk about it. So if this sounds like you, that's a great way to finish off. Thanks, julie. If it sounds like you and you're like, yeah, what would I even talk about? I've got you, I know exactly what we'll talk about. I've always got lots of things that I'm curious about and it does it helps everybody that I'm curious about and it does it helps everybody.

Speaker 1:

And those people that are introvert, nervous, sitting in their car, you know, don't want to reach out to other people in the industry, they just want, in the privacy of their own space, listen to a little podcast. This is the perfect opportunity to do that. So thank you for your time, julie. It was actually very motivational as well as informative when it comes to us being a little bit more informed about the buyers industry and little tweaks that we can make as property managers to maybe help move it all forward.

Speaker 1:

The buyers agency market, because there is definitely potential there and get in while the potential is at the bottom and see the future, because you don't want to wait till everyone's done it and then be falling behind with it. So I appreciate your time. Julie has a wonderful buyer's agent's course. It's called buyer's agent's course and I'm currently doing it at the moment with one of my team members and for me it's the perfect upskilling that I need and I am very excited to continue with that and get a little bit more knowledge in that space. So thank you for also bringing that to the industry as well my pleasure.

Speaker 2:

Thank you actually for having me on today and allowing me to speak about my passion.

Speaker 1:

And very passionate, I can say. I think that's why you and I clicked is that we both had that same sort of passion in our own careers. So yeah, thank you, julie, for your time.

Speaker 2:

I'll talk to you soon.