PM Collective - The ART of property management
The ART of property management with Ashleigh Goodchild is a leading platform supporting collaboration not competition through an online community and events throughout the year with one purpose: to create happier property managers. She creates connections for property managers looking to create momentum in their careers and personal life. Join Ashleigh and her guests as they discuss challenges, struggles, mental health, mindset and give advice to property managers and anyone in the industry. To get the support in your property management career, join our PM Collective Facebook and Instagram community.
PM Collective - The ART of property management
Energy Efficiency: The New Frontier in Property Management
Cecille Weldon from WeldonCo shares her expertise on the hidden value drivers in property that are transforming the real estate industry, with a focus on energy efficiency features that benefit investors, property managers, and renters alike.
• Better homes for Australians is Cecille's big "why" and driving passion
• Property professionals are often missing opportunities to showcase valuable energy efficiency features
• The language we use matters – focus on property features rather than ambiguous terms like "sustainability"
• Cost of living concerns affect 100% of potential tenants and buyers, creating opportunity to highlight features that reduce ongoing costs
• Energy efficiency features provide the lifestyle benefits of comfort and reduced running costs
• Banking and financial sectors now offer targeted upgrade loans for energy efficiency features
• Properties without these features are increasingly viewed as risks by lenders
• Quality of the rent roll as a property asset is becoming more important than just cash flow
• Property managers should pivot from "property maintenance" to "property upgrade" mindset
• Replace like-with-like approach needs to be abandoned in favor of strategic upgrades
• Hot water systems represent 26% of energy bills and are a key upgrade opportunity
• New industry-led Prop Tech Energy Efficiency Features Standard bringing consistency to how these features are labeled and tracked
• Competitive advantage comes from positioning as an expert in property quality and performance
• Having the right conversation with investors by speaking to them as investors rather than landlords
PM COLLECTIVE - GUIDE AND SHAPE AN ENJOYABLE FUTURE
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This podcast is kindly sponsored by The Efficiency Co.
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All right, today's session is one that I have been wanting to do for a while, ever since I met this lady, probably about a year ago. So I'm excited to get her on, because I sometimes do these podcasts for selfish reasons and it's because I want to find out more about a topic so I can also implement changes in my business about a topic, so I can also implement changes in my business. So this is one of those ones where it's going to be a little bit selfish for me but also for benefit of everybody listening. And so today I have the lovely Cecile joining me from World Co, and I'm just going to hand it over to you, cecile, if you can, please just intro yourself and tell everybody what you're up to, what you do, what you're passionate about, and then we'll get into the topic.
Speaker 2:Okay. So my big why, my big why is better homes for all Australians, how we get there. And also I'm super passionate about property professionals and them being much more recognised in the community as a really key professional right. So there's different things. There's different touch points. I've had in property marketing so I've been on executive leadership teams of big franchise groups. I've also worked in the prop tech sector, based on a board, and I'm still an advisor in there. So and I'm an entrepreneur myself so while I was embedded in the real estate sector, I developed the livability real estate framework that the CSIRO acquired in 2016.
Speaker 2:And then I had the unusual experience of working with them CSIRA Energy deep in the research and governance sector for sort of three years, bringing some understanding of how powerful the real estate moment is and how important the role of the real estate professional is to driving perceptions of value and helping people connect to better homes. So it's led me into a lot of different iterations. What I found is there's a whole bunch of knowledge about property, little pieces about property that we don't know and there's no way you can learn about that. It's not in any training programs. It's often hidden under a whole lot of labels, which I'll unpack in a minute and so I started to develop training programs that are just focusing on energy efficiency features and home energy ratings and understanding this. I guess I had early insight into what was coming down the line because, unusually, I participated in an awful lot of research projects with consumers and with industry outside of the property industry talking about the real estate moment. So and most of the time I was the only person in the real estate sector at those written within those research projects. So I was getting this amazing insight into changes that were coming and if agents and property managers listened very carefully, they could understand that those changes were impacting their market, but they weren't really leveraging.
Speaker 2:So I guess I've got an entrepreneurial background, which means I'm an opportunity focused person. I believe that impact means business impact as well. I don't believe in segmenting social impact from business impact. I believe if you're on point, then everything you do will deliver a positive impact, and that means your professional profile as well. So there's like a sweet spot that I love, which is that.
Speaker 2:So I guess there's different opportunities from whether you're from a property management point of view, whether you're a principal, whether you're a sales agent, whether you're a real estate franchise. The new value proposition that's going to begin to flow through the residential property market has a touch point for everybody and so I'm passionate about it's a very simple upskilling, actually for agents, but my big passion is to understand that property is a new customer. So we know an awful lot about market, about market trends. We know a lot about customers, customers experience, what customers want. We know a lot about our own brand and what our brand values are and what we need to stand for. We know a lot about the tech enabling pieces that help us do our work. But somehow along the way we've lost our appetite to know more about property.
Speaker 1:Very true yeah.
Speaker 2:So our actual perspective of property is really old school. It's, like you know, caesarstone benchtops and a granite and a European appliances you might swing in a butler's pantry or an outdoor living area, something that might be seen on the block, but they're very cosmetic. But we've been missing out on all the features that are already in the property a lot of the time and these are features that are now insights into. These features in residential property are the most commercially valuable property insights you can get right now, from the banking sector right through to the technology sector, through to insurance valuation. So these insights about property, these property features, all we need to do is upskill on them, understand how and when to bring them into the conversation, what words to use that are the right words to use and there's a clear value uplift on offer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's what I'm passionate about, and I'm really, really keen to unpack with you, ashley, just what that means for property managers, because sometimes I feel like they're in the trenches right. They're between two immovable sections. They often feel demonised by regulation, misunderstood, and so hopefully I'll be providing a way to slightly reframe what's happening for them.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So our audience is a lot of property managers and business owners. I believe there is a lot that we can do today to start working towards implementing these changes in our businesses. So we'll talk a little bit about that. One thing I want to mention, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it so yesterday I was at a conference great conference and we had Ben Hamer, who was a futurist, there talking, and he was great and what's interesting is he touched on this.
Speaker 1:But part of me is like why is it being sort of labelled as a future thing? You know what I mean? It's actually a now thing. However, if I think about it, it was probably promoted to us as this is something we should watch for in the future. This is something that will affect us in the future, and so probably for a lot of people, they might just thinking this is a future problem, but that future problem needs to be addressed now, and it actually is a now problem as well. So I think that's interesting, but I use the word livability and sustainability and I know that you're very big on the words, and so I think it's very important for us to make sure we're using them correctly, so please correct me if I'm not using them properly.
Speaker 2:It's not that they're wrong, it's just that, you know, I've got a background in sociolinguistics as well, which is language and meaning and what's already in our language, the meanings that are already there. So you know, real estate professionals have a very short moment, right, the real estate moment is very short but incredibly influential, you know, and it's highly emotional, highly competitive and time sensitive. So you're going to an open home. You got 30 people there. There, everyone wants the same property, or it's an auction timeline, and you've only got a certain amount of time.
Speaker 2:You can't go into lots of details about building performance science, right? So what we need to understand is the word sustainability is problematic. So it actually. What does it mean? What does it mean in relation to property? If I tell you, what features does that connect to what do you think? Well, solar panels and rainwater tanks Everyone will have a different answer. Oh, veggie gardens. Sometimes in our language there's a word and it gets so used or taken by different sectors, politicized, that it actually is you get a fuzzy feeling when you listen to it. You go, oh yeah, that's something I should. I actually don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what we have to focus on if it's meaningful, it's memorable, and it's memorable because it already resonates to something in me. So we have to strip this back, and we have to strip back this sustainability agenda and even livability, because that also got taken by different things around accessibility, and so that word has gone different directions, and so what we want to do is become almost very vanilla. We want to become very clear and just focus on. This is about information about property. So where does that land? In a property? And it lands in a property in energy efficiency features and a home energy rating, right? So, ironically, the environment does much better if we never mention it, right? So agents sometimes say they'll say oh, you know, green doesn't work. You know, I try and market a property talking about the echo features. This, this is the language they use and they're correct, but it's actually the way they're selling it, it's not the feature itself, and so the most important thing to remember is to lead with the lifestyle benefits that this feature is going to deliver. Now, if we step back and say, how do we make the magic happen here? And it's so, obviously we go into more detail in training sessions, but I really want to give some connection points here.
Speaker 2:The biggest national narrative we have is around cost of living. So cost of living is impacting 100% of the people coming to an open home, whether they're a renter or a prospective owner or an investor 100%, and we're only having the conversation about that in relation to the ability to pay the rent or pay the mortgage right, we're not anchoring it in to the home. I'll give you an example If I'm coming and I'm worried about cost of living and an agent says, hey, cost of living is on top of everybody's mind, these are the property features that are going to help you with that. Okay, here's the most efficient hot water system. You can get Amazing cross ventilation pathways. It's like free air conditioning. So, whatever you might want to point out in this house, maybe there are three or four. Most of the time there's three, even without it being a special upgrade right so you know and you can say so what happens is you can keep.
Speaker 2:This gives you the potential with that ongoing affordability, because when you can't control the mortgage, but you can do something about affordability and this property is going to help you be more comfortable without it costing you a lot to get to that comfort point, Well, I mean, it's natural, right, I'm going to go. Oh, my God, I want to lean into that, right. So what we need to do is anchor that cost of living conversation into the property features. That will be the solution. And then every time someone goes to an open home, they're learning more about property. They know the property upgrade to help with the cost of living, but also that home has another perception of value, and that's incredibly important because it is valuable, even if you think of yourself and your own home, because I really encourage everyone to do that if you've gotten uncomfortably cold I mean, everyone in Australia has at some point lived in an uncomfortably hot or uncomfortably cold home how did that affect you? If an agent starts to talk to you about how you don't have to have it with this property, that means something that's meaningful, that's a meaningful thing and that's valuable. So what I'd say to people is just leave the big environmental discussion, because whenever you're talking about these features, you're going to impact the environment in a positive way and the quality of homes.
Speaker 2:So to the principals in the room I would say what is the quality of the property in your rent roll? In the commercial sector it's really interesting because they look at property as a property asset. In real estate we look at rent roll as a cash flow asset. We don't look at it as a property asset. If we had to look at it as a property asset in the same way the banking and financial sector look at things, then we go you know what? That property just isn't a good enough quality for me to have in my rent role and that's going to impact the value of my rent role. And I'd have to say that the direction of quality property is really powerful and is about to become more powerful. And one of the measures of a quality property is how many energy efficiency features are there and how does it stack up in an energy efficiency rating and that's coming down the line. So the first indicator for property for principals with rent rolls is to go hey, let's just do an appraisal on how many of these features this property has.
Speaker 2:Upskill the agent, the property managers. Even if you don't want to do that, one of the things I'm recommending to property managers and to principals is to just have some insight into comfort. For instance, how many property managers go to a property half an hour beforehand to try and make it cooler or warmer? Every time I ask a question at an event and ask people to put their hands up. A hundred percent, put their hands up. There's never been a property manager that hasn't gone in and go. Oh my God, it's bloody freezing in here. You know, let's put the heater on or let's open the blinds or whatever we need to do, because we know that comfort matters, matters, but we only experience the negative of it and we're always trying to hide it.
Speaker 2:We're not trying to showcase the comfortable, we're trying to hide the uncomfortable very true so imagine that productive hours that are being wasted by salespeople and property managers trying to make an uncomfortable house appear better, when we could be actually focusing on the features that are delivering comfort in this house and adding value with that, but also, at the same time, adding value to the rent roll. So even if you just make a note in your property management CRM uncomfortably hot, uncomfortably cold, uncomfortably hot, uncomfortably cold and just find out, where are we dealing in the comfort level in the rental stock? Because it's likely to be, there's none of these features, and these features are the value features.
Speaker 2:Yeah so hopefully that answers your question around what the labelling is to use, Because if you're marketing green, you won't get it. Only talks to the people that are already doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. It's already talking to the people that are already. It's not talking to everyone that's coming to your open home with a cost of living problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like, yeah, I think. Yeah, like you said, focusing on the cost of living, and I like you use the word lifestyle benefits and in my mind I was just thinking to myself is there a way that, you know, I could start adding that into my rental ad listings, where it's lifestyle benefits or?
Speaker 2:something like that. Yeah, the lifestyle benefits are specific. Yeah, so we say potential because it depends on how you use the house. You know you can have double glazed windows and leave them open all winter. That's not going to help you much. So you know agents can position it in a in a in a really robust fashion and very quickly. It's the idea of ongoing affordability or reduced running costs and more comfortable all year round.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so they're the lifestyle benefits and obviously that has a flow onto health, right. So it's understanding what that feature will deliver the person living in the house, not the environment. Yeah, do you see what I mean? So we have to keep. I mean, this is about you know, property value is so elusive because it's not just a market value, it's perceptions of value and even, as much as we talk about all these things, I may just want to purchase that house because it's next to my grandma, right. So, but absolutely the big missing piece and the piece that's about to flow through the whole property market and I'll talk to you about the banking sector valuation, everything, data, the whole piece is not just what a house has in terms of features and not just setting up, you know, taking a furniture out, showcasing, you know, a sort of setup for an open home, making it look good on the outside.
Speaker 2:The new one is what the house can do for you, okay, and that's comfort. Comfort is king, comfort and running cost and people that did my livability training years ago. This is absolutely validated by research now. So back then it was just based on anecdotal success and value and perceptions and conversations.
Speaker 2:Now it's very powerfully the impact of comfort and the value of a comfortable home, once agents realise that this is a fresh conversation in real estate, that they can be upskilled about and deliver it with competence and confidence, and that they get an uplift in value or a quick decision because, between two properties, research shows and even the new CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Australia said to me Cecile, I did exactly that, came down to Canberra and within a second that's the property I went for and I paid more, right because of that running cost. So it's a conversation that is waiting for agents to be upskilled to have, because they can't wing it. This one, they can't just wing it, they can't go oh, yeah, it's a bedroom and it's a sunroom. Or yeah, yeah, sure, it's efficient, because you have to be able to answer the next question someone might ask yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:There's definitely a training element in it, there's the um, and I I mean, I'm even sort of just thinking like, even just with checklists or whatever appraisal format, it's like a good start would be just simply adding this onto that checklist or your process, so that it's starting to get top of mind, even if that's the first thing that you do. And then it's more I guess it's just more being in front of you, so that when you start doing appraisals you're starting to think about these things.
Speaker 2:So what I do, what I I'll sort of talk about the bigger influences now which are really important. So everybody is working with a piece of tech to do their work the big CRMs, the listing portals. You've got the campaign add-ons. You've got the property maintenance add-ons. You've got the rent roll value add-ons. You've got the property maintenance add-ons. You've got the rent roll value add-ons. There's all sorts of pieces the property technology sector in the back end of everybody's tech. These energy efficiency features are either missing, wrongly labelled or ambiguously labelled. So agents, even if they do want to do it, they can't find them in the back end. They're having to use the open text field or they're sort of wrongly labeled, so they're learning the wrong label. Okay, and what we've done in the prop tech sector is we've developed the, an industry-led the prop tech energy efficiency features standard. This is the first time globally this has been done and all the tech players, all the big listing portals, all the big CRMs, the data players, have all signed up to collaborate.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:To have a consistent set of energy efficiency features in the back end of their tech efficiency features in the back end of their tech right, so that when you see that set they'll be all probably begin to. The final set will be delivered to all the signatories by June.
Speaker 1:Great.
Speaker 2:As we're aligning with the new regulatory pathway that's coming down. So that means that when you see that in the back end first of all they're going to be pushed up and showcased in the property listing, you can map your training to those energy efficiency features. But you also know how to talk about it. Is it solar PV? Is it solar panels? Is it solar hot water? How do I? What's the right label? Because the research shows new research. And keep a lookout for it.
Speaker 2:Because in mid-May the research is going to be released which shows that agents' lack of knowledge and the prop tech's lack of features in the back end is causing a huge amount of confusion to consumers that are desperate for this information. So what agents don't realise? Agents say, well, no one's talking to me about it. If they were interested they'd say something, but it's chicken and egg because you're not showcasing them. The research shows that consumers say I can't see it and I don't know how to ask for it yet. So because we haven't been having these very quick and informed conversations and pointing to the right thing in an open home, we haven't been building the language and literacy for people to know what to look for and how to ask because we're such big influencers and we don't use our influence in the right direction. Because so, this is the shift that's coming. So, first of all, the property technology sector and you can go to I'll give you a URL to put at the bottom of the podcast. You can have a look at the website and who's signed on and if your CRM hasn't signed on, say please sign on, because we want that in the back end of our tech. We don't want to have to be adding it in the open text field because we want the data insights. You want to be able to go through your rent roll and identify very quickly how many of these features does my rent roll have? Do you see what I mean? Yeah, so, because that is definitely a robust rent role. If you start to really know that these properties have these features in there, it's a real indication of quality.
Speaker 2:The other thing is the banking and financial sector have now developed very targeted upgrade loans for these features. Now, why would a bank care? Why would a bank care if you have energy efficiency features? It's because they're now having to report on the climate risk of their rent roll, so they're having to look at whether that house is expensive to run and using a lot of energy and really uncomfortable, and so these loans have been underpinned by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and ComBank, nab, everyone, and they're also trialling home energy ratings and the valuation industry are right in there supporting them and are even starting to upgrade as energy rating assessors.
Speaker 2:So I cannot stress any further. This is going to happen. The big when the financial players are in the room. It's the area of risk, not to. It's not opportunity. Banks work on risk. The properties that don't have these are starting to be profiled as risk. Okay, or they're really wanting to encourage in the first instance. It may be some time before you know, um, it impacts the lending pathway, but right now they desperately want you to upgrade yeah, really interesting.
Speaker 1:So that's wonderful. That's so good to hear that there's going to be that consistency from the um, from the prop tech. So, yeah, when I get that Earl, I'd love to have everyone jump on there and make sure that that's their tech. That they use is sort of all on there. From a very practical point of view, from what a property manager could do. Now we're replacing a lot of air cons or installing air cons where you know, hot water systems. Is there something that we could just start doing and thinking of now, and is it just a matter of paying attention to the energy rating of the no, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So what I'd say? You've got your list of emergency upgrades that you have to do. First of all, in your own brain, I'd pivot from property maintenance to property upgrade. I'd start to think every time I touch this property, I want to make it better, and then your principal will love you. So we need to reframe this idea of just maintaining the status quo. Replace like with like. We need to get rid of that right away.
Speaker 2:And you need to say another thing you need to have a proper capitalisation, be upskilled and confident to have a capitalisation conversation with your investor and say, hey, we need to really start to address the quality of the property because we cannot maintain the rental level. Even better, we can, you know, up the rental income if we start to address this. You know the running cost potential of this property because too many people your tenants wasting too much money on the hot water system and that could be going to your rent. All right, and there's property managers. I know this will seem overwhelming to everyone, so I'll just make it a reframe for everyone. If you focus on the quality of the property, then you're going to find that the regulation that's coming is your friend, because it's going to force those laggard investors that are not interested in spending money on these items. They will either be forced to or the property will be released to the market and the market will take care of itself and there will be implications there. If you focus on the quality of the property, you're doing the best job for your investor, an outstanding job for your principal right and a really great job for your renter. If you just focus on keeping the renter happy, you're never going to do that. If you focus on keeping the investor happy, you're never going to do that, right.
Speaker 2:So one of the pieces of research that have come out is and one of the things I'm passionate about is the handover between the sale moment from an investor to the management moment Right. So salespeople need to understand what the features are and they need to be informing investors wow, this is an amazing property and this is positioning yourself with the new energy efficiency rental standards that are being discussed, because it's already got three of these features right. We need to have a better sales conversation with the investor and more informed to identify a really robust investment property before they become a manager, before the property's managed, because when you talk to the investor. As an investor, they understand If you talk to the investor as a landlord, they don't want to do anything.
Speaker 2:And I did a test of this. I wrote to. I did a test in some ACT research and I had to write to landlords and I said as an investor, it's important that you understand the property features are really going to make a difference to you know, maintaining the rental income, even increasing the rental income, and reducing, increasing the capital value where the direction where it needs to go, blah, blah, blah. And then I did another letter as a landlord, you need to da, da, da. And all the responses came when they were spoken to as an investor.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Because an investor understands I have to keep capitalising on my property to maintain its investment Right. So the first thing I do in answer to your question is replace like with energy efficient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Okay and just say to your investor hey, you know I've done training or you know I've got a specialisation in this area.
Speaker 2:I understand where the new value proposition is lying and I want to sit down with you and talk about we're going to have a standing order. We have a standing order because the quality of the property is very important to our brand and to our management framework and we're delivering a better property management service for you. We're delivering this investment edge and we need a standing order there to replace like with energy efficient Right off the bat. And so the other thing is to understand that they can put this in their depreciation schedule when they upgrade, especially hot water's already there, air conditioning's already there. So you want to encourage them and say, look, there's grants available. So property managers need to know the grants because there's a ridiculous amount of money flowing from targeted bank loans. When the ACT recently did the upgrade on insulation in the ceiling, because energy efficiency rental standards are coming for every state, they found that investors were much more interested in putting in the depreciation schedule in their asset register rather than the money that my discounted money to to do it yeah yeah, so it's understanding.
Speaker 2:This is this is something that can be depreciated. It's something that can enhance the showcasing ability of that property and the attraction of that property, especially when the agent's addressing the cost of living potential for that renter. It's also enhancing the value of that rent roll, in a way, the new banking lens and you know some banks are on it and some banks aren't, but everyone will have to go there the new way of looking. I don't think it's going to take too long if banks are looking at their loan book, which is a whole bunch of property, before people start looking at rent roll as a property asset. So if regulation is coming down the line, the question you want to ask yourself is this regulation helping this property get to a better quality Right, helping this property get to a better quality right, or is this just about saying we can't do this and we can't do that as a property professional? If it's helping the quality of the property, you go. Thank God, yeah, because I don't need to be the bad person. I just need to say hey, I'm sorry, but you know, if the regulation impacts the quality of that property and we're talking about energy efficiency features or a perception of the energy efficiency potential of that property with an upgrade piece, because that's what a home energy rating is going to have. So there's individual energy efficiency features and then there's a rating that is giving you insight in the whole thing. All this is coming.
Speaker 2:But if that regulation is pointing to the property, the quality of the property, and you get to know more about property, then everything rises. Your professional profile rises, you can charge more as a property manager, the quality of your rent roll becomes better and you can market that we have a quality rent roll right. Everything gets better when the property is the spotlight. That's why I say property's the new customer and then you're not going to get caught in the drama of oh, landlord will never do it, the renters won't do that. We're having to make dinner for the renters now.
Speaker 2:It's ridiculous. It's swung the other way. Leave the noise behind. It's exhausting and it positions you as a victim. When you're a quality property professional, keep your eye on the property, keep seeing how I can keep influencing the quality of that property and if my investor just doesn't want to be a part of that, I've had property managers go. I actually feel sick sometimes having to manage the property because it's such bad quality. I feel sick, right. What's that doing in a rent role? Yeah, Right, we need to start going. What's the quality of the property? What do we stand for Beyond regulation? Make the decision yourselves. You know what I mean. We need to make the decision ourselves as an industry to say it's just not good enough, sorry, yeah, because we're influential. So we've accidentally been influencing properties that look good but aren't good, been influencing properties that look good but aren't good. We haven't meant to, but we have and now that is in the spotlight that comfort potential. We can't rub it out, we can't make it go away.
Speaker 1:It's going to be transparent. Yeah, it's such an exciting space to be in and my mind has just gone straight to and we'll wrap it up in a couple of minutes, but my mind's going to. It's exciting now. It's going to be something that's going to be very normal in the future. You're not even going to think about it. What a great opportunity even just for a business owner or a BDM to be having these discussions at the new appointments that's going to.
Speaker 1:One thing that I sometimes say to people is sometimes it's about being different than being better, because then at the very start, when you're first seeing a client, you've got to showcase how you're different and then later on you show them how you're better. So, going into an appraisal, imagine there's three BDMs going into a property and they're all just talking about their fees and about this and about that, and then you've got the third person that comes in and actually starts talking exactly about the property and all of that. You are going to stand out in that first instant and what a much nicer conversation to have than talking about your fees and stupid stuff at their appointment. Like I'm just looking at the big impotential.
Speaker 2:You're spot on and it's why I get so excited about this and why I think God, all of this lay under the label sustainability and nobody knew right, like, don't think about it like that, right, just focus on the property. The other thing is the competitive advantage. Opportunities are so many, as well as the new business opportunities. So there's a new service the proper upgrade service before the property hits the management level right For an investor. Hey, there's none of these features. We really want to put these in before it hits it. This is going to make a big difference. It'll set you up. Or even having the three-year upgrade conversation, we want you to pick three out of five. You've got three years to do three, you know, out of this choice of five. But we need to start upgrading this property for your sake as an investor, because otherwise it's going to start to lose its attraction on the market and you're in here for a return. Remember, you need to, sir. You need to give that service. The other thing and why I set up Future Agent, which is a dedicated portal. So tools, insights and training for property professionals just about these features. I'm the little add-on piece, all the training you do. This is the little add-on and that's why we developed a half-day course just focuses on eight features. The principal can choose which features he wants everyone to. She wants everyone to upskill on, so it can be really targeted to your community.
Speaker 2:And what? Or the property knowledge no one in the team knows about, right, because you don't know what you don't know. And there's some education that you go, oh, you get so excited about at the end because you go, oh, my God, I can't look at a property the same anymore, right? So I think the competitive advantage is there. You're absolutely spot on the investor conversations. How fresh, how informed. But also, conversely, what if your investors start to say why didn't you tell me about this? I've got these energy efficiency things coming down the line everywhere, regular. Why didn't you? You're meant to know what's happening. I implore you to give me insights. What are you doing? Right? So we've got a duty of care to know what's coming. Because we're meant to be property experts, we have to know about property. Yeah, you know what's coming because we're meant to be property experts.
Speaker 1:We have to know about property.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I mean. It's sort of what are we doing if we're not knowing about property? What are we in it for?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, a lot of people would say we call it a glorified admin worker, which is what we're turning out to be.
Speaker 2:And I want and there's nothing more robust for all the technology that's always flowing through to challenge us than a person's personal property knowledge. There's nothing more compelling. People will lean in with a question and another question. You know where to direct them for more information. There's a specialised services you've got on offer here. There's nothing more compelling to be a true, trusted guide through change, and change is coming, so we have to not be afraid of change. If it's about a property, we have to embrace it first, not at the end of the day. I don't know where it became okay for us to get a list of things from a vendor that says you don't know about this. Here's some features about my property. Just say this how did that become okay and how can we charge them a higher fee for our services? We've let everyone else know more about property than us and I don't know how that happened.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's absolutely fascinating. If I wanted to, can you just touch on a little bit about your course? Because if, like I, want to do some training or have my team do some training, is it something that everyone, australia-wide, can do? And if, like anyone wants to upskskill today, can you sort of give those details?
Speaker 2:yeah, sure, so I'll put those in the. In the end of the thing, the beauty about this is that the training is um relative to the sort of climate pattern of where you guys are located. So, for instance, perth is heating and cooling matter. Equally, if you're doing the training in victoria and tasmania, it's a cooling climate, so you're wanting to focus more on what are the heating capabilities in this house? How can I make that conversation work? It's almost like a new take on location, location, location. What's the climate pattern of the city? What should I be having in my house, just to make sure I'm going to be able to respond and get to comfort quickly and without it costing a lot of money to get to comfort.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the training is I do it face-to-face. I'm developing some online courses, but I find that agents learn better face-to-face and they can start to ask crap loads of questions about their own house actually by the end of it. But I find we role play how to have the conversation and when. The beauty of this training is it's based on behavioural science by psychology that will tell you when and how to bring it into the conversation, because you don't lead with it right At a certain point in the conversation it's also and people go, oh my god, right, so it's, it's it's not just about the features, why they matter. It's almost like the next level of the training that I began with livability. It's almost like a master class in selling. It's like how to position it to maximize attraction and absolute engagement, connect that cost of living conversation and enable a quick decision.
Speaker 1:Okay, so not a course that you sort of like that's self-paced or you jump on.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be developing that, okay. So that's what I'm developing in the next few months. What I'm waiting for is that energy efficiency features standard to be finalised. I mean, I know already what they're likely to be. They'll be a basic set and an extended set. You know that even deals with, you know passive house certification and greenhouse, the GBCA, green home certification, like the really edgy bits. So when that's nailed then I'll map it, the online training, to that, and then you can do it self-paced.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and then for now they can book you in for some training for the team. So good, so good. I mean I just think that my thoughts are to everyone that's listening is that there is stuff that you can do today with, obviously, with the training. So definitely I will be jumping on board with that, but there is stuff that we can do today. We don't have to wait for it to be a compulsory regulation Like you can do stuff now because it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 2:And the one feature I'd focus on for everyone is what is a hot water system? Right, because hot water is 26% of the energy bill. Yeah, really. And a good hot water system a heat pump one or solar hot water really is going to make a difference to see that on a property listing. So have a look at the hot water system really. Start to take a photograph. Find out what the rating is of that. How old is it? Because it's probably only going to last about eight years. Make sure the next one is a more efficient one.
Speaker 1:I've actually got exactly that. I've got a solar. The owner's just deciding whether he's going to keep it or remove it and he's just we're being getting, we've been getting quotes, actually for the hot water system. So, yeah, that might be something that needs a bit more research into and because, yeah, they, they, we, we are the experts. They are relying on us to tell them, um, what would be the best option for it.
Speaker 2:So especially when so many of these lie in that emergency list and you've got 24 hours to do it right. So you, you just and I think that don't forget the conversation around depreciation and you know there's a hot water system and the heating and cooling like a reverse cycle split system is already on that list, so just check out okay, oh good, I'm so appreciative of your time, um.
Speaker 1:There is so much there, um, and yeah, I really really do look forward to working with you a little bit more for my business as well. But it's just great for these conversations to happen for everyone to hear, and when we start talking about stuff, it's just that front of mind. So that's really what I was wanting to get from this, is people just start thinking about it such an honor to have this podcast with you and to support you, ashley.
Speaker 2:You're such a powerful influencer. Your conversation, coffee and conversations have just become I mean. They're so great to participate in, and I just think this idea of community and connection is just so valuable and it's what gives us that. It's how we get to share knowledge and support each other, and I just think that's so important. So I'm very honoured to be a part of your world too.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Take care.
