How A Property Management Head Of Department Keeps Clients Calm

We sit down with Sara Press to talk about what property management leadership looks like when you stay hands-on and still protect your team’s time, energy, and judgement. We dig into escalations, client psychology, and the shift from being a manager to being a leader as portfolios grow and legislation changes. 

• Sarah’s background in property management and her hands-on Head of Department role 
• How escalations start, how we triage them, and how we stop issues looping for weeks 
• Coaching property managers to bring facts, options, and documentation before we step in 
• Using legislation and clear record keeping to reduce risk and strengthen outcomes 
• Portfolio size, support layers, and how assistants smooth workload spikes 
• Handling owners who bypass the property manager and call the department head 
• Head of Department versus Operations Manager responsibilities and how they work together 
• Team capacity, culture, and why accessible “random leadership” beats formal one-on-ones 
• Personal boundaries that help leaders recover and switch off after work 

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Longreach

This podcast is sponsored by West Oz Trades.

West Oz Trades are the team to service and install your air conditioning systems in Perth Western Australia. WestOz Trades Air Conditioning Services | Perth, Western Australia

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Meet Sarah Press And Her Path

SPEAKER_00 0:04

All right, welcome to today's podcast. We have got Sarah Press joining us. Welcome, Sarah. Thank you. Hello, how are we? Good and good, good. I haven't uh met you before, so a very fresh face for me and and possibly the audience. And so we're just going to kick it straight off today with you. So just giving us or giving me as well, like a little bit of uh background in yourself, who you are, where you are working at the moment, and and all of that Jazz position you're in.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

All right, yeah, Nora. So for myself, I guess I started in this industry just over 20 years ago. And for most of that, so I'll say about 20 years of that, I've actually been in the property management side of things. Also, you know, in the background, I help with the business and the sales side of things too. But primarily my passion is the property management side. I work with the Barry Plant brand and been with them, and we're in the like in the Victoria region. I've been with them probably for about 15 years of this journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

So yeah. How how are you going with like your role at the moment? And I mean, it sounds like you do, you know, quite a bit. Are you would you say you're a BDM property manager head of department? What would you be? I would probably I would nominate head of department. Yeah. And head of department, are you also managing a small portfolio or you're like purely head of department?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

So purely head of department, but in saying that I'm very hands-on. Uh so it I'm I'm never not doing something in a portfolio capacity, whether it's helping someone out or taking that difficult client on, or um, I've just come out of a VCAT with a client where I stepped in and I assisted. And yeah, so I'm I'm always working on it, but I don't have a necessarily a portfolio to myself, but I'm here for my team in the sense of whenever they need anything, whether it's coverage or it's just circumstances that they don't know how to handle something new.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah. So

Handling Escalations Without Panic

SPEAKER_00 2:02

really interesting with like escalations and all of that inside businesses, you know, whether it's escalations with yeah, a complaint that's come through or difficult situation and circumstance. Do you find that with the escalations that come to you, are they generally because they are like just really curly, tricky ones that could be a risk to the business? Or are they, do you take them on to help relieve and relieve any stress if that is quite stressful for the property manager to handle, or is it a time thing so that they're not wasting time dealing with something that you can do? Like, does it fall into any of those categories?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I would say it probably falls into all of those categories. So one of them, yes, I will, I won't necessarily get it escalated to me, but if there's something that is taking a lot of time for one of the property managers, uh they'll come to me and I'm happy to assist them. So I'll actually sit with them in the background, give them the guidance, give them the advice, help them put together what they need to in order to, I guess, sort of try and shut down that conflict or that dispute that's happening before it does formally escalate to me. So what you find most of the time is by the time it does formally escalate to me, I already know the situation because I'm there with the team trying to guide them because it's a learning process as well for them to next time it comes around, they might be able to handle it and it doesn't escalate to me. So then by the time it does escalate to me, but also the those curly ones from a risk management side of things too, you know, where where we need to actually make sure we're doing our due diligence and our record keeping and all that sort of stuff to make sure that you know you are giving correct advice and guidance and so on, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

What size portfolio do you guys have?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

So the property managers run anywhere between sort of 180 to 200, in saying that we do have they don't they do end-to-end, but not necessarily a complete end-to-end, because we do have like a leasing department that'll take care of all that leasing side of things, a BDM department, and we do have some assistants who also, you know, will work in and guide and move around where they're needed within the business at the time. So they're not necessarily assigned to specific tasks. But let's say you've got a property manager and for some unusual reason those routine inspections just all happen, you know, instead of having 30 in a month, there's 60 in a month for some unusual reason. It's just the way it's fallen. Then, you know, one of those assistants will actually pitch in and help cover those items, or same with you know, rent review, lease renewal processes and that. So the assistants are there in the background to help throughout all the portfolios where it's actually required to ensure you know the tasks are still being done in a timely manner.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah. It's so good to there's there's so many layers of this because, like for property managers and for clients, I think it's really important that they have someone that they can escalate things to when they need to. And I think it's important for clients as well to know that if there is an issue with, you know, if they can't get hold of anyone in the office, then you know, there is another point of call if they have to to go. I I think for me with the escalations, I try to sort of stress to other agencies that you do want your team to be managing like, you know, 80, 90, even more percent of it. Like you do, you it's a real fine balance, isn't it? Because you want them to learn and you don't want them just to handball problems over, um, which can sometimes happen in some offices. But with us, we so I've also got an agency and we've got just over 1200 properties under management. And I would probably say like serious the serious escalations come to me, and that's more just when it's either like just not going anywhere and it's going around in circles, or if it's becoming a bit of a risk to the business, or maybe it could easily be solved as well, like financially. And so those I would probably say, and I probably should document the number, but I but I feel like emotionally and mentally, I feel that I probably only get one a month, like of the serious, serious ones. I mean, um yeah, I still get between but serious ones, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Something of a genuine nature. I will actually say they are actually few and far between. Yeah. But that I do take in my style of management more of a learning process with the team because the idea is that you don't handle what like what have you done? You're coming to me with an issue. Do you have what I need to review ready to go in order to give you the advice? Who have you spoken to about it? Where have you tried to get the advice from? Okay, now let's put this together because it's more of a learning curve so that next time they come up against it, they already have the answers, they already know how to handle it, in which case it will de-escalate immediately.

unknown 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

We um I try to like also teach the team that you know, if something, if something's going around taking too long or causing too much stress and it can be resolved for a couple of hundred dollars, you have authority to just do that. Like, do not come to me, just do it. And I'm finding it really hard for them to take on that autonomy, they still want to ask me, and I'm like, you don't need to, but like this is the budget. I I really struggle with that.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, I think that's a hard one too. I guess it depends on the agency you work for, too. I mean, I when I say to them, you know, what is the problem and what is the solution? If there is a genuine problem and something that is of a genuine nature, where, yeah, look, we could have done something slightly better, but it didn't actually create the issue, but there's something we could have. Well then, you know, take ownership of it and let's see, you know, what we can do because it it's about keeping good relationships. And we've been around a long time, and a lot of our owners have been with us a long time, and that's even we've got renters who've been in properties with us for 20 years, too. You know, our clients have been around with us for a long time. So it's about maintaining those relationships, especially when the issue comes around, because what you find most of the time when you get down to the actual nitty-gritty of the issue, it's not actually some it's the the what the reason it's arisen is a stress outside of what's actually happening here.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Always, yeah, always.

Long Term Clients Who Skip Staff

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Do you ever find having like really long-term clients, do you ever find that sometimes they try to bypass a property manager and come straight to you?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

And how do you handle that if they do? Yeah, all the time, because I'm very hands-on. A lot of owners just do know me and know my number and that too. So it it is very much a case of if they're coming to me, I will always speak to the property manager and say, Hey, I've got a I've got a message or you know, something from you know this client, you know, what would they possibly be calling me about? Then they'll let me know and I'll I'll determine then whether or not it's worth my return call. Or if I say, Look, you give them a call back and just say, Hey, look, Sarah's asked me to give you a call, because I'm the best person that would probably handle what you're currently looking for, you know, sort of thing. So I'll always go to I'll always go to the property manager first to find out what they're possibly calling me about, and then I'll determine whether or not, yes, look, it needs me to reply, or we just need to sort of redirect and put it back to them. And I will say kudos to our lovely receptionists because they will people will just call up and say I want to talk to Sarah. And they'll actually say, no worries, and you know, your name, oh, you're the owner, or you're the tenant, no worries. And can I just grab a message and what it's in relation to? And then they'll actually direct it to the property manager if it is just a property management question. Yeah, yeah. Kudos to them because they will screen those and divert them to the correct person. But yeah, because I they will hear from me, like if a property manager is away on leave, you know, I might be the person that you know they get a call to say, Hey, look, I've just heard your hot water services. You know, can we get something actioned about it? Can I get my plumber out there? Can we do this? Because they're hearing from me in someone's absence. And I don't know, it's exciting to know you're the head and you're in charge, you're you're like you're the person at the top and you're handling this all of a sudden, you become the person they always remember, even though they've literally had this property manager for the last six years.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

It's so true. And uh one thing that I've also noticed as well with clients is that you know, the property manager could be telling them the exact right thing, but then when you tell them they listen to you more, and where we've actually been not caught out, but I can it was recent where I had written an email for the property manager and said, I want you to send this to the owner, like be strong, like this is the email to send. Literally was my email. She sent it off. He responded back ceasing me going berserk, like going berserk on this email. And I had to turn around to him and say, actually, I instructed that. That's my email that I've asked her to send. Like just to like, because people just the way that they receive emails, it's really interesting from a mindset point of view. They can read an email one way if they think it's from that person, and they can read it a different way when it's from that person. It's incredible the way the brain does that.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

That's right. I think they think that level of escalation, then it causes you know finality on what the actual answer is. So I'm not going to get any further. Without actually understanding, chances are they've already consulted with us, and what they're telling you is correct because that's what we have advised them. And most of the time when I'm, you know, guiding them in that way, like I'll say to the property managers, put the facts behind it. Say, you know, per the legislation, you know, this section or something, this is the guidance, this is the recommendation, this is what you need. So that and then when it does eventually come to you, you're basically just saying, look, yes, look, I'm aware of the situation because they actually consulted with me on that. They have provided you the correct information. But I think that's important too for staff to know that you've got their back.

unknown 12:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah, 100%. Uh the conversations that have come up in sort of my network recently is the people's understanding of what a header department role is in comparison to a maybe an operations manager. A header department for you, what

Head Of Department Versus Operations

SPEAKER_00 13:18

would you consider the roles and the duties are of a position?

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Oh, yeah, well, okay. So in my capacity as head of department, I guess it's probably more expanded than normal header departments because I do a bit more with the business side of things as well. So I don't just manage staff and those sorts of things. I'll actually review, audit, you know, the business, the KPIs, the revenue structure, all that sort of stuff. So and that's a constant review. You you sort of do that every three to six months, you know, things change all the time. You know, we're coming into new legislation, which is gonna add workloads. And now we need to review is our structure working? Do we need to possibly put someone else in a position? Do we need to reduce the portfolio slightly to allow the extra administrational time for it? How is my organizal organizational chart going to work to make sure that we're still providing top-tier service, you know, with all these changes that are coming in? So as a head of department, I don't think uh one of those things is people used to say, department manager. I don't think you can be managers anymore. Managers, people who just used to manage their staff. That's no longer an aspect, you know. 2020 came around, everybody got forced into you know these lockdowns, and we all had to become very tech savvy. Everything got very tech savvy, then all these changes started occurring for us. So you change from being a manager to now, if you're a head of department, you have to be what I would call a leader, which means that you're you're leading people, you're making sure your developments there in your systems and operations and your processes and your procedures, that you've got the training that's happening for them. You know, you're not just reviewing to say, hey, look, I've been looking at your portfolio and your arrears are too high. What are you doing about it? You're not doing that anymore. You're now having to look at, okay, the arrears are too high. What is causing this? What can we do to implement it and make it better and for you? Because it's clearly an issue that is occurring. And most of the time, you know, it's it's not something that's any longer an individual. It's almost a department-wide thing. So versus the operational side of things, where I will then go to like an operations type manager and say, hey, look, these are the training aspects, the development, the processes and procedures. This is everything that is now going to be coming up and we're going to have to put in place. I need you from an operations side of thing to work with me now on how what we're going to develop to be able to implement to make these processes work. Do you have an operations manager in the business as well? Yes, we do. Yeah. So she does a lot of that background software. So she works with us and we say, look, I need to know this, this, and this, or I have this process, then it needs to work this way. You know, what can we do to make a job not a job?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

And then and then she'll actually look at those operations and help, you know, create what we need to ease the stress of a manual task, maybe become a task that could be assisted with, you know, some form of AI or a process and a system where, you know, you're you're filling in a checklist, but maybe the checklist automatically spits out to the next people in line for those task managements, rather than then having to forward emails and all that sort of stuff. So the operations manager sort of assists with the actual operations in the background. And as the department head, it's more of a leadership in understanding what your team and you need, what the future holds and how that's going to change, and making sure you're ready for it.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

And how many do you how many property managers are you responsible for in your team?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Individual I never think of it as individual PMs, I think it is a team. We've got a team of about 18. Okay. But that goes across like you know.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

So offshore is saying offshore and onshore.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

No, so we don't actually have we don't do offshores for the rental department. Everybody is onshore. And so that that is from so we have about just under 1800 properties. Yeah. And that is from, you know, rental administration, leasing, BDM, property managers, assistance support across it. So including me as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I think doesn't get spoken enough about is how many like people, like what is the capacity for a headed apartment to manage from a people point of view? It doesn't get spoken about. And I've had this like like and I see the reason why it's come up is because I see some businesses where they're hiring for a head of department and they've got like two property managers. I'm like, you don't need a head of department for two property managers. But then it got me thinking, well, at what point do you need a head

Team Capacity Culture And Random Leadership

SPEAKER_00 18:22

of department? So if we could just sort of touch on that a little bit, like, because I feel like that's a lot of people for you to look after.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah, I think head of department, look, I think with two, you possibly could have a head department. It's just how the role of a head of department develops as you grow, maybe. Um, so yeah, if you've got two and you're getting a head of department, then yeah, I probably would have the expectation that your head of department's taken on some responsibilities, such on the growth side with you know, BDM work and you know assisting with absence and all that sort of stuff. But then I think when you get possibly to the size that we've got, it becomes more of a leader, leadership side of things where you don't have the time to, you know, do a routine or do, you know, make, you know, take half an hour out of your day and and do, you know, six CMAs to send out in relations to rent increases and that sort of thing. It becomes more of a all of a sudden ensuring it's just working, you know, that there's no issues. A lot of it comes down to actually people managing, making sure people are happy, your own staff are happy. Thing is, good culture, that sort of thing. You know, we had a breakfast just this morning as well for no good reason, just a brunch. Here's some food, give us your coffee order, let's all get together. Thanks very much. Off with your day. Hopefully it remains good.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

I I'm I'm gonna have a just an absolute guess, and you know, I'm gonna say that 18 is a lot, but I think that you are incredibly experienced that you are in a different kettle of fish and it wouldn't be normal for someone to be able to handle would that do you think that would be a fair comment?

SPEAKER_01 20:12

It's it probably is a fair comment, and it wasn't always that way. When I originally became a head of department, you know, I had five property managers. Okay, yeah, you know, and that was five property managers across 800 properties. So yeah, at that level, I was still managing a portfolio assisting with BDM work whilst doing the other stuff. But you know, as you grow and develop, then there's skills you'll learn. Yeah, yeah. They're not skills you necessarily get, but they're skills you'll learn mostly from just the experience. You know, you don't learn it until you've had to experience it.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah. I've got a um, I've done like a little rough calculation on how many, how many emotional hours each person needs. And I, and so based on that, I think that each person, and it's unspoken, but unspoken, I think each staff member or each team member needs about two hours per week of just that emotional, like whether it's phone calls or having a chat or whatever it is. So I'm just doing the calculations because based on 18 people, that is literally a full-time job, just emotionally balancing a team. That's not doing anything else.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

No, and I pretty much I'm very much someone who believes you've got to be accessible as a leader to your team. Yes, yes, and my door's always open, I'm always here. I think part of the way I get around that too is that if I am somewhere in the morning, I will always first thing I'll do is I will find them and I will say hello and I will have a quick chat for them with them, and absolutely nothing to do with work. And then I will, and like you're saying, that's that emotional side of things where I've just, you know, may it might only be for five or ten minutes, but I've removed them from their situation before they move into it. And for no other reason than to just lighten what is what is to come for the rest of the day. Because most let's face it, property management is a very negative job. It's you know, there's not much positive about it. I mean, most of the time people only call you when there's a problem, but you're only calling someone else when there's a problem, and you're the person in the middle when there's two people on either side. Of you who can't make an agreement. So it is a very negative job. So you do need to constantly, and I will just throughout the day pop around the team, go, anyone got any questions? Anyone need any help? You know, I'm here now, ask me now. Because in order for me to find the time of my day, I've found it easier to make those sudden drop-ins, answer any questions, and then remove myself from it again.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

I love that so much. And it's you're you're so aligned with the way that I sort of think and do as well, because I actually call that random leadership. And I and I've got this, you might do one-on-ones. I don't actually like one-on-ones, and I don't like the formal meetings because I'd rather be accessible and I would rather that random leadership where it is just dropping in because that's when people need it more, not at a 11 o'clock on a Monday morning. Maybe they don't have problems at 11 o'clock on a Monday morning when you sit down for your one-on-one. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

That's right. I hate one-on-ones. One-on-ones for me, when you are saying you've come into the industry and you're green. One-on-one is because I'm I'm teaching you something at that time. We're spending time together and you're actually learning. I don't think one-on-ones are necessarily helpful. I think if you've got a problem, say a KPI that's out of whack, you know, then it's better just to randomly go, hey, look, this is out of whack, let's catch up. This is your one-on-one. We're actually going to go over this workflow and see what we can do or what you're possibly not doing that you should be doing that's going to make your life easier. It's about making your life easier. It's not actually, we're not here, we're here to reward. That's what makes it, I think, a better work experience too, because it is already a negative job. So you don't need, you don't need your workplace being more negative about it by saying you're not achieving something. Okay, we're not achieving something. Why aren't you achieving it? And what can we do to help you achieve it?

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah, absolutely. A final question for you. Given that you do look after a big team and even sort of more clients as well, what do you do to look after yourself, whether it's sort of outside of work or just for your respite? Because obviously you're getting all that energy. I'm just thinking of all this energy that comes to you. You have to go, you have to be doing something to release.

Boundaries And Recovery Outside Work

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yeah, well, I guess I'm a pretty pretty chill person in general. Yeah, but um, I will say, like I on weekends I do have a place that I get away to, like a farm, which is a totally it's all it's work, it's just as much work, if not more work, but it's a different kind of work as well. I do have a strict rule, you know, if we're on if we're sitting around eating lunch or anything like that, or it's it's maybe some of the team are doing some stuff together after work or on a weekend or something like that. We don't talk about work. And I will actually sit there, excuse me, I'm eating lunch, no work talk. I don't want to hear it. Tell me 20 minutes, you know, stop it, stop it for yourself, stop it for me. And I guess too, I go home at night and my husband does not ask me about work because I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

You know, when I live here, it stopped here.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah, love that so much. Amazing. Sarah, what a pleasure to speak to you. It's so nice to uh connect with you today and find out a little bit more. And so I appreciate you sharing that. I think those sort of those types of conversations are just good for other people that are head of departments, just to hear, you know, how someone else deals with it, what they do, and if it's aligned with how they're doing it or if there's tweaking, you know, that they need to do as well inside their role. So I appreciate your time. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Thanks. It was nice to meet you, Ashley.