Another Award Winning Harcourts Queensland Team

After only nine months since commencing business operations, Harcourts Townsville Kirwan have been awarded Property Management Team of the Quarter for the final two quarters of the year, rounding it out with equal first Queensland Property Management Team of the Year. Impressive enough…they finished off the year with third place in category of  Harcourts National Awards Property Management Team of the Year. An extraordinary achievement in such a short time.

Rebecca (Bec) McIntyre has proven that with persistence and consistency building a business through natural growth is achievable. Bec has assembled a loyal team Michelle, Aaron and Kendal, who together with Bec worked towards their strategic business goals to create growth and provide a recognised leading edge service to their market area.

Bec and the team have proved that with clear focus and belief you can create a driving force that will build business and market profile.

Congratulations Bec and the team at Harcourts Townsville Kirwan. I am so proud of your achievements and awards.

Harcourts Property Management Queensland – National Awards Trifecta

Last week, we were all motivated and inspired by world class presenters and trainers at our annual Harcourts National Conference held in Adelaide, South Australia. Three days of hectic pace, dawn to almost dawn each day, but so well worth it and always a highlight of my calendar.

Lots of wonderful messages and lessons learnt and I will blog more about that later. I have something far more exciting to blog about now and tell the world about our incredible Harcourts Property Management Teams in Queensland.

The National Conference always concludes with the National Awards Gala. It’s a night of ‘Glitz and Glamour’. A time to party and celebrate our success and achievements from the previous year. A time to reflect on our goals.  Did we achieve them? Did we just miss or targets? A time to be inspired by the achievements of our colleagues and peers.

For me, it was a time to be proud and humbled of the results of Harcourts Queensland property management teams. This year they have united as one, friendly rivalry yet fierce competition between the teams. They understood the power of goal setting, living by the Harcourts Values and striving every day to do better…and always maintaining their integrity and professionalism.

Their smart work, goal setting and team spirit payed off. Harcourts Queensland produced the top 3 National Property Management Teams.

Congratulations to the teams at:

Harcourts North Lakes/Mango Hill – Number 1 Property Management Team in Australia

Harcourts Redcliffe - Number 2 Property Management Team in Australia

Harcourts Townsville-Kirwan - Number 3 Property Management Team in Australia

Gosh I am so proud of you all. You shared your gaols and dreams with me. You aspired to be the best and stayed true to your goals. Well done Teams…you’re all incredible and I am delighted to be part of such amazing teams. Here’s to ongoing future successes and well deserved awards and recognition.

Introducing…Harcourts Queensland Property Management Team of the Year 2009

Team Harcourts Noth Lakes/Mango Hill accepting their award from Aaron Brooks, CEO Harcourts Queensland and Jo-Anne Oliveri, Operations Manager

Harcouts North Lakes/Mango Hill Property Management Team of the Year 2009

 

Saturday May 9th was also a very special day for two of our Harcourts property management teams. We had for the first time dual winners, with there achievements being so close it was difficult separating them.

Our first winners are Team Harcourts North Lakes/Mango Hill lead by business owner Paul Considine. Our dedicated team strived to achieve Platinum by the end of the year. They achieved their goal. Combining a strategy of building through acquisition and natural growth, they doubled their business and team in one year. They are now the dominant agency and service provider in their market.

As the team has grown, Paul, Brett, Liz and Paula have built a team of loyal and dedicated property managers, who know and understand the strategic objectives of the company and work towards achieving them. Their award is testament to their commitment to achieving.

Paul has been an active member of the Harcourts Property Management Fellowship since its inception in 2008. The Fellowship Team work diligently together to bring about change in our industry and to ensure we have loyal commiteed teams all striving towards the same objectives. Growth. Client Service. Client Loyalty. Team Loyalty. Brand Protection. Consistency. And…enjoyement of their chosen career path.

Harcourts NorthLakes/Mango Hill was up against some very strong competition with many teams working hard to be recognised at our Awards Gala and be awarded such a prestigious title.

Congratulations Paul and the team at Harcourts North Lakes/Mango Hill…you deserved your win and good luck for another very successful year.

Gail Young – Harcourts Queensland Property Manager of the Year

Gail Young – Accepting her award

Jo-Anne Oliveri, Gail Young and Maryanne Sheehy

Gail Young and Paul Considine – Our treasured Annual Winners

Gail Young (Harcourts Quuensland Property Manager of the Year 2009) Jo-Anne Oliveri, Paul Considine (Team of the Year) Maryanne Sheehy (Delight Business Owner)

A very excited and surpprised Gail Young named Harcourts Queensland Property Manger of the Year

A beautiful winner!

Congratulations Gail Young, you are a very special lady, dedicated to your clients, loyal to your team and true to your high standards, ethos and values. Gail’s goal and determination to ‘make a difference’  is achieved on a daily basis and is quite clearly evident from the incredible testimonials from clients and team.

Gail Young was announced Harcourts Queensland Property Manager of the Year 2009 at a gala event in Brisbane on Saturday night. She was gracious in her acceptance of such a deserved award and recognition. Gail is located in our Harcourts Kawana office on the Sunshine Coast. Her dedication to her role and responsibility has seen her, with the support of her business owners, Maryanne Sheehy and Malcolm Low, more than quadruple their business in two years.

In fact each year they are doubling their business through natural growth. Their attention to customer service, following procedures and maintaining standards has seen them grow ever increasing market share and strong market profile.

Gail’s clients are not just clients, they are friends. Gail has an amazing ay of making everyone feel special…now isn’t that what property management is all about?

We are so proud and grateful to have Gail as an integral part of the growth of Harcourts Property Management services. She is also part of the Fellowship and continues to add value to every person who is lucky enough to have Gail touch their lives.

Well done Gail…you are indeed a very special lady and deserved your award in every way.

Meeting the Press

Weeks are flying by and my quest to post three blogs a week is not too successful at the moment. It’s all about priorities and since our very successful Symposium and launch of our ground breaking initiatives in March I have spent my life on the road.

All is wonderful though…busy but wonderful.  Although I must say I am eagerly looking forward to a couple of weeks getaway, (to the USA of course) in July and spending some time with my children.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to meet the press. One of our regional business owners sent my a journalist’s column in December where the journo bagged and rubbished our industry about how poorly we treated tenants. In January he followed that up with another column of disparaging comments and opinions about our industry.

Enough was enough for me, a quick phone call and a promise that when I was next in town we would have coffee and a chat. Yesterday we had that coffee and a chat. He, Daniel is his name, came along looking somewhat nervous (and so he should be after what he wrote   ). His belief was that property managers are a bunch of dragons and evil witches.

Taking along one of our business owners, who is also head of the property management division and very active in management of clients and properties, it didn’t take Daniel long to change his opinion of our industry. He realised that we in fact don’t go to work every day to antagonise our clients and in turn have a bad (horrible) day ourselves. Daniel also realised that we indeed have a personality…a kind and caring one, good business sense and don’t have an attitude towards tenants.

Daniel also was made aware of some of the dangers we face in day to day interaction with clients whose emotions sometimes run riot and sometimes dangerously explosive putting our teams safety in jeopardy. And…I made sure that Daniel realised that if he continues to write such biased columns, then indeed our clients will already have formed an opinion that comes along with an ‘bad attitude’ towards us. They believe everything he writes and so adds fule to their fire and we have a stand off before our relationship with them is even off the ground.

Time to cut some slack and show another side to or role and the people that CHOOSE to work within the industry. Not only was he sympathetic and empathetic he was also very interested to reveal what goes on and we have a a new article being written demonstrating our roles and the importance of what we do. ‘A Day in the Life of a Property Manager’.

It seems that the minority has cast disparaging and biased opinions of our industry, and their voices have been strong. Time for us to stop sitting back and putting up with it…time to take action, meet the press and reveal who we are and how much we care and how important we are within our communities.

Bond Loans…Accept or Not???…A Touchy Subject!!!

Yesterday during training we had a discussion on whether or not agents should accept bond loans on rental properties.  Professionally we recommend non acceptance of bond loans.

To clarify for those from other locations, in Queensland the Department of Housing, provides tenants loans to pay the bond, which is equivalent to four weeks rent. There are similar schemes in other Australian States and overseas locations. To receive the bond loan you need to meet a certain criteria, which is a rather simple criteria in order to qualify.

Now this may upset some people, as was the case yesterday in my training session. This particular point has been included in my training for the past three years and has never caused such a heated discussion as it did yesterday.

Personally I recommend that Managing Agents adopt a policy of non acceptance. Whilst working  in a real estate agency, we  introduced this policy when we analysed our results and discovered that a high percentage of defaulting tenants were those that had bond loans.

In introducing the policy we did not detract from our ability to lease our properties under management and we most certainly developed a high standard of tenancies. Our lessors were more than happy with our policy of non accpetance of bond loans. We discovered that tenants who really did want a property managed to put together enough money to pay their bond.

The bond money is there money, or sometimes a family members money. Due to the fact that the money was their own money, or a relatives, the ‘pain’ factor if they lost their money was far greater than if it was simply money from the Government that if they defaulted and lost the bond, could pay back over a period of time that suited their level of income, and this could be over years.

There is relatively little protection for the agent or the property owner. Yes the Government will honour the bond, but consider the managing costs with high numbers of defaults and breaches.

Naturally in recommending this policy, it is also reasonable to be flexible and that is look at each case individually, there may be times when due to circumstances a tenant’s bond loan can be considered.

I would love your feedback…and comments. What is right and wrong, sensible or not???

Change…It’s a Blessing!!!

As I drive around all over the State with my trusty SatNav, I have reflected on how change has been such a positive in my life and career. My thoughts are no longer focused on looking out for the next street and finding the street I want only to find the turn is illegal, my SatNav is doing a great job guiding me around the city and regional areas.

I have relaxed and learnt to trust my SatNav but I must admit, it took me a while to trust it. When I first got it, I would be driving to places I was very familiar with and thought I knew the best route. I would ignore the direction it was telling me to go and travel in the direction I knew and thought was best. My poor lady in the SatNav…I call her Rhoda…would continually have to recalculate my route. I kept her busy. I did not completely trust the system…or her.

A couple of weeks ago when Richard Flint was in Queensland to present at our Symposium I was driving him around and decided to take the scenic route out of Brisbane to the Gold Coast, instead of the motorway that is quite boring…and has way too many trucks and semi trailers. My SatNav kept recalculating and telling me to do ‘U’ turns. I continued to ignore it and Richard felt that Rhoda was getting quite annoyed with me….she was becoming quite persistent and vocal in her commands.  We both thought a fist would come shooting through that screen any second and her calm voice would launch into a tirade of abuse. Rhoda remained calm…however little did we realise that she had revenge in mind. When we reached the Gold Coast, Rhoda told me to turn left. I looked at Richard and told him that would be sending us in the wrong direction, but decided to follow as I wasn’t 100% sure of the roads. Rhoda took us in a circle and when we got back to our starting position of the circle she directed us forward.  How did she do that and why did she take us in a complete circle? Apart from the fact Richard and I cracked up completely, I thought  I better start listening to her, she a revengeful little SatNav if she is ignored…lesson learned.

I started to let Rhoda take me in her direction on familiar routes, I listened and guess what…the route was much better. This week has been a breeze driving around in areas where I would normally be totally lost.  Allowing change in my life has freed me to reflect on other things, not waste my time being lost or having to work out routes through a street directory. This small change and relatively inexpensive technology has certainly had a significant impact for the better on my life and work.

Sometimes we fight and resist change without even thinking about how it will improve our lives and the way we do things. This simple lesson has helped me so much with understanding the benefits of change.

Ahhh…technology…I love it.

Satellite Navigation

Since our Harcourts Symposium, I have taken on the enormous task of visting each and every Harcourts franchise across Queensland. There is just over 100 and I’m into week 2 at the moment. My schedule of visits will take me until June 5th to complete, with a break in May to attend our Harcourts National Conference in Adelaide, South Australia.

My run is much like when I was working at agency level in property management. Grouping franchise together in one day and working out the best most efficient route to get around. I have one vital difference now however, well two actually. The first is, I’m not working in one area as I did when carrying out routine inspections, so the distance between franchises can be vast and the second is because it’s not my market area I don’t know link roads and short cuts to cut down on excess driving from suburb to suburb.

Yesterday I discovered just what a fantastic tool my satellite navigation system was. Normally I have my street directory out and post it notes around my steering wheel whilst I drive around counting streets and traffic lights only to turn at the last minute causing a blast of horns and finger salutes from drivers who obviously weren’t paying attention in the first place anyhow  It use to be stressful and at times frustrating. Driving slowly, then driving fast to make up for lost time, stopping to check my street directory, looking for a safe place to pull over and having tantrums in my car because I would get so ridiculously lost and of course replying back to anyone who made the effort to salute me  with my own little salute back to them. (Plus I would tell them exactly what I thought of them…always have to acknoweldge people, I was taught!!!     ) Not any more…now that I have my SatNav.

How efficient does this make our ‘on the road’ life? Extremely efficient. Yesterday I went on roads I didn’t even know existed and if I looked at my street directory I wouldn’t have worked out that I could take such easy direct routes (ok…ok…I am a female after all!!!). Yesterday I decided to completely trust my SatNav and just let the ‘lady’ call out directions…’in 5oo meters turn right…in 2oo meters turn right…turn right, turn right’. Ahhhh…it was ‘golden’. No stress, no getting lost and no pulling over or trying to read which ‘post it’ I should be reading next.

The little system even tells me how long to get there and distance. It makes planning a breeze and driving a dream…especially in my cute little 350Z.

So, for a couple of hundred dollars for anyone who’s on the road covering lots of distance, I reckon you can’t go past a satellite navigation system, even for you own market area. The lady in that thing is clever, she knows routes I would never have dreamed of taking and can save you heaps in wasted petrol driving around lost…not to mention less wear and tear on your vehicle…and TIME.

Operation – Resuscitation

The opening of our 2009 Harcourts Queensland Property Management Symposium

Operation – ‘Resuscitation’
Breathing New Life into Our Industry

It’s the Simple Things That Matter

Today as I lay fighting off this wretched flu and trying to work out which topic from the Symposium to write first about through my fuzzy head, an email popped into my inbox. Its message was simple yet so meaningful and one that we tend to forget about in our quest to get bigger and better. It really is the simple things that matter.

Who Was That?

This isn’t like other quizzes. You don’t need a pen and paper. The point isn’t the answers, the moral is in what we lose sight of….

1. Name the 5 wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last 5 Brownlow Medalists.

3. Name the last 5 winners of the Miss Australia contest.

4. Name 10 people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer
    prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for
    Best Actor or Actress.

6. Name the last decade’s worth of Grand Final winners.

How did you do? Not so easy to recall was it?

The point is, none of us remember the headlines of yesterday. These are no second rate achievers. They’re the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Now here’s another set of questions. See how you do on this group.

1. List 3 teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name 3 friends who have helped you through a difficult
    time.

3. Name 5 people who have taught you something
    worthwhile.

4. Think of 5 people who have made you feel appreciated
    and special.

5. Think of 5 people you enjoy spending time with.

6. Name a half dozen heroes whose stories inspired you.

Easier? Much simpler to recall, in fact it even takes you back in time to the actual place.

The lesson?

The people who make a difference in your life aren’t the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They’re the ones who take the time to care.

Client Service is everything!!! Take time to care.