Property Manager "Different"

Going back to the original question about ': Different' - I had a bit of a look about a year ago.

My thoughts at that time were that while the services at the time looked good - I too prefer a 'local'; and also that I still didn't get any particular sense of why I should transfer to them in comparison to any other agent?

From my (limited) research - I certainly didn't get any feeling that they had a lot of experience in property management.

ETA: in looking again, I still don't get that feeling ... all I can see is a IT business model!

 

Hi sorry for the late reply. I had a nice coffee at a posh hotel with their Melbourne agent. He was very knowledgeable in a "millennial entrepreneur " type way. I was all ready to sign up as I love the idea of an online portal for property management with all my properties managed in one place. Then i confirmed the fee for finding a new tenant at more than twice what any of my current managers charge . One of my properties, because of the type of property it is, seems to change tenants almost every year which on its own would wipe out savings of the lower monthly fee. So i declined.

I've now seen an ad from a similar looking outfit called Yabonza so I'll see what they have to say.

 

I dont think remote/offsite property managers will ever replace or overtake local property managers,

there is nothing more valuable than hands on, physical presence knowledge that can be over come with being remote

I could think of a million things a local PM would be better than a remote one who has never been to the area

 

Watch this for more info on Different.

Sounds like Uber for PM. I'm in tech myself but not sure how much value it brings to PM matters that are very local and hands on.

 

I've only watched 7 mins and that's enough to convince me my thoughts above were right about it being an IT business model.

I think if they want to build the PM business & prove their 'Different' model works, they need to sell the PM to landlords, not the IT!

 

Hello James Bond

Curious if you contacted Yabonza and the outcome?

Thx
Sha

 

spoken to Scott from ifferent yesterday to check him out.
he says the company started in 2017 in Sydney, expanded to Melbourne last year, and is newly starting in Brisbane.

He quotes he has about 20 properties managing in Brisbane currently, and about 700 properties under management so far in these 3 cities.

To me the IT part is probably good as a communication tool. I prefer quick communication response through IT rather than receiving phone calls (without ability to document the conversations), so I dont think it is a bad idea. I might try it out and will feedback to the group if I see any issues?!

 

Been happy with text and email from my pm. And thats interstate.

IT helps with scale and reach. Neither is that important with property management.

 

Hi Scott, let us know how you go

 

I hv tried to call them 3 times pretending to be a potential renter interested in inspection. Not once I hv been called back. Luv to hear ur experience Scott

 

I did contact Yabonza - I was told someone would call me back, they did, several weeks later. On that basis, I declined any further information as if they take weeks to return a sales inquiry I can only imagine they take a lot longer to respond to landlords or tenants.

 

Thx for reply. Back in May I had someone come out to a property on Central Coast (I believe from Sydney) & I think it was Yabonza, can't remember exactly now as I tried a few of this type of agency. Anyway, his appraisal was $150 per week 'under' that of 3 local agents.

Supports the argument for needing the local knowlege, regardless of his/their ability to conduct online research beforehand.

(Note: It was the company that offers low % fees & guaranteed rent on certain areas & higher fee for others).

 

I have spoken to one of the founders of Different. They sound like a cool bunch of people. Ruwin described their business to me as a "tech company that deals with real estate". As an agent and a developer, I thought that was cool. Their angle is all around automation and self-service - which is great to a certain extent and some landlords will appreciate it. Myself and my industry colleagues, however, have a natural dislike for such businesses because we know from our own experiences that the level of human care, comms, and decision making is more what (at least our own) landlords want and expect. Different will certainly have its market, but at the end of the day, if you want people over robots, unfortunately, they cost a little more.

 

@WarrenFromGeelongPM thanks for your insightful first post. Given you are on a property forum full of tenants, landlords, renovators, financiers, property managers, IT guys, admins, and numerous others of different talents and experiences (includling your good self), could you give us an idea, without wanting to state the bleeding obvious, how much that "little more" would be?

 

Sure Ted. I can't speak for the whole country, but in the market's I am familiar with being inner Melbourne, western Melbourne and Geelong, the market rate for a good property manager is 7%, 6%, and 8% of the rent respectively. That 6% in the western parts of Melbourne is funny one, however, because due to crazy discounting, it's hard for the good agents to be competitive and get anything above that. Many in the west will do it for 5% because of the competition from the cheap operators.

7% in inner Melbourne is the industry standard. This is what will be written on fee schedules etc. Some may try for more, but 7% is what PM in Melb costs. Good agents won't negotiate downward because they know they're worth it. Taking 6% is a 14% discount from 7% and with a whole portfolio of properties, at 6%, 14% of efficiency needs to be made up - usually by dumping more properties on one property manager.

8% in Geelong (where I am) is like Melbourne's 7% but due to lower rents, our market just needs a few more dollars.

When you think about it, your investment property is usually your largest or second-largest so giving it to the right people is so important. And in my experience, the discount agencies are simply paying their staff less which means the good PMs just don't work there. I've always chosen my mechanics, builders, doctors, furniture, food etc. based on quality, not price

(and sorry for getting a bit preachy on fees; our training business deals with hundreds of PMs across the country and we are always seeing burn-out in people because their directors and BDMs are signing up more and more discounted fees. Good PMs have amazing talent and I believe they should be paid what they are worth )

 

Oh, and I should have mentioned, it's not always about percentages either. If your property in Geelong is worth $200pw we would not negotiate on our 8% but if it was $2,000pw then of course we would. To run the business we need dollars, not percentages and good agents will know when they're charging TOO much - like 8% of $2,000

 

Well, @WarrenFromGeelongPM , it's not easy to argue with such a response.

Good call.

 

We never heard from Lawrie again?!

 

Hi All, I just posted a review on ifferent on another thread. I found this thread and thought I'd share my experience.

We have 4 properties with them, 3 in Sydney and 1 in Brisbane. We are currently overseas so thought that their low touch automated model might work for us - it hasn't. As some of you have noted, this is definitely an IT company first and foremost. I like the concept, it is a true disruptor with competitive monthly management fees ($100), but everything else has been a disaster.

They are a start-up from what I can gather, so customer service/responsiveness is practically non-existent. You don't have a property manager - there are 'departments' such as leasing, maintenance etc and they are based all over Australia (and Sri Lanka) from what I can gather, so no real local support for your property (interestingly, we have had better support from the folks in Sri Lanka than anyone based in Australia).

Their automated system has the makings of being effective, but there are fundamental flaws - eg, if you need something done (like new carpets) and you wanted a quote, there is no functionality to request a quote - you simply get sent an approval request for 'new carpet' with the only option being to approve/reject. We have been stung by the $500 maintenance requests without our approval several times - if you don't respond in their tool, tenant requests are auto-approved within 48hours. If you want more information before approving a maintenance request, you can email (and receive no response) but can't call anyone. The 'maintenance department' seems to consist of one guy who is constantly on leave. They recently approved a cleaning fee when we had specifically rejected the request - and we've since spent 3 weeks trying to speak to someone about them spending our money, without our consent. We've finally managed to 'schedule' a call with someone next week (all calls need to be scheduled 3-4 days in advance, these folks are BUSY!).

The most frustrating aspect is the lack of responsiveness/customer service etc. They might be OK if you had a very standard property with the same tenants for years and all Different had to do was collect and disburse rent on a monthly basis, but for anything slightly more complex than that, I don't think their model works.

The 'national head of leasing' recently told us that they don't provide a copy of the lease to the landlord. This was after we recently got a new tenant, had never seen a Different lease so asked for it, and then pointed out to them that our lease needed several special conditions in it about garden and spa maintenance, air-con etc - which, had they bothered to ask us, we would have told them. Again - they operate on a one-size-fits-all standard model, presumably to automate and drives costs down, but if your property is not exactly 'standard' then you'll be up for some frustration.

From our experience, we are of the view that sometimes, you get what you pay for

 

I am so sorry you have gone through this. But thank you for posting, I'm now very glad I didn't bite the carrot.