Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, guys, looking
at agencies reviews on Google.
So when you're looking atconsidering a real estate agent,
you look at the reviews.
It's a great platform, howpeople use it.
We're going to talk about ittoday.
Stay tuned, I'm the ringleader,so make it up.
(00:29):
Claire Whitt here.
Expert property manager of many, many, many, many, many years.
Great to have you on today.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good morning, I'm
good, I'm good, thank you.
I feel these winter months,though, are starting to, you
know, have an effect on the oldbody here I think I'm getting a
cold winter is coming winter iscoming, it sure is.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm sorry, not my
warm jumper on today, but to
handle this topic yeah, and goodluck to everyone who's had
these floods um north of newsouth wales.
Our thoughts with you guys.
I hear you in tari.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's a one in 500
year event wow, it's nuts, it's
crazy and it's a lot of elderlypeople I can see getting lifted
up out of these waters inchoppers and then it's terrible.
It's really hard on all thecommunity involved and, yeah, we
just hope everyone's safe forsure.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Stay safe.
Stay safe Now, cleo.
So we are a beautiful target.
We are the largest rentalagents, one of the largest
rental agents in Sydney,managing over 2 000 properties,
which includes probably four tosix thousand tenants.
Um, there, we have reviewplatforms like facebook.
(01:53):
We have review platforms likegoogle.
Um, we have lots of lovelyreviews.
Our hearts get broken when wedon't get a good review and, um,
we sort sort of it's, we talkabout it amongst ourselves
because everyone works in the inthe business, so hard,
genuinely so hard, and it sortof hits rock bottom when you get
(02:15):
a bit of a tough review,doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Look, it definitely
does, especially in property
management.
I think this wave of socialmedia has changed our industry
immensely, for good and bad.
When it comes to sales andreviews on, you know, google
platforms and things like that,it's usually to compliment the
(02:40):
agent and how amazing they'vebeen in selling their home and
getting a record price.
In property management, mostly90 percent of reviews are
tenants complaining of theoutcome of their tenancy.
So, as a property manager for16 years, I have had to take
(03:02):
tenants bonds, I've had toterminate tenants, I've had to
do the end cap.
Short of seeing people in thestreet and having a verbal stash
, which never happens, you doget the social media, um, you
know, backlash and you know it'scoming a lot of the time.
Um, we often, you know, jokearound, you know, in the office
(03:26):
with our fellow colleagues ohwell, just wait for my review.
Now, like I've, you know, I'vehad to do something that is not
favorable, um, as part of ourjob.
It's part of our job.
We don't.
We don't own all theseproperties ourselves.
It's not in our best interestin any way.
To you know, displace tenantsor take money or do things.
(03:47):
That's what we're paid to dosometimes, to make these tough
and hard decisions.
So, as a thank you, we do getthese reviews a lot of the time
you know that we feel are unjustand there's no platform for PMs
to write about what reallyhappens in a tenancy.
There's no google for PMs, toyou know, complain about all the
(04:12):
things that we deal with on aday-to-day basis.
So you know, we understand itand it's fine.
You have to be thick-skinned inthis industry.
You really have to not take itpersonal.
But even you know, during thisover 15 years, I still take it
personally.
I take every review personally.
Um, you take it home with youto your kids, to your husband.
(04:35):
You just go.
I can't believe this, like youknow, and my husband used to.
Now he's 15 years in.
He's like I don't want to hearit.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Like you know, and I
think it's look.
If you look at how it cleanedup the taxi industry or the Uber
industry like it's, thesereviews are fantastic because
they've really.
You know, you get a water in ataxi sometimes.
Now you know these guys aretrying real hard.
Do you know what I mean?
To?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
you know, yeah, uber,
yeah hard, do you know?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
what I mean.
Yeah, uber, it's produced abetter result.
And I think with real estateagents there's a certain amount
of bad news.
You have to deliver, sometimeson behalf of a landlord, and I
do see the reviews come through.
Look, they're not a lot, but Ithink when you've got 60 or 70
(05:24):
sets of tenants moving out and60 sets of tenants moving in,
you know it's.
You know, generally it's a it'sa harder thing to you know to
keep on top of.
But what I find is is the thingthat I love is whenever I see
this come through and willprobably be once a quarter you
know where there's somethingthat comes through and it's like
(05:45):
, oh, but what I love is seeingthe response come back from a
property manager in our agencywith the facts.
And so there goes somethinglike this, like I can't believe
this happened or that happenedand I was kicked out of my
property and I was told this andmy bond was taken.
And then you see the propertymanager's response with here's
(06:08):
the photo of the damage oh,here's the oven.
Here's the disgusting oven.
Here's the tenant burnt out theunit, the owner, the landlord,
which was the church.
Sometimes we have churcheswhere we act for churches and
stuff like that, whoever thelandlord has said this and the
(06:32):
facts come through and if youread the beginning and you read
the end, I think, as a consumerlooking at a review, you'll go.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I see the balance
story, but you're still left
with one star exactly, exactlyand you know everything we do is
recorded in the office.
We use our database software.
Every email, every notice,everything is recorded um every
photo.
We keep on file tenancy ledgers.
(07:02):
They're forever Like.
We can't fabricate our claimsin any way.
That's why when we go to NCATwe have to have real heavy
documents to support what we'resaying.
We're not just making thesecomments willy-nilly or just,
you know, making decisions forno reason.
But yeah, it is, it's part ofour industry.
(07:25):
It's tough.
Like you said, there's not alot of reviews um that come
through in the day-to-day um,and you know, in an ideal world
we'd love everyone to be happy,rainbows and flowers, but it
doesn't always happen that way.
Um, you know, the bond money isthe contentious point and
sometimes it's access forproperty where a tenant might
(07:46):
not know an agent's comingthrough, even though we send
letters and SMSs and we havesafeguards.
These things can put a tenantoff and they sometimes, you know
, think that it's on purpose orthat there's some agency
conspiracy involved purpose orthat there's some agency
conspiracy involved, and therereally isn't.
(08:07):
You know we're there to collectthe rent for the owner, give
tenants, you know, niceproperties to rent.
We try and help withmaintenance.
We, you know, we're placingpeople in homes and and we are a
caring bunch, you know.
So, at the end of the day, um,maybe keep that in mind when
you're reading some of thesereviews.
I don't know If it's somethingthat you like to do.
I personally don't.
(08:27):
I don't review at a restaurant.
I don't review.
I don't like a meal, I just go.
I'm not coming back to eat thismeal.
I'm just not one of thosepeople Like, I just don't and I
don't look at reviews when I goto book something.
I'm just not that person.
I just might ask a friend haveyou stayed here or have you
dealt with this person or thatperson?
That's fine for me, but I'm notgoing to go down that.
(08:50):
Yeah, I don't spend that muchtime online On the rabbit hole.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So I guess advice to
tenants out there and I find it
interesting because normally thereview doesn't come in when the
event happens, the bad reviewAfter they've moved into being
accepted, when you've given thema reference, you know, to go
into the new place, then comesthe review later.
(09:18):
It's like, oh seriously.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And sometimes you
look at some of these.
If a property was so bad or ascenario was so bad, why would
you stay there for 16 years?
yeah a long, long, long time.
There's break lease clauses,there's ways to get out of
things.
I've had many tenants that havefound a property not suitable
or the circumstance not suitableand it's like say love me,
(09:44):
let's do an amicable split.
Here's your money back, yourbond back, whatever back.
Everybody just moves on.
You wouldn't stay somewheresuch a long, long, long time if
it was that bad.
You know I think rents aregoing to.
You know they've played a bigpart in why you might stay,
because these rents in thisparticular one that we might be
(10:05):
talking about is the rent wasvery low not even comparable for
two bedded or one bedder.
So I you know you could savemoney in this property for many,
many years to buy and purchase,and some landlords are really
happy with that.
They nurture that.
They say you know what?
I have a few properties or Iinherited this property.
(10:27):
I want to be mother teresa andkeep the rent low for five years
for this person and it happensa lot we do.
I manage a lot of propertieswhere the owners always say no,
I don't want to increase thetenants.
Being really good to me, Idon't want her or him to
struggle.
Fair enough, you know, andthat's why you might stay in a
property where the garage dooris a bit creaky or the paint's a
(10:47):
bit yellow or this or that,because if you were to move,
you're gonna be paying four,five hundred dollars a week more
, um, for the amenities that youcurrently have or if you want
more amenities.
So I guess that's another thingI feel as well.
These new legislative laws aregoing to create more havoc.
I don't want to be the umgrinch or doom and gloom person,
(11:08):
but I feel like um if it'sharder for a landlord to want to
end a tenancy.
Now the tenants have even morecontrol and even more power in
that respect.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
So, um yeah, watch
this space yeah, it's going to
be interesting and I think thebest advice I can give out of
real estate agencies reviews isif you're looking, if you're
looking at a real estate agencyreview, just have a look at the
quality of the agent.
Read the whole review, read itfrom beginning to end, um,
because I think you'll you'llactually, on balance, then make
(11:40):
a balanced decision, rather thanthe opening comment, because
you see, one star openingcomment, oh shit.
But when you look at stuff likeours you'll see you know one
star opening comment and thenyou'll read the rest of it and
you actually see what happened.
We'll actually put photos inthere of the property in the
reality in there of the property, saying okay, thank you for
your review.
But you know, please consider X, y, z.
(12:01):
We're very factual andeverything's documented on those
reviews.
So read them all.
Look.
Would I change?
Not having the platform?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
No, I think the
review platforms are you would
PM, definitely would.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Look, I think the
whole google review things was a
necessary thing for people tohave their say.
Um, social media is another waythat people will get on there
and have a hack, um, but again,you know, we see the property,
we, you know.
When you get the rest of thestory, the balance story, it
sort of starts to make sense.
And I think you know the weightof um of of reviews, you know
(12:42):
always makes up.
But, um, a good agent is notasking for praising for their
reviews to be documented,they're just getting on and
doing a great job.
But I think a good agent thesedays is now actually saying you
know, I know, but you know, canyou also give me a review, mr
tenant, mr landlord?
Because we sort of we don'thunt them.
(13:03):
Um, I remember buying a car andthe way they hunted the review
from me was just like wow, andthey, and it was even.
I was even um what do you callit?
Not bred, um, I was combed or Iwas.
I was primed prior to thereview to say I knew, you know,
(13:24):
five star here and a five starthere, and then, when I did
something wrong with the review,they asked me to go back and
fix it.
And I was like, wow.
So there's a lot of efforts, alot of industries put a lot of
effort into into their reviews,and real estate agents are not
one of those um, but I thinkit's getting.
It's going to have to be thatway now in the future because
that's, you know, the reviewsystem's not going away well,
(13:45):
look at influencers.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's their whole
job, isn't it?
They're reviewing products andit's a living, breathing job,
but I think, for us as well,just knowing that we're
accountable.
We've been in our industry, inour work, for over 10, 15, 20
years, you know so it's not likewe've been in the, you know, in
the industry, in our work, forover 10, 15, 20 years, you know
so it's not like we've been inthe industry a couple of years.
(14:06):
So yeah, interesting Saltytenant reviews revenge or real
talk.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Thank you for coming
on today.
Claire, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Thank you, have a
great day.
Thanks Sage, take care Bye.