18 Dec Changing team mix

The teams and their structure, rewards, partnerships and mergers.

Topic – The big moves of 2018

Mentor – John Knight

• The shift to outsourcing
• The big risk teams
• Park your ego

Property Management Matters with Tara Bradbury – Take time to reflect.

Transcript:

Kevin:   Returning once again is our mentor this week, John Knight from Business Depot, specialists in real estate, accounting, coaching, legal, and broking. Yesterday, an interesting conversation about the changing market, the changes that are happening in the rent roll market. What about the team mix, John? What are you seeing there? Good morning.

John:   Morning, Kevin. Yeah, I’m seeing a real shift in the makeup of a team of a real estate business these days. And this is irrespective of whether you’re sales-focused or property management-focused or even got some other adjacent service thrown in the mix, like strata or holiday lettings and those types of things. I’m seeing a real change in the team mix. And one of the big catalysts is offshoring. We’ve see this year a big lift in the number of people using offshoring, or really cranking up the amount of offshored resources they have available to them. And I know a great supporter of real estate uncut, Beepo, they’ve had some amazing growth within the real estate sector. But there’s lots of those providers out there … different ones have different offerings. But it doesn’t feel like that offshoring is just for the early adopters anymore. I think we’ve moved into that early majority sort of stage of introducing technology and change. And it seems now like that offshoring resource is very much a norm in most real estate businesses.

Kevin:   Yeah, well yesterday we talked about the rent roll development, how that’s changing. And Beepo certainly, working with Rockend and some of the developments they’re doing, in terms of the professionalism they’re bringing to the backend of real estate is a classic example of that I think, too, John.

John:   Yeah, I completely agree. And look, it doesn’t change overnight either. The benefits you get … it’s a long-term investment, offshored resources, in my view. It takes a few months to get things in motion, but when you’ve got people who specialise in real estate, and know the technology that you’re using within your business, it can have a big impact.

Kevin:   Hmm. Going back nearly 20 years now, when Remax first came to Australia, we saw the first wave of independent contractors. Where are we at on that scenario right now, John, where do you see it?

John:   Kevin, independent contractors is a hot topic again, at the moment. And I know it was a big topic back when Remax first came over. Probably even about 10 years ago, it was a big topic again. And I’m hearing a lot of chatter and a lot of discussions around it again at the moment. And the reason I think that is, is because we’ve got a lot of people talking about new business models. Really trying to think about new ways for them to carry on their business. And one of the biggest barriers to growth in new businesses is actually the risk that goes along with employing people. So people are often wanting to use independents to grow their business, to get the scale in their business, that they need to achieve. And in places like New Zealand, where you can use independent contractors without all the risks that go along with them in Australia, you can see the amount that they can invest and the amount of people that they can take on through independent contractor arrangements, without the burden that we have of minimum pay requirements, and payroll tax, and superannuation, and all those types of things. Which is why if you do go down that independent contractor route, you have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. The legislation is clearly trying to capture anybody who is truly just a salary and wage earner, being labelled as an independent contractor.

Kevin:   Yeah.

John:   There’s different ways you can minimise that risk, but each state is different, and there’s a lot to consider, because there’s a big risk there if you get it wrong.

Kevin:   Yeah, yesterday in our rent roll discussion, we talked about collaboration, and merging and so on. Are we seeing a bit of that in general brokerage, overall, apart from just property management?

John:   Yeah, I’m seeing a lot more people sort of come together with their businesses, and we’ll talk tomorrow about business models and the whole big versus boutique part of being the way the industry’s going. But I’m seeing more different businesses coming together and realising that, I’m good at this, you’re good at that, let’s work together, and create something great, rather than fighting our own battles on our own.

Kevin:   Well, as promised, back tomorrow with John Knight from Business Depot. We’ll talk about big versus boutique. We’ll have a look at some of the individual models. We’ll also have a look at big teams, Purplebricks, and so on. What’s happening in the industry. Reflections and takeaways from 2018 with our guest mentor John Knight. John, thanks for your time, we’ll talk to you tomorrow morning.

John:   Thanks, Kevin.