I think it was my recently departed Mum that first introduced me to the great old saying: “if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem”…. 

Some of you will have read my recent thoughts on the 2 big red flags I see waving in the face of the real estate profession in Australia.

If you’ve already read the article you’ll know I was talking about the obligations on employers that commenced in April to ensure they’re genuinely looking after the mental health of their employees, and the potential dire consequences if they do not.   

Employers have the obligation to ensure that Employees are fully trained to do their jobs, are properly resourced, and rewarded appropriately for their skill level, and their performance reviews are set and measured on realistic outcomes.  Your Team need to know that it’s not acceptable for them to cop crap from customers, clients, or in some cases, each other and that they are fully supported by management, and that abusive or inappropriate behaviour or advances will be dealt with head on by management. 

The other waving bright red flag of course is the rapidly disappearing number of Property Managers from the profession and the fact that they’re not being replaced by the same rate at which they’re disappearing.   Its being agreed in many circles that the real estate profession is today paying the price for not investing appropriately in rewarding existing Property Managers, for not training the next wave of Property Managers, and for actively promoting profit-sapping fee-discounting offers that have resulted in a race to the bottom where the expectations of consumers has been set to seek the lowest possible cost above quality and professionalism. 

As a profession, the actions of the cheap and nasty wham-bam-thank-you-Ma’am fee discounter agency has taught consumers that the first question they should ask is ‘How much are you’ rather than “ How good are you?”… 

Now I’m not suggesting that fees can’t or shouldn’t be competitive. I support free markets. But if your fee model is preventing you from paying key people appropriately, lowering service levels, and you’re not investing in nurturing new talent, I think you’re part of the problem. 

After the recent article ‘She just needs to take a cup of cement and harden the f#ck up’ appeared, I received a text message from a senior figure in our profession that read, 

“Peter, any advice on this mate? – An agent (female) verbally abused face to face this afternoon by a drunk seller (male). Agent shaken and felt very vulnerable. Seller tole her to ‘get your fucking sale board down etc etc’”  

My response was quick and simple:

“Business owner needs to step up and formally release the Seller from their obligations under the Form 6 (Selling agreement) *Qld . 

Business owner needs to report the abuse to the Police (if it was threatening). 

Business Owner needs to offer (insist) that the Employee receives counselling using the businesses EAP.  And if they don’t have an EAP, then they need to initiate one and at the very least ensure the Employee receives professional counselling immediately.   

Business owner needs to call a meeting of the entire office and reaffirm to all that the company policy is to not accept any physical or verbally abusive attacks from anyone, and that any abuse, or sexual or inappropriate advances are to be immediately reported and acted on by the business owner.” 

That text message wasn’t the only message I got after that article aired.  Around a dozen Property Managers from across Australia messaged me expressing their thanks for shining a light on their challenges.  Some of those notes were highly emotional and contained horror stories of the way they’ve been treated over many years. I was also chuffed to receive a call and several emails from Principals and Directors who took the time to give their thanks for awakening them to their obligations and the severity of the challenges at their feet.    Needless to say, I also received some hate mail from business owners who hated the thought I was making them publicly accountable.   I’m 100% ok with that.  Hopefully they’ll move on to a discounted retirement village. 

I started this musing quoting my Mum, “If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.”  My Mum, one of the wisest people i’ve known, would be saying to me right now, ‘Peter, you can’t stir up a hornet’s nest if you don’t have a solution to eradicate the hornets.’

So, in order for me to be true to my word, and to honour my Mum’s words, I offer this friendly food for thought.

After growing, managing, and selling a significant Property Management business over several decades; after studying the profitability of hundreds of Property Management businesses across Australia, NZ and the USA over several decades; and after taking a deep dive into the stale labor intensive business model still being employed by way too many businesses, I’m ready to say that the property management profession in its current form in many businesses is on life support in the ICU with little chance of survival without undergoing major surgery. 

You’ve only gotta read the Annual Rent Roll Market Report provided by Brad Robson detailing the number, size, profitability, and multipliers being achieved by business owners who are selling up to get a feel for what some of the bigger challenges are.

It’s bloody expensive to stick your head in the sand and to pray that the bad man is going to go away.  #Protip: He’s not going anywhere. It’s time to think and act. The bad man is not going away and his footsteps are getting louder.   Who is the bad man coming to ‘get’ your business?  

Is it Amazon? 

Is it Google?

Is it a Portal?

Is it your own lack of action?

Is it Mr 1.5% from the next suburb across? 

What will they beat you on? 

There’s no question that models need to change, roles need to change, fees need to change, people management needs to change, and the services our profession provides to investors and tenants largely needs to change. 

What do I think you need to do to survive?  

Find out at my upcoming webinar on October 4th where we’ll be exploring what the new normal looks like, and the 5 key actions my expert panel including Cloudstaff’s Chief of Compliance Wayne Bucklar and others believe you need to implement before the sun sets on 2023.  

Will I see you there? Will you be part of the solution or part of the problem? 

Here’s my 5 take-aways from a week with the man, the myth, the legend!

1. Leadership

During our chats we spoke at length about the leadership mindset of the military that should be adopted in real estate franchises and business. Brad said, “Feed your troops. The last person to eat in the mess hall is the Leader”. Many here have much to learn in this space!

There is without doubt, a global leadership revolution going on. Eg: Brexit, Trump, etc. At all levels from politics to community, corporate to shareholders, franchisors to franchisees, institutes to members, and businesses to teams. In many cases, the leadership model is now being driven from the bottom up. Brad has just completed a survey of the real estate industry at all levels on the topic of ‘Leadership’ and is compiling a book on the topic of new Leadership in Real Estate I think it’ll be a fascinating read!

2. The need to embrace diversity

Brad’s simple thoughts on diversity struck a chord with me: “If there’s a man on his stage, then there must be a woman on stage” Now, he had MUCH MUCH more to say on embracing diversity, but when I look at so many Events in the property industry, there has been a long history of a strong bias towards what I once infamously called a ‘sausage fest’. Ie: Too many of us blokes on stage!

Brad continued to challenge that “if we continue to listen to the same old speakers and stick in the same old circles, we’ll only ever reinforce our own bias and learn nothing” . He noted if his recent events didn’t embrace diversity, we wouldn’t have heard and learned from 3 of the worlds leading scientists on climate change, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology, who happened to be transgender. We need to stretch our minds and be prepared to challenge our own bias. But that won’t happen without each of us embracing diversity.  

3. Old school still works

Brad shared a wonderful story of being set the task, by his ailing father from, his hospital bed, to find a Realtor to sell the family home. Brad, who had built a 100 million dollar tech company that helped consumers find real estate agents, spent 3 days researching the right Realtor to sell his Dad’s home. He met again with his Dad who asked, ‘”is the house on the market, Brad?’… Brad’s reply was “not yet, i’m a bit confused, Dad”…
His fathers reply was priceless…. He simply said:… “Brad, go home. Go to the fridge. On it you’ll find a magnet. Call that guy. He sells all the houses in our neighbourhood” A priceless reminder that tech can be cool. But that people with proven track records and simplicity are still at the forefront of what we do.

4. Having more cheques than bills

Brad’s wisdom on business and changing markets. He said.. “Don’t waste your cash in the good times”. “It will ensure you have plenty of cash to 5 times your business when others are in trouble”. “Always make sure you have more cheques than bills”.

5. The power of personal the recommendation

I’ve always been a huge proponent of the power of a personal recommendation. More and more we are being driven by the power of ‘Social Proof’ in our decision making. Eg: Tripadvisor – RateMy Agent etc.

But what Brad Inman had to say in the video below, blew my mind!

Brad Inman Peter Brewer Tara Christianson from Peter Brewer on Vimeo.

Why not join me in San Francisco for Inman 2018? Private message me for a cracking deal for my Australian and Kiwi colleagues!

Having a social media policy and expectations around the things your team say online is also critical as social sites  develop more and the line between clients, customers and friends gets blurry. An example may be that you or one of your team may have a particular opinion about politics, religion or sexuality. It may be that in an online world their opinions should be kept to themselves or only shared with (VERY) close friends. It just may be that the person reading your Facebook post or Tweet may have a significant leaning in an entirely opposite direction. Sure, its important to have and respect freedom of speech, but lets be mindful of the line between what we say in a personal world and what we say in a business world… and what effect those shared public opinions may have on future business and ongoing relationships for us and our businesses.

I think you’ll find the video below helpful in developing a simple social media policy for you and your team.

Go ahead.. Visit the website now by clicking