Getting ready for AI and Automation Revolution

Using automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to help run a Property Management portfolio. Is this the future?

As I write this article, I am heading home across the ditch after spending two days at the massive AREC 2023 event with over 4,000 real estate agents and property management professionals on the Gold Coast. This is the largest business conference in the southern hemisphere. I was fortunate to visit Image Real Estate in Brisbane, which manages nearly 5,000 residential rental properties across Queensland. What I saw there blew my mind as to what the future of our industry looks like.

Firstly, at AREC 2023, what became evident is that many mundane and repetitive tasks are being outsourced overseas. Many Australian-based companies use virtual assistants (VAs), predominately from The Philippines. This is not common on our side of the ditch but is gaining traction. Some companies have been using VAs for some time; however, we simply scratch the surface compared to our Australian counterparts.

The reality is that many tasks in Property Management can be mundane and repetitive. The benefits are obvious. It frees up the Property Manager's time to focus on relationship-building with their landlords. Also, there is a sufficient cost saving. Speaking to one company they are paying their outsourcing company a $30,000 per annum salary for one full-time VA.

There is also no shortage of workers, as finding staff in New Zealand is challenging. You are also not having to deal with employment law, and it is easy to turn on and off the contract. The VAs are already trained, so there are also savings for companies here. This allows Property Managers to manage more properties, earn more money and improve the bottom line of their business.

For a company like Property Brokers, we have an ethical decision as to whether we would ever go down this route. We are proudly provincial and are committed to improving our communities. Would it sit well with our team and consumers if 20% of our workforce were based in Manila?

It may not be a decision that we have to worry about. What became evident in spending time with Image Real Estate is how they are using automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to help run their portfolio. In time, this will likely replace the outsourcing industry. Image still has an outsourced workforce, but they do so well using the data they collect to automate so much of their processes.

Property management is very different from real estate. The business is built around the collection of thousands upon thousands of small transactions, which is in contrast to real estate. As such, AI can use this data to predict trends. Trends such as projected maintenance plans with replacement costs forecasted.

We can accurately predict what will likely happen with rents and the length of a tenancy. This leads to greater efficiencies in how you structure your business, and it is easy to identify flaws in customer service.

What was so remarkable about Image was that everything was so transparent on one dashboard. No matter my question about their business, they could show me this dashboard in real-time. For example, they could show me the average length of their clients so they can easily predict the estimated contract value, churn rate of business, number of inspections, and maintenance spend per property.

They could show me how each staff member was performing against targets with strict communication procedures in place. Team Leaders could see if clients had yet to be contacted within the allocated timeframe leading to a better customer experience.

Back to the conference, almost every presentation I saw referred to ChatGPT, the fantastic and equally frightening tool that is being used to create content. The Property Manager is no longer writing many property adverts; you ask ChatGPT to write the advert for you, and it does it with amazing creativity, accuracy, and time-saving. There is a massive temptation to ask ChatGPT to write my articles, but I assure you, I will continue creating my own content!

At Property Brokers, we are venturing on our own journey into the world of AI and automation. We have partnered with Valocity Global and Generate Zero. Our vision is to develop an automated rental valuation based on data collected from rents and the property's characteristics and location.

Going one step further, we are looking at ways to measure emissions from our rent roll to reduce our Carbon Footprint. Our theory is that there is a correlation between rents and emissions. Reduce your emissions, and you can potentially increase your rental income.

I cannot help but feel that the industry is about to be turned on its head. Change can be frightening, but change is constant. Our industry must learn to adapt to the AI and automation revolution, or we will simply be left behind.

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