The Spark of Curiosity

If there was a Pub Quiz on property issues, I'd bet our team would win it hands down. Why? We are absolute slaves for learning. We don't go a week in our office without a long and detailed discussion on some aspect of property investment. It might be about structures, mortgages, calculating yields, adding more value, why we buy what properties we do, which books are useful, maintenance issues and how to resolve them. In fact, this list is just things that spring to mind from office discussions in the last few weeks.

When our tradies come in to return keys and report on the jobs, they often give detailed explanations (complete with drawings) about what the problem was, what caused it, and how it was fixed, along with what we should look out for in the future. It is incredibly valuable as the team can know what to keep an eye on when doing inspections. No one wants their property to get damaged from ignorance on the part of the property manager.

Today we visited a property to see a new gizmo in action - an infra-red moisture detector. We had to resist the urge to grab this fancy thing off the technician and test out how long our foot prints stayed visible on the carpet and other interesting CSI-esque investigations. Even without our extra-curricular experiments, we did discover where insulation had been missed, the difference in temperature between inside walls and outside walls, and yes, even where the suspected leak was. I've been a property manager a long time, but this just does not get old.

I love sending the team to conferences to learn more as investors as well as property managers. There is many an 'a-ha' moment as something that confused before is illuminated. It might be an understanding of one of our clients investment strategies. It might be a better understanding of their own risk profile. Or realisation of different communication styles and how to work better with someone who seems to speak another language.

We belong to professional associations - the Independent Property Managers' Association (IPMA) and the Wellington Property Managers' Association (WnPIA) and the team regularly attends these meetings. Why? We love learning all there is to know, it makes us better property managers.

Sometimes at a professional development opportunity we encounter someone who we hope hasn't been in property management long, because every time they open their mouth some nonsense spills out. If they are your property manager, there is hope, come see us!