A Victorian property management company is looking to spread nationally after its recent success at the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) awards.
Release Property Management won the Small Residential Agency of the Year award at the REIA National Awards for Excellence last Thursday, the company’s first national accolade.
“Some of the staff have individual awards, but this is the first award for the entire company, so we’re very proud,” said director Renee Reynolds.
Having been open just six and a half years, Release Property Management aimed to be different from the start.
“I’ve been in real estate for 15 years and I always found that property management wasn’t given the attention it needed as a department. The sales is usually viewed as the most important part of the business and property managers were never really given any real training,” Ms Reynolds told Residential Property Manager.
“Over the years I thought there was a real niche available for an office to focus on property management.”
With a stack of state-based accolades, and now a national title to its name, Ms Reynolds said the business is looking to begin franchising.
“It’s going to be a big step so we’ll need to start looking at marketing in new regions. We’ll be targeting Victoria, and ideally going national afterwards,” she said.
After growing from zero properties to over 1,000 since opening its doors, Ms Reynolds said the company had found a winning formula for training its property managers.
“All of that was completely organic growth," she said. "It’s about knowing your service and the product, but it all comes down to customer service. Between 80 and 85 per cent of our rent roll has been developed from referrals.”