Real estate needs to be better prepared for a crisis

It has also challenged many on exactly what duty of care, HR obligations is required from leaders. I have viewed many forums where teams have vented on the lack of leadership, transparency and understanding of individuals’ concerns and underlying health issues. 

COVID-19 has brought to the surface glaring shortfalls on business practices that we really should have been across. Simple things like being able to work from home, cloud versus server-based systems, paperless offices enabling easy access to data, outsourcing administration work and trust accounting. 

Especially in property management, we have continued to use legacy systems and often held to ransom by teams who are not prepared to change.

Although now is not the time, however, once COVID-19 is under control, we do as an industry need to reflect and review on how we could have been better prepared for a crisis such as this. 

I look at other organisations such as EY who across Australia have told their teams to go home and work. They have the infrastructure, culture and resources to do this; why don’t we?

Across the country, we are potentially about to face a “work from home” mandate by various state governments, yet how many real estate businesses will be able to do this and remain business viable and connected with their people? 

There are some simple effective options many have not taken up that are critical. 

Are you and your teams facing major issues because if they are forced to work from home, who will process rents; pay owners, creditors; draw fees; conduct inspections; process maintenance and conduct basic day-to-day business? 

It is hard to make wholesale changes right now; however, this crisis must make all of us review our business structures and move towards what I hope will become the norm. 

What would this look like, you ask?

• You must move onto a cloud-based system and become paperless so your teams can access software systems and files from anywhere. You need to be at the point where you can close your office one afternoon and not return for two weeks and the business continues to function. 
• Every team member should be using laptops they can take home. 
• Ensure teams have Wi-Fi capability at home and they can either claim this off their tax return or the business subsidises this cost. 
• Install Zoom or Skype on each laptop for connectivity with each other and clients. You could still list a property from a Skype or Zoom call especially in property management. 
• Start a WhatsApp chat group for the office to stay connected.
• Start doing virtual tours of all your properties so that your people don’t have to do opens in times of crisis.
• Consider outsourcing all your administration and trust accounting tasks.
• Host your phone on the internet so you can use the business line from anywhere. 
• Develop a flexible workplace policy; enable your people to work from home on a regular basis, not just during a crisis. The reality is we should all be “work from home” ready; none of us should be running trials, upgrading software systems and servers, or taking boxes of files home to work through. 
• Employ people who are open to change; many businesses are held back because people do not want to change, or if they do, they continue to use old processes on new technology and wonder why they don’t gain the efficiencies.
• Ensure that teams are trained and up to date with best work practices; no point in going to conferences if nothing is shared or implemented.  

As leaders right now, we are juggling many issues — people, clients, business viability; new issues are coming up every day and there is no “past experience” any of us can really refer back to. 

Over the next few weeks, we may face a mandate that will force all of us to work from home for a period to time. 

I urge you to understand what that means for your business, your people, your clients, revenue lines, and exactly what assistance is available to you from government stimulus packages. 

Once this crisis has passed, we need to work together as an industry and put best practices in place in our offices so that if this were to happen again, we are all prepared. 

I am a big believer that we can compete with each other in the field. However, at times like this, we all need to work together, share knowledge and ensure that all of us in our industry are going to be able to come out the other side OK. Take the time and call the office down the road, ensure that they too will get through this crisis, and there will be plenty of time later to compete with each other.

By Sadhana Smiles, CEO, property management, Harcourts International