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Tired of hearing about rampant cases of trust account abuse, Ashby Farrell has made the bold move of switching to the latest secure digital payments platform instead to run his rent roll and achieve unparalleled efficiencies.
The Western Australia-based agency WHITEARCH director established his business three years ago after building robust relationships with vendors, buyers, landlords, and tenants over the first seven years of his career.
“I was predominantly a sales agent for most of my career, but I dabbled in the rental side,” Farrell told REB.
Indeed, Farrell worked as a business development manager for an agency for a period of time (where he helped build its rent roll) before establishing his own agency. This experience in property management set the foundation for him to build his own rent roll, he explained.
“A lot of the stock that I sold had been investment stocks. So, when I set up my own business, it felt like a natural transition to build a rent roll because I’d sold investment properties to many of my clients. I was able to contact them and get them on board.”
Moving to modern tech
Keen to gain momentum in his property management department, Farrell made the courageous decision to discard the trust account and use Managed, a new breed of property management platform built around automated payments.
Farrell said he did this because he believes that trust accounting is “archaic”, while digital payment platforms like Managed are the “better solution”.
“You hear so many stories of trust account abuse where people steal money. It happens far too often,” Farrell pointed out.
“Trust accounting is very stressful because you could incur massive fines for clerical errors. Trust accounting is very scary for me.”
Moreover, managing a trust account is significantly burdensome for business owners, Farrell noted, and they would have to employ someone to oversee it.
“I have to have a trust account for my property sales, but I don’t let anyone else touch my trust account. It’s my business. So, if something happens, it’s on me,” he said.
“But other business owners have to hire someone else and put their trust on them to run their trust account. If something is miscalculated, or God forbid, that person does something inappropriate, the business owner could lose their livelihood.
“I think there’s got to be a better way to do it.”
On the other hand, the opportunity to misappropriate funds or defraud an agency is reduced with property management software designed around automated payments compared to an agency holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in an account, Farrell said.
“There’s no two-factor authentication or anything like that with a trust account. You could accidentally press a button and send yourself $1 million. That’s how simple it is,” he stressed.”
“You could send yourself huge chunks of cash, which I just don’t think you could do with digital payments platforms like Managed.”
Streamlining processes
Another reason Farrell uses this platform to manage his rent roll is because he did not want to begin his business venture by going into debt or using personal funds to fund his venture. The automated payments system allowed him to build and manage a rent roll while simultaneously selling property, he said.
“From an efficiency point of view, trust accounting drains us of our time. I needed to find a system that would remove the need for me to always be doing reconciling, trust accounting, and putting bills in the system,” Farrell said.
Using Managed has also saved time for his senior property manager, as it has streamlined the inputting of bills.
“This means she can spend time on looking after the landlords, ensuring that the maintenance work is being taken care of, and doing routine inspections,” Farrell said.
“She has said it’s much more efficient. She could potentially manage more properties than she has been able to in the past because she has cut out such a big portion of her job.”
Farrell encouraged the real estate industry to adopt new technology such as digital payments platforms into their business to automate rental payments, streamline efficiencies, lessen the administrative burden, and build their rent roll.
“I think the industry is a bit behind in this. It’s still very scary. But I hope the industry goes this way because it’s better for everyone,” Farrell said.
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