Hermione Hart
The cheapest agent doesn't always get you the most money in your pocket, which is a common misconception. It might be like, Oh, I want the cheapest agent. So I get more of my rental money in my account, right? But a really good agent will actually know how to get more rents and how to reduce the vacancy and how to make sure the rents are being reviewed and going up each year.

Hermione Hart
And that can actually get me even more money in my pocket, despite paying that slightly higher fee going.

Speaker 2
What's going to happen? So you're listening to the property tone.

Aaron Horne
All right, guys, welcome back to the Property Pod, your weekly engagement into real estate here in the Hobart marketplace. I am your host, Aaron Horn, and it gives me great pleasure to be back at the desk with the boys in the hood. I've got Patrick Barry and John MacGregor. Welcome back to the property powered.

John McGregor
In a few weeks. It's good to have you back, mate.

Aaron Horne
It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a red hot minute.

Patrick Berry
It feels like ages. I know. I said that every time. Like I.

Aaron Horne
Said. Yeah, I only.

Aaron Horne
Think it's like two weeks. I know. I was away. I went to a wedding in Bendigo, actually. Paige from Bendigo, who has been one of our long time listeners. It was her wedding, so shout out to her. Yes, she used to be a falconer, but now she's smart. So she's smart to be listening to this bad boy.

Patrick Berry
Was there episodes on the, you know, the rotational playlist on the night?

Aaron Horne
Yeah, no. The deejay just said, listen to the.

Aaron Horne
Property, but.

Aaron Horne
Not I didn't have a day job. They had an amazing band. It was an absolute cracking event.

John McGregor
They did covers of the property pod Right?

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Yeah, they did episode seven, nine and 41. The one on title insurance was was that that was a real hit.

John McGregor
It really made the day. So I don't.

Aaron Horne
Know.

Aaron Horne
I look I feel like we haven't been in the studio for a little while. It probably hasn't been that long. But yeah, work has been it's been hectic. There's been a lot going on. You've had a cracker in parliament straight enough. People would have seen the video of it. Yeah, but we've done an interview. I think we're going to try and use it as a podcast episode.

Aaron Horne
We had about a 25 minute chat with the owner of the house.

John McGregor
And told him She's just such a good storyteller. Jim I think, you know, like a many years ago we became be one of my best mates for years who every time she tells you just talks about something. She's always got interesting stories. She travels everywhere. But I just sit there, just listen to it. And that's when we I mean, what did work with her and her husband, Andrew, and the work they've done in the detail they brought in to this place was like, who better to showcase this property than them?

John McGregor
Yeah. And I mean, you guys did an incredible job taking 30 minutes and, you know, compressing it down into a, you know, a sizable 5 minutes. But I don't think it could have been any shorter. Like there's so many beats about that probably had to be hit. And if you cut any any more, you just would have missed it.

Aaron Horne
No, look. And it was it was it was a battle. I actually got another cousin of mine who I've got a cousin who works for the media house. He, I got another cousin of mine to freelance and edit of it for me because it was so big. I was like, Dude, I just need you to, like, trim the fat on this bad boy.

Aaron Horne
There's heaps in it, but going through it, I think we'll try for the podcast maybe next week or the week after. We'll release it as a part and we'll, we'll put it out and we'll just put the full longform conversation because sitting there listening to you guys chat, it was a hoot. I loved it. So yeah, we'll just say, watch this space in the coming weeks and you'll you might get a really nice story of one day in Parliament Street and Sandy by a cracking property.

John McGregor
And I just think from a different perspective, it's it's just such a fun way to engage in property where rather than you've just got the agent standing in front of the home who people are like, well, you know, what's this? Why did they do that? Like, where are they going? And it's just. Well, there it is. Yeah, listen to it.

John McGregor
You know.

Aaron Horne
They're the dog eat dog. You'll find all out about that in the coming weeks. Pat, you've hooked us up with a guest today.

Patrick Berry
And have hooked up with guests. And I'm excited.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Who we got?

Patrick Berry
So we've got her. He coming in? She's one of our business coaches here for one four, and it has been a very long friend of 414. She's helped us out with software along the way and bits and pieces in our rental space. So yeah, we're going to get her on. We're going to talk all things rentals today.

Aaron Horne
So, well, let's not hold it up any more. We will cut away and we'll be right back with her mani go. That's right crew. We are here with her mani heart, an absolute stalwart in the real estate profession here in Australia. She is a business and personal development coach. She's just launched Sidekick Plus. She's the host of her own podcast is Close to Our Hearts Are the Real Estate Chicks.

Aaron Horne
I think there's about nine or so episodes live at the moment, but there's plenty more coming. She does that with her friend Courtney Hill. She's out there helping real estate business owners and people create strategies, systems and structures to grow with ease. So it's.

Patrick Berry
The Internet.

Aaron Horne
It's how we go about it. And I only prepared it 5 minutes ago. Being part of the industry for 14 years, worked from here to London to Sydney all across the globe. So an absolute superstar and absolute pleasure to have her on on our show. Welcome to the property part. Harmony.

Hermione Hart
Thank you, Chris. It's a lot to live up to.

Aaron Horne
Yes, I know. Setting the bar very high.

Aaron Horne
But that's probably.

Hermione Hart
Leaving me the.

Patrick Berry
Grandest intro battering you've ever given to one of our guests and some pretty impressive.

Aaron Horne
Hilarious videos. I'm going to throw myself under the bus here, but the hilarious bit is I've been out taking photos all this morning and in my head I'm like, I've got to get ready for the podcast, I've got to get ready for the podcast. I literally sat down and just was like, Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste. Well, it came out like a dream.

Aaron Horne
Out of me.

Patrick Berry
Well, thanks for joining us this morning. We're really excited to have you on our podcast this morning. Yeah.

Hermione Hart
You're so welcome. I'm happy to be here and have a chat.

Patrick Berry
So filled people in a little bit. Do you want to let everyone know, I guess, how you got into the industry and how you ended up becoming a real estate coach?

Hermione Hart
Oh, gosh. Okay. I'll try and keep it as brief as possible. But I basically I was finishing school and I just worked at a video store and I was one of those. Which one?

Aaron Horne
Sorry, I got to jump in. Oh, I was very lazy for life. Yeah, I think of seven years at a video store.

Hermione Hart
I still I still go into stores and try and, like, straighten things up, straightening all the video and DVD cases. But yeah, like, I was, you know, I went through the transition from video to DVD and they just finishing school and they kind of went, Oh, you know, you could work your way up and become the assistant manager of the store.

Hermione Hart
And I had no idea what I wanted to do. But luckily my mom was selling our family house at the time and I just literally gained an interest in real estate, went to shift at my certifications and just started working from the ground up. And yeah, over the eight or nine years worked in lots of different roles in property management and then moved out of the front line, worked with real estate software, worked for real estate training company, and yeah, got some really awesome experience working with literally hundreds of different real estate agency specialized in that property management space all around Australia, subs in all different shapes and sizes, the good, the bad and the

Hermione Hart
ugly and yeah. Feel very grateful to support some yeah. Some beautiful businesses. Yeah. Grow and streamline and help them create businesses that support their lives and the lives that they want to live and help provide customers a better service. So yeah, it's been, it's been a really cool journey and I feel very grateful to be where I'm at now.

Patrick Berry
What I kind of remember when we first met in Miami, but it was very early in our agency's sort of growth. And you brought us some real estate software that really transformed how our property management department run. And since then, you've also been working with want to have a business development and just joy help her shop in a skill set so we can put a lot of credit to our agency's growth just from the different things you brought to us along the way.

Patrick Berry
But today, I guess what I was really excited to do is try to flip it on you a little bit instead of, you know, teaching real estate agents how to be better at being real estate agents. Use all that knowledge that you've sort of discovered along the way. And if you had an investment property that you were looking to rent out, what is it that you would look for in a property manager to try, you know, choose the right one based on everything you sort of knowing about the industry?

Hermione Hart
Yeah, it's a it's a really interesting question. I mean, you probably got quite a few people listening who either do own investment property or have thought about buying investment property. And, you know, I think the first thing is there is a lot of a lot of choice out there. Every suburb, every city has a lot of different agencies that they can choose to is from the typical default for a lot of investors is they will just sort of default to use the managing agent that they purchase through.

Hermione Hart
Right. It sort of seems like the easiest option. But from experience, like I know that just because you've bought that property through that agency, it doesn't mean that it aided that they're the best agency for the area, but even the best agency for you, because when it comes down to it, each investor has got different needs, different wants, different things that they value in a service.

Hermione Hart
And so I think, you know, for me, I definitely I know that I would be doing a lot more research to find probably the best local agent in the area that has probably the best reviews and the best client experiences, that has really strong processes and it doesn't necessarily need to be the cheapest, as if I can see the value in paying slightly more, because I suppose that's the common thing that especially in the industry, people come up against.

Hermione Hart
It's like or you know, investors or landlords will just want to find the cheapest agent. But you know, when in my experience what I can see is that the cheapest agent doesn't always get you the most money in your pocket, which is a common misconception. It might be like, Oh, I want the cheapest agent. So I get more of my rental money in my account, right?

Hermione Hart
But a really good agent will actually know how to get more rents and how to reduce the vacancy and how to, you know, make sure the rents are being reviewed and going up each year. And that can actually get me even more money in my pocket despite paying that slightly higher fee. So I think that for me, I know that that's what I would be looking out for, is which agency can can deliver on those results and processes to actually get me more income or asset growth over that time.

Patrick Berry
And so yeah, it's an interesting point. You point out because you are correct, a lot of people tend to automatically think the cheapest agency is going to mean that. I get the most money in my bank account each week, but if they're undervaluing the property when they're trying to decide what to rent it out, that means that you might save, you know, a couple of dollars in the weekly management fee, but it could be coming at the cost of, you know, ten or $20 a week in weekly rent.

Patrick Berry
So your overall profits at the end of the year are going to be down simply by choosing potentially that cheaper agent. And then the flipside I know I noticed you mentioned as well, vacancy rates for a lot of people do you want to explain a little bit more what that means, I guess, when it comes to vacancy rates and how that can affect your income at the end of the year?

Hermione Hart
Yeah. So I mean, in a nutshell, if you have a property vacant for four weeks versus one week, obviously that's going to cost you. You're not going to be getting any income during that period of time. Right. So instead of getting 52 weeks of income on your rental property, you might only be getting 48 weeks of rental income on your property across the year.

Hermione Hart
Right. So it might seem like all that's just up to the market as to how long a properties it's vacant. But in my experience, I know that there's things agencies can do and have in place to make sure that that vacancy period is minimized. Right. Like I know a lot of agencies will have, you know, they have things in place so that they make sure there's only even a couple of days in between the vacating tenant and the incoming tenant.

Hermione Hart
And I know that then that's acting in my best interest as a landlord, because then I'm only going to have to worry about having a few days where I don't have that rent covered and probably that, that, you know, I don't then have to worry about pulling money out of my own pocket to put into that investment property setup.

Hermione Hart
Right, because that property's vacant for four weeks. And, you know, most of most investors are financing that through the rental income. So then suddenly I don't have four weeks of rental income, but I still have my mortgage repayments. I want to find an agency that knows how to minimize that that vacancy through solid vacate processes, through having the tenant databases.

Hermione Hart
They're ready to go to premium marketing so that I know that I'm attracting all those tenants way before that lost and even moves out and having that all secured and lined up ready to.

Aaron Horne
Go from the inside, that seems like something that makes sense from people that are working in the industry. But if you're someone that's out there, it's like, Oh yeah, you've got to wait till the person moves out of the house before I can start advertising it. Which then means we've got to set up the inspection the following week.

Aaron Horne
If you're kind of self-managing it, that might be your your mindset. But if you're bringing on a professional and they've got all their systems in place, which is kind of what you discussed, it's going to streamline that and you're not going to be kind of worrying about, yeah, will I be able to afford the mortgage this week and how is my financial situation going to be based on this vacancy?

Aaron Horne
Which yeah, it's something I'd never thought of before we'd started the podcast or had worked in real estate.

John McGregor
Yeah, absolutely. And I think also is it would be it having, you know, on paper for me, management authority premium agent, I would use that for lack of a better term. My cost you an extra couple hundred bucks over the year, but they're going to save you $1,000 over the long term and reduced mistakes, better processes, you know, more efficient management.

John McGregor
Because if that property's vacant, like at the moment, the average, you know, loan for an Australian is somewhere between 350 to $4000 with increasing interest rates, that's nearly two grand a month. That quickly disappears. And if all of a sudden there's four weeks of vacant and you've lost that two grand, it takes you really you know, that would and then in order to recoup that $2,000 for an extra 20 to 50 bucks, you need to wait the entire year before you recoup that, you know, different income that you've lost.

John McGregor
So just by you know, by them having just lose that little bit of down time on the rent actually has a huge effect. Then all of a sudden that 200 bucks that you would have paid the, you know, the gain by getting the cheaper agent all of a sudden sounds like it's caused you an enormous amount of money they otherwise wouldn't have planned for.

Hermione Hart
We're not we're not playing with we've monopoly money like this. This is real people's money, right? And this is the thing, you know, try and teach all of their clients that I work with. You know, when I first started in property management, I had this perception that, oh, landlords must be these like rich people and they must have lots of money.

Hermione Hart
Why are they getting so upset? And I want to, you know, get the washing machine repaired for $500. Right. But then over the years, I've realized that most the majority of investors are just like you, me, any of us listening. And we've got that investment property set up with it's, you know, with hopefully the rent paying as much of that, the costs of that investment property as possible.

Hermione Hart
And then I've got my own income and my own life and when there's any costs or vacancy or anything going on, on that investment property, that prices then a risk to not having that income. It means that I actually have to go and look at my own personal budget. Do I have savings that are ready to go? Like, do I have that that rainy day fund to be able to put into that investment property?

Hermione Hart
Or am I so tightly budgeted with, of course, the reason that I want to have this investment property to, you know, for my own future and in retirement and all that sort of thing. But then am I going to need to go and find that $2,000 from my own personal budget? Does that mean I'm sorry kids can't do a family holiday this year?

Hermione Hart
Like we've got no money. We've had to put it into the investment property, which is for the future, but then it's a sacrifice to right now. So part of working with a really good property manager will be one that knows how to minimize that vacancy for you.

John McGregor
Well, so what I mean, we you mentioned that because I understand that when you're talking about processes, etc., I mean, we can often get sold on shiny colors at a fast, fast mouse. But what sort of questions are you would you be looking to ask when you're searching for the right company for yourself?

Hermione Hart
Gosh, I wouldn't want to be would I want anyone to have to. So for me, I think I would ask a lot of things. So I'd be like, I'd be like, show me a vacate checklist, show me, show me your process and procedure for when a tenant gives notice up. But be a real pain in the ass. Really?

Hermione Hart
I would love that.

Aaron Horne
You would hear the all over that. Yeah.

Hermione Hart
Yeah. But you know, but maybe for everyday investor it might be yes. Sort of saying oh well what do you guys have in place to minimize vacancy and letting them tell you? Like for me, I'd be like, well, I know it needs to come down to probably even before that when we're reviewing the rents, you know, a couple of months before the end of the fixed term tenancies, a good property manager will be reviewing the rents and the tenancy and having the conversations months in advance of that vacate date to know whether that tenant is going to stay or go.

Hermione Hart
Hopefully the property manager is doing the best negotiation possible to keep that set and in place. Right? Because if we can have a tenant that doesn't leave for three, four or five or more years, zero vacancy. Right? And plus, if we get a gradual incremental increases that a balance with keeping that tenant in place that's in the best interest of the landlord.

Hermione Hart
Right. You know, you can see a real gap where an agency doesn't really have that process in place. Or maybe they sort of some of them might send a message out saying, hey, do you want to renew tenancy? And no one really get stuck to anyone. And so it just lapses. And either that tenant moves out or that tenant goes onto a month to month and then moves out at a really crappy time over Christmas.

Hermione Hart
You know, it then comes down to, well, what processes does that agency have in place to ensure that not only is that conversation hard, but it's followed up upon at that initial stage of renewal. So what the question was, what questions that I ask, I sort of saying, well, okay, what's your process for renewing tenancies and keeping terms in place that they then what are you doing to minimize that vacant period for me?

Hermione Hart
Because I know that that's a very costly, costly time.

Aaron Horne
I guess is one thing. I just wanted to backtrack on that in your first kind of part, you're you're mentioning like you purchase a property from real estate company X. A lot of people might just think like, oh, now they've got to manage that investment for me. I know that's something. Yep. Again, I'm the guy on the podcast from the outside.

Aaron Horne
That's like I had no idea about any of this before we started, and it's kind of what launched the podcast into being like, Man, you got to having some interesting conversations. I'd love to know more if I was to buy a property from yeah, whatever agency it was, I would just think I just make them manage it. How can we educate people that like, yeah, there are other options out there.

Aaron Horne
I know like you mentioned a washing machine before. I was thinking if I was going to buy a new washing machine, I'd be going online and rating review after review after review to find out what the best one is. But I envision a lot of people that just think, Oh, well, no, I've got to go with that real estate agents, because that's the one that gave it to me.

Aaron Horne
How can we teach people that that's not the way to go about things?

Hermione Hart
Well, like you're up against a slot challenge because like. Mm. Most agencies who are fairly switched on will be getting that sales agent to kind of be like, Oh, it's easier if you just come with us. Yeah. Like we make it easy, right? Waking that we've got the key that's the best option for.

Aaron Horne
You is.

Patrick Berry
If you're buying from us.

Aaron Horne
Or you're.

Patrick Berry
Buying from 414 is the best option.

Aaron Horne
Well, Pat, I would say that they let people go in and look elsewhere and they'll still come back based on what you're doing.

Hermione Hart
Yeah, right. Like say it's the easiest option for us. But you know, I also truly, strongly believe that we are the best option because of X, Y or Z. Right. Yeah. Layering something on from your perspective. But yeah, like it's a it's a tricky one because again for someone buying a property like there's a lot going on, right?

Hermione Hart
There's a lot to remember, there's a lot to think about. So when we're then adding in, now I've got to make a decision on what property manager to use on my property. I'm like, Oh, it's easier and less time consuming for me to go with the easiest option.

Patrick Berry
To configure it.

Hermione Hart
Yeah, right. Like it's like okay well sure. Like I'd like fries with that. Like, just chuck it on, but so it might be like not be. What I would recommend is that yeah. Maybe look at that as an option, but don't take that as the only option. Right. It's sort of like if you book a flight to go somewhere and they send you the recommended hotels like you probably don't just default to one of those, you probably end up going and doing your own research and finding out what will work best for you based on what your needs are for that holiday.

Hermione Hart
So it's the same thing. It's looking at. Okay, what? What do I need from a property manager? I need someone who's going to, you know, minimize my vacancy, get me the most rent possible, communicate with me like that. Has you know, online access to my data, like whatever those kind of check points off that you and also that social proof to go okay well who else has already had a good or bad experience with this person?

Hermione Hart
Because we do like everything else in our life, we go and check reviews and that's what a lot of landlords and investors are now leaning towards and they are shopping online for their agencies. So they're checking the Google reviews. So that would be another big thing for a landlord to sort of to check the reviews of that agency and see what experience they've had and make sure that it's not just all good sales abuse that that you can see some reviews of.

Hermione Hart
Well, the property management team are great because they do X as well. Yeah. 100% think there's a we can forget that you know for the for the public and the general investor they say X-Y-Z agency as as a whole but they can actually be in most agencies like they run quite separately the property management and the sales. So so like we want to make sure that the property managers have good, strong experience and reviews and positive things said about them as well as the sales team.

Patrick Berry
And I would have thought that the property managers that look after the properties are only ever as good as the support admin team behind them as well. So if I was asking the question of who to who would I manage my property with, I'd probably be asking the business development manager at the appraisal stage, you know, the property manager looks after, but do they get additional support to, you know, work through all the admin things so things don't get forgotten or like I know with our team we've got two admin support staff that help the entire property management department get the job's done.

Patrick Berry
And to me that just seems important to make sure that those little things don't get forgotten about. So I think the worst thing we could have is a property manager that's stressed every day because they've got too many things they're trying to juggle. And so I'd be wanting to know that they are getting the the support or how many properties are you actually managing yourself yourself?

Aaron Horne
Is that is.

Hermione Hart
That. I definitely ask that as well. Yeah. How many, how many properties are you looking after and what, what, how is that structured, what support do you have because you know, back in the day when I started, you know, property managers could probably manage to 50 properties with their eyes closed. But now with the technology and the demands and the legislation and the the sort of property management has has leveled up over the years, it used to be just like, you know, okay, yeah, sure, we can look after your property for you.

Hermione Hart
It wasn't really a big thought out thing, but now like it has a you can see the value, a difference that can make to an investor when it's done well. So checking on how many properties that property manager manages, there isn't a correct answer. Right number. I'd love to say like, okay, it's it's 100 or 150 or 200, but it varies depending on whether that person has support.

Hermione Hart
You know, I would probably say if there's one property manager and no support and managing to 5300 properties on their own like that is going to be too much for one person to handle without being stressed and overwhelmed to be able to get back to everyone on time. Right. And then what happens when that person needs a sick day or a holiday or anything?

Hermione Hart
So you want to know that the property manager you're choosing has a manageable amount of properties, or if it's a high amount that they do have that support team behind them.

John McGregor
Well, and what I like about that too, it's like, well, what happens to my property when you're sick and is that will do they have a a team and a business around and that goes well actually. Okay. You know, you're not going to have to if you know that sometimes life happens. I'm not going to be there for you, going to be on holidays, I'm going to be sick.

John McGregor
And the good thing is the business has those support structures in place that boom, nothing gets me. Someone takes over and is still running smoothly. Whereas, you know, if if you might end up with one person that's managing an enormous amount of properties with them for, you know, a lesser rent because they can support that. But then what happens when they're sick?

John McGregor
We got nothing.

Aaron Horne
It's like Friday night rolls around at the blockbuster of video. AC You've got two people that are meant to be on shift and they go and one person doesn't show up. You've got to get the returns out. You've got to get the new releases back on the shelf. Amani You'll feel me on this one. Yeah, that's rough.

John McGregor
One thing. Lock up. So you run the blockbuster like you see the bins full when you're looking after the poor guy. Like as you work, clamor like night. What's happened instead of Cruz gone?

Aaron Horne
He's gone with Wes. The Matrix. Is the matrix out? Yeah, yeah. It's rough.

Patrick Berry
I can never remember you being busy. They still are. All I remember you is watching movies. Every time I went in.

Aaron Horne
We had our moment Friday night, Saturday night.

John McGregor
Do those product research and do a better job.

Hermione Hart
If movies watching movies stealing a couple of chocolate bar them.

Aaron Horne
Oh yeah. If you take a Snickers here and there yeah the good old days.

Hermione Hart
Yeah. It things like it's like that the, the volume and capacity of what any one person can handle. It kind of brings into question though, because I think you know, a lot of the stuff I do, the work I'm doing in the industry at the moment is around burnout and stressful property managers and making sure they know how to handle their own stress and how to better manage their time and how to avoid burnout.

Hermione Hart
So a lot of that is around resource and how much one person can kind of take on. And so it's an important question, but I think it also brings in like the experience side of things as well would be another thing that I would be checking on is how much experience someone has because a really fresh new a property manager, most everyone needs an opportunity to learn and experience like they're just they're just not going to know some of the intricacies and legislation and how to minimize risks in the same way a really experienced PM would you know it's there's some stuff that just comes from being in an industry for a long time and

Hermione Hart
you just know when I, when that person says that I know it actually means this and I know to look deeper into a tenancy application or I know that this is how I can get the best out come out of this tenancy or the landlord like there's some of that stuff that you can't learn in any course. It comes from experience.

Hermione Hart
So I'd be definitely looking at, you know, the experience of that team, right? Even if it's a more junior property manager, is there someone else there that does have that level of experience?

John McGregor
It's such an interesting point because it can even be in relation to having the right conversations with tradespeople, managing maintenance, organizing the inspections. It's like I've seen this before, this. We better look into this deeper, like you said. And you know, if it is if it's a fresh Joe like and that they don't have that experience or animal again, that they're going to learn the hard way.

John McGregor
And that's the only way you learn through experience. But unfortunately, I mean, let's be selfish. You don't want to be the landlord that gives them all their mistakes just to learn.

Patrick Berry
Definitely.

Aaron Horne
This might be a good spot just to kind of move the conversation over to Sidekick. Could you maybe kind of, yeah. Have a chance to plug away at sidekick dot net dot are you and tell us all about your your new adventure and the podcast, etc..

Hermione Hart
Yeah, well the, the podcast is like it's just been something that my friend Courtney and I, we've got no agenda. We just thought, let's just jump on and have a chat about life working in the real estate industry and a couple of the, you know, weird and wonderful news stories that you hear from time to time. So that's just been a bit of a passion project and it's been super nice to do something that is just.

Hermione Hart
Yeah, just just fun. Yep.

Aaron Horne
Station. We know the feeling.

Aaron Horne
Yeah.

Hermione Hart
It's just, you know, and we've had some really great feedback of people just going, Oh, that's great. I feel a little less alone. I know the other people are going through and experiencing the same thing I am. But yeah, so I think it's it actually started I originally created as an outsourcing company. I was going to do sort of outsourced inspections and more admin support or real estate agencies and property management teams.

Hermione Hart
But then I had my first child and couldn't do any of that. And just the nature of what I was doing in real estate software, I would typically end up coaching and and supporting and sorting people's problems out and helping people backup plans and those sort of things. So I typically with my dad's side is much more coaching people and getting them to where they want to be.

Hermione Hart
And so I guess I sidekick has been yes. Coaching, consulting one on one with businesses. And then more recently I'm stepping into like online courses. So like, like I said before, I'm running an online course at the moment for property managers on how to manage their mindset and stress and time and communication and those sort of things so that they can be better property managers, feel less stressed, get along better with their clients and provide better service.

Hermione Hart
So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's been really cool to create it. I work from home. I've got really good balance with my two young girls. Yeah, yeah. I'd really love to one day help other people kind of be do what I do as well because there's lots of opportunity for us to learn from other people who've already been there and done that as well in the industry.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, awesome. No, it's super cool. It's one of those things where yeah, if you have found your sweet spot, you know what you're good at. Yeah. Pivoting away from kind of your main skillset and being like, I'm going to try this other thing. You still kind of find your way back into the coaching side of things. But yeah, if what is it?

Aaron Horne
The thing they say if you're passionate about something, you never work hard on your life. Is that how it goes? Is that how it feels at Sidekick or is that just like the girls are just like.

Aaron Horne
Mom, come back to them?

Hermione Hart
I'm just like, I do a lot of I do a lot of my own personal development. Yeah. And then a lot of what I teach is sort of what I've kind of been through myself. Yeah. And so I've been through, you know, the push to kind of grow a business and get it up and running to a stage that has good income.

Hermione Hart
Right? But then you get to this stage in running any business like, oh, this is great, but like my life is very burnt out and I have no freedom. So over this last year, I've been like redesigning my own business to make sure that whilst it provides for me income wise, it also is balancing with my life and allows me to be a mum.

Hermione Hart
It gives me the freedom and that I'm not just consumed by it. 24 seven So I've ended up now a lot of my clients are small property management business owners who kind of want the same thing. They've grown their business to a certain stage, but then they're like, Oh, this isn't what I signed up for. I want to have this, but I also want my life.

Hermione Hart
And so I work with a lot of, you know, small to medium property management, business owners to help them grow in a sustainable way and kind of get their life back.

Aaron Horne
You could kind of say you're trying to get your mine's vacancy rate back to a a healthy medium. I landed it. I was only saying before, sorry, I'm just going to go off. I was only saying before we haven't done this for a few weeks and I feel really rusty. I don't feel rusty at all, boys. I'm feeling good.

Aaron Horne
Like a.

Aaron Horne
Day. Like three more of these today. I'll start.

John McGregor
It with the interim.

Aaron Horne
I think. I think that's a great place to jump off. Thank you so much for coming in and being at home and and giving us some of your time. We do really appreciate it. It's been a really interesting chat. I think the podcast is called Those Real Estate Chicks. It's kind of your little passion project on the side.

Aaron Horne
So look, that up any way you can find it. Psychic dot net dot you. Yeah. Harmony, thank you so much for coming in and being part of the property pod today.

Hermione Hart
Thank you for having me. And yeah, hopefully if there's any any landlords listening, we've got a few tips on what to look for. And yeah, it's been really great to catch up and have a bit of a different chat to what I usually chat about.

Patrick Berry
Awesome. Thanks very much, Monty.

Aaron Horne
Appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks. Bye. Boys, boys, boys, another video store employee. You know, my heart lights up when I hear another video store employee. Hamish Blake video easy alarm from back in the day. Mark Stewart and fellow listener also video Easy Alarm. I know that blockbuster is the enemy, but it's so mine. He spoke so well that she can.

Aaron Horne
She can be on the pillow.

Patrick Berry
The only one that exists today. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Horne
Have you seen that? Actually, there's a Netflix show coming out about that, about the last blockbuster. Isn't that funny? That the war between Netflix and Blockbuster was so big they basically, like, went seedy versus Betamax or whatever old Yvonne or the the battle. And now Netflix are making a show about Blockbuster I think.

John McGregor
To what they mean. Blockbuster had that opportunity, but they just said not that's just stupid stuck with the store and.

Aaron Horne
There's a really good yeah there's a really good doco out there about the the battle of the of the video stores but yes. Shout out to I just I just get so excited. It takes me back to a happy place of people coming in and being like, I'm looking for this movie with that guy. And I'm like, You look like a Nicolas Cage fan.

Aaron Horne
You looking for Face Off? So I just know.

Aaron Horne
Oh, yeah, that's. That's the one I want to take. His voice off.

Aaron Horne
Her mind is great. That was such a good conversation. Yeah, yeah.

John McGregor
Because I remember when we had our business and she introduced a inspect real estate to us. She helped our team a lot. Yeah, she's phenomenal. Phenomenal. Operator Yeah.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. And it sounds like this sidekick thing's going to be really exciting. Kind of, yeah. Giving plenty of people opportunities to level themself up. And again, it's in this modern global world where you can work from home, still look out for the family. And yeah, she seems like she's a natural at providing advice, taking all those things and sending it down the line.

Aaron Horne
So shout out to her. Marnie, everyone check out sidekick. What was the podcast called again?

Patrick Berry
Those real estate.

Aaron Horne
Chicks. I was real estate chicks. I feel like her part is very closely aligned with ours in that it's let's talk about anything else. But based on what you said, yeah, it feels good to be back in the studio.

John McGregor
Voices Yeah.

Aaron Horne
That's good to be back. We will. We'll be back next week with more, perhaps John's special edition episode shout out to all our listeners. They're like, Share, subscribe, all those things that you should do. Visit the property pod.

John McGregor
So next time they buy.

Aaron Horne
You have been listening to the property, both recorded and edited by Foreman for Media House in conjunction with four one for Property Code.

Patrick Berry
This podcast is General Information only and the thoughts of views expressed is the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek then use their own investigation into any topic we discuss to ensure they fully understand their own situation.

John McGregor
It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial or investment advice or recommendations expressed or implied. And it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on the basis of this information without first seeking qualified and professional advice.