☕ How to spot a resignation in a single "good morning"

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

The '18-month' rule one office keeps breaking

Eighteen months. That's the average tenure for a property manager before burnout pushes them out, according to Ray White Highton's Amy Fonay. Legislative overload, tribunal complexity, and playing financial counsellor to stressed landlords and tenants are driving experienced professionals to the exit. Amy's office is retaining staff well beyond that window, and it starts with reading a "good morning" before it becomes a resignation letter.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The 'read them like a book' method: how Amy spots a bad day from the tone of a single greeting, before it turns into a walkout.
• The tightrope brief: why property managers are now unofficial solicitors and counsellors in one, and what that's costing teams who don't push back.
• The buy-in loop: the consultation habit Amy uses instead of top-down mandates, and why it kills resistance to change before it starts.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH PM/ONE AND PROPERTYME

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Its platform includes Manage PM with trust accounting, Manage PM with Trustless for automatic owner payments, Grow CRM and AiMe, its AI built specifically for real estate. PropertyMe says its technology is used by more than 35,000 real estate professionals managing 1.9 million properties across Australia and New Zealand.

At PM/ONE, attendees can see live demonstrations of PropertyMe’s platform, explore its latest products and discuss how the technology can help scale a rent roll and grow an agency.

See PropertyMe at PM/ONE
PM/ONE brings Australia’s property management community together in Sydney on 13–14 September 2026. Explore the event and get your tickets at PM1.com.au.

Learn more →

DEPT OF DATA

Teneriffe becomes Queensland's first $5M suburb

Brisbane's Teneriffe has just joined a club that's almost entirely Sydney's – a median house price over $5 million, after a 48.6 per cent jump in a year. Only three other suburbs nationally have ever crossed that line, and half have since slipped back.

Atom Go Tian's read: the next one is more likely to come from Brisbane or Perth than Melbourne or Canberra.

DEPT OF INVESTORS

Melbourne apartments down 16% as regional towns surge

City of Melbourne apartments now sit 16 per cent below where they were a decade ago, even after the area added 54,000 residents – Propertyology has just named it the worst-performing market in the country. Meanwhile Bright and Mildura posted growth past 120 per cent over the same stretch.

"1 and 2-bedroom apartments in soleless blocks of concrete score a big fat 'F'," says Simon Pressley.

DEPT OF GOODWILL

Tokyo agency sells homes for 1 yen, banks referrals

One Yen buys a house through Tokyo agency Rewrite – about one Australian cent – for inherited regional properties nobody else will touch. The giveaway makes no money itself, but the goodwill has returned as referrals worth millions in fees.

HOW IT SOLD

Five offers land after a full staging overhaul

An interstate vendor set a firm price target, so Matilda Downard coordinated renovations and personally restyled and staged the Usher property herself, even buying a trailer to manage her styling stock. The home sold in 18 days for $640,653 after five offers, going to an interstate investor who bought largely off video.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

Agents across Australia and New Zealand are turning sales into stories. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

REIQ names 40 real estate professionals as Fellows

Fifteen years of membership and a clean record of professional conduct now earn Queensland agents the right to add FREIQ after their name. This year's cohort spans 40 practitioners from Cairns to the Gold Coast, honoured by the REIQ Board for their contribution to industry standards. REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella points to careers shaped by changing markets and legislative reform, with certificates now landing across the state.

LJ Hooker names A Home for All primary charity partner LJ Hooker Foundation's more than 400 offices across Australia and New Zealand now have a shared cause through to 2028. The charity has named A Home for All Foundation, the REA Group-backed initiative tackling homelessness and housing insecurity, as its primary partner, with Simon Heathcote directing fundraising, education and volunteering efforts across the network ahead of this October's A Night Without Home campaign.

Building success through reputation in Leongatha Thirty-seven sales in fifteen months, and Matt Redmond says he hasn't made a single cold call to get there. Ten years into his real estate career, he's built his Area Specialist business in Leongatha and the wider South Gippsland region purely on word-of-mouth, while still finding time for weekly Saturday opens and week-long breaks.

Success doesn't rest on weekends!
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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

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TRUE OR FALSE:

Buckingham Palace is the personal property of the King. He could, in theory, put it on the market tomorrow – he owns it the same way he owns Sandringham and Balmoral.

And the answer is …

False. Sandringham and Balmoral are genuinely his, bought with private money and held under ordinary property law. Buckingham Palace is not. It's an Occupied Royal Palace, held in trust for the nation by the Sovereign – it can't be sold, mortgaged or gifted, and it passes with the throne rather than with the will. The most famous address in Britain, and nobody has ever held a saleable title to it. via The Royal Household – Royal Finances.