🏈 What a footy grand final reveals about great PMs

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

The new era of PMs: Why the future belongs to strategic advisors, not task managers

For decades, a great property manager was the fastest typist in the office. On National Property Managers Day, industry leaders say that measure of success is gone. What's replaced it has less to do with organisation and more to do with judgement, calm and trust – and it's changing how agencies recruit, structure teams and use AI.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The advisor shift: why investors are now asking about cash flow and capital gains instead of just "when's the rent due", and what that means for your next owner conversation.
• The AI reframe: Karmen Costigan's take on why the real question isn't whether AI replaces property managers, but what it frees them up to do instead.
• The grand final lesson: how a 20-year-old regional property manager's weekend leadership on the football field says more about what makes a great PM than any inspection report ever could.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH PM/ONE

Three numbers that should make every principal uncomfortable, and one that matters

Fiona Blayney has a habit of asking uncomfortable questions, and this one's fair: why shut the office for two days to attend PM/ONE?

Her answer is Sophie Kennedy-Rush, who's added 2,000+ managements at Buxton without a sales team feeding the rent roll, Naaman Fraser, who built 350 managements in eighteen months while keeping his highest-in-market fee and his staff, and Donna Hughes, whose lounge-room-to-handover playbook built Australia's #1 small agency.

At PM/ONE, the people who are actually growing property management businesses right now, in this market, are getting on stage to show you exactly how they're doing it.

Not motivational fluff. The real numbers, the real playbooks, the habits that hurt to share.

Early bird pricing (currently $795) ends this Saturday, 25 July, and won't be extended.

Take a look at the full program and register for PM/ONE, 13-14 September at the Hilton Sydney.

Learn more →

DEPT OF DATA

Ravenswood tops price growth as demand stays fierce

Nine in ten suburbs saw unit prices climb over the past year, and 85 per cent of house markets did too, according to realestate.com.au. The standout is Ravenswood, Tasmania, up 41 per cent to a $511,000 median, while Rocklea in Queensland is copping 145 enquiries per listing. Houses in Gray, NT, are selling in just 9 days.

DEPT OF FINANCE

Valuers now rank tax reform above rates

Negative gearing changes are now flagged by 82 per cent of property professionals as a drag on house prices, ahead of the interest rate outlook, according to the Australian Property Institute's latest survey – and the reforms don't even start until July 2027. Residential sentiment posted the sharpest quarterly fall of any asset class as a result.

There's consensus renters will be worse off, but none that buyers will be better off.

DEPT OF INTERNATIONAL SPORTS

UK asking prices fall as World Cup distracts buyers

Football, heatwaves and a new Prime Minister are proving bigger distractions than any spring slowdown – UK asking prices fell 1% in four weeks, five times the normal seasonal dip. Rightmove's Colleen Babcock says buyers have plenty of choice and sellers are working harder to stand out. Encouragingly, 74% of homes that sold this year did so without any price cut at all.

HOW IT SOLD

Eight offers in 14 days, no price tag

Darren Boettcher used a coming-to-market sign at a busy Redland Bay display village to build interest before the official launch. With no price listed, competing offers on the four-bedroom home landed within $5,000 of each other, confirming its $1.38 million market value in just two weeks.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

Stories like this build your online reputation long after the sold sticker comes down. Want yours told? getailsa.com →

CELEBRITY HOMES

Where Chaplin ate breakfast and Chanel dined: The $47.5M Riviera legend reborn

Villa Zelda is built inside the actual ballroom where Charlie Chaplin partied and Coco Chanel once dined, on the French Riviera's Cap d'Antibes. The five-bedroom residence, part of developer John Caudwell's $300 million Le Provençal project, is asking €27.25 million (about $31 million AUD). Yes, there's an 18ft coffered ceiling original to the 1920s hotel.

Read the full article →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Ellis Schofield marks a year building his own brand at Area Specialist

A decade in real estate and more than 400 sales across Frankston, Frankston South, Mount Eliza and Mornington sit behind Ellis Schofield's client base of first home buyers, downsizers, investors and developers. Twelve months ago he took that track record to Area Specialist, building his own brand under the network's systems and technology while growing his market share on the Mornington Peninsula.

Sam Lawley, Jeroen van de Peppel join Ray White leadership team Two new appointments are set to shape the next chapter for the agency Ray White describes as Western Australia's leading business. Sam Lawley, who brings more than a decade across sales, auctioneering and coaching, relocates from Adelaide to become General Manager, while Jeroen van de Peppel, formerly Executive Manager of reiwa.com at REIWA, steps in as Head of Growth and Strategy. The pair take over as Nicole Gibbs moves into a sales role after leading the team through a period of strong growth.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

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TRUE OR FALSE:

California law requires sellers to disclose a murder or suicide on a property only if it occurred within the past three years.

And the answer is …

True. Under California Civil Code Section 1710.2, sellers and agents must disclose any death on the property by murder, suicide, or other cause – but only if it occurred within three years of the offer. After that window closes, there's no legal obligation to volunteer the information, though agents must answer honestly if asked directly. California remains one of only a handful of US states with any mandatory death-disclosure law at all. Three years feels generous until you remember some listings sit on the market almost that long anyway. via South Dakota Law Review.