The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
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The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
EP. 1415 AI replacing property managers
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence is reshaping industries worldwide, and property management is no exception. Expert property manager Cleo Whithear takes us through the practical realities of implementing AI tools like ChatGPT in a bustling Northern Beaches real estate agency.
Far from the dystopian future where Tesla robots malfunction beside human colleagues, today's AI implementation is focused on eliminating the administrative burdens that have traditionally bogged down property managers. Cleo shares how she leverages these tools to tackle tasks she's always disliked – analyzing complex strata notices to extract critical financial information for landlords, reconciling tenant ledgers to pinpoint exactly when payment issues began, and handling routine communications with enhanced efficiency.
What stands out in this candid conversation is the balance between technological adoption and maintaining the human elements that make property management work. While AI excels at processing data and generating reports, emergency situations and relationship-building remain firmly in the human domain. For property owners, this evolution means their property managers can focus more on maximizing investment returns rather than drowning in paperwork. The future of property management isn't about replacement – it's about enhancement.
Whether you're a property investor curious about how technology might impact your investment management, a property manager looking to streamline operations, or simply interested in the practical applications of AI in traditional industries, this episode offers valuable insights into the changing landscape. Subscribe to our podcast for more forward-thinking conversations about real estate and property management in Australia.
Okay, ai replacing property managers in 2025. We're going to talk about it now with expert property manager Cleo Witt here. Stay tuned, cleo, is this true? Property manager is going to be replaced by AI.
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe there'll be a robot sitting next to me at work one day that malfunctions and starts hitting me.
Speaker 1:A Tesla robot tesla robot, yeah oh, so tell me um applications that you're using it for. I want to take this in a direction of you know where we're coming from and potentially where we're going to what you know. An everyday real estate agency on the northern beaches in dy is using it for how's chat, how's chat gpt and how's ai going for you it's so good.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I cannot rave about it more. I feel when you use it correctly and you are putting in the right information, you can get phenomenal results from things like chat, gpt. A lot of the grunt work in property management can be taken away so easily with AI, which is, I guess, where the topic comes from. You know, will certain roles become obsolete now that AI can generate all of that data and information for you. It's a bit scary, but it's great as well.
Speaker 1:Now I still get people saying chat, what, what, what, what, like. I still get people you know, just put in chat, they go, what you go? You don't know what that is, they go, nah, you go. Do you want to know what it is? They go, nah, there's no interest. You don't know what that is, they go, no, you go. Do you want to know what it is? They go, nah, no interest. But but where do you use that like? And because I must admit it actually gives me the shits. If I see something basic, well, script that I expect to be, if I see something that I expect to me to come back basic and it comes back busy, it actually loses me. It loses me. So, to give you an idea, sometimes I've got one of our internal staff does reporting for me and it suddenly got really good and really long and really detailed and I sort of switched off on it.
Speaker 2:It's true, you can go overboard and it does lack that human touch. If you're just going to use it for grammar and cleaning up an email, or you know a sentence or a paragraph, the feeling is not in there. Even if you write chat to a DT, I like to put in my responses in a, for example, empathetic tone. If I'm responding to a tenant or something you know, a sincere tone or a firm, professional tone, the grammar changes but the tone isn't always there.
Speaker 2:You know it's different from when you can still pick up that phone and have a conversation with a tenant or an owner. But I don't use it just for that. I use it for things that are laboured, things that would normally take me a very long time to complete, for example, an AGM or EGM notice from Strataata. I'm not going to read all of that for the owner. Normally what we do is we just scan it to the owner and it's up to the landlord to go through it. But what I've been doing recently scanning that document in and just asking things like what is the lot owner of 48 expected to pay out of this meeting, and it'll just go and give me short answers. You know, like $35,000 in the next three years based on special levies Like that is a game changer for me just alone. So then when I'm talking to my owner I can just say look, we didn't go to the meeting, here's your notice, but you're going to have to budget now because they've passed in a roof repair, for example, like no one would do that.
Speaker 2:I know no one would think to do that, like I know. Um, when you have been in property management so long and they say, well, what tasks do you hate doing? I mean, these are the tasks that you put into AI and they help in letting you do what you like to do, like you know renovations, or talking to your clients, or you know going to inspections. So yeah, I feel certain tasks, certain roles are being taken away by AI. It's just fact.
Speaker 1:Something that we had a bit of training on, which I thought was great. I laugh because my very advanced technology-focused 19-year-old doesn't actually use the app. She doesn't use the app. She actually goes onto the website and I'm on her phone and I'm like what are you doing? So something I've got to say to everyone is make sure, if you're using ChatGP as an example for AI, make sure you're logged in and make sure you're logged in on your PC to the same account and make sure you're logged into your phone on the same account.
Speaker 1:And we got some training, some formal training, the other day, where the trainer gave us notes to prime our chat GPT. They call it priming. So what it starts to do is when you're priming and when you tell it very basic information you tell it to remember that basic information it starts to prime ChatGPT to do a better job. So, for instance, he gave us, I think, about 20 or 25 paragraphs and said throw that text into ChatGPT. And it said stuff like I'm a real estate agent in DY Northern Beaches. I work on sales commission. Sales commission is generated when I sell a property. I want to attract prospective purchases, um, as part of my job.
Speaker 1:And it started and I was like you know what I've actually never? I've never told chat gbt the actual basics of what I do and who I am and stuff like that. So it's all starting to get pretty technical now and it's all starting to remember and prime that information to to keep it. It's remembering every single conversation you're having with it. Where have you gone with chat with, say with ai in the last 12 months and where are you going in the next 12 months in property management?
Speaker 2:look, I feel obviously using it more in our day-to-day tasks, but I've adapted a lot more to the technology than I thought I would being old school. I've found new ways in which, you know, I can make it work for me and just personalise my journey, and I feel that in the next year or so I'm really going to start thinking more outside the box and using it for innovative things rather than just day-to-day task things. That's where I'd like to go, because it's freeing up a lot more of my time. Even accounting. We're using it in accounting things like tenant ledgers and understanding standing you were saying that yesterday, yeah yeah, with maths and stuff.
Speaker 2:So if you're not, you know good at maths I I, in 15 years of property management, I I do know what I'm doing, but I don't like tenant ledgers. It's reconciling and accounting, so I can put that ledger in and feed it the information and ask the technology to tell me where the tenant fell behind outline, where it is exactly on the ledger. So then in an email I can just short punch show and you know, that's incredible in itself. I've done that for a few tenants now and they're like oh, now that makes sense, whereas if I picked up the phone and try to go, you know when, 2017, you got an increase of 20 and it's been catching up for the last three years, and then it's like they've lost you on the phone, they've lost you completely.
Speaker 2:So, um, you know where it's not going to take over, I feel is in emergencies, things with experience that you need your property manager for. You know, check, you're not going to get an emergency response and how to deal with that from ai. Um, a human can only do that, you know. But, um, yeah, no, I'm excited to see where it's going. Um, and you know, perfecting what we do, perfecting even an end cat. I'm excited to think how much um it will help with all of those results as well, hi darling.
Speaker 1:Sorry.
Speaker 2:I've got a visitor.
Speaker 1:Does the visitor want to come in to say hello?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think she's going to make her way down. But yeah, even legislation and CAT you can put in. You know the ruling and ask you know how did the member come up with this ruling? You know so you member come up with this ruling. You know, so you could, you can use it for all of that. You know summarizing things that take a long time stunning um.
Speaker 1:Should uh landlords be excited about, about a sort of ai, particularly chat gpt, or should they be? As you know, they're going to save money. Is it going to be a better job? Are they going to be able to do property management themselves?
Speaker 2:I think they'll save money, definitely because their property manager is out there doing other things, like maximizing their investment, spending time with you know um, routines, re-letting you know, all of that sort of stuff. And I just I hope that our clients understand that it's not a cheat sheet for us, it's just a way of getting better and doing our job better. So that's the goal. I feel, yeah, like I'm excited. I'm not. I'm normally. You know, I've got a Mac PC from the PC. I hated it. Now I don't mind it so much. So I'm evolving, I've had to adapt and I think it's a good thing. I mean, it's great.
Speaker 1:Gold. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is where we are using, in our industry, chat GPT. That's where we're using a little bit of AI. It's pretty incredible. I don't know, you know, five years' time if it's done what it's done in the last year. Five years' time is pretty wild. It's pretty wild.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't know, yeah, where it's going to go. Hopefully it can do all our ongoing inspection reports.
Speaker 1:That would be good, yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, I'm on to that.
Speaker 2:I know you are.
Speaker 1:You know I'm on to that, I'll leave the complaint and you can find the solution. That's it. That's it, Cleo. Thanks for coming on and sharing what you know.
Speaker 2:All right, have a great day.