Do you ever lay awake at night, mentally going through your to-do list for the day ahead? Do you wake up multiple times before the sun, remembering an urgent item that needs actioning asap?

Let’s be real - property management SHOULD NOT be this stressful, yet what we described above has become common practice amongst many talented property management teams over the years.

PRD Hunter Valley’s Head of Property Management, Heather Cameron, and Property Manager, Jordann Coote, have figured out the secret to squashing the stress for good. Not only are they sleeping better, but they’re more proactive, customer centric and ambitious in their growth goals too.

Read and watch on, to learn more about this inspiring agency’s experience with Ailo…

How has Ailo changed your team for the better?

 I think the best way to describe the team before Ailo was that we were reactive, not proactive. You come into the office, you go through your inbox, you deal with it, put out any spot fires that you need to and then you kind of are just sitting there vibrating at 10.30am going, “I don't even know where to start with the rest of my day, because I’ve just come into chaos”.

 I would wake up at 1am in the morning thinking about a task I needed to do so would send myself an email and then come in at 8am to three reminder emails that I'd sent myself during the night. [The stress] was affecting my sleep, and obviously then affecting my work the next day.

 Since we introduced Ailo, my team come into the office and they’ve got a list of set tasks they've got to do, because Ailo Projects is already preempting the next steps needed. We still have to deal with emails [from customers], but because the team is more on top of their workload, it just seems smoother and they feel like they have more control over their day. This is really what I really wanted to see because property management shouldn't be as stressful as what it is. It should just be all about loving your investors and providing that high quality service to them.

What are your growth goals now that you have Ailo?

 I think that's really achievable because everyone will be so happy with the service they’re getting from our team. We’ll hear them say things like, “I hear from my property manager all the time. I’m not waiting on a call back I’m not waiting on an email back and everything just gets done. I can sit back, relax and know that my investments are covered.”

 Absolutely. I think when you have a system like Ailo with the features we’ve already touched on, it does give you time and the possibility to grow your business.

Jordan is a very experienced property manager and already manages more properties than anyone else in the team. 

 Ailo is giving my property managers confidence that they could have a higher number portfolio but continue to deliver the same level of service and not be stressed. That’s really important.

What I really like is I can see and predict where my team is at and when they may need a little bit of extra support so I can reallocate resources. I also really like Ailo Chat.he other day a supplier asked me for help locating a quote because their admin assistant wasn’t in the office. It wasn’t a property that I managed, but I could go into Chat and see that the quote had been shared with the investor, so I screenshot it and sent it straight over to the supplier. This all happened outside of work hours and I wasn’t in the office. I love that I didn’t have to bother anyone from my team or log into emails. It was all just there.

Tell us about your onboarding journey with Ailo?

 My team were onboard pretty much straight away, which was really great because we were all aligned on my vision for raising our property management team. When we first commenced onboarding we were all really excited and Ailo was able to address any nerves that the team had quite quickly.

We started talking about Ailo with our investors early on to ensure they were well across it by the time we were live. This made our launch day a lot easier - there were barely any questions about compliance or why statements looked different.

For our tenants, we identified who might not want to make the change ahead of time too and made our communication to them more personalised.

Talking to everyone ahead of time through emails and phone calls definitely made the roll out easier.

How have you found Ailo’s Compliance solution?

I already knew that there were gaps with our old provider, but I just didn’t have the time to go through and analyse it. The report we received from Ailo was very eye-opening for me. Since making the switch to Ailo’s compliance solution, I know that it's just taken care of.

But we actually didn’t have that many objections throughout our portfolio - we have a great relationship with our investors and they trust us. I said to our investors ‘I’ve looked into this and I believe it’s the best fit for you. It’s going to provide you with the best level of coverage’, and most of them approved.

What is your advice to other agencies considering Ailo?

Just do it. Jump it and get it done, rip the band-aid off. It's gonna be a little bit of work initially, but it will make such a difference to the way you structure your day, the way you manage and develop your team and free up so much of your time.

It’s also important to be transparent with your team before you start. Ask them for their questions and concerns and be sure to have that conversation before you start so that the roll out is smooth and they understand that the change is for the better.

The team will start to see positive changes before you even start the roll out. And that’s not just professionally, the changes will be to them personally as well - it’s going to make their life easier.

 I definitely would recommend Ailo. It’s better for time management, you’re so much more organised which helps your day. If something pops up randomly, it’s not nearly as chaotic.

Forget Melatonin, Ailo is your key to a good night’s rest

Jeremy Deviesseux is the Director of Ray White Wentworth Point (NSW). With 25 years of experience in property management, we believe him when he tells us that he’s found a way to solve one of the industry’s biggest customer complaints - poor communication - and in turn, blow his competition out of the water.

What’s his secret? Ailo, of course 😉

We recently caught up with Jeremy to learn about how he’s using Ailo to transform not only his team’s communication style, but the way he runs his entire property management business.

What would you say to another principal who was considering Ailo?

Basically, if you're not using Ailo, you’re living in the stone age of property management!

It has completely shifted our focus on what we do as a property management team. By giving us clear processes to follow (via features like Projects!), we’re now finally able to focus on our main team objective of delivering outstanding communication to both our renters and our investors, which will allow us to be able to grow in the future.

What do your investors love about Ailo in your business?

The way we communicate with our investors is so much better -  I believe that's our point of difference now. The chat function has allowed us to have faster and more open discussions by removing some of the formalities that come with traditional email. Ailo Chat is inherently more friendly and we're building relationships a lot stronger that way.

I feel that our investors are really starting to get an understanding and appreciation of Ailo. They’re starting to realise the benefits of being able to have their money sooner if they wish and the choice and control they now have at their fingertips. They can pay their bills with a credit card if they please or they can just allow us to continue to pay their bills on their behalf.

How has Ailo helped you grow your business?

Because Ailo has improved our communication, we are now positioned as clear leaders in our field. I have had a number of conversations, even just this week, with prospective landlords about how unhappy they are with their current property manager because of their poor communication. They can’t get hold of their property manager or their principal - no-one is responding to their emails and there really is zero service.

Ailo has also helped us elevate the type of conversations we have with investors. We are a full service agency that can also provide advice on the financial side of things. I ask “Are you aware that, if you were able to get your money straight away, you could pay off your mortgage earlier?” A lot of people are still unaware of the fact that if they pay their mortgage fortnightly or weekly, they can save a lot of money. The look on their face and when they realise they can do that is astounding and it allows us to continue that conversation with confidence because we're telling them something different that no one else has advised them of.

How has your Monday morning changed since joining Ailo?

Before Ailo, we’d start out the week by sitting down as a team to list out how many renewals needed to be done, how many properties were in arrears, and how many repairs needed attention.

But now, all of that information is easily accessible on the Ailo dashboard. I can see it at a glance where everything is at, so we automatically save so much first thing in the morning. Our weekly agenda has been sorted for us, already cutting the time we need to meet by half.

After our meeting, the team used to get straight into receipting and chasing arrears - but both of these things are automated for us now. We've actually been hovering on zero arrears on a number of occasions now, which I would have never thought had happened previously on other platforms.

Tell us about how Ailo improved your teamwork

Another big change was the clarity around structure and process Ailo Projects brought to my team. Everyone used to have their own processes, which were kept in the back of their minds - maybe there were a few written down checklists, but it was difficult to train new people as everyone did things differently and we had no single source of truth.

Now, Ailo provides that guidance and structure. It guides us every step of the way on how to conduct tasks like lease renewal, how to prepare a new lease, how to conduct repairs and maintenance. Ailo literally provides complete checklists to follow, so we can close off projects with confidence, knowing that we’ve done everything we’re meant to. We also have a full history of that work to refer to later down the track.

How has Ailo helped give your team a better work-life balance?

Well, for starters we get to actually enjoy our holidays now - when they’re off enjoying a much needed break, my team don’t have to worry about doing end of month or receipting. They can truly switch off and enjoy their break.

And when they return to work, they’re not snowed under a mountain of catch up work. Take last Christmas for example, normally it takes anywhere from three to four days of catch up work before you start getting the momentum back in the business - but this year it only took us one day. All of the receipting, reporting and arrears chasing was already taken care of, and the team used Ailo Chat to quickly answer any issues that arose over the break.

The amount of training Ailo provided to prepare us for the transition was second to none. The training program was very informative and the personal assistance was fantastic - if we had a question, Ailo would respond back straight away and we were able to have face to face chats which just allowed for everyone's confidence in the system to grow.

It certainly was a big change for the team and it wasn't like the original system at all. We had to change the way we thought about property management. We're now really seeing a massive difference to how we operate our day to day. It's amazing.

How has Ailo helped you stay firm on fees?

We're in a very competitive environment where we've got agencies around us that charge only one or two percent. Those people would be better off giving up on property management and investing their time somewhere else, but we get compared to them.

How would you feel if Ailo was taken away from you?

I'd be very disappointed. We would have to step back into the stone age. I'd have to put more staff on and I wouldn’t be able to see the business growth I’m currently witnessing. It would be like taking a step backwards.

Communication is now Jeremy’s superpower

Balancing his young family while building his own business, Duncan always knows what’s going on with his Brisbane investment property despite his hectic schedule.

He can see how regularly his rent is paid on time, easily pull statements and bills at tax time, and skim updates from his property manager (instead of digging through his overflowing inbox!) – all in his Ailo app, and on his own schedule.

An Aussie expat in New York, Duncan was kind enough to give us a quick call after work to tell us how the Ailo app has helped him keep in touch with his property manager from across the Pacific (and a 14 hour time difference!).

Why did you choose to work with Ray White Ashgrove?

My sister-in-law said that she’d used the Ailo app before and that it was just really simple and easy. She said it made all of the communication with your agency super easy. We don't live in the same state or country that our property is in, so we were intrigued.

We ended up choosing Ray White Ashgrove, because they had a strong reputation – and, importantly, they were the only ones in the area at the time that were using Ailo.

What was the moment you realised you had a stellar team working for you?

Tax time! Because we live in New York, we have different tax cycles so it feels like we are forever doing our taxes! To get one statement for our property manager back home in Australia is so good. All we have to do is forward it to our accountant and everything they need is included. It’s a huge, huge time saver. Otherwise, we’d have to go through all of our records to keep track of all the payments and expenses we’ve had. Last year, we were even able to get a custom statement made for the US tax year. I can’t tell you how many hours that saved us!

Get your property manager to handle all of your property-related bills via Ailo then simply forward your end-of-financial-year statement (and the link to all your bills) directly to your accountant who can handle it from there.

I don’t use it that often to be honest, but when I do it’s  a lifesaver. The other day I was filling out a form, and I needed to know what our weekly rent was. It had recently changed and I couldn't remember. So instead of going through the normal channels like reaching out directly to the agent or even going back in my files to find the lease agreement, I just jumped onto the app and was able to find it super quickly and super easily.

What would you do if you didn’t have all your investment info at your fingertips anymore?

Life would be a lot more difficult. Living abroad and in a different time zone can make things tricky when we're trying to do business or communicate with anyone back home in Australia. So just having the ease and the peace of mind that if I need anything from my property – any statements, any bills, if I need to check on how much a renovation cost, or how much a bill cost, or even if I just have a question – I can do it myself, and on my time. Almost everything that I need is right on the app.

If I didn't have the app, I imagine I would have to formulate emails and send them off to my property manager and hope that they would get back to me in time. And then it just feels like it's just such a headache. 

Lavender

We talk a lot about moments of delight at Ailo. When did you last experience this with your property manager?

This is going to sound so minor, but I noticed this month a list of outstanding bills and fees appeared in the monthly statement. I don’t think I’ve seen that before. So much better! It just clears up that fuzzy question for me every time I saw it [the closing balance] of, ‘what is that money doing there?’ Now I know it's for bills, and how many, and I can plan my cash flow better.

I know that’s minor and most people wouldn’t notice, but those little details and improvements are important. Anytime you’re managing your finances the last thing you want is to be left guessing or not sure.

What would you say to a property investor who is considering giving the Ailo app a go?

Download the app! It's the one-stop-shop for every piece of information that you need about your property. It can all be done through the app. You can communicate with your agent, pay your bills, you can track your payments and your income, and get your monthly statements.

What’s it like working with Ray White Ashgrove? You seem to really like it – want to give them a shoutout?

 team is great. They are nice to work with, they prompt with all the responses, they know what they're doing – I really can’t fault them. The communication lines just seem easy, because not only do we have the app, but we're all working off the same scorecard really. 

So yeah, I would absolutely recommend Clara and the team at Ray White Ashgrove!

Cloud

Duncan loves the 24/7 access to his investment

George Southwell is the CEO of Ray White Rural Canberra / Yass, and with a small but rapidly growing property management portfolio he’s been on Ailo for 18 “exciting months”.

Since rolling out Ailo and his vision for 

 property management, George’s rent roll has 

One of the biggest draw cards for local property investors was his team’s customer-first mindset. But as the business’ portfolio grew, George noticed more and more of their time was getting sucked up by administrative tasks.

 of the admin, but the team still needed support as they grew, especially because 

recruitment was a challenge in their rural market

Flex, Ailo’s embedded support staffing solution

. Within two weeks, his team had a full-time remote professional (who already knew how to work in Ailo) hit the ground running.

We sat down with George to learn how he turned his growing pains into business gains.

You've been on a steep growth trajectory. How does Flex help you deliver 

Our property management department is such a central part of the wealth within our business. We’ve been growing quickly, and I knew full well that I couldn’t have our highly-skilled property managers doing literally everything. From going out and getting business to keeping our investors and renters happy, to conducting inspections, managing repairs and maintenance, leasings… and all the administration that goes with it. We couldn’t do it all with just the team we had on the ground.

We had to create capacity in our team to be able to proactively reach out to our clients with good new stories too – whether that’s an offer for a financial health check or just seeing whether they’re happy with the way their property is being managed.

We realised we had to free our team up from the monotonous administration that comes with the job. And this is what encouraged us to explore Flex.

What made Flex stand out compared to the other remote professional and VA solutions on the market?

Cultural alliance. [Hiring a team member based overseas] did confront me personally at the start. I’ve always believed in employing locally, but the capacity to do that from a profit point of view simply wasn’t there. Since bringing on Eunice, our Flex team member, she’s really assimilated into our business. And it's been really cool to not only expose our local team to a culture from another part of the world, but also expose them to the new ideas and work ethic that comes with it.

What was it like onboarding a remote professional into your team?

It was so easy. It was an awesome transition.

Eunice has a great support network behind her from Ailo’s Flex team. And although we had prior knowledge of how to work with people based remotely, the Flex team explained very easily how to assimilate them into our business and with our on-site team.

Eunice has really come into the team; she’s a part of the team. She’s in our WhatsApp chat. She’s in our sales and property management chats that happen throughout the office.

One month in, what has impressed you most about your remote professional, Eunice?

Her efficiency and her work ethic are incredible. We didn't have enough work for her for the first two weeks, and she was very diligent in coming back to us and saying, what else can I do? What task would you like me to do? And so we started filtering in some sales department tasks as well. But the efficiency and the work ethic just simply hasn't dropped off.

What’s next now that you have freed up more capacity for property managers?

I like to focus on the facts, and the facts are pretty clear: in the last month that we've had Eunice onboard from Flex, we have given the capacity for our property managers to go and get new business to expand. And we're already seeing those numbers filter through quite healthily.

And moving forward, I’d say that our property management department will grow with the number of assets that we're managing quite rapidly. And that means Eunice will need to move into that team 100% of her time to help our skilled property managers manage those assets for our investors and our tenants.

What it’s also done is allowed us to look at it as a solution for our sales department as well.

We are talking to Ailo at the moment about bringing in another Flex team member.

That way they can pick up the processes that Eunice is currently writing for the sales department, and allow them to do all of the onboarding and marketing and planning for our sales department as well, which is really awesome.

What would you say to property managers that are considering turning on Flex?

Ask the difficult questions! I've always loved that about the Ailo team and it was no different when talking to them about Flex.

I asked all the difficult questions: What happens when they leave? How do we replace them? When do we pay them? How do we pay them? What are our responsibilities as employers? And it is just seamless with the contract that Ailo provides.

And if at any point you want to pick up the phone, give me a call! I'm happy to have a yarn to you! And I also know that Claire from our office would be happy to spruik the benefits of getting Eunice involved with our team and what she’s been doing through Flex.

Header image credit: Ray White Rural Canberra / Yass 

Growing pains? George supported his team with a remote professional

One of the common side effects of moving to Ailo is 

. A lot of our customers found they simply couldn't recruit people fast enough to keep up with the demand. It's a good problem to have, but it's still a problem to solve.

That’s why we launched Flex, a quick support staffing solution in Ailo that helps property managers free up 

 capacity, so they can focus on providing new and better services to even more customers.

Through Flex, businesses can access full-time remote professionals specially-trained in Ailo. The remote professionals handle all of the administrative work for the team, so property managers can focus their time on high-value tasks that only a skilled property manager can handle.

Ailo’s industry-leading task management framework 

 has been specially designed for collaboration, making it easy to work closely with remote professionals. A number of recent releases – including project commenting, draft messages with attachments, the ability to create projects from chat, and the launch of My Actions – are great examples of this.

Upcoming features you can expect to help support working even closer with a remote professional include the ability to tag colleagues in comments, reassign chats and threads, turn on notifications for assigned actions or tags, and more.

With Flex, property managers can focus on relationship building and find more capacity to be even more responsive to their customers' needs and preferences.

 is about putting the customer back in the centre. That’s why we help property managers transform how they work day-to-day, so they can build better relationships with customers and stronger businesses as a result.

Up until now, property managers have often been labelled as administrators, but we believe they should be 

 managers – and they deserve access to better technology, better systems, and better support to help them make this transition.

That’s why we built Ailo: a single platform that automates, removes, and better allocates low-value and mundane tasks (like managing arrears, admin, and accounting) – and instead gives property managers the tools and capacity to be more responsive to their customers' needs and preferences.

The end result is better customer relationships, better team culture, and better margins.

Flex gives agencies quick access to a pool of remote professionals who are highly trained in Ailo and who work behind the scenes to support property management teams full-time by handling their administrative and back office tasks.

, and our industry-leading task management framework 

Looking into the future, we’re exploring ways to offer even more

ible support staff solutions  directly in your Ailo app, such as access to temporary workers to plug gaps like extended leave, remove the pain of growth, or to provide extra support during peak or emergency periods.

Property managers are highly skilled at building relationships with their customers, but too much of their time gets taken up by back-office administration work like managing arrears, entering invoices and auditing keys.

Our goal is to help property managers get back 

 in the first place. Most people become property managers thinking they’ll be working with people, developing strong relationships and delivering great customer service. Few people apply because they want to spend 90% of their time doing administration, buried by trust accounting and handling complaints.

We believe property management should be a rewarding and fulfilling career, while also being the driving force behind strong customer relationships and a healthy property management business.

Flex remote professionals handle all of the mundane, repetitive, or administrative tasks that come with the job, so property managers have the capacity to focus on high-value tasks that only a skilled property manager can handle. It also gives property managers the capacity to handle larger portfolios and more VIP clients – and grow their roles, their careers, and their salary as a result.

Flex is also an opportunity for property managers to develop their people management, coaching, and leadership skills – as well as continue to build on their relationship management, customer service, and industry expertise.

Flex gives you the ability to shift the administrative and back office tasks to other team members, so your highly skilled property managers can focus on strengthening and building their portfolios.

In our experience, property managers paired with a Flex remote professional can typically manage double the size of a traditional portfolio without compromising on service (or burning out!). At the same time, we’ve seen a number of agencies able to increase the salaries of their top performing property managers, which has helped with employee satisfaction and retention.

Flex remote professionals are not only cost-effective, but they also come with specialised training in Ailo. This expertise ensures they are operationally effective from day one, ensuring your property managers can maintain the highest level of service consistency. Plus, our Flex team handles all of the HR and additional training, too. Read about 

George Southwell's experience onboarding a Flex remote professional

We also know the impact of unexpected team departures can have on your business and loyal team members who have to pick up the slack. With Flex you can be confident that your remote professional is going to be with you for as long as you want with a guaranteed replacement should anything unexpected happen.

What are some of the best ways to use a remote professional?

We recommend our clients select from two options when it comes to embedding a Flex remote professional into their team: portfolio support or administration support.

In the Portfolio Support model, a remote professional is paired with a property manager and they operate as a team. Typically, the property manager is responsible for sending all investor and renter communications, and the remote professional is responsible for getting the property manager in a position to do that. This includes.

Managing all the accounts, including bill entry, fee entry, ensuring bills are paid on time

Managing the lease renewal process, with all communications set up as drafts for the property manager to review

Managing the core of the maintenance work, again with all communications set up as drafts

Scheduling inspections and preparing the reports

Managing the property manager’s inbox, and also responding to basic renter enquiries.

In the Administration Support model, the remote professional takes on administrative tasks across a number of property managers. Some of the administrative tasks that a remote professional can perform are:

Bills management: entering invoices, creating bills, monitoring bills at risk of not being paid on time

Bonds: lodgement, claims processing, settlement

Inspections: scheduling, finalising and sending reports

Team management: key management and audits, change of ownership process, management handovers

How does Flex differ from other remote professional options on the market?

Traditional virtual assistant companies will leave the heavy lifting to you. Searching for virtual staff and recruitment, training and ongoing learning and development while you’re busy trying to run your business. Flex takes the burden off you and handles everything. Through the recruitment of top tier, offshore talent, Flex works with your business to ensure your value proposition is maintained. Flex is all about service improvement, not a cost reduction in resources.

We source Ailo certified remote professionals through our partnership with a company called Wingman, who are one of Australia's most successful property management outsourcing services providers. Wingman have been in businesses for five years, and they have trained and placed hundreds of remote professionals in more than 150 real estate businesses across Australia.

With our rigorous 10-point pre-screening process, your remote professional is university-trained and has already been highly qualified before they even reach your business. All Flex remote professionals go through a 12 week training program in property management and Ailo.

Flex remote professionals are already specially-trained in Ailo and the industry, so they are reliable and effective from day one. We handle all the HR and additional training, too.

Embedded in the Ailo platform, businesses can choose to turn Flex on whenever they need it. Today, this means within the week you’ll be introduced to a number of pre-screened, Ailo certified remote professionals whom you can interview and find the right full-time resource to integrate into your team.

Flex remote professionals are highly-trained on Ailo, so they are a great resource to help your team get set up and settled into Ailo (and to resolve any teething issues) in the first few weeks of onboarding. Ailo is not just a new technology – it’s a new way of doing property management. So some things are going to feel a little different at first for your team, and our clients have found it so helpful to have a specially-trained Ailo expert embedded full-time in their team during this period.

To learn more, please reach out to your account manager to arrange a meeting with a member of our Flex team.

Unlock your team’s potential with Flex remote professionals

White

Meet Janine Prinsloo, Director of Investment Growth at Ray White Northern Coast in Western Australia. With over 15 years of experience in property management (over two decades in real estate!), Janine has a deep understanding of what her customers want and a passion for bettering the industry.

We recently caught up with Janine to learn more about how Ailo is helping her to achieve her ambitious growth goals and why she would leave the industry if she could no longer use Ailo to deliver more choice and control for her customers.

Excuse the terrible sound quality, but this video was too good not to share!

How has Ailo changed the way you pitch for new business?

Before Ailo came along, I was selling traditional property management - I was in the same boat as everybody else, offering the same service and trying to sell by focusing on fees.

Since Ailo came along, I now open up my conversation with “We are not traditional property managers, we don't do property management like everybody else does. If you’re looking for a traditional property manager - It’s not us.”

How do you prove your service is better than your competitors?

When you’ve got an investment property, you want to grow your wealth, so when I first meet with investors I explain that their money is now in their hands. I say, “you don't have to wait for anybody to tell you how you'll spend your money, when you're going to get your money, or what you’re going to do with your money”.

We've always looked for ways to get out of this trust accounting environment where money is sitting in a non-interest bearing trust account for ages - for 30 days sometimes, and we're talking big rents. Now, that money can be shifted to an offset account where it’s actually useful.

This is so life changing in this industry, because you don't want anybody to control your finances - you want to control it yourself. And this is what Ailo gives you the capacity to do.

Oh, that's a tough one, but I think my favourite feature is the owners having visibility and control of their finances in their Portfolio Wallet.

I don't have owners phoning me at end of month anymore asking “when am I gonna get paid?”, “how much am I getting this month?” or “my money hasn't come in”. We used to get the same questions asked every month, and when you're managing a big rent roll, there’s so much that can go wrong. I don't miss those end of month phone calls.

Our growth has been phenomenal. I signed 150 properties in the calendar year of 2023 - and more than half of the properties that I signed came a few months after we joined Ailo. It was a massive change for me and just became an easy sell!

I recently had an owner who bought quite an expensive property in one of our exclusive suburbs called Mindarie. He bought via a buyer's agent and the buyer's agent gave him the names of a few property managers,  but - my name was not on that list. He got hold of me through the Ray White network, and we set up a video interview.

Within 24 hours he had signed with me. I told him about how we use Ailo, that he could have live chats with his property manager and that he could see when his rent was being paid. He really liked that he could be in control of his property. Aside from the fact that we got on really well, I think that Ailo definitely pushed him over the line.

I have found that most investors want to be in control. Ailo really helps them with that and we, as property managers, have time in return to build a relationship with them. I very rarely don't win new business anymore when pitching using Ailo as my point of difference.

We heard you also purchased a rent roll, how did Ailo help with the transition?

It was really easy to transition the rent roll over using the team at Ailo. They were extremely helpful in every aspect. We realised how easy it is to load property history into Ailo and that got us excited about future purchases.

The day after the acquisition, we walked in and everything was on our system. Sure, we had to do a little bit of work loading ancillary fees, but it was nothing in comparison to the amount of work we would have had, had we not had Ailo.

Any tips for agencies who have a few renters / investors who are hesitant about using Ailo?

We have one person in the office who's brilliant at explaining tech things to people. We have a few older tenants who got stressed about using an app, so she invited them to the office for a cup of tea and sat down with them to show them how it all works on their phone. She took the time to set it up for them.

It's not a complicated app, and to me it's easier than mobile banking. Once you explain it a little further to those that need help, they feel a lot more comfortable and they feel great that they're actually part of this new technology.

What was your Ailo onboarding experience like?

issues getting out of our old system, than we had coming onto Ailo. Ailo did everything for us. They

loaded up all of our properties, and, they made sure that all of our documents were in the right place. The day we switched over to Ailo, information about every single one of our properties was there in front of us.

There is extensive training before you come onboard - they set you up with a portal of your own where you can jump on and you can test things out (where you can’t break it!), which is fantastic because by the time we actually switched over, everybody was very comfortable with the system.

Our biggest challenge was convincing the team that [switching to Ailo] was a good thing. Nobody really likes change and they had all just got the hang of the last package. But Ailo’s training really helped to get them onside.

We love customer feedback at Ailo. Tell us about how you’ve put this into practice!

We encourage our team to share their thoughts on anything they want to add to Ailo or to speak up on anything they don’t like. When we pass the feedback on, 99% of the time we come to work the next week and Ailo has sent us a message to tell us our feedback was taken on board and we can now do what we requested!

That's the beautiful thing about working with Ailo, they're actively asking for your suggestions. And that's been the fun part - seeing some of our ideas being utilised!

How would you feel if we took Ailo away from you tomorrow?

I would be very lost after having a taste of Ailo. I'd be lost without the immediate support; I'd be lost without the point of difference. And I'd certainly be lost without that dashboard on my computer every day, explaining to me at a glance - the state and shape of our business development and growth. It tells you how many properties you manage. You've got a report that shows exactly what you've lost, what you've retained, and your new business wins.

Ailo literally does half your job for you and saves you so much time. Once you have loaded your new investors, at the click of a button you transfer their information to your management authority, and get it out for signing. What once took so much time, can now be done literally in minutes. Oh and the checklists! I LOVE THEM!

I’ve worked for a long time in this industry with a lot of talented people and Ailo has taught me a lot in a very short period of time, about the potential of delivering a great service through technology.

“What we need is not new property managers, not new energy from people, we need better property management. That’s what Ailo provides”