Kate Bower - Senior Property Manager

Kate Bower-Senior Property Manager - LJ Hooker Kaleen & Gungahlin ACT

Kate Bower’s enthusiasm for property management is contagious! As well as achieving awards and international recognition for herself, she has inspired her colleagues to reach higher and accomplish their own goals.

 

It was a great thrill at our PIM conference last year that 10 of the 14 property managers awarded Captain’s Club membership came from our own region.

 

Kate, how has your career led you to your current role in property management?
 Prior to commencing work in the real estate industry with LJ Hooker Kaleen in November 2001 I had held many various roles in different towns as my husband’s career and promotions took us to most regional cities in country New South Wales. But the jobs I enjoyed most were my roles in the radio and television industry, a law firm and in shopping centre management and marketing.  These positions had a very strong emphasis on attention to detail and meeting deadlines. They provided me with a good background in things like trust accounting, rent collection, end of month processing, building relationships with owners, tenants and trades people and problem solving. 

 

When I first saw the position of property manager advertised, I had been working part time in retail and was really looking for something I could get my teeth into and enjoy – like I had in these previous roles. I thought that property management would provide me with this – and I also felt that the skills I had obtained from these previous roles could help me understand the role and enjoy it. Lucky for me they thought so too and I was offered the position.

You are currently the LJ Hooker International Property Manager of the Year. What does winning this award mean to you? 

It’s a fantastic honour to be the recipient of this award. It was totally unexpected and quite humbling too – there are so many other property managers within our group, organisation, network of LJ Hooker offices throughout the world that do fantastic work – to have been selected from all of them is definitely exciting and a huge honour. I hope that I can do justice to it and continue to do the very best I can.

You enjoy helping others to achieve and have helped many other Property Managers from other branches in the ACT to achieve Level 2 Accreditation within LJ Hooker and acceptance into the LJ Hooker Captain’s Club for Excellence in Property Management (top 5% within the LJ Hooker network). How do you inspire others and help them reach their potential?

I do enjoy helping others to achieve. Firstly, my Franchise Owner Ian McCubbin really encouraged me to go for the recognition that Captain’s Club affords you. Once I had achieved it for myself, I started to do the same thing – encourage people – firstly my own teams in my offices in Kaleen and Gungahlin, (I’m sure they would say I nagged them into submission), our extended team in our sister offices of Dickson and Canberra City and then as the President of the ACT LJ Hooker Property Investment Management (PIM) Chapter I just continually talked about and encouraged everyone from the other offices in our Region to participate and work towards their levels and Captain’s Club through our PIM Chapter meetings. With the help of our regional team we have made sure that all the required LJ Hooker PIM Best Practice training modules were delivered in Canberra to assist the property managers achieve their levels. I’m very proud of my team, our group and my PIM Chapter. It was a great thrill at our International PIM Conference last year (held in Canberra) that 10 of the 14 property managers awarded Captain’s Club membership came from our own region. I get a buzz each time one of my property managers qualifies or re-qualifies for Captain’s Club. I really celebrate when each property manager reaches that level. It’s a fantastic achievement for each of them and for our region.

Tell us about the rental market in the areas you service.

We are very fortunate in Canberra to have an extremely low vacancy factor across the entire region.  At worst in the colder months it will run at somewhere between 2.5 – 3% on average but in peak rental periods it can be less than 0.5%. We have a large government sector (both local and federal), plus Defence positions and Universities in Canberra and I believe that does help to keep our rental market very buoyant. I have been in this industry in Canberra now since November 2001 and I have not seen the rental market dip other than for the seasonal flattening of prices in the cooler months. We are very fortunate.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

 My very first boss at the Radio Station I worked in at Young in country NSW told me to always answer the phone with a smile.  People can tell when you do.  It is something I have passed on to anyone that I employ.  But something I have learned and that I practice every day is a simple thing.  Say thank you.  Thank your staff every day for the work that they do for you – thank your clients for their business – it’s such a simple thing. I also believe that it is really important –to never ask your staff to do something that you are not prepared to do or have not done yourself.

 

For more articles like this one checkout Building A Rent Roll

via leased-annual.com.au