Interveiw – Jim Li: From management rights to taming the dragon

From management rights to taming the dragon

By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter

Architect Jim Li spent six years running the Lincoln Green residential complex at Eagleby, a suburb in the City of Logan, just south of Brisbane.

Aft er many early struggles, he reaped a bonanza there, and he is now hoping for a bountiful harvest running his 25-hectare dragon fruit farm. He says his fi rst year in management rights was “hell” and his introduction to farming was even tougher. He lost 80 percent of his crop in the recent fl oods yet was determined to keep his pledge to support sick kids. With help from Paul Shih, the CEO of PRET Australia (Professional Real Estate Training Pty Ltd) who taught Jim the business of management rights, and some of the PRET students, Jim still donated 2000kg of fruit in March to raise $10,000 for various charities including the Children’s Hospitals Foundation. Dragon fruit was introduced to Queensland in the 1970s and commercial production also takes place in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and northern New South Wales. Jim knew very litt le about growing the fruit when he started, but just like his successful foray into management rights, he had to learn quickly. “My fi rst year in management rights was hell,” Mr Li told Resort News, “but I eventually turned Lincoln Green into a good business. Dragon fruit farming is much tougher than I thought, but it is very interesting, and I am learning quickly.” Jim was born in China but was raised and educated in Australia.

“Aft er I fi nished high school, I studied for two degrees and the second of them was in architecture,” Mr Li said.

“I moved back to Shanghai to work as an architect there. But I felt it was not really the place for my family, so my wife and I decided to come back to Brisbane aft er a year, and we thought we would get into the business of management rights. “We contacted a local agent who was in the management rights industry, and he showed us three businesses. We chose the third one, the managed complex Lincoln Green, and we got into the business very quickly in May 2013. “But it was a nightmare.”

He lost 80 percent of his crop in the recent fl oods yet was determined to keep his pledge to support sick kids

Lincoln Green had 103 units with 98 in the letting pool. “Thankfully I studied Paul Shih’s PRET course,” Mr Li said. “It was a very good course and Paul gave me the knowledge to run the business. I needed that and he gave me a really good education in management rights. “When we took over Lincoln Green there were a lot of issues, the main one being the quality of some of the tenants. In the first year I dealt with 20 or so insurance claims, I went to court six times, and I had to evict 30 tenants because of the problems they were causing. “That was the first year. “And it continued in the second year. It was hell, really hell. “But finally, we turned it into a very good business after years of struggle. “I had good luck in that I had a very good supporting committee, and the chairperson was very helpful, and the treasurer as well. They supported me making a lot of changes. I did have to make a lot of difficult decisions about getting some of the renters out because I was taking the risk of upsetting the owners. But, in the long run, the complex became a much better place because the bad tenants were replaced with good ones. And the owners eventually benefitted. “The other tenants were much happier there because they now had good neighbours. “But it was a double-edged sword because after I turned the complex into a very good place some of the owners came back to live in the property themselves, which led to a loss in numbers for the letting pool.” In 2019 Mr Li decided to sell his management rights after six years and pursue farming, having become fascinated by growing and nurturing plants at Lincoln Green. “Management rights is a very good business to run because it's flexible,” Mr Li said. “We had two kids while we ran Lincoln Green and after the second child was born, we thought it was time to do something else that we wanted to pursue. “The good thing about management rights is that you get a very stable income but since my wife and I were both still in our early 30s we wanted to expand in another direction as part of our journey in life. “We knew if we did not succeed in our new venture, we could always come back to management rights because we had the knowledge, the skills, the experience, and the relationships to make a success of it again. “After we sold the management rights at Lincoln Green, we went to Japan for six weeks. It was a very good holiday after six years of hard work at Eagleby. But the pandemic was happening, so we decided to come back to Australia. I worked in a friend’s business doing retail for about a year but during that time I did enjoy doing a lot of gardening and I had my mind on farming.” Mr Li bought his 25-hectare dragon fruit farm through another of Paul Shih’s students who specialises in selling management rights. A friend of hers owned the dragon fruit farm and wanted to sell to concentrate on another property and some greenhouse research and development. “My family now lives on the farm right under Mt Tibrogargan in the Glass House Mountains, north of Brisbane,” Mr Li said. “We have over 52,000 dragon fruit plants. “I’m doing something that I really love, but farming is much more than I expected, and it is keeping me very busy especially with the recent floods, which ruined 60 tonnes of fruit and cost us $200,000.

“Thankfully floods don't happen every year. “It is a bit like my start in management rights – very, very tough. But things got better there, so I think things will get better here too. “When I started growing dragon fruit, I didn't know much about them, but we are learning as we go, and I still have a very close relationship with the previous owner who helps me anytime I've got questions. “My children are five and a half, and four and a half. One of them really wants to help me on the farm while the other one is always saying ‘no, I don't want to help. And it is my right not to.’ “All I can say is ‘okay’!”

Australian Resident Accommodation Managers Association is the peak industry body representing the interests of people who are involved in management rights.