Building Relationships

It was indeed a miracle that the suitcase, bike box and fi nance broker managed to avoid landing on one of the chairs to be whisked to the top of some god forsaken mountain. I managed to steer my cargo to the door and stepped inside. This is a $400 AUD per night room (that’s what you gott a’ pay in this part of the world) and I had been expecting something around four stars. Talk about basic! Nice view but basic. Seems like some Australian locations are not the only places trading off the view and lett ing upgrades and guest focus slip. By the way, for your money you get to turn the fridge on when you get there, sleep on a foam bed with no top sheet, enjoy zero fans or air conditioning, take out all rubbish before departure and enjoy the buzz of insects as the place is sans screens. Just to top things off the road up the valley to this litt le slice of heaven is a 10 percent grade and very challenging for an old bloke who had used the miracle of gravity to ride further than he should have! I’m now in Isteltwald on the lake at Interlaken where my lodgings are greatly improved. In fact, the place is a Swiss version of strata titled management rights and it’s wonderful. In a bizarre twist that could only happen in these strange days a Korean Netfl ix reality show is based here. As such the place is full of Korean Instagram enthusiasts who queue up at a certain pier to have their photos taken. Most are very easy on the eye so no harm, no foul. However, today they were disrupted by a fat old Aussie guy diving off said pier, an event which seemed to bring shock and delight in equal measure. Which leads me inevitably to the title of this month’s message. Plenty of shocks and not much delight unfortunately. I’ve been accused of being negative by some and conservative by many. I take the critique on the chin because it’s prett y accurate. We have suggested for some time that a perfect storm of uncosted environmental activism, minority side issue focus, lack of personal responsibility and fi scal illiteracy was brewing. We suggested that worthless “assets” such as Bitcoin were no more than speculative Ponzi schemes and that some asset classes were overvalued. We’ve even suggested that it is economic suicide to place too much power in the hands of foreign suppliers while abandoning manufacturing and raw material value adding. We’ve made it clear that low interest rates don’t last forever, and we’ve counselled our clients about paying down debt. All the storm needed was a bit of turbo charging. We got that thanks to the inevitable outcome of printing so much money during COVID, falling out with our Chinese friends and the also sadly inevitable Russian aggression in Ukraine. Now we’ve got scarcity driven infl ation, the collapse of digital currency values, the possibility of power outages and a reserve bank that’s not quite in panic mode, but it’s close. The one positive I see in all of this is the so-called great reset. It had to happen, bubbles can’t keep growing, they have to blow up at some point. Hopefully the reset will include bett er economic management from governments, particularly when costing “feel good” projects. I suspect once our new Labour government fully grasps the gravity of the situation, we may actually see responsible policy as the new agenda. It’s a hell of lot harder to be on the ground than to boo from the stands and so far it looks like the new team may be coming to that conclusion. No bad thing. In closing, despite a world of fi scal and societal uncertainty I’m not fi xing rates on any of my debt facilities and I’m prett y comfy with my management rights investments. My share portfolio is a train wreck, but they are good companies and will be valued as such in the future. Paper losses are just that, no need to crystallise them. Should things change my creditors can contact me in whatever foreign land I run to. The managing director has the details and if she says I’m dead, demand to see the body. I think it’s called Doing a Skase. If you get that reference, you’ve lived through all this before.

Professional relationships in business

Last month on May 20, our industry celebrated the 30th Anniversary of ARAMA, and oh what a night it was.

Walking through the crowds I was delighted to see old relationships reunited and new ones formed. There were pioneers of the industry nestled next to and chatt ing with others that are only just beginning their journey. It got me thinking, these relationships with our industry specialist and other management rights owners are just as important to our business as those that are closer to home.

Management rights is certainly no walk in the park so having friends, colleagues’ acquaintances whatever you want to call them that you are able to phone in a time of crisis is crucial to surviving and thriving in this industry. When a client picks up the phone and calls to ask for my assistance with a legal matt er, tenancy issue, committ ee problems, caretaking duties (I could keep going with topics, but I have a word limit) if I don’t have the answer I will certainly know where to get it. Yes the secret is out, I defi nitely 100 percent do not know it all, but I have built incredible relationships throughout my time in this magnifi cent industry that make me look extremely intelligent, thanks guys! There are many social and educational events that occur for our industry throughout the year, some even happen monthly. Many managers att end these events but also organise lunches or even dinners with other building owners to catch up, laugh, cry, and support each other. Aren’t we lucky that we are in an industry where our colleagues and sometimes even our competitors are willing to sit across the table and give us their formula of successes?

I encourage you to go to that lunch, event or even start one of your own. Invite your nearby managers, your lawyer, accountant, fi nance broker, columnist (I am suggesting me in case you didn't get my subtle approach) and start building these relationships. The benefi ts these friendships will have during your management rights adventure are crucial to your sanity (for me anyway) and your success.

The relationships we build in business and life, mould who we are and who we are as businessmen and women. I will be forever grateful for the men and women in our industry that have moulded and will continue to mould me into the woman I am today.

Kelley Rigby,

Managing Director, Letts Rebuild

I encourage you to go to that lunch, event or even start one of your own