8 minute read
Hill Apartments, Currumbin Point: Perfect view from The Hill
Perfect view
from The Hill
By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter
With 300 days of sunshine per annum, more than three million visitors every year, and golden beaches stretching for an unbroken 70 kilometres along rolling blue surf, it’s no wonder the Gold Coast is Australia’s playground.
And Sue Mackenzie and Steve James’ Hill Apartments on Currumbin Point captures the best of the nation’s favourite holiday destination. The safe, calm waters of the Currumbin estuary are ideal for swimming, fi shing, and sailing and the property overlooks the Currumbin Alley, a magnet for serious surfb oard riders and kite surfers.
There is also the pristine and patrolled Currumbin Beach just a short stroll from the 72-unit complex.
Sue and husband Steve have been running The Hill Apartments for just over ten months aft er an 18-month search for the perfect property. “It’s certainly a beautiful spot,” Sue told Resort News.
“We’re overlooking Currumbin Creek and the Currumbin Alley as the locals call it. “It’s a great, safe area for swimming, especially for children and it’s not far from the beach and Currumbin’s famous Elephant Rock.” Sue and Steve moved to the Hill Apartments from Brisbane aft er long careers in real estate. “We have 72 units and there is a mix of permanent and holiday rentals here,” Sue said. “We have permanent tenants who love living here and there are holiday apartments, as
well as owner-occupiers and lock ups. All together we have 26 units in the lett ing pool.”
The move to The Hill Apartments fulfi lls one of Sue’s long-time wishes. “I had been wanting to get into management rights since I was in my 20s, but with two small children and not having quite enough money, this was a huge hurdle that prevented our dream,” she said.
“I had been looking at management rights on and off since then, but I ran other businesses in that time.
“I spent at least 20 years just waiting for an opportunity to become involved in management rights. Now is the perfect time, my small children are all grown up with children of their own.
“Steve and I looked at properties for 18 months before we bought into this one.”
Sue was heavily involved in real estate (both residential and commercial) for 12 years, and Steve for seven.
On the right, Sue Mackenzie and husband Steve James with friends
Their search for the perfect property began at Caboolture, north of Brisbane.
“We were looking at something by the sea as a lifestyle. We looked at one property at Cleveland and some in Brisbane, but nothing really caught our eye,” Sue said. “So, we ventured down the coast. We looked at a couple of properties at Carrara and Mermaid Waters. But then this came up and we were immediately interested in the fact that Currumbin is not as busy as the northern part of the Gold Coast. “It has much more of a rural fl avour than most other apartments and I think that’s a big drawcard for a lot of families coming to stay.” “It’s a quieter, more relaxing place than other parts of the coast. People who come to The Hill Apartments love the alley, and the safe swimming. Just over the other side of the hill is Tugun where there are a lot of att ractions.”
Sue and Steve compiled a checklist of features they wanted in their ideal property and The Hill Apartments ticked all the boxes.
“Generating a good income was important for us of course, and so was the size of the rent roll. We wanted a rent roll that we could manage ourselves for the initial period,” Sue said.
“The condition of the complex was also crucial, we wanted to ensure the property was well maintained. And we wanted it to have a committ ee without confl ict - this was vital,” she said.
“It was useful to have a ‘real estate eye’ and with my experience of renovating many properties in my spare time I could assess the state of the properties during inspections and ask the right questions
about maintenance. One of the things that we really liked about The Hill Apartments was that it has a madam chairman on the committ ee who has been the chairperson for some years, this was a drawcard for us. Looking aft er a large complex is hard work, even for experienced real estate professionals. It can be very demanding,” Sue said.
“A management rights business is certainly a 24-hours, seven day a week job. Anyone going into the industry really needs to be aware of that. Maintaining properties for the owners is a fulltime job, and every day there is something diff erent to do.”
So, what advice would Sue give to someone wanting to buy into management rights?
“You need to have a good plan in place,” Sue told us. “Because when you initially come into a property you must have a good understanding of how the business works. You should also have a very good understanding of real estate, either through a Resident Lett ing Agent course, whether you’re a salesperson or a licensee, because you’ve got to be able to call upon that knowledge very quickly when you walk into management rights. “And I don’t think that’s dwelt on enough with a lot of fi rst timers coming into the management rights industry. I don’t think that a lot of newcomers really understand the complexities of what’s involved.
“I found there were a lot of young couples looking at management rights when we were inspecting properties, but I don’t think you should go into this kind of business without some life experience because you need that experience to handle all the questions from people and all the situations that arrive.
“Skills in diplomacy are essential too, because you need to handle all the diff erent problems that arrive and handle them in a professional manner.” Sue said she had let her real estate salesperson’s certifi cate lapse and had to go back to class to redo it. “Steve and I both had our Resident Lett ing Agents qualifi cation and then I went and got my salesperson certifi cate, and I’m a full licensee now,” she said.
Though management rights can involve a large amount of work, there are many benefi ts to running a complex, especially in a glorious location such as Currumbin.
“We certainly don’t have to travel far from work or worry about peak hour traffi c,” Sue said.
“And this is a really beautiful part of Australia.”
A ResortBrokers beachside MLR business success story
Management rights expert and ResortBrokers sales professional, Todd Warner introduced Sue and Steve to The Hill Apartments and assisted with their MLR journey.
From his much-loved home on the southern Gold Coast, the devoted family man and self-confessed “sports tragic”, Todd spoke to Resort News about The Hill Apartments sale. He said: “I met Sue Mackenzie and her partner Steve James in late 2020, when they fi rst enquired on a management rights business, I had listed on the Gold Coast. Sue was an experienced and well researched buyer, having held a real estate license previously and Steve was a small business owner also running a successful cement truck business in Brisbane.
“We started on their journey into the management rights industry by exploring a few listings and opportunities that were both on and off market, to which none of them turned out to be the right property for Sue and Steve. They also were very keen to learn as much as possible about the industry during their search, so they att ended a ‘Management Rights Made Easy’ seminar hosted by ResortBrokers on the Gold Coast.”
“Then we came across The Hill Apartments at Currumbin, which certainly ticked many boxes of their key criteria. The one thing that probably was a bit left fi eld, was the mixed lett ing of short- and long-term units, but it certainly had not have seemed like Sue and Steve have adapted well and sett led into their great litt le beachside business when I last stopped by.” In the fi ve years the solutions focused and driven, Todd has been with ResortBrokers he has delivered some outstanding results with sales totalling more $110 million, including the fi rst short-term holiday sales post COVID. His most recent achievement was being awarded as the Management Rights Broker of the Year 2021/2022 at the ResortBrokers national conference.
