Hayley Mitchell

So I hope she never leaves.

Very much so.

Most agencies have always had the opinion that a renter has to physically view a property before they'll actually sign a lease with them.

But during COVID, we went to a lot of video

inspections sometimes depending on where lockdown was the agent would do a facetime inspection for the renter there's a lot of agencies that did virtual tours of properties and then a renter would just sign a release to say yes they haven't physically viewed the property but they're happy to go ahead that actually worked quite well what a lot of agents have changed now to do is doing those virtual tours on properties and having really good photos and floor plans

And then pre-approving a renter so a renter can apply and then physically walking them through one-on-one.

So I think we're seeing different service levels for clients now rather than saying, hey, you've got to come through at 10 a.m.

on Saturday and you've got 10 minutes to walk through the property and have a look.

They're actually providing, I guess, more of a personalized service for those clients now.

And I actually see that as an improvement.

Regional is crazy.

So your January, February market is always the busiest in Geelong area.

And regional has absolutely skyrocketed in the last few years.

It's been really interesting.

I actually did a training course a while ago in a real coastal, small coastal town.

And one of the property managers there said that her rents have gone from $200 a week to $400 a week in the last 12 months on average.

So, you know, you have a property that a year ago was $200.

Renters are now having to pay $400 and there's nothing on the market available.

They just fly out the door.

So that's what we're seeing in regional.