Part 1: Promoting change and connection in the real estate and DV community

• Challenges faced by families affected by domestic violence in the rental market.
• The role and concept of impact agents in supporting these families.
• Misconceptions property managers have about renting to families with a history of domestic violence.
• The importance of human connection and understanding in property management.
• Education and training provided to families to help them navigate housing applications and responsibilities.
• The significance of trauma-informed care in assisting families during their transition to stable housing.
• The need for feedback and continuous improvement in the housing process for affected families.
• Community involvement and philanthropic opportunities for real estate professionals.
• The impact of sharing positive stories and experiences related to families overcoming domestic violence.
• Encouragement for property managers and investors to collaborate and support families in need

Become an Impact Agent for $2600 per year with Orana House: Become an Impact Agent - Orana House

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

If I do this at all, it's not too distracting. Am I good distance from the mic? I'm a little bit to the side of it.

Speaker 2 0:12

That's okay, so you can see your picture just there. Cool, there you go. Okay, can I use your first name or not?

Speaker 1 0:23

That's first names without surnames, I think we're doing, isn't it?

Speaker 2 0:25

Or should I just say the ladies from? Oh, I didn't hear that one. I might just say the ladies yeah. Yeah, I can get up with that. Yeah, perfect, today we have the ladies from Arana House joining me for a. It's actually a podcast, but also a little bit of a webinar, because I'm not sure how I'm entirely going to be using the content. So I'll disclose that first. But I have been working with a runner house for how long do you reckon it's been now?

Speaker 1 0:54

three years.

Speaker 2 0:55

I'd say yeah, yeah so for three years and we were approached, obviously in the the midst of the rental crisis, where the work that you guys do was becoming a very sensitive situation for lots of different reasons Sensitive because there was maybe an increase in DV, sensitive because it was a housing crisis lots of different reasons. So that's sort of how we got in touch with each other and started doing work together for the industry. So what I want I've had a lot of inquiries from other property managers, other investors, other landlords, all sort of wanting to know a little bit more about philanthropic investing, how the agencies can work like this. So many things that we're going to cover in today's chat to help, whether you are an investor or whether you are a property manager or real estate business owner, understand the process and maybe you know, understand how we can all work with purpose, which is quite an important thing, I think, in any industry that you do. So welcome Thanks.

Speaker 1 2:05

Ash, I mean I think it was divine intervention probably that sent you our way three years ago. It's been incredible how much you've helped us to keep the momentum going and growing for this program, so thanks for having us.

Speaker 2 2:17

Thank you. And it's hard, isn't it, to keep the motivation continuing, sometimes when it can be a bit of a slow process, but it's such an important process as well and yeah, so well done for you guys for keeping that momentum going up as well. So to give you a bit of a background before we start getting into some questions, so from a personal point of view, I help Arana with promoting impact agents in WA. Impact agents, actually, I'll let you maybe describe what impact agents are. So that's the first part of how I try to help Arana.

The Role of Impact Agents

Speaker 2 2:55

The second part is, under SoCo, having a philanthropic portfolio, which is where we encourage landlords, if they are in the position, to be able to put their property through for the Housing Families Project, which is where they're sort of accepting a tenancy on less than market rate and prioritising those survivors first. And then there is also trying to support the clients of you, which is the survivors of DV also getting into the rental market. So there's a couple of different facets of this which I'll try and keep simplified. But let's start off just by talking a little bit about impact agents. So this is relevant for property managers that are listening or watching agents. So this is relevant for property managers that are listening or watching. Impact agents how have they played a part with Orana House and the housing project?

Speaker 1 3:56

So the impact agents. It can mean quite a few different things and that just really depends on your capacity. Some agents make a financial contribution. It's about $2,600 a year and that's fully tax deductible. That works out to a $50 a week rent top-up for an eligible young family. Some agencies choose to contribute even more, which is absolutely wonderful. And then there are other impact agents who play a really active role.

Speaker 1 4:17

So what they do is they register with us directly any suitable and affordable properties and they also allow a priority viewing for the families that we are supporting. That means they get to have a look before the queues turn up and the overwhelm, and in turn, Arana House offers free tenancy training to the clients as well as FDV training to the property managers themselves so that they're really FDV informed, and then everyone involved can work together for a really successful outcome. I suppose just about helping these families to navigate, you know, a really challenging market. There are so few suitable properties out there that these families really, really deserve that look in, because it's easing the burden on refuges, the bottlenecking that's happening, because we're putting forward families who are really housing ready. They don't need to be in refuge anymore. They're safe and ready to rebuild. So as long as we can connect them with an understanding property manager and a fantastic owner landlord, then everyone succeeds.

Speaker 2 5:22

We had such a big misconception, didn't we? At the very start, and I think there was a survey that was done which was what property managers were the most nervous about with taking on a family that had gone through this and the stats I don't know if I'm putting you on the spot, asking you what they are, because I can't remember, but it wasn't a huge amount like 80% of property managers and landlords thought that the perpetrator would return and it would be at risk, but there was actually no evidence to back up that that had been their experience.

Speaker 3 5:55

It was something really small. I think it was about 9% or 10% actually had a bad experience, but not with the woman, and from that we're basically just flipping it.

Speaker 2 6:07

Sorry, I'm just going to move that forward to your mouth a little bit more. Don't bring it to your mouth like that. A little bit more, okay, move it around, all around. Yeah, that's it Perfect.

Speaker 3 6:14

Yes, oh, first podcast I'm getting lessons on this while we go.

Speaker 3 6:20

So yeah. So basically, when we done the research, we were just trying to flip the thinking. We were like, yeah, you might have this perception, but where has it actually come from and why do you have this? And then when we broke it down, we were like there's actually no reason for you to have this perception. So let's give it a crack and see how we can help each other out.

Speaker 3 6:36

And we've kind of just gone from there and going back to people having a bad experience. We've I mean, we've been housing people for maybe since I've come on board, so about a year and a half, two years now. We've not had any incidents, nothing at all. We we've had two failed tenancies, but I wouldn't even call them failed. One was where she got her department of housing house, which she was. I mean, that was her goal, that was what she wanted. Another was we did a shared tenancy and it just didn't work out because they both needed their own space. And I mean, if that's the tenancies that didn't work out, that's the only thing that we've had. Then I'm really happy with that.

Speaker 2 7:14

That happens in everyday property management life with everyone else, so that's definitely not what I would consider a failed tenancy at all. So and it's great now that we've got the stats to show that it probably does help Are you finding that it's helping a bit more?

Speaker 3 7:29

Definitely yeah, and it's all about just flipping people's thinking and their perception. And being like this can actually be a really positive thing. You know you're these women. They've they're after spending so much time in refuge or they've been displaced and been with friends and family when you view them as a tenant. They really want somewhere where they can settle. You know they want their kids to go to school, they want to get back into the community, they want to make roots somewhere. They're a really good tenant. They want to be there long term and they want their house to be their haven for themselves and their children. So in that sense they are a really good tenant. This you know you don't need. It doesn't have to be a negative thing. You know everything's their haven for themselves and their children. So in that sense they are a really good tenant. This you know you don't need. It doesn't have to be a negative thing.

Speaker 2 8:32

You know everything's gone. They're moving forward Absolutely so back three years ago the biggest pain point was that we had massive home opens you know 40, 50 people coming through. We had a vulnerable, you know lady generally coming through the property and obviously divulging all their personal details like it would have been really really hard for them and that was the pain point at the time. But now that the rental market has eased off a little bit, are we finding there's another pain point with them? Like how is I haven't actually probably asked you how that's sort of going in the last couple of months?

Speaker 1 9:06

asked you how that's sort of going in the last couple of months. Yeah, no, that's a really good question. I would say that the pain point is probably still there's a lot of misconception that we're still battling, and you know, family domestic violence, fdv can look like a lot of different things. It can look like being under coercive control and financial abuse for a very long time and being extremely isolated and so having trauma-informed care through our program. You know, someone who walks alongside you understands how it might, you know, be really difficult to navigate. You know the online applications, or you know the paperwork, the minefield that goes with it all, and then going to a very crowded home open still, you know, can feel really frightening.

Speaker 1 9:50

So I think it's also about being able to have a really human conversation with a property manager directly to explain. This is who I am and this is why I might have an absence of rental history. It doesn't make me a bad tenant. I can show you that I'm going to love this like it's my forever home, if you will give me that chance. So I suppose it's really just about you know, bringing a bit of humanity into that space and, like you talked about at the beginning, working with purpose. You know it's what keeps us going, and I think you know for people in your industry, ash, when you feel that you're working with purpose and you're helping a young family to rebuild and start a new chapter in their life, you're going to enjoy your work a lot more too.

Speaker 2 10:28

Yeah, totally. Do you also remember talking about the human connection and we did do some education around this and this is, I guess, to the audience listening. This is an example of why education forms such important part, because I remember the applications were coming through and as property managers we have such an automated application process. So the back end, you know, if we're receiving 20 applications, we could see that the affordability rates we could. It sort of came up with like a red flag or a green flag and then a lot of property managers would shortlist based on that and your clients just would not be able to get a shoe in if that's how a property manager was doing it. But if the property manager had taken the time to go through each individual one, it would have been different.

Speaker 2 11:16

But to back up the property managers in this situation, they sort of didn't really have the time, I mean, to have 100 applications a day, like they had to have some sort of efficiency which is very non-human centric, and we had to sort of educate you guys to say this is what a property manager is looking on the back end. This is the problem, and we then spoke about how that could be improved and little things, I guess, like the families bringing it to our attention at a home open or speaking, and things like that. I don't know. Was there anything else that we had to change there?

Speaker 3 11:53

No, that was really helpful for us because I'm not from a space from real estate at all and I'm still learning, so now we really take the time to sit down with the women and do the applications together.

Speaker 3 12:07

There's actually so much of them and navigating things like my tenant app and it is difficult and it does come up with a little red flag and I don't know if it goes through like some sort of an AI system and maybe it doesn't actually reach even getting shortlisted. So I think they're falling through the gaps. So what we've done now is take the time, make sure it's actually done correctly, not giving anyone more work. None of us want any more work. We're really busy and then we'll always just flick an email to the agent and just say, can you just look out for this person? And getting them to give us feedback as well. We've got lots of feedback and that helps me work better with the women and giving the women feedback so that if they aren't successful for this property, for whatever reason, they're more prepared for the next one, and it just makes everything more smoother and it can work then in the long run.

Speaker 2 12:56

Yeah, yeah. Can you tell us a little bit more about the training that you would do with the tenants, like, what sort of things are you giving them extra support on to help them have a successful tenancy?

Empowering Families Through Housing Support

Speaker 3 13:12

Oh, it varies so much so I might have someone who is just able to do the whole thing themselves. They just basically need a bit of advocacy as to why they haven't got two years rental history and why their last address was a PO box, things like that. But then I will have, say, someone who's from another country, not really speaking English, They've not been in Australia long. They'll need a lot of help with the online stuff and with liaison with the property manager so that it's just clear communication. Even simple things like setting up your utilities and making sure that you have and your rent as well A lot of we have like property me and just making sure that it's like a reoccurring payment, getting them all set up on that so it's smooth, Because it's really easy to just fall into arrears like that or you know, so we're doing all of those kind of things with them and then a whole load of practical support like furniture and yeah, no, two families are the same.

Speaker 2 14:12

We forget the simple things like setting up the rent and all of that where a property manager just says pay your rent on time and pay it every week or every fortnight, and we do forget those basics. And there's actually so many people that don't even know how to use online banking, and I guess, if I think about it with your families.

Speaker 2 14:35

you know they might have had financial control, so maybe they've never had access to paying bills. We actually forget about that. So those listening this is like what these types of things are what I want you to take away Like. These people may never have paid a bill in their life, don't understand what the risk is of paying late. What happens? Do you get phone calls, smss, breaches? It's so simple we forget it.

Speaker 1 14:59

Yeah, but it is one of those things that if it is on your radar, it's actually easy to fix.

Speaker 2 15:04

Yeah, it's easy to teach someone.

Speaker 1 15:06

It is well within reach, yeah, but you need to be aware of it, yeah, and that's the first step.

Speaker 3 15:11

So yeah, yeah, definitely, If you don't know, you don't know. Yeah, it is an easy fix, but I mean, like it snowballs really quick. So that's why we like to just be in there and make sure.

Speaker 2 15:19

Yeah, absolutely. I've got another podcast I told you guys about with a lady from St Pat's going in a few weeks and, as you were saying, you know how things can snowball quickly. What we'll be talking about is how, like people let things snowball out of touch and then don't actually reach for that help, you know, for six months or 12 months, where the benefit of the family's coming through you guys is that it never gets to that point in the first place yeah, I'd really tip my hat to this woman to the right of me she's so proactive and our other case worker as well.

Speaker 1 15:53

They are just across it all and they maintain really great connection with these women. They share their successes. They follow them on that journey. I think you went and had dinner at one of the houses a little while ago.

Speaker 3 16:04

Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:05

You know it goes all the way through that first tenancy. You know supporting them through employment programs that we run at Arana House and all of the other things that go with it. You know counselling for the kids as well as for the mums. There's a lot to that recovery and healing and as soon as you've got a stable roof over your head you can get on with all of those important things. But you need that house first.

Speaker 2 16:27

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 16:28

So important.

Speaker 2 16:29

So important and the biggest part of it. So we talked about sort of the impact agents. So we talked about sort of the impact agents. So we talked about how an impact agent can contribute 2,600 per year. That can help with top-ups. So there's an affordability limit that I find a lot of the families have. So that helps obviously with the cost of living and the cost of rents going up, which, between us, I do feel like it'll get to a point where we'll come backwards again. So that'll be great for you guys good to hear.

Speaker 2 16:57

It's just like I feel like it'll get to a point where we'll come backwards again. So that'll be great for you guys. Good to hear. It's just like I feel like it's just a couple of years that we're just having to go through that sort of that peak. But back in 2014, we had it it went backwards 30%. So I feel like that will stabilize a bit. I've already seen signs of it stabilizing, which is good.

Speaker 2 17:11

So you've got the. So there might be businesses, for example like let's just use my business, for example where we're in more of an affluent area and we don't necessarily get a lot of stock that we can give to you guys, because properties are $1,000 a week, for example, but we can definitely financially provide an impact agent donation, which we do each year. Then there'll be companies that maybe financially can't or don't want to provide, but they've actually got the houses available. So they're working in those areas where they do have suitable properties for these families and that is the way they can help. So that's the second thing, and I always say that you can always donate your time, property or money, basically. So if you don't want to donate your money and you don't have any stock available, then there could be other ways that you can help. Maybe that could be creating a fundraising event, Maybe that could be having a cash for cans at the front, for donations, like.

Speaker 2 18:14

I think thinking outside the square for a lot of people is really important and I think as well remembering that you. There are so many options to help and every single person has the ability to help in some sort of capacity. It doesn't have to be financial, it doesn't have to be with property. There can be other things. So that's like I do try to rant on about that, but it's so true. Please do Bang on.

Speaker 1 18:39

Yeah, and one other thing you know, obviously the financial donation and the rental properties help immensely, but every real estate agent and property manager I know has an extraordinary network. You know, you're people, people, right, you meet a lot of people, you know a lot of people. So if you don't have the property, if you don't have the capacity for a financial donation, I'm pretty sure you've got an incredible sphere of influence that you could use and leverage to make that difference. And you know, as you mentioned earlier, look, if you've got any capacity, if you have any capacity, then there's a responsibility as well, which I think is, you know, if we want to live and work in a thriving, connected and safe community, which I'm sure we all do, that means we can't be turning our backs on the most vulnerable people that are within it. And you know, it's important to remember, for every woman who comes to Arana seeking our help, there's, on average, two young children comes to Arana seeking our help. There's, on average, two young children. And these families come from every single socioeconomic demographic, like from the eastern suburbs right through to the Golden Triangle and even in the regions where there's even less services. And these kids they go to school with ours, these women. They're our neighbours, they're our friends and actually, statistically speaking, the three of us here at this table it could be any one of us. You know one in three. So that's why we've got to use that sphere of influence to talk about FDV. It is happening in our backyards, no matter what postcode we're in.

Speaker 1 20:05

And look, I think real estate agents, property managers you can do so very much through that word of mouth and you know a lot of our impact agents. That's what they do on top and it's the cherry on the cake. And you know a lot of our impact agents. That's what they do on top and it's the cherry on the cake. Apart from the donation, apart from the rental properties, they also share their positive experiences. Lisa Gorman's a great example. You know they tell other agents they say, oh look, I've got these fantastic tenants, everything is going beautifully. You know it's the kind of woman who wouldn't have had a look in anywhere else, but look how well she's doing and I think that's a beautiful thing. Just share those positive stories. There's so much negativity and stigma that we're still battling. But all of these women, once they've been supported through Refuge and into their own property, they are thriving and succeeding, and these are the stories we need to hear.

Speaker 1 20:53

That's what keeps us working with purpose.

Speaker 3 20:54

Yeah, definitely, yeah, I love and the feel-good stories. We need it because it can be a heavy topic, can be quite dark, really upsetting, but you can share positive stories as well. You know, and it's really important. It's important for, like, if you want to look at the aspect of impact agents, really important, sharing the positive stories, getting more people on board that word, word of mouth, it's just, it's excellent for us. It means we can help more families. But as well, for anyone that's experienced in FTV, it's really important to hear a positive story. If you know that there is support out there and that you can make it and these other women have made it you won't feel so alone and you might be able to make them steps towards leaving. It's really important that we share that.

Speaker 1 21:39

You need to see that there's a better way, that there's a brighter path and it's possible. It gives you courage.

Speaker 3 21:43

Yeah, and we're here and you won't walk alone, yeah.

Speaker 2 21:45

And, as property managers like we, are the ones in these people's homes constantly, so we can also see if there is something happening.

Speaker 2 21:53

And for business owners, listening, you know, understand that important role that property managers have got with being in those homes, which is probably a place where a lot of people don't get access to to see. So it's and you know, talking about Lisa as well like as a business. We have selected Lisa as the person to handle the philanthropic clients for a few reasons Number one for the maturity. Number two for the consistency. I think as a business owner, I want people to understand that getting involved, be mindful of that and having the same person going in their homes. You might be a property manager that outsources inspections, which is also a great option, but with these families, just be mindful that it might be nice to have that consistent face for them and even remember this came up the other day and I actually didn't think about it, but it's definitely something that we've implemented is even making sure like that, we've got a female handyman, female plumber, female electrician.

Speaker 1 22:59

Oh yeah, I met some of your fabulous trades partners at that last PM collective event. It was brilliant.

Speaker 2 23:04

Yeah, and just things like this, it's those little things I think that should be mindful for real estate agents to know and have access to sort of help support these families. But again, like with Lisa Lisa like from a business point of view, she's working with purpose. So she has difficult properties and she you know, as property managers do, they can sometimes have hard days, but knowing that she's actually working with these families is definitely the brightness of her job and hopefully keeps her with me longer but keeps her looking ultimately after your clients. So it's things like that. It's good just to understand the behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 23:49

I guess that's a really great point actually, because I think a lot of business owners and managers underestimate how much we all want to work for an ethical company. And you know there are other ways to incentivise staff and motivate them. But if you know you're working for a company that's values aligned, it does inspire loyalty, I think.

Speaker 2 24:11

I didn't realise the impact of that until recently, where last year we sent emails out to our clients asking them if they would like to buy a hamper for their tenants for Christmas, and we use oh my gosh, I wish I remembered it before I started this story. It's the, and some of your clients, some of your families, actually work for them.

Speaker 3 24:36

Metal, metal, yes, metal. I knew straight away we love them, love them. I think actually I probably got introduced to them from you. They're so good and it's an ethical company.

Property Partnerships for Social Impact

Speaker 2 24:45

They had a really great promotion where for every box you ordered, they would provide one to the families. So I think we had about 200 boxes that we had purchased for our clients and so when we sent out the email to the owners to say, listen, if you have had a great experience with your tenant and would like to purchase them a Christmas gift, this is the one we're suggesting. I think it was like $88. I thought it was pretty reasonable price. And then we said to them if you haven't had a great experience with your tenant, then feel free just to ignore the email. The response was huge. We had so many owners want to take up us organizing that for them. But the responses from the owners to say thank you for being such an ethical company or loving things, like loving your purpose, loving the way that you guys do things and not that I was doing it for that, but getting those responses I was like hmm maybe that was a good move.

Speaker 1 25:42

Oh, amazing, so much better than a bottle of wine. Yes, yes, yeah. What Metal has done? You know we've been partners with them for five years and so not only do they employ and upskill our women, they produce these gorgeous, ethical, sustainable gift hampers, and you know we've gifted them to the property owners in our program as well, and you know it's just that little tangible reminder that you're part of a big picture together. You know we're all chipping away, doing our little corner of something that means so much to this woman and her children at the centre of it all. It's got that ripple effect and it's really quite profound.

Speaker 2 26:18

I love it. Yeah, and that's just exactly another example. If you are not able to, you know, contribute financially or energy or property, even something like using metal is something that you could do in your business, starting straight away. That will cost you nothing, but you're just using a company. Maybe it's for client gifts, sales gifts, things like that. It's just, I guess, to get that thinking around. Yeah, who can be in your network to help this community? So many options.

Speaker 3 26:52

People love to help. They really do. If you give them the opportunity they really do. So after we had that, we did a piece with ABC News just speaking about the challenges of the rental market and we had so many online inquiries from private landlords being like, yeah, we have this property. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it, and in really great areas they could have got fantastic rent for them, but they wanted to be able to provide it to a family, you know, and it's because that opportunity was created for them, because we let them know. Then that's what happened.

Speaker 2 27:28

I remember one of those ones I think was that beautiful place in North Perth.

Speaker 2 27:32

Maybe this beautiful car it was like, oh my gosh, stunning, lucky family that got that one for a really good price. So let's step into the philanthropic investors. And I have been known to say that every single time we do an article, you do an article, someone comes forward. And exactly what you just said people want to help. They just didn't know that. You know this was an option. What you just said, people want to help, they just didn't know that. You know this was an option.

Speaker 2 28:08

So philanthropic investing, from my point of view, is a investor who is in a position to be able to accept a lower than market rate for their property, and also an investor who is wanting to give back, and they can do that through property. And we see this a lot with very old school owners and I actually have some on my books as well. I've got an owner. He's not one of my philanthropic clients, but he sort of is, and he owns about 15 properties and when we go do a rent increase, I remember once he said to me do not be mean with my rent increase this year. Once he said to me do not be mean with my rent increase this year, ash, and I wasn't being mean, but it was like but you can get this much per week and he does not feel comfortable because he's of that old school mentality. He does not feel comfortable at all taking, you know, 300 a week for a property when $200 is perfectly fine for him and obviously all his rents that are renewed are all at the lower end because that's his financial position. That's what sits comfortably with him.

Speaker 2 29:06

I also do want to stress, though, with investors is that every investor is in a different position and, as a property manager, even just having that discussion with your new clients when they come on board, to let them know that you also have a philanthropic program if it's something that suits them. If not, this is the market rate. Just giving people the options is number one, super helpful, and let them decide, because you don't know what their financial position is like, you don't know what their experience is like. We've had people that have had children, that have gone through DV and have gone. You know what. This is what I want to do to give back. So who are we to? Just assume that they want the traditional way, like again, thinking outside the box? Why wouldn't you just give them that second option and just see?

Speaker 3 29:57

what happens. Create the opportunity.

Speaker 2 29:59

Yeah, absolutely create the opportunity for investors and yeah, I think you'll be surprised at how many come forward. So we so from a property manager point of view, like obviously we've got the philanthropic clients. They help you by providing a significant I want to say a significant amount. Less Generally the way the conversation will go from my point of view. So with Arana, the families do need to have a property manager involved, like a landlord can't be privately managing the tenancy. So that's still the case.

Speaker 3 30:35

Yeah, it's good for everyone.

Speaker 2 30:36

Yep. And then we generally the conversation we would have with the clients is what do you need, like what's the minimum you need, so they know what their mortgage is, what their bills are, what they're comfortable with. We generally let them come to us, but we do say to them listen, most families in the program have an affordability. Say between you know, don't quote me on this, maybe it's 400 to 500 a week, for example. Yeah, perfect.

Speaker 1 31:00

That's accurate?

Speaker 2 31:01

Great, I should have checked that with you before.

Speaker 3 31:04

I put you in that position.

Speaker 2 31:06

So then we would say that's where most families can afford. So if you can get back to me with what you know, what you're comfortable with, and we can see whether it works, and then they will say, yep, actually I would need 480. No worries, we'll put that forward to you. We've got this property in this suburb. Owner wants 480 per week. Do you have a family that this would suit? Yep, and it's as simple as that?

Speaker 3 31:30

Yeah, it works exactly like that.

Speaker 2 31:34

Yep, and it's as simple as that. Yeah, it works exactly like that. Yeah, yeah, and the way that it's looked after is exactly the way every tenancy would be, except we are not needing to advertise the property, we're just putting it straight through to Arana. You guys find a family that it suits. The application still gets done, though it's not really processed, it's just a formality Lease agreement, property condition report. All of it's not really processed, it's just a formality Lease agreement, property condition report. All of it's done as a normal tenancy would be done, and the only bit that we're shortcutting is the fact that we're not advertising it on the current market and we are accepting a tenancy application, not sifting through 100 of them and not sifting through 100. Yeah, no, it's great.

Speaker 1 32:11

It's pretty easy, I think so. Also, it acts as an additional reference because we know these women, we know how they live, we've seen how they care for their property, we know a bit about their background and we know that they're housing ready. So it's an extra layer of security. If you compared that, perhaps, with someone who might be, you know, presenting really strongly because they've got a big FIFO income, for example, they're barely home. They've got a big dog. When they come home they're having big parties, they're, you know, doing all kinds of things that are a property manager's nightmare. That's not the case with these women. These are women who've got, you know, usually one or two young kids, and they're just trying to, as you mentioned earlier reconnect with community, get their kids back to school, get everything back on track.

Speaker 1 32:56

They're working, they're studying, they're rebuilding.

Speaker 2 32:59

Yeah, so this is going into and I apologise actually to you two because I haven't really gone through those questions that you have.

Speaker 3 33:07

You have not at all.

Speaker 2 33:08

That you have so well prepared for and I'm putting you on the spot, but you're both doing very, very well, I haven't flipped the page once because we haven't even no it's good because I've got my reading glasses anyway.

Speaker 1 33:21

Fantastic, excellent.

Speaker 2 33:23

So we probably haven't got to the point of, because the program maybe hasn't been done long enough for us to sort of have these case studies. But one thing as a property manager I do focus on, because my priority I understand your priority is definitely the families and my priority is the investor, as much as obviously it is your families as well, but really it does come down to the investor. That's who I'm looking after. So I have tried to have really good conversations with them to understand their responsibilities, making sure that they're suitable for the program, but also to have the understanding that the purpose of this program is for the families to be given a new start, to be able to develop a reference so that when they do go out into the normal market they have got the rental reference which is going to make it easy, which is pretty much all they're going to need. Hopefully they've gone through, finished their studying, got their stable income, got themselves mentally in the right headspace so that they can provide the opportunity for that home to another family and then they can move on into the normal rental market. So that's really what we want to see.

Speaker 2 34:42

So I'm bringing that up here because I think that there is a lot of people that might, you know, think as well if there's investors listening to this that you know you're offering a cheap rent for, like you know, five years to the same family, and that's not really my intention. However, when a tenancy does renew after 12 months, we do definitely look at the tenant situation. If they haven't finished their study, if they're not in the place where we want them to be to be able to go out in confidence, we're not going to put them in that position at all, but we definitely do want to monitor it. So we're helping as many people as possible. So we haven't really got to that stage yet, have we, where we've had to put one of the families back into the open market Not really, though we do have some amazing case studies.

Speaker 1 35:30

So yeah, three years down the track of this program, we have got some beautiful testimonials from the investor's perspective and that's been really encouraging. And we know that they would give a glowing reference if the time came that they wanted to, you know, to take in a new tenant. But, to be honest, some of the landlords that we've been speaking with recently, you know they're just really pleased with how it's going for now and they're happy to give it a bit more time.

Speaker 2 35:55

Yeah, obviously for that same tenant. I've got a couple of investors that have said to me they've bought just their first portfolio but they're planning on building on that. And quite a few of them have said Ash, I can't do it for this property because we've just purchased it and we're just starting out, but that is definitely in their portfolio plan to buy a property that is suitable for them to put into the program. So, as an investor, having a portfolio or say five properties, with one of them being what we call a philanthropic property, is a great portfolio plan as well. You know, make your money off the other four properties and let's have one where you're still making money, but balance it, balance it.

Speaker 3 36:39

Yeah, correct. And we have a lot of people where they'll reach out to us, private homeowners, where they'll have a property where they're not too sure what they're going to do with it. They don't know if they're going to sell it, if they're going to gift it to family. It's kind of like just sitting there, stagnant, and they want to put it to good use. If you want to say yeah, yes, we have a lot of that which is good, really good.

Speaker 2 36:57

Yeah, we've had some owners that have gone into nursing homes, haven't we? Yeah, some that are just not ready to sell.

Speaker 1 37:02

We've had a couple recently where it's been people who've inherited a yeah and they've said, oh look, I've already got a home. I'm feeling kind of, you know, a little bit guilty, even you know a bit of a privilege overwhelm, and they've just said, look, maybe I could do this. And look, you know, it's still in the family, it's still, you know, gaining in value. But in the meantime I can feel really good about what I right now.

Speaker 2 37:31

Yeah, yeah, and actually that's just a really great point. It's also those investors that are wanting the capital growth more than the cashflow. They don't need the cashflow growth, but the capital is why they've got the property. I don't know whether you guys follow me on TikTok or not. I do Not on TikTok. Yeah, it's a good thing, it's a good thing.

Speaker 3 37:50

So I'm going to throw a really really curly question out to you, oh gosh, not giving us the questions, and I throw in a curly one.

Speaker 1 37:58

This one's yours.

Speaker 2 38:03

So, on TikTok, I'm just trying to think how I'm going to word this best. On TikTok, I talk about philanthropic investing and I have been crucified crucified by people who hate investors and here I am trying to promote that there are some really great investors out there and I get told that all investors are a piece of shit and just because they're philanthropic doesn't mean that you know, like it just makes them feel better about making money type thing, like really still negative to it, and it's very disappointing. And I've actually had I don't know if you've read the comments I've actually had one person on there say I think that a runner house should sit Ashley down and talk to her about you know, oh, gosh, I think we can stop you from, you know, having people accumulating property portfolios.

Building an Impactful Real Estate Community

Speaker 2 38:54

I don't think I've got that much influence, so Arana House and I'm looking at the camera as I say this. So I've got Arana House sitting me down talking about it, about the philanthropic investing and why people see it, or choose to see investors, in such a negative light. It really, really drives me up the wall because it's putting a real negative spin on people that are doing such good stuff. And, like you said, there's reasons why people have got properties Maybe they've inherited it, maybe their parents, their owners, have gone into a nursing home Lots of different reasons. And then people here doing good buyer, yet investors are still getting slammed for making money. It's very, very hard to hear. I've actually backed off a little bit on that philanthropic because they think it's a bullshit term, but I don't know what other term to use for it. I mean, that's the best word, isn't it?

Speaker 1 39:55

I mean in an ideal world they'd all be, you know, one home per person and everyone would have everything equal and we could destroy capitalism and it would be fantastic. That's a ton of work. I'm not sure you can do it all by yourself, ash.

Speaker 2 40:08

No, no, no. I'll just block and ignore. Block and ignore, Can you? We'll finish off by talking about what do you guys need from property managers right now? Do you need homes? Do you need money? Do you need support? What do you need? That all sounds great, All of the above.

Speaker 1 40:31

Yeah, look, let's come back to just saying you know, let's bring a little bit of human connection back into the conversation. Let's stop chasing you know, meaningless figures and think about how we can go and work with purpose every day. And if you're in that privileged position to invest invest with purpose, you know, I guess just don't turn a blind eye to what is right there, in your street, in your neighbourhood, everywhere, at your local park, at your local school, Be tuned in, realise just how prevalent it is and realise that there is something that you can do.

Speaker 3 41:06

And just have the conversation, you know. Have the conversation with the landlords, you know, because if they don't know that there is this opportunity to help families, you don't know if they're actually going to do that. Yeah, yeah, definitely, and even just so, any of our impact agents that are with us at the moment, if they're listening, just spreading the word and let other property managers know you've had a good experience, you know, and just spread the good vibes out there and let's all come together because that's been really good and you've been so helpful in this aspect. I mean, we had someone come on board and they really wanted to help a family and I was like, where have you heard about us? It was through Ashley.

Speaker 2 41:46

Oh, is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, so good.

Speaker 3 41:48

Yeah, and I mean they've helped house two families and beautiful families and oh my God, they're doing so good at the moment and I was like that's just so good. I mean, we essentially didn't have to do anything, it just came to us just because you had a positive conversation with her. So, yeah, it holds so much weight, it really does, yeah yeah, no, that's so good.

Speaker 2 42:09

I think the biggest takeaway for people listening is give the opportunity to your landlords. So new business coming up, have a chat to them. Here's your market rate. Here's also a second option. If you would like to go down the philanthropic road, then you've got the second option, which could even be which I don't do, but it could be an option. Just sort of thinking of ideas is that when a property comes up that you think is suitable for Arana and it's coming up for release, then saying to the owners listen, would you like to release it to the open market? Or we have got a program with our office which is for philanthropic investing.

Speaker 2 42:51

If it's something that might suit you, maybe it could be that as an owner, currently, let's say hypothetically, the owner's been getting $450 per week, but now that tenant's moving out and now the rent's $700 per week. But the owner might be like you know what? Actually I'm quite happy on that $450 a week I've been getting. So you know, putting it through to one of the families would be a good idea. And, like you said, having property managers having those conversations with each other and advertising that you're an impact agent, marketing about it, talking about it so that more people go. Hey, what's an impact agent? What does that do? It's literally just around those conversations. So that, and not only giving the landlords and the investors the opportunity, but giving your property managers, giving your team the opportunity it's really let's put work aside from a personal level it's giving everyone an opportunity to live with purpose and to work with purpose.

Speaker 3 43:47

Yeah, definitely, yeah, for sure. I mean that would be really helpful, definitely, because we do really would love to get more people on board. Do?

Speaker 2 43:56

you have a goal or not, really.

Speaker 3 43:59

You know what? I think I've just had my head down and just so busy that I haven't even thought about that. But I do have to say I really do love what we do for work. I really do love it. I mean, I never get that. You know, sometimes you go into work and you're like like I might get if I feel tired or something I'd be like, but my work batteries if that's what you want to call them are charged like massively.

Speaker 3 44:25

Once someone get housed, or when they've been housed and I go to visit them, the change that I see in the women is just, I just can't describe it. They look different, they look totally different. They're confident, they're proud, they're just really happy and they're able to provide something for their children that they weren't before A safe place to live. It's what rightfully theirs. But when they actually achieve that and then they're able to make connections in the community, the kids can go to school and have friends over and they can, if you want to say, a normal life. But it's just, it's a lot, it's so good to see. I love that. Or when they first open the door.

Speaker 3 45:04

If we furnish the house, that is like you know, you have to remain professional but you do yeah, you do and you're like it's just so beautiful to be able to give that to a mum, you know, and it's not that hard to do it.

Speaker 1 45:17

Yeah, it's actually not, and I think that's why you say like. It's not so much about setting a goal for the numbers of women and children housed, because we're always going to be fighting a tide. The demand will always be beyond our capacity. Is it increasing?

Speaker 2 45:32

the number of families. Oh gosh, yes, Is it. Oh, that's a shame.

Uniting Businesses for Social Impact

Speaker 1 45:33

Yeah, very much so, however, I would say, in terms of goals, the goal is the number of impact agents. Yeah, because I mean if we could get six more, you know, ahead of International Women's Day, on the 8th of March, I think we would be absolutely thrilled. That would be an achievable goal. It's within reach, yeah, but six impact agents who say look, I'm either going to commit to a year of rent, top up $2,600. It's not much, right, tax deductible or, hey, I'm actually going to become one of the agencies that puts forward my rentals for, you know, one or two families even. Yeah, that would be great. So if we get maybe half a dozen of those in the next month or two, I think we would be on track for a really great year and we could feel really proud of that altogether.

Speaker 3 46:20

Yeah, the donation is huge as well because where, like I said, the rental it's just not come down, it's still really expensive and going in on a single income to that, especially if you've been displaced or if you've been in refuge, trying to get back into the workforce from refuge is really difficult because I mean, who wants to sit in an interview and not be able to give an address? And you know it's just, there's so many layers to it. So then it's a massive barrier for people exiting refuge because like, well, I can't get a private rental because I can't afford it. But if we're able to say, yeah, we can top up the rent until they get back on their feet, they can do our empoweredowered for Employment program, metal things like that, go back to study, then they can sustain it on their own down the track.

Speaker 3 47:01

But if we are able to give them that financial contribution, then we've created that opportunity. So I mean the more that we can do that the better, because then where we have those people who have a portfolio where they're like I don't have rentals that would be in your client's budget, well, maybe you do if we were able to top up the rent, you know.

Speaker 2 47:19

One thing that I've definitely learned is that I didn't realise what impact a relatively small amount of money has for people. And in a different program that I help with there's $1,000 grants and you know $1,000 might be a grant for over. You know it might just be helping again. Just top up someone's rent if they've had a rent increase. And you think in my mind when I first started doing it, $1,000, I mean, that's not going to be a game changer. But when you hear these case studies and you spread out $1,000 over 10 weeks or whatever, it made a massive, massive difference. And so even $50 a week like I guess to a lot of us if I'm being going to be completely sort of ignorant that you'd think, oh, $50 a week, I can, you know, just not get Uber Eats one night or something stupid.

Speaker 3 48:13

You can spend it in 10 minutes. You know, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 48:17

But to realise that the amount $50 per week to a family that needs it is like so massive.

Speaker 1 48:25

It just means they might be the one that gets that much sought after lease yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 48:30

Absolutely that one rental. That is the only one that is available. Yeah, it's theirs. Yeah, it's really brilliant. And you know thousands, like you mentioned earlier. That's just the bond, you know. Meanwhile, you know we're supporting someone to get access to funds that are rightfully theirs. They're going through a settlement, they're going to be able to pay that rent, no problem. They just didn't have access to that bond. So just getting them what they needed in that short term to get over the hurdle it can really make a big difference.

Speaker 2 49:02

Yeah, so, okay. So six impact agents is what we're looking for, and if I really just break this down for business owners and property managers, what $2,600 looks like for a business owner is one management fee for the year. It's like you are donating out of your whole portfolio of you know, whether it's 50, 100, 500 properties, you're donating one management fee income to the program. That's it, and when we put it into the real basic terms like that, it's not a lot. So if, as a business owner, you can commit to that, to one or maybe I mean, how amazing would it be that for every one in a hundred properties you donate, you know, as an impact agent, like what a great business plan to have to do that. Or to have your team and say to your team okay, for every hundred properties we get, we're going to do, you know, one impact agent donation, a really great KPI for your team to work towards Women's support and women.

Speaker 2 50:02

Yeah, and just a good business plan. That you know that's our plan for the business. We're going to do one donation for every hundred properties and you then advertise that in your business and you market. That's what you do. You market it to your team, you market it to the public to say that's what we do and I, you know, again just sort of just thinking of those ideas outside the box, of how you can make it work in your business, and so let's.

Speaker 1 50:28

I think that shared goal actually among colleagues, you know, really mobilise them, connect them to one another, normalise conversations around FDB in the workplace too, which is also a nice, important secondary effect, I think that would be, you know, a really great business plan. I agree, yeah, and I just thought of another idea as well.

Speaker 2 50:48

So MyConnect is a utility company that we use and a lot of businesses use. They offer a really good commission structure and there are some businesses use they offer a really good commission structure and there are some businesses out there who don't want to take the commission from the tenant utilities. And so, as a business plan or as a shared goal, the other option is you could actually use your MyConnect commission and use that to donate as well. So, as a team, you decide that we're going to use that commission as our donation each year as well. So again, it's just another idea of what you can do using your business that you're already running at the moment.

Speaker 1 51:30

And then you're in great company with a whole bunch of other amazing impact agents.

Speaker 2 51:33

Absolutely, absolutely. So this recording will be released, obviously, and you might be listening to it at different times, but it has been recorded at the start of 2025. And so one thing that I try to do is doing a charity event each year as well, and so we've got the charity event which we have been, the last couple of years, been doing it around the International Women's Day, which we're doing again this year, where we have silent auctions and have a beautiful breakfast with a speaker, and all the profits from that will go through to Arana as well. So, again, another way to support Arana is just to come to my event.

Speaker 2 52:12

A selfless plug. It's good food. It is good food. So at this one, so we're having it at bib and tucker. It's three courses and, obviously, like, I'm trying to keep the costs down because, like, all the profits go to you guys, so the the better I can get, the uh, the costings, the more that you guys, I can pass on to you. So they gave us a three course option and I was like, oh, three courses, we don't need three course breakfast, I mean, but that's a lot, it's a lot, it's three courses. We don't need three course breakfast, I mean, but that's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot for people that don't even eat breakfast. You know so. But she assured me that it was a very sort of small sort of first and third course and then your breakfast in between. So so it should be absolutely beautiful. And we've got Heidi Anderson. Do you guys know Heidi?

Speaker 1 52:56

She's so cool, yeah, have you seen her?

Speaker 2 52:59

Do you follow her?

Speaker 3 53:00

Oh, I think you know no, but the name is so familiar, I don't know why.

Speaker 2 53:04

Yeah, she's talking a lot about courage and she does a lot in that space, so relevant, but a little bit left of sort of what we're doing, and she'll be really great to listen to, and I've organised a signed book for every single person coming as well, so they'll have them, which is really cool, and you've got the beautiful view of Leighton Beach.

Speaker 1 53:28

Yes, and Bibintaka is delicious. Yes, I've been there for years. It's like my favourite special occasion place.

Speaker 2 53:33

Nice, nice. So I'm looking forward to that. So I guess that's sort of yeah, one thing that I personally do. But again, you know, in your business maybe you have a internal charity event, maybe you do a charity event for your investors or your tenants and you can also raise funds Like I'm just trying to drop all these like ideas that people can do inside their businesses to help, and yeah, ideas and we love visiting our impact agents.

Casual Discussion With Property Professionals

Speaker 1 54:00

We'll come out, we'll chat with the team, we'll explain a lot more about Arana House and the work we're doing right here and, you know, sometimes that can be quite inspiring and motivating for the team too, just to know that that contribution, what it is doing in real terms, so close to home. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 54:18

Yeah, yeah, we're always up for it.

Speaker 1 54:21

Yeah, you know we're a very small, locally based charity. You know our refuge is in the city of Bayswater. We've got transitional properties around Perth, but you know the need here is enormous and so there's a lot of good people can do.

Speaker 2 54:35

Yeah, perfect. Well, it was lovely having you both in today. Apologies that I didn't do any of those questions. I don't think you did one I love to go off script.

Speaker 2 54:45

Well, always good to chat it is. You know it's my style. You know I only give you the questions for your own peace of mind before you come in. But I should put a disclaimer on there. They may not be asked, but you guys did very, very well and great discussion again for both property managers, business owners, investors as well, and I hope that definitely shed some more insight into how you can, yeah, work and live with purpose very easily doing exactly what you're already doing.

Speaker 3 55:13

And get in touch with us.

Speaker 1 55:14

Absolutely. Come and meet us at Leighton Beach. Yes, perfect For a three-course brekkie, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 55:21

Lovely to see you both and I'll chat to you soon.

Speaker 1 55:23

Thanks for having us Ash. That was great.