A technology entrepreneur creates his own agency

Four years ago, Antony Cohen, a business partner, discussed the dire situation of investors in real estate services and led them to launch a real estate agency called LongView.

"As a businessman, it is not intuitive for a businessman to leave an industry so negligent that it could be his most valuable clientele," he said.

Mr. Thornley describes the four-year journey leading to the creation of LongView as a search for answers to the problems faced by investors in residential real estate.

Although LongView is not a high-tech game or a property disrupter, it has one point of difference.

"The most basic requirement that real estate investors expect from an agent is to find good tenants, collect the rent on time, and when those tenants leave, you will replace them quickly," Thornley said.

"Why if the agency does not meet this basic need, the person who loses money is not the agency, it is the owner? It does not make sense to me. "

His solution was to provide a rent guarantee to the owners.

"We have just released a guaranteed rent product that is a problem if we do not do it and homeowners get stable cash flow from their rent at the same time each month, whether the property is rented or not," he said. .

"The idea is that our landlords are getting exactly the same amount they could have gotten anyway, but they get it safely. At some level, it's not a big request. "

Mr Thornley said the agency employs a computer scientist who has exploited the five-year rental history of registered properties in order to establish risk profiles by vacancy and by property type for all. the suburbs, thus underpinning the commercial model of rent guarantee.

LongView has about 1,800 owners in its books, making it one of Melbourne's top 20 agencies, having acquired three high-quality real estate management companies, whose former owners now work in the company.

It plans organic growth but will consider opening in Sydney and other capital cities.

Its size means that it is not confined to a single geographical location. "We serve customers in 146 Melbourne suburbs," he said.

Another area in which LongView hopes to differentiate itself from a traditional agency is its desire to manage the rental of real estate through Airbnb or other short-stay sites.

"If you ask a traditional agency if my property is on Airbnb, they will say that it's too difficult, that it's too risky, etc. If you go to an Airbnb agency, they'll tell you that Is awesome. "

Most investors want a realistic badessment of the Airbnb potential of their property and a solution.

LongView recently offered a customer who rented her property at $ 525 per week a positive rating for Airbnb.

"They said," It looks great, but I do not want to worry about it. "We said, no problem, here is a guaranteed rent of $ 580 a week and we If we do it well, we'll make some money, otherwise it's our problem, "he said.