Background

Allen Usher is the founder of Property World, the niche estate agency responsible for marketing South Africa’s first golf estate 40 years ago (and many more since then). Today, Property World markets all of the Rabie Group’s residential developments, and has built a sizeable rental book managing properties on behalf of investors in those developments.

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Choosing WeconnectU

Property World transitioned from another management platform to WeconnectU in 2022.

“We had reached the limit of how far we could go on our previous system,” says Allen. “To grow the business we needed the technology that WeconnectU offers.”

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Making the transition

Allen confesses he was dreading the process of migrating from Property World’s previous solution to WeconnectU.

“I thought, ‘Wow, there’s so much that can go wrong with this,’” he says, “but the staff behind WeconnectU held our hand and carried us through the process and it was absolutely painless. There were no hiccups whatsoever.”

Allen was particularly impressed with WeconnectU’s personal service.

“I can pick up the phone and phone any of the founders of WeconnectU at any time,” he says, “and if they can’t help me, they’ll put me onto the right person with that expertise. It’s a very human-based technology company. They’re very big, but still small enough to offer that human touch and that interface. If you have a problem, there’s a real person you can pick up the phone and speak to.”

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Business Outcomes

Greater Manageability

“WeconnectU has been a life-changer for us as far as making our business that much more manageable with a growing rental book.” – Allen Usher, Property World

Property World has enjoyed a number of manageability enhancements since adopting WeconnectU. The most powerful, from Allen’s perspective, has been the ability to identify and manage arrears faster and more effectively, leading to exceptionally high collection percentages – a source of significant organisational pride.

“With the built-in software available to us, arrears notices go out timeously,” he says. “We never forget because it’s all automated. It’s really reduced our arrears dramatically, and it’s the technology behind it that’s enabled us to do that.”

Property World also uses RedRabbit, powered by WeconnectU, for inspections and maintenance management. Allen says the integration between the two platforms has made it infinitely easier for his rental administrators to stay on top of maintenance.

“Looking after the landlord’s asset is a critical situation,” he says. “It’s not just about the money, but also protecting his assets. With RedRabbit, maintenance tickets are flagged straightaway, and all recorded and filed against each of the landlord’s portfolios. It’s made the whole maintenance area much easier.”

Another area that Allen says is vastly easier to manage in WeconnectU are PPRA-mandated bank account reconciliations.

“With WeconnectU’s live bank integration, we can do reconciliation on a daily basis,” he says, “whereas in the past, with our previous accounting package, it was a nightmare doing it at the end of the month. You can imagine how many transactions go through a portfolio the size of ours. Now that it’s reconciled daily, I can go into the dashboards at any time of day and see exactly whether our bank is reconciled and the trust account is reconciled. It’s a gamechanger for us. It really is.”

Audits, too, have become more manageable.

“The advantage of the WeconnectU platform is that it has the auditors portal,” says Allen. “We can give our auditor access to the platform and they can download all the reports that they need. Everything’s at our fingertips, we can answer all the auditor’s questions, and if not, we’ve got the WeconnectU support system to help us get through the audit process.”

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Quick and easy compliance

With their vast rental portfolio, Property World’s FICA workload is significant. Allen says WeconnectU’s compliance tools have played a pivotal role in lightened that load and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks – from background checks and scrutiny to compliant record-keeping.

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Super-charged scalability

“If you want to grow your business, you cannot do it without technology. And if you’re going go the technology route, then go for the best.” Allen Usher, Property World

Allen reveals that WeconnectU has been pivotal in helping Property World scale after reaching their growth ceiling in their previous management system. Currently, the business has an average annual growth rate of 26%.

“We could not do that without the technology WeconnectU offers,” he says.

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Added value

Allen was first introduced to the concept of rental asset management via WeconnectU, and has since come to believe that asset management is the future of rental management.

“We always regarded ourselves as rental agents, looking after the collection of rentals,” he says, “but the concept of asset management has really elevated our game. To put it into perspective, we’re managing an asset book of over a billion rand. It’s a big portfolio and, to us, every landlord is as important as a landlord that owns a shopping centre worth a billion rand.”

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Improved Profitability

“I can, without hesitation, say that WeconnectU has made our business more profitable,” says Allen. “We now require less manpower to do the job than we used to, and it’s made a huge impact on our business.”

WeconnectU’s impact on profitability has not been limited to staffing requirements, either. Allen says the extra revenue opportunities the business has been able to unlock since joining WeconnectU have also significantly boosted their bottom line.

“There are so many extra revenue streams – credit checks, admin fees, arrear payments, notices that go out – that we weren’t aware of in the past, or that were too difficult to implement without an automated system,” he says.