In today’s market, we have real estate agents specializing in just sales, property management, or even strata management. However, as agency principals, we need to understand that our business has very important synergies and strengths that are only available when you have multiple revenue streams or activities that can feed off each other.

For example, industry research has consistently shown that a well-run rent roll can provide around 10% in yearly sales listings. You should already have a professional relationship with the property owner on these listings.

If you have been providing a satisfactory service to your clients through your property management services, then there is no reason why they will not listen to you when they consider selling. When you have a client who already trusts you as their real estate agent, selling your services should not be difficult, and most importantly, you are not out there competing with other agents to discount your selling fee.

So take a moment to think about how many properties you have in your rent roll and what the sales commission on 10% of it would mean to you this year.

It’s essential to consider how many properties you have in your rent roll.

Now consider how many listings this would equate to if you doubled the size of your rent roll.

This is the secret value of having a substantial rent roll within your agency practice. We all understand the benefits of a rent roll and its cash flow, but very few look at this as ongoing sales income. Even fewer agents nurture these sales and listings by actively participating in their landlords’ property investment planning.

The logic is simple. If you have 100 properties under management and get ten sales listings during the year, you may be quietly happy with that. But if you had 600 properties under management and 60 sales listings yearly, I think you would be ecstatic!

Naturally, this all requires you to build and operate your rent roll actively, give your landlord good quality service, and make sure you become their real estate agent. However, the rewards are substantial and must be better than all the cold canvassing needed to find new business in competition with four or five other agents.

So, plan to build a balanced agency with multiple income streams that can feed off each other to make your agency stronger and more recession-proof for the future.