I've been in property for 25 years. I made an embarrassing mistake near the beginning of that time, sitting across from a GM in one of Auckland's best-known development firms. I still think about it. Here's why.
The Setup
When I was studying property, I was lucky enough to get part-time work with a prominent Auckland developer. I didn't know how lucky at the time. I was young, seemingly bulletproof, and had a ready answer for every question I was put in front of.
I was wrong, as it turned out. Memorably wrong.
The Conversation
I can still remember sitting down with the GM and running through some numbers on a carparking deal. It went like this.
GM: "How much is the weekly rent for each carpark?"
Me: "$100 a week."
GM: "Right, so… if we charge rent monthly in advance, how much will each monthly payment be?"
Me: "$400 a month."
If you're an owner of property and can't see the mistake I've just made, we should really have a catch up.
There are 4.33 weeks in a month, not 4. Monthly rent on $100 per week is $433, not $400. Across a carpark building with 50 bays, I'd just cost the developer $1,650 a month. Annualised: nearly $20,000.
The GM didn't fire me. He didn't shout. He just looked at me for a moment and explained, quietly, exactly where I'd gone wrong. That silence was worse than anything else he could have said.
What I Actually Learnt
The maths lesson was the obvious one. But the thing I took away — and have carried ever since — was something harder to articulate.
I thought I was there to demonstrate what I already knew. I was wrong about that too. I was there to learn. Every conversation, every client, every deal is a chance to learn something you don't already know, if you're paying enough attention.
Steve Hansen said something about experience in an interview that stuck with me. He was talking about rugby, but it applies just as well to property:
"You've got to be careful when you start talking about experience… because sometimes just because you've played for a long time, you might have learnt a lot of things that you don't want to learn… or you may have learnt nothing along the way."
Years in an industry and genuine growth within it are not the same thing. I've met property managers who have done the same job the same way for two decades and called it experience. The portfolio stays the same. The tenants keep leaving. The contractor quotes keep coming in unchallenged. But the manager has been in property for 20 years, so surely that counts for something.
It doesn't. Not by itself.
What 25 Years Actually Looks Like
I've been doing this for long enough to have made mistakes I'd rather not repeat — and to have learnt from all of them.
I've worked across office, industrial, retail, and mixed-use assets. I've negotiated under multiple iterations of the Auckland District Law Society (ADLS) form of lease. I've managed properties through interest rate cycles, through tenants who've defaulted, through make good disputes, through buildings that needed significant capital attention — and through the kind of slow-burning maintenance failures that only become visible after years of not being caught.
The experience that matters isn't the years. It's whether something changed because of them.
For me, what changed was a set of habits that became non-negotiable.
Every contract we manage goes out to competitive tender when we take over — always on price and agreed service levels, never simply inherited from whoever the previous manager appointed. Routine maintenance items that protect assets over time — gutter clearing, roof moss treatment, building compliance — are managed proactively rather than flagged after the fact.
And when a client asks a question, I make sure I'm giving them the right answer. Not a quick one.
Why This Matters for Your Property
If you're thinking about who manages your commercial portfolio, I'd suggest asking less about how long they've been in property and more about what they've actually done with that time.
What's changed in how they work? What have they stopped doing that used to be standard practice? What have they started doing that others haven't caught up to yet?
Those are the conversations worth having.
If you'd like to have one, I'm easy to reach. I still answer my phone.
Further Reading
Why I Started AssetPro — NZ Commercial Property Management, Done Differently
What Does a Commercial Property Manager Actually Do? A Complete NZ Guide
OPEX Explained: A Complete Guide to Operating Expenses in NZ Commercial Property
Leave a Reply