Your property development team holds the key to the success of your projects. How?Australia’s Billion Dollar Property Developer, Bob Andersen, discusses.
If there is such a thing as a secret to success in property development it would have to be your property development team. Or more specifically how you leverage their time and their expertise.
WHO ARE YOUR PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT TEAM MEMBERS?
It will depend on the type of project you intend to undertake.
If you are doing a simple splitter of say one lot into two or three your team would be a team of one, namely a consulting surveyor.
If it was a townhouse development you intend to undertake your two principal team members are a town planner and an architect and later on a builder. I tend to make the architect the principal consultant in obtaining the approvals. Although there are several other consultants involved in this process the architect can be the lead coordinator on your behalf. That said, you need to be able to brief the architect on what you want.
WHY SHOULD A SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY DEVELOPER KNOW?
You may have left school early but in effect as the property developer you are the boss of the architect, the planner and everyone else on the team. But you don’t need to know what they know. Even after three decades as a property developer I will never know a fraction of what an architect knows about design or what a town planner knows about the planning scheme. I don’t have to. I simply need to know which team member I need, when I need them and what I want them to do.
HOW TO FIND GOOD TEAM MEMBERS FOR YOUR PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT?
You could go to the source of all information, Google, but you wouldn’t know whether they were good or not so good.
I have found referral from somebody you trust to be a great way of meeting team members. It could be a referral from another developer, a builder or another professional team member.
A good architect will always know good town planner and vice versa. Good architects should also know some good builders and vice versa. Some council websites allow you to investigate the progress of development approvals. From this you can glean the fall team membership of a project. It doesn’t mean they are good but at least someone else has chosen them for a reason.
When doing your due diligence on a team member make sure you get referrals from other professionals they do business with and also from recent clients including other developers.
FINAL WORDS ON PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT TEAM
When you have a good team beside you the property development ride will be a good one. Always thank your team at the end of a project. We usually have a party at the end of each project and invite all the team members. It is a great way of forming long-term relationships. A good team truly is your key to success.
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