Amanda Gordon, property manager at McIntyre Property. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Amanda Gordon’s voice is calm on the other end of the phone. It’s a trait that is vital to her role in property management. Conflict resolution, and ensuring a good experience for both tenants and landlords is her aim, and she works every day to make that happen with her team of property managers at McIntyre Property Group.
Amanda was born in Tasmania and moved to Narooma, on the NSW South Coast, during her high school years, where she began working in real estate.
“I was pregnant with my first [child] and I ran a motel as a live-in manager,” she says. “I wanted to do something else so I started studying to do real estate in general and applied for a position as a sales assistant in Bermagui, with Marshall and Tacheci. Then their property manager gave notice so I started doing that.
“I was with them until my second son was born. He was about three years later.”
But with the premature birth of her second son, Amanda’s world changed.
Her baby was born with Smith-Magenis syndrome, an incredibly rare chromosomal abnormality affecting only four children in Canberra.
“That’s how I ended up in Canberra,” she says. “I was seven months pregnant and in horrible pain, and they took me to the hospital in Moruya. Less than 24 hours later they put a needle in my arm and sent me up to Canberra in an ambulance and he was born two months early.
“I was in hospital for nine days, and I was on maternity leave, living out of a residence in Canberra with my three-year-old, while my premmie baby was in the hospital for 83 days.”
Amanda moved to Canberra to be nearer to schools and medical facilities for her son, and was headhunted for a property management role. She soon began her Canberra-based property management career and loves the job.
“That’s why I love property management; I can go to work and deal with everyone else’s problems and not my own,” she laughs. “It takes a certain person – staying calm and solving conflict – you can never become escalated in a conflict.”
Conflict resolution is a big part of the job, and Amanda takes the role very seriously. She has a team of property managers that oversees an extensive portfolio of properties across Canberra.
“I have a fantastic team – they’re really experienced and they’ve been here a long time,” she says. “Quite often in property management, there’s a high staff turnover, but ours have been here for a number of years. They’re really stable and know what they’re doing.”
Amanda says the best part of the job is ensuring both landlords and tenants have positive experiences in a very tight rental market.
“An investment property is often a person’s biggest asset – it’s often their investment for their retirement so looking after that, particularly if they have had a bad experience, is to turn it around and make it a positive experience and get the best return on their investment property,” she says.
“Being the market it is at the moment, tenants sometimes get the short end of the stick so making their experience positive is important, too.
“It takes a certain person for property management. It can be very rewarding, but there’s a lot that goes into it as well – knowing the legislation, which is always changing, and being on the front foot is also important.”
If you would like a positive property management experience, contact Amanda Gordon at McIntyre Property Management on 02 6294 9393, or email her.
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