Annual rental reviews are one of the most effective ways to boost landlord satisfaction and management revenue — but they’re often left on a busy property manager’s to-do list.
Not because they aren’t important, but because property managers are buried in urgent tasks: maintenance issues, vacate notices, and endless relationship management.
“For a stretched property manager to complete 120 rental reviews manually — at 20 minutes each — they need to find an extra 40 hours a year,” says Leesy founder Michael Watson
Agencies have attempted to solve the problem by delegating rent reviews to junior team members or outsourcing them offshore — but many quickly realise those solutions fall short.
Pricing a rental property isn’t just data entry. It requires a deep understanding of the ever-shifting rental market, suburb-level trends, and renter sentiment.
That kind of knowledge takes years — even decades — to develop.
Michael saw the results firsthand while building Leesy’s home finder service for renters — a kind of renter’s agent at scale.
“We’d see overpriced properties sit on the market for weeks, and underpriced ones with lines around the block,” he says.
That experience, combined with several years building technology in Silicon Valley, led to the creation of IRIS: the Instant Rental Insight System.
IRIS takes the manual work out of rental evaluations.
Each week, IRIS automatically identifies properties in a rent roll that are approaching their renewal date.
It then delivers a full rental review — complete with suburb-level demand forecasting, current comparables, and a data-backed rent recommendation — directly to the property manager.
With just a few clicks, the property manager can review the analysis, make adjustments if needed, and send a polished, agency-branded proposal straight to the landlord.
“It turns what used to be a 40-hour-a-year task into something that’s done in seconds,” says Michael.
“And landlords love it — because it shows their property is being actively managed.”
IRIS goes beyond surface-level data. It factors in changes in supply and demand across every property subcategory in Australia — from two-bedroom apartments in Fitzroy with balconies and air-conditioning, to four-bedroom homes on land in Wagga.
The result? Unmatched accuracy.
In a study comparing more than 20,000 IRIS rent predictions against manually prepared rent reviews, 90% of IRIS estimates fell within 10% of the property manager’s number — a near-perfect result given its subjective nature.
The impact goes well beyond efficiency.
Consistent rental reviews demonstrate your value to landlords, reducing churn, and increasing the likelihood of referral business.
With rents rising 5.8% over the last 12 months, an agency with 1,000 properties under management can unlock $100,000 in additional management revenue — simply by ensuring properties remain aligned with market value.
IRIS helps teams do exactly that — without increasing headcount or adding to a property manager’s workload.
IRIS is now available nationally, and Michael is focused on rolling it out to agencies who want to deliver the best service to landlords while reducing the stress on their PMs.
“We just think it’s ideally positioned to help property managers who are burning out in record numbers,” he says.
Longer term, Leesy will continue building products to reduce rental stress on both sides of the equation.
“If we can build technology that supports renters and property managers to find each other as quickly as possible, that’s always where we’ll be,” he says.
Backed by the REACH program, Leesy has also had the opportunity to fine-tune its offering by speaking directly with agencies.
“They’ve been invaluable,” Michael says.
“It’s what’s allowed us to deliver something that property managers say they always wished they had, if they had an infinite team.”
