Chris Hanley OAM, the Byron Bay agency owner with more than four decades in real estate, asked that his bio not be read at PM/ONE 2026.
MC Dom Thurbon obliged, introducing him instead as “one of the true legends of the Australian property management and real estate sector.”
Chris opened by asking the 400 property managers in the room to raise a hand if they were worried about AI and their job security. Few raised their hands. Chris said they were right not to worry.
“A machine’s not going to do what you do. You have superpowers. And that’s a cliché, but it’s true,” he said.
Chris said the everyday skills of property management – patience, listening, explaining and staying calm with landlords or tenants who are doing it tough – would become more valuable because technology could not reproduce them.
“I will till the day I die believe we all want to talk to human beings,” Chris said, adding that a person’s pulse drops, not rises, when a human answers the phone.
Drawing on a question from Jeff Bezos, Chris said people often ask what is going to change when they should be asking what will stay the same.
Trust, care and human contact were among those constants. Chris told the room a great property management professional “is worth every cent and then some”.
Citing Grit author Angela Duckworth, Chris described asking for help as a habit successful people share.
“The single trait they have in common is they ask for help,” Chris said.
“The people that you ask help for will love helping you much more than you understand.”
He referred to fellow speaker Peter Rollings’ advice about “radical candor” and recommended applying it in conversations with landlords, tenants and colleagues.
“Candor just means to tell people the honest truth. You choose the way to do it with landlords and tenants,” he said. He urged property managers to be direct with landlords whose rent expectations were too high, saying this would resolve problems sooner and reduce stress.
Chris urged leaders to address poor behaviour when it happened, rather than taking the stress home.
Chris also asked the room to swap “I” for “we” from Tuesday morning, whether talking to a prospective landlord or a colleague. He said he could assess an office’s culture within 10 minutes by listening to which word people used on the phone.
He finished with his secret sauce for personal and business life: care.
“You care for them, they care for you. You care for them, they care for each other. You care for them, they care for your customers and your clients. Care is your secret sauce,” he said.
“You have power beyond what most of you understand.”
What to try in your agency
- Ask a colleague for help with a problem you’ve been trying to solve alone.
- Be direct with landlords whose rent expectations are unrealistic.
- Use “we” rather than “I” when speaking with landlords, tenants and colleagues.
- If you lead a team, address poor behaviour when it happens.
- Switch your phone to greyscale and cut back on frequent checking.