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The future of rent – Real Ideas Prize finalists revealed, it’s time to cast your vote!

The competition to discover inspiring ideas that move the rental experience forward has now entered its final phase, with the public invited to have their say on who should win the Real Ideas Prize.

Five entries were chosen to make the shortlist for the award after an overwhelming amount of entries were received nationwide. These finalists were recently given the opportunity to develop their ideas during a one-day mentoring workshop in Melbourne.

The judging panel brought together experts from all sides of the rental experience, including Nigel Dalton, Fiona Blayney, Heather Holst, Simon Hope and Samantha McLean.

The top three entries, as voted by the public and judges, will share in a total prize pool of $100,000 to help bring these ideas to life.

Winning ideas will be judged against five key focus areas:

  • Creativity – How original is the idea in the Australian Market
  • Ease of implementation – Is it practical?
  • Scalability – How far-reaching are the benefits?
  • Longevity – What’s the long term potential of the idea?
  • Investment – How could the prize money help bring the idea to life?”
The judges

The five finalists in the running to win their share of $100,000 are:

1. SOPHIE LYON – SHOW ME

Sophie Lyon is a Director at Jellis Craig, Boroondara and is an accomplished property manager with more than 30 years experience.

‘ShowMe’ is an app that provides a flexible way for tenants to inspect properties when they choose, giving both property professionals and consumers more time in their days.

As approximately 40 per cent of the properties advertised online are vacant, the ShowMe App will assist in reducing vacancy periods by giving better access options.

ShowMe Inspectors will hold an agent’s representative certificate, undertake ShowMe training, and will be police checked and insured.

Property information will be sent to the renter before the inspection to answer their questions, while coded key safes will be used to keep keys secure and only provide access to a ShowMe inspector at the time of the inspection.

2. STEFAN DEFFERT – MYPM

Stefan Deffert first worked in real estate in 1993 and has since seen little change in the fundamental distribution of information between agents and their clients – certainly not at the pace the financial services sector has progressed.

Initially from an electrical engineering background, Stefan now holds a real estate licence and a builder’s licence, uniquely positioning him to understand the broad range of demands in the real estate sector, and how best to provide clients with a professional solution.

Mypm is an app that makes the most common property management requests easily accessible anywhere, anytime – empowering landlords with the information they want, when they want it, and freeing up property managers to attend to the more complicated matters that arise every day.

The Mypm app presents the most commonly requested information to landlords and tenants on demand, 24/7 in a colour-coded, visually engaging manner.

Rental amount, rental paid to and due date, lease term and expiry, next routine inspection due date, lease documents, financial statements and outgoings, and real-time maintenance reporting and approval are all readily available on demand, benefiting all parties – landlords, tenants and property managers.

3. ANNA MOLINARO – MAINTENANCE ME

Anna Molinaro commenced her real estate career while completing her VCE in the year 2000. She continued to work in the family business on a part-time basis, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree.

While commencing her career as a receptionist and assisting within different departments of the company, Anna realised her passion was in Property Management.

Anna’s idea is to create a maintenance app minimising the workload of property managers.

The purpose of this app is for tenants to report maintenance issues and to upload photos/videos from their smartphone or tablet.

This then alerts the property manager who will receive the notification to their device.

From there, the property manager allocates the work to the supplier, resulting in seamless communication between all parties from start to finish.

4. TREVOR MILLER – PLATFORM FOR TENANT MANAGED INSPECTIONS

Relatively new to real estate, Trevor has a background in corporate and retail finance, with degrees in e-business and information communication technology.

Trevor’s idea is to take the workload of routine inspections for good tenants away from property managers and put it into the hands of the tenant, effectively giving back time to the property managers so they can focus on more productive and customer-centric activities.

5. JACOB CAINE – SUBSCRIPTION LIVING

Jacob Caine is a fully licensed estate agent and Chief Executive Officer of Caine Real Estate.

Subscription Living is a proposed subscription model for renting that streamlines the process for the renter, owner, and property manager.

The service would include:

  • Inspect and apply for a property online – then receive a super quick answer based on the strength of your online reputation.
  • Bonds are replaced by Bond Insurance – no need to have thousands of your hard-earned locked away and inaccessible.
  • Open the door to a connected home – utilities on, internet on, we combine everything into a single monthly bill
  • RACV covers maintenance – you control the fix. No landlord, no property manager approval required.
  • Say farewell to fixed-term leases. Think of it like a gym membership – stay forever, or give 30 days notice.

Voting is limited to one vote per person and closes May 31.

To have your say visit agent.realestate.com.au/realideasprize/vote

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