Virginia Ou

Case in profile

Purchased an investment in Waitara but was affected by Sydney’s downpour early 2020
Ironfish helped liaise with all parties to get the leak fixed
Moved her property back to Ironfish for property management

Occupation

Travel Wholesaler

Objective

An investor with prior experience looking to expand her portfolio

Portfolio

Multiple properties

With so much support and so many positive experiences with Ironfish over the years, it was the logical decision to move my property back to Ironfish for their property management service. With staff like these, Ironfish well and truly earns its deserving name in the industry.

— Virginia Ou

Local Sydney investor, Virginia Ou bought an apartment with Ironfish back in 2015.

As an investor with prior experience, Virginia made the decision to purchase her Waitara investment after consulting with her Ironfish strategist at the time.

“Ironfish gave me information about properties and hotspot regions in a very open and transparent manner. As a result, Ironfish gave me the confidence to invest without much hesitation. The seamless experience of buying the property also gave me the confidence to hand my investment over to Ironfish’s property management team after settlement.

After a while I ended up deciding to change property managers with a different company.

An unforeseen challenge

Fast forward to 2020, in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, Virginia had another significant event that impacted her investing journey.

“Earlier in the year, Sydney was hit by torrential downpour that caused leaks in my investment property in Waitara”, Virginia recalls. “When I found out, I immediately contacted the property management company and builder and developer, who tried to help, but were not able to find the cause of the leak. The whole back and forth process was very distressing and time consuming”…

“The whole ordeal dragged on from February to July and eventually ended with the leak being temporarily fixed. Two months after the initial round of repairs, it began to leak again. This time, my tenant was rather angry and terminated their rental agreement.”

“I started a new round of repeated contact with the property management company builders, insurance companies, fair trading and other agencies. All I heard back from them were varying excuses without action to solve the problem.”

After going through all this, Virginia thought of her pleasant experience with Ironfish years ago. “Even though the apartment was purchased from Ironfish over five years ago… and even though I no longer use their property management services, I decided to give Ironfish a call as my last resort”.

Ironfish ‘to the rescue’

For typical agents in the industry, properties tend to be sold and forgotten – ‘after-sales’ service isn’t something that is typically offered. Ironfish operates under a real estate license, however, our approach is quite different. We believe in providing long-term support for our 10,000+ customers, and luckily for Virginia, Ironfish was on call to help.

After receiving a call from Virginia, Ironfish arranged for North Sydney Client Care Manager, Shannon Huang to help.

“Shannon and her team approached the situation with great professionalism. She comforted me with her knowledge, outlined her approach and gave me clear instructions on how to proceed. Next, Shannon and her team began contacting the parties involved (the property management company, developer & builder) to launch an investigation on the leak. Eventually the cause was located and technicians were sent for repairs. She volunteered to do a lot of communication so I didn’t have to make all the phone calls. The process was complete without me having to follow up or really do anything myself.

“The feeling was… well this is the Ironfish I’m familiar with from when I purchased the property 5 years ago.

“I couldn’t believe that the leak dragged on for nearly half a year, and with one phone call, Shannon was able to quickly resolve the problem on my behalf”.

With the leak resolved once and for all, Virginia was faced with a new hurdle – to quickly find a tenant during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Shannon arranged for the Ironfish property management service to get in touch. They helped me to organise several inspections within a very short period of time and updated me after each inspection and after every potential tenant. They even helped me secure a tenant before Christmas… I know this is the most difficult time of the year to find a tenant! I’m so grateful for her help.

“With so much support and so many positive experiences with Ironfish over the years, it was the logical decision to move my property back to Ironfish for their property management service.

“With staff like these, Ironfish well and truly earns its deserving name in the industry.”

Ironfish property investment services

If you would like to find out how an Ironfish property investment strategist could help you invest, feel free to book a free appointment here.

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