Before the Weekend ☀️

Before The Weekend
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Before the Weekend is a weekly Australian real estate podcast hosted by Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald, bringing together industry leaders, property managers, regulators, technology founders and special guests from across the property sector. Each episode delivers practical, straight-talking discussion on the biggest stories shaping real estate across Australia, covering rental reforms, housing policy, compliance, property management, technology, consumer trust, investor sentiment and the future of the industry. Designed for agents, principals and property managers who want insight without the spin, Before the Weekend breaks down complex issues into real-world conversations that help the industry head into the weekend informed, prepared and thinking differently.

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 24: Victoria's Auctions Go Quiet and Who Really Ends a Tenancy | 23 October 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a Victorian industry bracing for 28 November - Peter reports from the REIV Awards for Excellence at Crown, where the talk at every table was a Labor-Greens deal, Gabrielle de Vietri’s landlord licences and three-strikes ban, a two-year rent freeze, and the first full week of seven-day reserve price disclosure. Melbourne auction volumes fell to a three-year low (Cotality under 500, realestate.com.au 452, down around 60% year on year) as vendors set defensively high reserves and buyers pushed back at the kerb. Peter picks up his Elite Agent piece “Using a brain to hold a pen” alongside a UK Alto survey of 250 agents: 67% use AI for listing descriptions, 4% for sales progression, 5% for compliance. Why MCP makes open connectivity the floor for proptech vendors in 2027, and why agents are still using a brain to hold a pen. The agency shakeout: 15-20% of property professionals reportedly leaving as days on market blow out, Canberra Commercial and Canberra Strata in liquidation, and agents who have never had to negotiate a sale. Kasey’s mailbag: NSW Fair Trading’s first Landlord Terminations report - 85% of tenancies ended by the tenant, 15% by landlord notice, and of those 28% owner or family moving in, 20% proposed sale, 14% sold, 11% arrears, 10% renovations. Plus two in five property managers open to alternatives to the trust account, the REINSW and Fair Trading payment-redirection scam working group, InvestorKit’s merger of Four Acre Financial and Source Financial, and the Perth listing that disclosed its AI-staged photos and sold for $1.25m. Also: the Freshwater pink paint parking vigilante, Polly the miniature schnauzer, SMSFs pivoting to commercial, and best wishes to Ajay Malik of Artier Property Group.

  2. Oct 15

    Episode 23: Behind Closed Doors and the Rent Rolls Worth Zip | 16 October 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through what's happening in real estate behind closed doors - the stories that don't make the vendor pack. Peter shares the calls he's taken this week from principals of high-quality, award-winning agencies doing it tough, including one who has never seen the buyer tap turn off like this - 42 open homes, zero people through. The hosts pay tribute to Sunshine Coast agent Adam Dunlop and make the case for checking in on your mates, your principal, your property managers, your clients and even your competitors. The Rise Initiative's free Real Care app, with three confidential counselling sessions, gets a strong recommendation, alongside Charles Tarbey's reminder that agents are not responsible for market conditions. The cashflow crunch: Brisbane early clearance rates at 20%, more than a quarter of stock now stale as days on market blows out from 23 to 39, Domain taking a developer to the NSW Supreme Court for a winding-up, and Kasey on agency mergers as an alternative to liquidation. The rent roll trap: Marshall White's Anthony Wiseman on buyers and valuers stripping non-compliant properties out of rent roll valuations, Cara Bergmann's $24,000 arrears case from cut-price PM teams, why discounting management fees is the wrong play, REEF CEO Bryan Wilcox on what a federal ban on non-competes could do to agency client books, and the annual principal-to-owner call as a retention strategy. Compliance and Victoria: the hidden risk of DIY AML compliance, scammers impersonating AUSTRAC, and Kasey's week on the ground in Victorian agencies - bond claims now requiring notice and evidence, the application fee ban, two-yearly gas and electrical checks, energy efficiency standards on the way, and investors telling PMs to put them onto a salesperson. Plus ex-rentals making up 40% of Melbourne sales listings, the Greens' landlord licence proposal, Victoria's $1 billion land tax shortfall, Cotality's Bend It Like Buyers report (4.9% is the rate buyers say would bring them back; only 27% can comfortably afford upfront costs) and a rapid-fire wrap on investors shifting to new builds and commercial. If you or someone you work with is doing it tough: Real Care app (realcare-app.com.au), Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636, Small Business Debt Helpline 1800 413 828. All links from this episode are at beforetheweekend.com.

  3. Oct 8

    Episode 22: Rents Hit the Ceiling and PropertyMe Opens Its Data | 9 October 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the rental market finally said what Tim Lawless told them in March: tenants have no elasticity left. First, the Domain September quarter rent report. Capital-city house rents were flat at $700 a week despite a 1 per cent vacancy rate, Sydney and Canberra recorded their first quarterly falls in two years, and the Gold Coast is the most expensive city in the country for houses at $920 a week. Peter does the minimum-wage arithmetic - $26.44 an hour, about $1,000 a week, $920 to rent - and Kasey’s message to property managers is to get to street-level data, present the facts to landlords, and think about who stays housed rather than who pays the most. Then PropertyMe. The platform 6,500 agencies run on has released an external MCP server, AiMe Connect, so users on the Advanced tier and above can ask Claude or ChatGPT questions of their live portfolio data. Peter explains what a Model Context Protocol server actually is, why he calls it the new gold standard for proptech, why “we’ve got one but haven’t released it” doesn’t count, and what to ask any vendor who claims to have AI. Kasey walks through what it changes for a property manager’s Monday. Then Victoria’s next tranche of rental law, starting Monday 13 October: evidence and advance notice for every bond claim, records proving minimum standards on request from Consumer Affairs, gas and electrical checks extended to tenancies that began before March 2021, and a ban on application and rent-tech fees. Kasey has the list; Peter’s ask of every state is the same - talk to the industry first. From there to New South Wales, where minimum energy-efficiency rental standards are under consideration and a Renew report puts the landlord’s cost at $15,000 to $34,000 a property. LJ Hooker has become the exclusive distributor of OHOME, a factory-built two-bedroom backyard dwelling at around $250,000 installed, assessed online against the owner’s lot. Neither host can recall a franchise doing anything like it. Both think it’s smart. On the Gold Coast, a six-bedroom Mermaid Waters house that is 80 per cent built has gone to market as a mortgagee-in-possession sale, with APRA data showing interest-only loans at 23.5 per cent of new lending, the highest since 2019. And a Main Beach agency principal has pleaded guilty to two domestic-violence offences and been fined $3,500 with no conviction recorded - which, as Peter points out, is the detail that keeps his Queensland licence. Then Kasey’s favourite television program. The Victorian government has confirmed it sold the heritage-listed Sunbury asylum site to The Block for $1 million, with no public campaign, on a Valuer-General-certified valuation. Peter doesn’t accept it and says so. Also this week: congratulations to Rob Mandanici, the new president of REIWA, and thanks to outgoing president Suzanne Brown for her service; and an Irvine, California agent arrested at LAX, alleged to have been acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Before the Weekend is a weekly podcast for Australian property professionals, hosted by Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade. New episodes every Friday.

  4. Oct 1

    Episode 21: eXp Calls Back, Surcharges, NSW Legislation | 2 October 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through the call from eXp Australia's Country Leader confirming the end of the Class 2 pathway - and what it means for the model eXp was sold on. NSW has passed laws banning photos, social media and kids' details from rental applications, with AI-altered listing images now requiring disclosure, while REINSW's own master table counts 33 pieces of legislation and more than 2,000 amendments landing on agents in two years. The credit card surcharge ban is live, DEFT has dropped cards, the Centrepay 99c is still being clipped, and realestate.com.au's "Supplier Trade Fee" gets a closer look. Also: a Cairns couple rejected 15 times at 0.8 per cent vacancy, Brisbane cracks the world's top ten least affordable cities, two Queensland agents in court, and the Newcastle family who can't get their lodgers out.

  5. Sep 25

    Episode 20: eXp Australia, One Third of Nothing and 90 Seconds Outside the Car | 25 September 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the claims did not survive contact with the people who actually do the job. First, eXp Australia. Three social media posts, no press release and no mainstream coverage, but agents inside the business confirm it: the Class 2 and sales representative pathway is being terminated. Independent contractors with their own licence and entity are unaffected. The recruiters who built teams on the promise of passive income are not. Peter has written to eXp Australia director for a response. Then the $593 million black hole. realestate.com.au says negatively geared Queensland landlords are heading for a mass sell-off before the negative gearing and capital gains changes land. Peter is not convinced the number holds - the PIPA figure of 35.5 per cent of Queensland investors selling in the last 12 months predates the tax change entirely - but the instruction to principals is the same either way: audit the rent roll for the owners who are negatively geared, and get in front of them before they list. Then the article Peter filed under T for trash. RentBetter founder Jeremy Goldschmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald that one third of Australia's 2.2 million rentals are now leased without an agent. The Queensland RTA, which holds every bond in the state, says 89 per cent of rentals are professionally managed. NSW is 93 per cent. And 83.1 per cent of RTA infringement notices last quarter went to private lessors, against about 15 per cent for agents. Kasey adds the story of a 22-year-old on a private landlord's lease that contradicted the Act. "Completely fabricated, not true, not even in the vicinity." Then Consumer Affairs Victoria fines one agency and drags two more to court over late bonds, and former REIV president Adam Docking is punched four or five times and robbed putting out an open-for-inspection sign in Vermont at midday on a Saturday. His warning to every agent and property manager: never leave the keys in the car. Paul Tommasini of the Tenancy Skills Institute joins to explain why the property manager is the first responder in the homelessness system: property managers say about 50 per cent of failed tenancies could have been saved with simple interventions, the Brisbane and Mackay pilots pushed that above 90 per cent, and PM Assist turns a referral into a two-minute job - because every day a tenancy drifts costs another hundred dollars nobody gets back. Also this week: rates go up Tuesday and David Koch blames Canberra, nearly half of Australians in share houses are over 40, the Victorian auction rules start next week without the paperwork, and Jellis Craig's Andrew McCann calls it the worst market in 30 years.

  6. Sep 17

    Episode 19: Two Licences, One Portal and the Eight-Year Deposit | 18 September 2026

    The ACCC has made realestate.com.au rewrite its agency contracts. For three years REA cannot require or incentivise agencies to list all or most of their properties with it, or push them into premium listings. No finding of wrongdoing, no penalty - but agents now have a choice to explain to vendors. South Australia has opened a select committee into the conduct of real estate professionals - underquoting, appraisals, undisclosed faults, rental bidding. Submissions close 23 October. REISA's Andrea Heading wants scrutiny that is evidence-based, and a reminder that agents are not building inspectors. Two Queensland licences, on opposite ends of the same provision: Tony O'Doherty in the Supreme Court arguing an Irish conviction should not cancel a Queensland licence, decision reserved - and a Brisbane agent sentenced this week over child abuse material. Plus arson at a Jacobs Well agency, a second Result Strata director banned, NSW Smart Rental Bonds statewide, and the modelling that says the 2027 CGT changes add eight years to a young saver's deposit. Then Sarah Cincotta on why investors are leaving, what landlords are really saying in the Facebook groups, and why retention is the growth strategy nobody is running. Before the Weekend is a weekly podcast for Australian property professionals, hosted by Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade. New episodes every Friday.

  7. Sep 11

    Episode 18: Reserves Seven Days Out, a Licence Lost and Housefishing in New Farm | 11 September 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the rules got stricter, and the people living under them got very little say in how. First, Victoria. Auctioneer and coach Andy Reid called Peter after last week's episode to say we had it slightly wrong, so he came on to fix it. After a briefing from Consumer Affairs Victoria's Nicole Rich, the draft clause that appeared to stop buyers making an offer until they had held the contract for 14 days has been put down to a typo - the contract now simply has to be available for 14 days before the auction. From 1 October the statement of information becomes the property price statement, "a statement of information on steroids" with detail on every comparable sale. The reserve has to be published seven calendar days out, and while it can come down during the auction it cannot go up. An offer above the reserve that is rejected on price resets the seven days; one rejected in writing on process does not. Campaigns launched before 1 October get two weeks' grace, so the auctions of 3 and 10 October run under the old rules. Andy's read is that auctions accelerate at the bottom of the market and drift away at the top, and his line on the new rules: "it's actually one of the best conditioning tools we've ever been given." Peter's worry is the week the market moves after the reserve is set, and he wants a month of results before he believes it. Then AUSTRAC. Section 167 notices started going out in late August to agencies that have not enrolled, a reminder that the deadline has passed. Then the story that divided the industry. McGrath Bulimba principal Tony O'Doherty has had his Queensland real estate licence cancelled over an assault in Ireland in 2013, when he was 23. He pleaded guilty by video link in November 2025 and received a two-year sentence, fully suspended. He is appealing, and McGrath is standing behind him. Kasey walks through what changes inside an office when the licensee goes, down to the form 6s and the name on the door, and Peter asks the harder question: at what point does society let someone move on, and what precedent does it set if it does? Then housefishing in New Farm. A rental listing at 22 Mark Street appears to have been built with AI images that bear little resemblance to the house. Peter, once called the catfisher of real estate from his years at BoxBrownie, draws the ethical line - a grey sky or a Queensland lawn can be fixed, power lines cannot - and says this one is beyond any disclaimer: walls stretched, power points gone, every image changed. Queensland's Property Occupations Act allows up to 540 penalty units for false or misleading representations, and Kasey asks what rights a tenant has if they signed without ever inspecting. Then Revenue NSW and the contractor who is really an employee. Most internal conjunction arrangements fail every payroll tax exemption, and section 47 can set aside the ones that pass. Also this week: Kasey reports back from the REIQ Property Insider Lunch, where Treasurer David Janetzki said loan applications and approvals are down and Queensland is not paying for Jim Chalmers' budget, and the AFR's John Kehoe put the tax changes at 60 basis points on an investor loan with transactions down about 15 per cent; the WA rent cap debate returns; and Kasey heads to PM/ONE in Sydney while Peter flies from PropTech Connect in London to the REACH gathering in Colorado. Before the Weekend is a weekly podcast for Australian property professionals, hosted by Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade. New episodes every Friday.

  8. Sep 4

    Episode 17: 500 Changes, the July 1 Valuation and a War on Auctions | 4 September 2026

    This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where every regulator wanted more from the industry and none of them wanted to talk to it. First, audits. NSW Fair Trading's strata and property taskforce finished a statewide sweep of agents holding consumer money: 34 businesses facing potential licence suspension, 41 overdue audits lodged, 32 warnings, three industry bans, six mandatory training orders and more than $200,000 in fines, with a Penrith agency losing its licence and copping $22,000. Nobody here is accused of stealing - they simply did not lodge the audit. Then the ones who did steal: a NSW property manager, 162 transactions and roughly $151,000 plus $36,000, gets a 12-month community sentence, while a Brisbane operator who took $131,000 gets four and a half years jail. Same crime, wildly different states. Then Scams Awareness Week and the email account somewhere in the transaction that criminals are watching for weeks. The rule is simple: anything over $5,000 gets a phone call before it moves. Then Victoria declares war on auctions. Reserves set 14 days out, a property price statement seven days before unconditional, all signed off by a premier who has since left the building. Peter's read is that buyers will simply drift to private treaty, which has no transparency at all. Then the Tenancy Skills Institute's Two Tides of Homelessness report - 327 property managers, nearly 126,000 tenancies, and 6.43 per cent of them at risk, up from 4.8 per cent a year ago. The finding that matters: in Queensland, portfolios with no referral pathway saw at-risk tenancies jump 150 per cent while those using PM Assist fell 18.47 per cent. Property managers themselves said 52 per cent of the 3,114 failed tenancies were preventable. Then a Gold Coast developer allegedly terminating five-year-old off-the-plan contracts under sunset clauses, the test case for the 2023 reform, and 1,522 NSW construction firms gone in a single financial year. Josh Stanton of Opteon joins to make sense of the 1 July 2027 valuation deadline from a regional desk in Gladstone: why metro investors should wait four to six weeks and regional ones until September or October, a worked Kirkwood example that lands $8,450 more tax under the new regime rather than the tens of thousands being reported, and the warning nobody else is making - do your renovations before 1 July, because the new system does not appear to treat them kindly. Then the interview that changes the mood. Aaron Barber, general manager of the REINSW, on 500 legislative changes in 18 months, a domestic violence regulation published on 7 June and handed to the institute on 7 August, and reforms that now require the property manager to notify the remaining co-tenant, change the locks and chase damage from a person who may be violent. Seven property managers have already refused the four-hour CPD course because it would be triggering. When Aaron asked the minister for a meeting, the response was: "You are playing games, stop playing games." Also this week: Kasey heads to the REIQ property insider luncheon, Peter packs for PropTech Connect in London and the REACH portfolio gathering in Boulder, a licensed conveyancer allegedly short nearly $1 million, and why your real estate institute membership just earned its keep. If anything in this episode is close to home, 1800RESPECT is 1800 737 732. Before the Weekend is a weekly podcast for Australian property professionals, hosted by Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade. New episodes every Friday.

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About

Before the Weekend is a weekly Australian real estate podcast hosted by Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald, bringing together industry leaders, property managers, regulators, technology founders and special guests from across the property sector. Each episode delivers practical, straight-talking discussion on the biggest stories shaping real estate across Australia, covering rental reforms, housing policy, compliance, property management, technology, consumer trust, investor sentiment and the future of the industry. Designed for agents, principals and property managers who want insight without the spin, Before the Weekend breaks down complex issues into real-world conversations that help the industry head into the weekend informed, prepared and thinking differently.

Information

  • Creator
    Before The Weekend
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Before The Weekend
  • Show Website
    Before the Weekend ☀️

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