Six weeks of building: what we're doing with Sidekick. What it means for your property
Six weeks of building with Sidekick
Over the next six weeks I'm running the AI Business Build with Hermione Gardiner and Sidekick. It's a programme for property management businesses across Australia: six live sessions, one a week, working through how to get AI doing real work inside a real agency. Hermione runs the room. I bring the setup we use at The Gallery every day and show how it was built.
It's not a course about AI in the abstract. Every session is built around something an agency actually does. Setting the tools up properly. Teaching them the business. Getting the routine work to run on a clock. Building one tool live in the room. Then working out what an operating system for a business looks like and whether you should attempt one.
Why we were asked
Over the past year we rebuilt the repetitive side of managing property. Not the judgement, not the relationships, not the inspections. The admin that sits around those things: the chasing, the filing, the first draft of the email, the reminder that a lease expiry is coming. That work now runs through systems we built ourselves, with a person checking every outcome before it reaches an owner or a tenant.
Hermione saw that setup and asked whether other agencies could learn from it. The honest answer was yes, as long as it was taught by someone who runs a business on it rather than someone who sells it. So the programme is built on our working example, warts included.
What this means for your property
If we manage your property, nothing changes on the days we're teaching. The programme runs alongside the business, not instead of it. What you should notice over time is the reason we were asked in the first place.
- Faster, clearer replies. Routine questions are answered the same day, in plain English, with the right detail attached.
- Nothing slips. Rent reviews, lease expiries and compliance dates are tracked by the system and checked by a person.
- More of our time on your property. Inspections, maintenance and tenant care get the hours that admin used to take.
None of this replaces the people you deal with. Christine, Daphne and Brooke still make every call that matters. The tools clear the desk so they can.
A note from Thomas Tamine
I've been careful about how we talk about AI, because most of what gets said about it in real estate is either hype or fear. Neither is useful to an owner.
What I can tell you is what it has done here. It has given the team time back. That time has gone into the parts of the job that need a person: the inspection done properly, the difficult conversation had early, the owner called before they have to call us. That's the standard I want other agencies to see, because a better managed rental market is good for everyone in it, including the owners we look after.
Thank you to Hermione for the invitation and for the trust. I'll share what we learn in the room as we go.
Let's talk about your property
Twenty minutes, no pitch. A clear view of where your property sits and what makes sense from here.