More of a shower thought question, but how often do Property Managers at any given agency usually turn over? The particular rental I have managed on my behalf down in Rolleston has had it’s assigned property manager changed out like clock work every ~6 months due to resignations.
This can present challenges to both myself and tenants if the point of contact is constantly changing. It also means that I have to “fill-in” the incoming property manager each time about any given property and it can be difficult as a landlord to build a business relationship with the agency.
—
Update 27 June 2023: I have written to the Business Owner and she has agreed to put management of the property under herself directly.
The surprise take away advice I got from attending Fieldays as a townie was “Don’t get into farming (at least not full time)”. It would appear from those I’ve spoken to is that If you’re in a cushy desk-bound / office job “then stay in it” was the advice of many surprisingly.
Specific comments received chatting to both attendees and stallholders from those actually farming include…
The pay “is crap”.
The days are long – “You’re working up to 10-16 hour days a lot of the time” (depending on what role you’re undertaking of course).
Social interaction is limited. “You’re isolated and alone for much of the time”.
Mental well being is generally lower. “Depression throughout the industry is rife”
“The job is stressful for the amount of remuneration / compensation you receive”.
“Smaller farms are struggling to survive and are being bought out by larger scale corporate operations”.
Government regulations stifling their livelihoods.
Admittedly overall I was a little taken back by how negative and upfront farmers themselves perceive of working in the farming / rural sector.
The more positive aspects of Farming mentioned…
Get to spend time outside.
Great views / scenery.
Less people / Solitude.
Opportunity to use a wide variety of equipment and drive heavy machinery.
Opportunity for a more laid back and quieter lifestyle.
The idea fantasy of getting hands-on in any sort of farming work (even part time) has been quashed at least for now I guess. That said, I anticipate vocational roles may make a come back at some point. When? I don’t know. Farming as a career choice has been in the doldrums for a few decades.
It does explain why every time I walk into the Fieldays Careers hub, I find it’s completely empty and when I did talk to a roving representative, I get the strong vibe of “why would you even ever so much as entertain the thought of a career change from IT into farming?”
With that said, I will admit this post reads rather downbeat and may be unfairly so. I invite those who actually enjoy their farming role (and I’m sure there are many) to perhaps pipe up and tell their story.
National Dairy Museum at Fieldays 2023 – Mystery Creek
Away from the Business / Career aspect of Fieldays 2023…
In terms of shopping. There wasn’t much in terms of deals quite frankly. The only thing I actually bought was a $50 Swazi Bush Tee to replace my one that I currently have which is near the end of it’s life. (To be couriered out for free as they didn’t have it available at the time)
The “Rural lifestyle” tent, car dealerships and the Clothing stalls were the most popular. The actual Farming equipment areas were dead quiet, but mind you this was on a Saturday – Traditional “Townie” day.
There were somewhat less interactive displays at the various stalls this time. The giveaways were also less this time than in previous years. A few new hubs such as the Forestry hubs and the sustainability hub were established which were worth a look. Good conversation at AgDrive/AgWork. Good experiences at the Bank sites, Sanford and power equipment sites.
Most stallholders were friendly though many didn’t have the answers or information I was seeking about their specialty and was instead directed to look online. None of the fencers really wanted to chat. Exceptionally bizarre experience at the Zespri marquee
Despite the slightly downbeat vibe received from attendees and stallholders this time around. Getting to the event was quite easy with only a short time queuing and car parking was a breeze (we were directed to a spot near the entrance) arriving in at about 8:30 AM Saturday Morning. National Fieldays Society did a fairly good job orchestrating the event (though did see complaints to the contrary from other attendees saying parking was actually instead difficult)
Entry tickets cost $30.00 per adult + 0.90c Booking Fee. If you scan your wrist band at enough places (and you’re happy enough to provide your personal information to the exhibiting companies for marketing purposes), chances are you’ll win a prize at one of the stands that effectively redeems the cost of the day.
Worth it to attend at least once every now and again though there hasn’t been much change between each Annual Fieldays over the last decade. There does seem to be a slow change to more of an Rural version of the Auckland Home Show Expo with more focus towards being a family day out.
Zespri have good produce that I regularly buy and enjoy as a consumer, in particular the SunGold Kiwifruit variety, but visiting their Marquee at Fieldays 2023 and getting “told off” for discarding a used plastic spoon/spife in the bin on my way out of their marquee I thought was extremely odd and petty.
Was advised by the alleged rep* the plastic spifes were supposed to be taken home, but that argument falls over when they’re mentioned as disposable and the bin was already full of plastic spifes obviously discarded by other visitors beforehand. (Perhaps they should not have been given out as Kiwifruit sampling utensils?)
Don’t know what to make of it. Tiny issue in the scheme of thing, but note worthy due to the level of weirdness.
Spife Strife – An example of the disposable recyclable plastic Kiwi spoon (or Kiwi “spife” Spoon/Knife)
*I say alleged rep because he was wearing StoneyCreek gear with a Puffer vest and navy blue shirt under that just like other Zespri reps.
Drove down the Waikato Expressway. Turns out this was not the best move (for my mood) admittedly.
There’s a section of the Waikato Expressway north of Hamilton that has been reduced to 1 lane each way and 50 km/h for what feels like coming to a year. This is the Junction between SH1 and SH1C. The issue here northbound is that 4 lanes effectively go down to one.
I don’t drive down this route regularly as I live out in Auckland, but the lack of progress each time I do drive down that way is particularly striking. And each time I come to a complete halt in that section, I have time for my eyes to wander and noticed a lot of this equipment (barriers, porta-loos, diggers, rollers, etc) is hired. I’m picking it will be us, the taxpayer who is ultimately picking up the tab for all this hired equipment to be laying dormant.
I feel the situation with our infrastructure works now warrants a more urgent look in. This isn’t the first and this certainly won’t be the last. I feel it’s is entirely appropriate to question what is going on and for the likes of Waka Kotahi to explain to the public in layman’s terms what is involved and what is perhaps blocking up the progress.
—
Edit 1: To add, just found this pamphlet. It looks like those at the grassroots / front line workers have been getting all the heat from the public. This is not where the indignation should be directed at. It should be directed at Management overseeing these projects. That said, I totally understand the public frustration and Waka Kotahi / Higgins absolutely need to be grilled on this – but I certainly don’t condone abuse to the front line road workers.
Edit 2: 9th June 2023 – Just Heard back from NZTA , they’ve said the leasing is done by Higgins and is their own business (arrangements). NZTA agree that the works have been slow and under resourced. Will try and reach out to Fletchers / Higgins and see what is up with that project given the national significance of the road.
I am a property owner who has a rental property managed through Ray White Lincoln Red Chili Property Management (Canterbury)
Overall, service has been generally good (for the 2020-2022 period)
Cara Callister has been friendly to deal with and responsive to any queries I had as a property owner. Kylie Gordon, Olly Drew, and Kalib Christensen have similarly been great when they were assigned to my property. Especially appreciated Kylie’s ability to build rapport with the tenants. Thanks to Paul Clement for the initial on-boarding and working with suppliers to ensure the house was ready to be tenanted.
A “Con” I’ve noticed is that property managers seem to turn over regularly (~every 6 months) and the point of contact keeps changing requiring me to individually brief the incoming Property manager each time when this occurs.
More of a shower thought only. But currently trying to understand why I get an unignorable sense that we’ve recently entered into a slow but accelerating and now unstoppable / irreversible slide into some form of Neo-feudalism or serfdom.
Granted, I don’t believe we are anywhere near in a state as bad as it was in history, but I don’t see what we have in the way of sufficient safe guards that would stop / prevent the eventual re-emergence of the above mentioned.
I guess as long as the masses are fed a steady diet of bread and circuses to distract them from civics, then we’re all good… right?
This is only an unquantified Hunch at this stage, however I’m starting to get the feeling that NextCloud is slowly becoming abandonware. Used to run a self hosted instance of NextCloud, but dropped it after repeated performance issues. Went to a managed instance, but even with only a limited about of files, finding that it’s randomly slow at times. The App keeps kicking me out of a document editing session and lacks many features found in Google’s and Microsoft’s suite.
Started searching for an alternative, but sadly it appears NextCloud is still stated as the most oft recommended solution.
