Company Profile

It is common knowledge that the residential property market in South Africa has experienced an unprecedented boom over the last four to five years. This has in turn led to a dramatic increase in the number of organisations and individuals performing (or attempting to perform) residential property management services for the investor/landlord community. The result has been property management service offerings with underlying processes which are fragmented, inefficient and without generally accepted and implemented industry standards. This presents the investor, landlord, finance provider and tenant with significant and varied risks.

Until now. Rent Smart is a company that has been set up by property investors to provide a residential property management product and service aimed at managing investor risks as follows:

We have already launched our Cape Town offices and will be launching offices in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Durban and Port Elizabeth during 2006. Other cities will follow as we identify demand. We have a product/service unique in South Africa and have ambitious plans to grow nationally.

Rent Smart, as a company, was created because of specific residential rental management requirements of the founding members, as well as the absence of any similar product offering in South Africa.

The Owners

Russell Brown

Russell is an accounting and business management graduate who has pursued a career in large scale financial and business intelligence systems for the last 13 years.
Russell learned early on that property was a vehicle that could generate wealth unlike any other asset class. For this reason he has been investing in property for almost 10 years.

His passion for property lead to the formation of an informal Cape Town based Investor group in 2005.
Through sharing experiences and knowledge with other investors in this informal group, Russell came to realise that there was a dire need for a rental management company that truly addressed the needs of investors.

Russell's focused experience in business processes and system design have led to a company that focuses on efficient processes from the outset.

The combination of Russell's passion for property, personal rental experience, process and system design experience, have lead to the core of Rent Smart business, the Rent Smart Management System (RSMS ©)

 

Michael Lagus

Michael is a qualified Structural Engineer but has spent most of his career managing projects in one form or another. His last 10 years have focused on Property Development project management. He has successfully managed property development ranging from high end multi-million rand endeavors to award winning low cost housing projects.

Michael shares Russell's passion for property and the combination of property development Projects and Process/Systems skills provide a winning formula for Rent-Smart management.