Their son, Mark, is now Junior Partner and tasked with maintaining John Prest Property Management’s long-standing, well-earned reputation. Mark travelled widely with his wife before starting work at the company – an experience he says gave him a new perspective on life and the value of diversity. So when he returned home in 1999 to assist his father, he brought with him fresh ideas that embraced modern principles and PropTech while respecting the traditions that made his family’s business what it is today.
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Something’s got to give
Mark and his team handled admin manually for over 500 properties for most of his 23 years in the family business. On top of the intense day-to-day operations, the agency would spend close to a week at the beginning of every month just processing all the individual client statements on Excel spreadsheets and paper. Mark would sometimes have to give up his Saturdays in an effort to stay on top of invoicing.
The workload eventually became too stressful for the five-person team. As soon as he made partner, Mark made it his mission to streamline their rental payment admin.
"We couldn’t carry on the way we were going, and we knew we needed a solution to free up our time. PayProp was that solution." Mark Prest, Junior Partner
In with the new
All it took was a brief demo to convince Mark of PayProp’s time-saving and capacity-unlocking benefits. Since signing up in November 2021, John Prest Property Management has seen a noticeable improvement in efficiency. The multi-step payment and invoicing process that used to take the team 3 to 5 days minimum was reduced to just a couple of clicks.
PayProp automatically reconciles incoming rental payments against the relevant property, as well as deducting commission. And the platform’s live bank integration gives Mark the peace of mind that his clients’ financial data is accurate and up to date – no more handwritten calculations at risk of
human error.
With the extra time saved, Mark and his team are able to focus on optimising the rest of their services: more thorough tenant referencing, more successful viewings, more organised move-ins and move-outs.
"PayProp has changed the dynamic of our business. It’s allowed us to flourish and freed us to do what we want." Mark Prest, Junior Partner
In just under a year, the team has developed a more well-rounded business, whilst building stronger relationships with the landlords and tenants they work with on a daily basis – something Mark believes is the cornerstone of property management.
