How Matthews Real Estate still puts the customer first, with Reapit

With 90 years in the business, Matthews Real Estate isn’t just in Brisbane – they are a living, dynamic feature of the Brisbane landscape.

The family-run, independent boutique agency has operated from the same street corner in Annerley since 1933, and they’ve seen and done it all: valuations, sales, rentals, property management, commercial and body corporate management.

As a result, generations of locals have worked with the agency in one way or another, and many have come to know the long-standing team by name.

Pullquote from Trevor Matthews: “There are many people working for the office that aren't family, but they're treated like family.”

Trevor Matthews, Principal, shares numerous stories of how the agency has built deep, personal connections with individual clients and the wider community during his six decades with the business.

He’s also seen the industry evolve through many changes. Regulations are stricter, expectations are higher, and the world is vastly more reliant on technology, and agencies operate very differently today from when Matthews Real Estate first opened its doors.

So how does a 90-year-old agency stay relevant?

Trevor’s son, Russell Matthews, Sales Manager, shares their secret: “Some agencies lean on technology to stay competitive. Others lean on care. We lean on both.”

Life before Reapit

Before Matthews Real Estate discovered PropTech, everything was done the old-fashioned way: manually.

As Kerry Forsythe, Sales and Marketing Manager (Trevor’s daughter), explains, end-of-month admin across all departments was once a huge undertaking. They had to bring in three or four extra staff members just to get through it, spending an entire day printing, sorting and reviewing stacks of paperwork.

It was clear that this wasn’t sustainable. All that admin pulled focus away from what mattered most to Matthews Real Estate: customer service. So the team started exploring PropTech solutions.

They began their PropTech journey with Console in 2009, followed by InspectRealEstate in 2018, both of which later became part of the Reapit platform, respectively as Reapit PM and Reapit Lettings.

As the tools came together under one ecosystem, Reapit came into its own, and it quickly became clear to Matthews Real Estate that the unified platform was built to lead.

Tech that gets the industry

Staff immediately found the wider Reapit platform "intuitive” – easy to learn, easy to use, easy to train. Russell admits he’s not particularly tech-savvy, but says he still finds Reapit easy to use.

Yet it wasn’t just the platform that impressed them, it was also the people behind it. Many of Reapit’s team are former property managers, real estate principals and agents, meaning they apply their own real-world knowledge and situations to help influence the appropriate technical application to support a user of Reapit.

Pullquote from Michelle Clair: “I like the fact that Reapit knows us. It's experienced, it's got all of that background, and it knows what we want before we know we want it.”

And when support is needed, Reapit is always close at hand. Stef Gangemi, Trust Account Manager, enjoys the online chat option for sheer speed of resolution, with Reapit’s phone support a close second.

Pullquote from Stef Gangemi: “With Reapit, there's so many ways that you can access support. It's really quick and easy, and there's always someone there.”

More time where it counts

Pullquote from Kerry: “With Reapit, end-of-month admin is now as easy as just pressing a button."

That feeling is shared across the business.

For Stef, Reapit has transformed arrears management. Automatic reminders are sent the moment a payment is late, boosting on-time payments, cutting down manual chasing, reducing her stress levels and freeing her up to focus on the core responsibilities of her role.

In the rentals department, Property Manager and Team Leader Jessica Doyle has moved on from repetitive admin to enjoy automated workflows, templates, predictive text, and AI-powered processes, giving her more time to work with clients the way she wants to.

Pullquote from Jessica: “Especially in property management, you can get bogged down doing admin. Reapit relieves a lot of that pressure. Everything runs more smoothly when it’s automated.”

Inspections were once one of Jessica’s biggest time drains, which is why she calls out Reapit’s Console Go Inspect feature as a favourite. Previously driving, typing and uploading photos just to finish one entry condition report, she can now do it all in the app in a fraction of the time, even while hosting an open house.

And because Reapit data syncs across devices in real time, Jessica can confidently answer owner questions on the spot and provide live updates from the field. Needless to say, owner’s notice and appreciate the difference.

Michelle Clair, Business Development Manager and Trevor’s other daughter, is also constantly on the move. She values being able to use Reapit PM just as easily. With a quick glance at her dashboard, she can see team workloads, capacity and overall business performance, and step in where support is needed.

Pullquote from Michelle: “With Reapit, you can quickly duck in, have a look at something, and make sure things are running smoothly from afar. That means we can respond quickly when there's urgent events too. Tenants can jump in the Console Tenant App and report any maintenance requirements or issues, while we automatically get a notification and can deal with it there and then.”

Take the guesswork out of client communication

Michelle and Jessica report that tenants are big fans of their own app. Tenants feel closer to their property manager knowing their messages and updates go directly to the right person, without delays caused by e-mails or phone tag.

And owners have access to their own owner portal for 24/7 access to rent payment status, bank statements and other key documents – which is especially helpful at tax time.

Doing what they’ve always done, only better

Automation has streamlined and supercharged everything from rent collection and lease renewals to inspections, while Reapit’s 2Apply integration accelerates application processing. Uniting  lettings and property management on one platform has made collaboration and cross-selling significantly easier.  

At its core, Reapit saves Matthews Real Estate save time and energy to reinvest where it matters most.

Pullquote from Russell: “If we put the right technology like Reapit in place, then it gives us more time to focus on the caring part of our job.”

With the unbeatable perspective of her position, Rhonda Dennerley, Office Manager, captures the Reapit effect better than we can ourselves:

Pullquote from Rhonda Dennerley: "Reapit is a great platform. It takes a lot of stress out of our team's day, because it makes their jobs easier and more efficient. Our staff love it.”