our history
The history of Residential Rentals and the company's founder Alan Rolston goes back to the year 1972, when Alan purchased his first house with the savings he had accumulated from a lawn-mowing business he started when he was 14 years old. He still remembers proudly informing his classmates that he had purchased a house. He brought the property up to an excellent standard, and on the day of settlement he had tenants moving in paying $18 per week.
In those early days there was not a lot of information available to property investors, and Alan noticed a trend of property investors purchasing as many poor quality investment properties as possible for a low price, and consequently only attracting poor tenants. These properties were managed either by owners, or by property managers who had no experience or training. A number of real estate companies who specialized in selling real estate became property managers by default, although the companies placed little emphasis on the property management side of the business, which in turn lead to burnt out property managers unable to perform effectively. This trend continues today, where management fees are reduced to attract new business, only to find that the service cannot be provided properly for such a small fee.
In 1997 Alan decide to set up his own construction company to produce good quality 3 and 4 bedroom brick and tile homes in good locations, attracting good quality tenants, who were prepared to pay excellent rents, while at the same time providing investors with a property that would provide them with excellent capital gains, and gave them years of maintenance free ownership. He passed these homes on to property managers in the industry, only to find that their performance was completely substandard. Brand new homes had poor quality tenants that were simply not screened effectively.
In 2001 Alan set up Residential Rentals, so that he could he could take on the management of these properties for investors, providing them the knowledge and experience gained over 40 years in the industry. He then left the construction business entirely to focus all his attention on providing the best property management service in Auckland. Systems were created, tenancy agreements were redesigned to protect the owners, and good thorough screening of prospective tenants was implemented.
Today the company is under the management of Alan's daughter Angela, who has brought ................................. to the company, while holding onto the values that the company is built on. Alan still plays an active role in advising and passing on his in-depth knowledge to Angela.
