Welcome to my war zone

CONVEYANCER Renee Newlan, 46, loves her job but often feels like she’s working in a “war zone” with the daily stresses affecting her health and her well-being. Australian Conveyancer magazine asked Renee, the principal of Flash Conveyancing in north-west Sydney, to describe her typical work week and she gave some honest and revealing answers …

How long have you been a conveyancer? 

I started learning conveyancing in 2010 and became licensed in 2012.

How many hours do you work a day/ a week? 

It depends on workload. The last couple of weeks I’ve been starting at 8am and working through to around 8pm. My husband Julian works with me and does longer hours than me – maybe an extra six-eight hours on a weekend and at night for an extra two or three hours.

How many matters would you settle per week? 

On average between six and 12 a week. Some days there are none, today I had six and it was hectic! And as soon as you get a problem it throws you off schedule.

How many new clients would you take on each week? 

Between 10 and 12.

What is the breakdown of your usual work day? 

This is different for me and for Julian. Julian is the front end. He will spend his day speaking with all the new purchasers on the phone, explaining the purchase process, quoting, reviewing contracts, requesting amendments, advising amendment replies to clients, providing the contract reviews to the clients, answering all their queries and concerns, liaising with the inspectors, brokers, etc so they are ready to get past the cooling off period or to go to auction. He will also deal with all the amendments to the contracts on the sales. When purchasers send us requests he will ring the vendors, go through all their questions, relay that info back to the purchaser. And he’ll do ID verification when clients go to his office. He also does the marketing and videos for the company. We have someone who handles the phones and the middle section. And I do all the back end – the settlements. I will check all the sales contracts going out, the post exchange paperwork going out to the clients, prepare all the settlements and make sure they are all on track, deal with 100 or so emails a day, deal with the high level drama that others can’t deal with, look after the reviewing of off-the-plans once they have registered, monitor stamp duty due dates, do all the trust accounting, save all the invoices in Xero and attend to any bookkeeping questions and then fix any errors in the accounts. I pay a lot bills – I’m constantly transferring money here, there and everywhere and then meeting with clients, doing their ID verification when they want to come to my office.

Do you work through lunch? 

Yes. Today I didn’t eat until 5.30pm.

Do you take work home with you? 

Yes, but I try not to.

Is it difficult to have a work/life balance? 

100 per cent. Because this job has such critical deadlines so you just have to do it. And there is so much competition in this profession, if you don’t keep your referral partners happy, they will go to someone else and you lose work. You live in this cycle where you never know when someone might come back and try to sue you, so you need to make sure you are on top of your game all the time. By the time you are finished work, you are exhausted and you don’t want to do anything else.

Do you find it difficult to switch off from work? 

Yes, because there is always a drama – maybe a difficult client – that is there waiting for you. So you constantly think about it. My sister is a conveyancer so we talk about it. My husband works with me so we talk about it. It’s everywhere.

Does your work impact on your private life? 

Yes. I started my own business to have more freedom and it’s ended up me working harder than I have ever worked in my life. Yes, it’s all for me but it really restricts you in life and you get really resentful. I can’t go away during the year. I have to wait for the Christmas holidays – the most expensive time of the year. And then clients get upset because you want to have a lousy three weeks off and they want you to settle in that time. Or you have a developer and they have a city firm working for them and the off-the-plan has just registered and they want you to settle in the Christmas period or they will charge your client interest penalties. So you have no choice but to try and do a settlement in the middle of the Pacific Ocean whilst on a cruise. Who’s going to remember that in 50 years time when I am long gone? I am the only one that feels the pain of this.

What do you think of your job? 

It has literally been sucking my life force out of me for years. I love helping people but it’s too much. It’s too demanding. And then I get frustrated because what else can I do? Work for someone else? Earn less money? I wouldn’t be happy with that either. This year we put up our fees a lot and I feel better for that as now at least I feel we are being paid our worth.

Do you feel like you are on top of your workloads? 

Probably never. There is always something I can do.

Do you work from home? 

We have two offices. I am located at the Riverstone office. I’m currently working from home as the landlord won’t fix the ongoing mould issue so it is a little hard to separate work and home life but I have gotten much better over the years. I now stop and take more time to spend with my two boys because this stuff will still be there tomorrow!

Do you have a hobby? 

I manage both my boys soccer teams. I go to all their training sessions and games.

How stressful is your job on a scale from one to ten (ten being very stressed)? ELEVEN! I always say this job is like a war zone. It is that stressful that you cannot make a mistake. In this job, you type one wrong date or you don’t write something clearly and someone interprets it incorrectly – not how you meant it – and then, all of a sudden, you are being sued. You need to explain to a client why you lost them money, why someone got out of a contract, why they need to pay penalties. It can never be your fault.

How do you relieve stress? 

Drinking. Well, I used to. I used to drink a lot and found that a lot of conveyancers, once you start talking to them, drink a lot. I have cut down as I know it’s not the answer. I have now started to spend more time meditating and also reminding myself not to take this all so personally. I’m here to guide people – it’s not my money and I can’t control everything. All I can do is advise and roll with the clients.

Have you experienced health problems (physical/mental) because of your workloads? 

I suffer chronic stress and migraines. I’ve always got a headache. I never really feel well. My body has so many aches but I think it’s because I’m sitting so much throughout the day plus hunching over in front of a computer for so many hours a day.

Do you implement workflow management processes in your business? Like what? 

Our software has workflows with tasks. That way everyone knows where every matter is up to when looking at it.

Do you use technology like AI to streamline your operations? 

Julian’s a little more techy than me. I know he uses AI quite a lot for his contract reviews, his responses and even for his marketing. I’ve used it to dumb down the legalese that I can’t understand or to summarise so I can explain it easier.

Have you ever consulted a business coach? 

No, I haven’t. Who has time for that? They will tell me I need to work more on the business than in the business which I already know and then give me more work to do! I think I’m best to manifest my dream reality and go with that!

Do you outsource work? 

The only thing I outsource is my accounts. I used to do all my own bookkeeping as I love it but I just couldn’t do it all.