Parker v Fa: the gloves come off
Managing your own properties might mean a small weekly saving, but you risk a much bigger bill in fines and heartache, says one investor. Gill South finds out more.
After a respectful buildup, a long, intense stare down said everything you need to know about tonight’s allKiwi heavyweight blockbuster in Auckland.
Joseph Parker mean business.
‘‘It has always felt real but both of us needed to let everyone know that this is a fight at the end of the day,’’ Fa told after weighing-in at 118.1kg, almost 10kg heavier than the former WBO world champion.
‘‘The talk about the buildup has been how it’s too nice. Both of us know that we are civil towards to each other but at the end of the night we’re there to rip each other’s heads off. And that stare down was just to let both of us know that, bro, I’m coming to knock you out.’’
While a confident Fa (19-0) mouthed a few words towards his fellow South Aucklander, Parker remained silent as the pair stood faceto-face on stage for what seemed an age at a packed bar on Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour.
At a glance
and
Junior
Fa
Full fight card:
■ Joseph Parker v Junior Fa (not before 10.30pm – heavyweight, 12 x 3-minute rounds)
■ Julius Long v Hemi Ahio (heavyweight, 8 x 3-minute rounds)
■ David Nyika v Jesse Maio (cruiserweight, 6 x 3-minute rounds)
■ Nik Charalampous v Panuve Helu (cruiserweight, 6 x 3-minute rounds)
■ Alrie Meleisea v Lani Daniels (heavyweight, 8 x 2-minute rounds – NZPBA women’s heavyweight title)
■ Jerome Pampellone v Anthony Amouta (catchweight 86kg, 4 x 3-minute rounds)
■ Richie Hadlow v Obedi Maguchi (catchweight 62kg, 4 x 3-minute rounds)
■ John Parker v Egelani Taito (light heavyweight, 4 x 3-minute rounds)
■ Phil Tele’a v Niro Iuta (corporate rule,s 3 x 2minute rounds)
Having grown up in the same area, attended the same church and fought against each other as amateurs, Parker and Fa have left the verbal sparring to their respective team members and made sure to shake hands after the face-off.
Both declined to reveal what was said on stage, but Parker agreed it was just the ticket to set the tone for what is arguably the biggest domestic bout in New Zealand history.
‘‘Now it’s time. I can’t wait,’’ he said. ‘‘He was saying a few things. To be honest, I didn’t hear what he said. But we both really want this fight.’’
Parker tipped the scales at 108.9kg, 2kg lighter than his most recent bout against Shawndell Winters 12 months ago.
While the 29-year-old is the heavy
favourite heading into the bout with a significant edge in experience, the key physical attributes favour Fa.
Along with the weight disadvantage, Parker is giving away 11cm in reach and 3cm in height. However, he
was more than happy with how he measured up.
‘‘I’ve been training hard for a good weight and my body feels good,’’ Parker added. ‘‘The staredown was good, it was intense and it shows that
he’s ready and confident, I’m ready and confident.’’
Fa, a regular and respected sparring partner to former WBC champion Deontay Wilder, has yet to taste to defeat in 19 pro bouts but this is the
first time he’s met anyone close to the top tier of the division.
After an undergoing an undisclosed operation late last year that forced a postponement from the original December 12 date, Fa insists he’s
ready to make the big step up.
‘‘I feel a lot better. I’ve performed a lot better in this camp as opposed to the last date,’’ he said.
‘‘The training is done, the talking is done, and I’m good to go.’’
In-demand All Whites star Liberato Cacace was in his apartment watching Netflix when he discovered he was being linked with a dream move to Italian giants Juventus.
The Sint-Truiden defender said his phone started blowing up with notifications alerting him to a tweet from respected football journalist Fabrizio Romano, revealing Juventus were keen to sign him for their under-23 team.
A New Zealand international of Italian heritage, Cacace was stunned to learn of the mega club’s interest.
He said it was a major confidence booster to be linked with such a high-profile move after just six months in Europe.
‘‘It’s a massive boost. It just shows how well I’m doing in the league in my first season here,’’ Cacace said.
‘‘I believe I can go a long way here in Europe and hopefully it keeps going. But I have to keep producing on the pitch, keep that consistency going, and fingers crossed we’ll see what happens in the summer.’’
While playing in Italy’s Serie A might be his long-term goal, Cacace said he was in no rush to leave Belgian Pro League club SintTruiden and felt a move to an under-23 would have been a backwards step.
‘‘I made it clear I wanted to finish the season here. It’s best not to rush into decisions where you don’t know what the outcome could be and I think it’s important for me to keep playing,’’ Cacace said.
‘‘This league is a very underrated league and maybe going to an under-23 team in Italy is not the right move for me, so that was my reason behind staying. But if I keep playing consistently here who knows what will happen?
‘‘I’m still only 20 and I keep telling myself that.
‘‘The way I keep going a deal could pop up but it’s important to keep your feet on the ground and keep working hard.
‘‘If I keep performing who knows what could happen in the future. I remember playing in the derby against Genk, it was my fourth game for the club, and I played against a guy in the transfer window just signed for Atalanta in Serie A.
‘‘So everything can happen very quickly and this step from here to the top five leagues is not that far away so I just have to keep my head down and keep working at it.’’
The 20-year-old has been an automatic selection at left wing-back for Sint-Truiden, a position he said felt more like a midfield role given how advanced he was stationed when the team was in possession.
‘‘I’m a lot higher than I did last season and so it feels like a new position for me, and it’s even more difficult than the position I played two years ago under Mark Rudan,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m getting pressure from all sorts of angles when I’m playing but it’s keeping me on my toes, and helping me become a better football player at the same time.’’
Cacace was signed by Australian Kevin Muscat after a breakout season with Wellington
Phoenix and admitted he feared for his starting spot when the former Melbourne Victory boss was sacked.
‘‘It was hard for me at first,’’ he said. ‘‘I thought maybe I would get dropped because a new manager was coming in.
‘‘But I’ve made some really good friends within the team, the captain has been very supportive of me, knowing I knew Kevin and Luc [Trani], and having a strong network around me helped me get through that period.’’
As it turned out, Cacace had nothing to worry about.
The team’s results have improved under new coach Peter Maes – Sint Truiden are now five points clear of the relegation zone – and Cacace taken his game to another level.
The 20-year-old said he was determined to continue his upwards trajectory by increasing his attacking output, having registered just two assists in 22 games without scoring a goal.
He believed those improvements would help him land a bigger move in the future.
‘‘It was hard for me at first. I thought maybe I would get dropped because a new manager was coming in.
‘‘But he’s liked me from the getgo and is giving me chances every week.’’
‘‘I’m still only 20 and I keep telling myself that. The way I keep going a deal could pop up but it’s important to keep your feet on the ground and keep working hard.’’
Liberato Cacace
Aphone call from a tenant with a burst boiler is something many property investors are all too familiar with. But as the Government adds more regulations to landlords’ responsibilities, growing numbers are turning to property managers, rather than doing it themselves.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand spokeswoman Dee Crooks says, anecdotally, there’s been a rise in people using property managers due to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 updating rental regulations.
‘‘Also, since Covid-19, people have said they want to be able to enjoy their weekends – and they’re happy to pay,’’ she says.
Landlords can be up for penalties if they don’t get things right in this environment. ‘‘Paying a property manager is better than paying a fine. It’s about having the ambulance at the top of the cliff,’’ she says.
The move to property managers follows the trend in other countries. New Zealand is behind Australia, which has had more processes and procedures for longer, says Allan Hartley, sales manager at Quinovic Johnsonville.
Sharon Cullwick, executive officer of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation, is seeing new investors automatically going to property managers. She says around 40 per cent of her membership use them.
If you have one to two properties, and you have a fulltime job, it makes sense to outsource, she says. Healthy Homes standards are a big challenge for real estate investors. A lot of people don’t know what they need to do, she says.
Having a property manager doesn’t remove your responsibilities, she adds. Landlords still have to make sure they’re ‘‘managing the manager’’, and keeping abreast of new laws.
A property investor who has tried self-managing and outsourcing
Real estate blogger and property investor Andrew Duncan has
tried both – and he’ll never go back.
‘‘It’s the work involved. You might think you want to save $60 a week, but then there’s the cleaning, the listings online, the logistics, let alone the fines, if you don’t have the right information,’’ he says.
Choosing tenants was one of
the hardest parts, he found.
‘‘When there are 20 applications for a property, it’s heartbreaking to say no to young couples moving in together for the first time, or people with a baby on the way, and you can only pick one.
‘‘A good property manager is worth their absolute weight in
gold,’’ says Duncan, who uses Lynette Sletcher from Simply Rentals in Wellington.
The property investor also likes the network of builders and tradespeople his property manager has.
‘‘For most normal people, if you call a builder, they’ll say they can do it in six months. With a property manager, they’ll say to the builder, ‘I’ve got a small job, can you come and fix it’, and because you’re giving them regular work, they’ll come and do it,’’ says Duncan. ‘‘It makes a monumental difference.’’
How much property managers cost and how to choose one
Most property managers will charge between 7 and 10 per cent of the rent and there may well be one-off fees on top of that amount – $30 for doing house inspections every three months, for instance, which many insurers require.
Quinovic’s Allan Hartley, who is seeing a ‘‘remarkable increase’’ of homeowners turned landlords, says: ‘‘Property management has almost become like insurance, where you pay $50 a week more or less on the property and then you have someone fulltime looking after it,’’ he says.
If you opt to manage the property yourself to make the numbers on the homework, ‘‘you’ve bought yourself a job as a part-time property manager’’, he says.
A lot of tenants are not comfortable dealing direct with property owners, he says. They have no idea what they’ll be like as a landlord.
Hartley says for the relationship to work well, the landlord has to be responsive to calls from their property managers.
Not all property managers are the same
There is a range of property management firms to choose from, not all work to the same standards, so property investors should do their due diligence.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand has been campaigning for more than 10 years on raising the standards of property managers who are unregulated in New Zealand and it’s hopeful the Government will move on this in the coming months.
Cullwick says she runs her first meeting with a property manager like a job interview – she’ll go into the office and see how organised they are.
Make sure that the property manager has a trust account that gets independently audited, she says.
In his case, Duncan went for a smaller property manager because he likes being on a first-name basis with them and they know his properties well.
He also wanted someone who respected the tenants. ‘‘It’s very important that the property manager doesn’t treat them as a necessary evil.
‘‘Without a good tenant, you have no property investment, so I wanted someone who treats everybody fairly.’’
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