Couple's business fills gap

Sara and Brendon Kenny say the decision to open their own business has paid off. Photo / Stephen Parker

When Brendon and Sara Kenny decided to open their own business they were confident there was a gap in the market. What they did not realise was just how much of a gap there was.

Almost a year since the pair joined forces to open Property Inspect BOP they are pleased their leap of faith is paying off.

July 1 will mark a year since Mr Kenny joined his wife in the business she had started working on a few months earlier and since then they have moved the business out of the home and opened an office in Tutanekai St.

The business has allowed them to combine their respective backgrounds - Mrs Kenny working in the accounting and property management industry, and Mr Kenny with a background in building and structural assessment in the insurance industry.

"When I left property management we thought there must be something we can do with our experience together. It's been really busy and we can't quite believe how it has all turned out," Mrs Kenny said.

"It was always a bit of a risk, a bit of a leap of faith," Mr Kenny said.

She has taken over the office management side, while Mr Kenny focuses on the property inspections. They carry out a range of inspections, including pre-purchase residential and commercial property inspections, safe and sanitary reports, weather tight reports as well as some project management.

Mrs Kenny said they had built the business around "good service, and honest reports". Taking time with the customers was a focus and creating good customer service was important, especially in a town the size of Rotorua, she said.

"We don't just do a report and stop at that. We are big on service."

While the bulk of their work is in residential reports, a highlight over the past year for Mr Kenny was being flown into the Tongariro/Ruapehu area by helicopter to inspect Department of Conservation huts.

With Mr Kenny born and raised in Rotorua, and Mrs Kenny calling the city home since 1991, the pair said they were passionate about supporting Rotorua businesses and had become active in Rotorua X and Chamber of Commerce events.

They are currently looking at ways they can expand the business and are considering getting software programmes written especially for them as there was nothing available to cater for the work they do.

Mr Kenny said they hoped to expand into drug testing houses for methamphetamine and were going through the process of becoming accredited surveyors.

Mrs Kenny said one of the difficulties was relying on the property industry was it could have its ups and downs and business was dependant on the industry, but she said so far they had not experienced the winter downturn they expected.