There’s No Need to Reinvent the Wheel in Property Management
There is an old Turkish proverb: işleyen demir pas tutmaz — iron that’s kept in use doesn’t rust.
Things that are used, looked after, maintained and kept in order will stand the test of time. Those that are left behind, forgotten or told to ‘wait until next season’, however, will quietly fall into disrepair.
This is most evident in seaside homes. It is not just metal that rusts by the sea. Salt corrodes the hinges. The wind damages the façade. Damp puts a strain on the timber. Corrosion weakens the external units. A property that appears stationary is, in fact, constantly exposed to external factors.
However, this article is not actually about rust.
It is about a discipline.
The Wealthiest Have the Right to Be Disorganised.
In a recent episode of The WealthTech Podcast, Nines’ co-founders Mohamed Elzomor and Jacco de Bruijn discussed a reality that many in the private residential management sector quietly acknowledge: even the world’s wealthiest families typically manage their homes using WhatsApp chats, folders, spreadsheets, file directories and information stored in people’s heads.
Elzomor’s observation is striking. Even the wealthiest have the right to be disorganised. This statement dispels one of the greatest misconceptions about luxury residential living: order is not a function of money.
Money can buy land, architecture, furnishings, systems and staff. But it does not automatically buy order. Order comes from method. It comes from discipline. It comes from repetition. It comes from documented memory.
Even some of the world’s most expensive homes can become operationally fragile when there is no system behind them.
The real question is not how much money is spent on the home.
The real question is where the information about the home is stored.
“We Only Use the Home for Two Months”
This is one of the most common and understandable objections raised by seasonal homeowners:
“Why should we set up an operational system for a home we only use for two months a year?”
The answer should not be presented as a sales pitch. It should be answered as a simple observation of how things work.
A coastal property may be occupied for two months, but it continues to exist for twelve months.
Once the owner has left, another tenant takes up residence in the property: time and the weather. And this tenant doesn’t pay rent. It runs up bills.
A home without planned maintenance is almost always more expensive than one with it. Unplanned maintenance usually begins with a small leak, a loose connection or an overlooked warning sign. A season later, this situation turns into a problem with a panel, a pump, a façade issue, a water problem or a system failure.
An abandoned home is not a money-saving home. It is usually a home that quietly becomes more expensive.
This is what Nines calls the ‘wealth spiral’: as success increases, complexity increases with it. Families buy a home, hire staff, bring in suppliers, accumulate assets, and suddenly find themselves managing a second job within a space that should be a haven.
Disorganisation wears billionaires down.
It also wears down the homeowner who only comes for the summer.
The difference lies in whether the property is embedded within a system or not.
There is No Need to Reinvent This Discipline
The good news is that this problem is not new, and there is no need to invent a solution from scratch.
Property management — the operational discipline of a private residence — is already a mature professional field in markets such as the US, Switzerland, the Gulf and other UHNW environments.
Turkey does not need to reinvent property management. If Turkey, specifically Bodrum, aspires to become a new lifestyle hub for the UHNW, there are solutions alongside the challenges. The question is: who will adapt them to regional realities?
What Turkey needs is to adapt this mature discipline to its own coastal realities: salt, wind, humidity, seasonality, scattered suppliers, informal communication habits, the local culture of property ownership, and the recurring disconnect between high-value property and low-visibility operations.
This is the crucial distinction.
We are not trying to make a villa feel like a hotel.
We are not trying to replace a home’s privacy with bureaucracy.
We are striving to safeguard the owner’s experience by ensuring the property retains a sense of memory, continuity and accountability whilst the owner is away.
Nines Demonstrates That This Need Is Real
Nines is one of the clearest examples of this need materialising as a product in a mature market. It is building the category from scratch.
This platform is a home and property management platform developed for complex private residences, family offices, property managers and the professionals who support them. The language it uses consists of concepts familiar to anyone seriously involved in property management: continuity, institutional know-how, supplier management, preventative maintenance, staff coordination, secure information, property user guides, tranquillity.
Mohamed and Jaco have an advantage that sets them apart from traditional marketing strategies. Both come from sectors where, for a time, UNHW would tell people directly what to do, and they know how to say it.
So who will explain this service to the luxury residences in Bodrum, operating under the umbrella of 17 separate luxury brands, and in what language will they do so?
This language is important.
Because it shows that the problem is not a local, random or isolated issue. The problem is structural.
Whether in New York, Palm Beach, Geneva, Dubai, Bodrum or the Turkish Riviera, the fundamental problem is similar: a valuable property cannot rely solely on memory, good intentions, WhatsApp messages and the presence of a single competent individual.
The property needs its own operational memory.
Views on the distribution of roles within an estate, or the impossibility of dual roles, are also crucial. An Estate Manager can only be an Estate Manager. A chef or a housekeeper cannot fulfil this role. And these roles must be defined in such a way that they do not overlap.
On the other hand, NinesLiving also makes a significant philanthropic contribution to this category. Through Easemakers, amongst hundreds of podcasts, we will understand why the story begins with the idea that ‘there is no need to reinvent the wheel’.
Standart Residence OS is our response to this need on the Turkish coast.
A control panel is, in a sense, always subjective. It reflects a particular perspective. It is designed through a series of choices: what needs to be measured, what needs to be visible, what needs to be repeated, and what needs to be communicated to senior management.
However, the underlying need is not subjective.
A property’s information should belong not just to individuals, but to the property itself.
People change. Suppliers change. Staff change. Managers change. But standards must remain. The past must remain. Evidence must remain. The owner’s expectations must remain clear.
Information trapped in a WhatsApp group vanishes along with a phone, a resignation, a misunderstanding or the end of a season.
Information tied to the property, however, remains with the property.
We see this model as comprising three layers.
Standart Consultancy is the human and decision-making layer — field intelligence, judgement and representing the property owner’s interests.
Standart Residence OS is the continuity and evidence layer — the property’s operational memory.
Where appropriate and approved by the property owner, In Residence can become the controlled economic life layer — enabling the property to create value without compromising privacy, standards or the property owner’s control.
Nines is a key example of how this discipline has matured in another market. It represents the pinnacle of software development within the category in which Standart Consultancy is classified as a genuine product.
Our task is to create a model suited to Turkey’s coastal regions, with the right local judgement, the right operational details and the right respect for the property owner’s privacy.
A Better Version of a Home
The Stoics used the term areté: the highest expression of a thing’s function; the best version of what a thing ought to be.
If a person can have a better version of themselves, so too can a home.
The best version of a home is not found solely in expensive furniture, the latest technology or architectural beauty. We now know that even billionaires can be disorganised.
The best version of a home emerges when the homeowner returns and feels that the house is clearly waiting for them, prepared in a manner befitting them.
The lights are on.
The pool is ready.
The atmosphere is just right.
The systems are well understood.
Suppliers are on record.
Staff do not act on the spur of the moment.
There is never a sense of ‘we’ve forgotten this season’.
This feeling does not arise by chance.
It arises through discipline.
A working iron never rusts.
And a home run properly remembers its owner every time they return.
Editor’s note: Nines is an independent company. This article does not imply any partnership, authorisation, endorsement or commercial relationship. It refers solely to publicly available material and the shared professional discipline within the field of private residential and property management.
Standart Consultancy provides owner-side operating discipline for exceptional private residences in Türkiye and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Prefer to speak first? Book a discovery call →
