Street cred receipts
Peta started her career working in Council. Which means she understands “how things work on the inside”, what the key drivers are, and what makes them tick. She also has many long-standing relationships as a result.
Over 40 five-star Google reviews from genuine clients ... from building designers, architects, and developers to industry pros and homeowners. We are super grateful for every one of them ... even if we do squirm and blush when we read them :D
BTP has been shaking things up for over 12 years now or as we like to say … we are out of the unpredictable “newborn phase”, but far from hitting the “grumpy and ready to retire” phase … aka, we are in the sweet spot.
What’s our approval rate you ask? Well, it was 100% last year ... and the year before ... and the year before that ... aaannnddd the year before that ... aaaaannnnnddddd ... yeah, you get the idea.
Word on the street is that we lodged the highest number of housey apps in Brissy last year. Not bad for “a small fry”. Yep, we will be honest, the automation magic we rock behind the scenes helps us “bat above” #CreditWhereCreditIsDue
The number one reason clients say that they go with us when accepting our agreements is “recommendation” ... be it from a friend, family member or industry professional. Nawww gotta love that grapevine love!
Brissy is our hood …
… zoom in to explore the suburbs we have worked in to date, and click on the pins to see how many projects we’ve tackled in each area so far. You will quickly notice that we spend a lot of time hanging out in the inner western suburbs, especially around Ashgrove, Bardon, and Paddington.
Meet the CREW
FROnt and centre at btp are three equally important characters. With Peta as the HEAD HONCHO/Principal Planner, KIM as the ROOKIE PLANNER/CLIENT CUPID, and Charlie as the automation sidekick who digs up dirt on every site.
PETA
Professional on the outside and slightly loco on the inside … which means she is serious when she needs to be and light-hearted when she doesn’t!
Once a “jill of all trades” running a one-woman show, her focus has narrowed in recent years. She now spends her time primarily wrangling the technical town planning “stuff”, chitty chatting with council/clients, and doing general head honcho-ish things.
You can stalk Peta’s LinkedIn profile for the boring stuff. Aka the formal rundown of her past work history etc.
Likes – Chocolate, crazy physical challenges, biz innovation/automation, random OS travel experiences, and challenging expectations.
Dislikes – Small talk, cooking, and bureaucratic red tape.
kim
Having joined the team in 2020, Kim spent the early days behind the scenes focusing on research tasks. Tasks like reviewing previous approvals on Dev.i/scouring online resources like realestate.com for info to support performance justifications, or reviewing historic records for pre-1911 checks.
Her critical thinking and problem-solving skills soon took centre stage, and as a result, her role has evolved into sooooo much more. These days, Kim’s role is a “Rookie Planner meets Client Cupid” kind of thing. Yep, it’s a weird mix, but it works. She is now Peta’s “right-hand woman” so to speak, supporting her to do her thing, while also ensuring clients stay up to date on jobs/feel the BTP luv.
Likes – Her Shih Tzu dog Vodka, and hitting the beach.
Dislikes – Negative vibes.
CHARLIE
A play on Peta’s last name, Charlie is the nickname given to BTP’s automation sidekick.
Initially created in 2018 (yep, she is OG automation), her main role is to use automation magic to review sites … to dig up dirt (so to speak) on a property. So that building designers, architects and builders know what they are dealing with from the start.
Check out the ”meet Charlie” section for more information on how you can tap into her automated magic for yourself.
Likes – Repetitive tasks and “open data” sources.
Dislikes – Website updates that break “her” coding, and slow internet connections.
So that’s the crew … read on to see what working with us looks like.
our approach
Here are 5 things that we believe make our approach different.
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Number 1 - No BS/straight-talking feedback
We make a point of giving honest, percentage-based chances-of-success feedback … feedback that we would give our own fam bam. You will regularly hear us saying things like “if you can get written support from the neighbours, we would give this one an 85-90% chance of success” or “if we were in your shoes and this was our property, this is what we would do …”. Not the wishy-washy stuff that leaves you scratching your head and questioning which direction to run in.
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Number 2 - “Phone a friend” relationships
We appreciate the value of having an easy-going relationship with a town planner … someone you can reach out to when a new job comes up, or when a client throws a curveball at you. Everything we do in terms of our social media, the free “Charlie” reports and free initial concept reviews, is designed to create an easy, approachable and helpful relationship for our industry buddies.
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Number 3 - Practice makes perfect
We lodge hundreds of housey applications in Brisbane each year. This means that we know the ins and outs (aka quirks and loopholes) of this niche. So we can make the rules work as hard as possible for you and your client … and you know you are getting accurate advice that won’t bite you in the backside down the track.
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Number 4 - Respect goes both ways
We live by the saying that “you get more with sugar than the whip”. Meaning that we deliberately focus on creating positive and friendly working relationships with the Council peeps. We believe that we, as professionals, can have differences of opinion … yet we can still work together in a respectful way to get the best outcome for the client. More importantly for you, though, we tend to have more open/frank and impromptu conversations with “friends”, and more often than not, we have a better read on what they are thinking. Which means we get quicker results with less fuss for all involved. Check out this post to see the “proof”.
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Number 5 - Knowledge is power
If you are interested in learning more about the rules/why things are the way they are, then “pull up a seat”! We love sharing our knowledge (in a jargon-free light-hearted way) via our socials and if people show an interest, via our email enquiry responses. Don’t worry, if you are time poor or really don’t care about the details, we can tailor our feedback to suit.
Now that you’ve got a sense of who we are and what we are about … check out the testimonials below, to see what our clients have to say about our approach.
Love notes
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