Shakedowns in the Northland real estate industry are seeing international franchised operations Harcourts and Ray White Real Estate extending their coverage of the region and playing a game of "one for you, one for me".
The mergers and buy-outs, and surrenders and take-ups of licences can be bewildering but brand colours are a quick way to get a fix on the lie of the land after the dust settles - and these days there's a lot more of the blue and white (Harcourts) and the yellow, grey and white (Ray White).
The pace of change in the industry has been hectic over the past six months and there's more to come.
The latest adjustments will see the Professionals mid-north agencies disappear, one into the Harcourts fold, one to Ray White.
From April 2 Professionals' only presence north of Whangarei will be the agency at Coopers Beach in the Far North, Professionals Far North Coastal Ltd.
Coopers Beach is also the location of a Harcourts start-up (not the result of an existing real estate company changing horses), which opens today.
This is the initiative of a former star of Harcourts Australia, New Zealander Murray Bright.
He and wife Wendy planned their return home carefully, working through a check list of requirements in settlements from Gisborne to the Far North, and Coopers Beach fitted the bill. The company will trade as Harcourts Doubtless Bay.
Harcourts in Whangarei significantly expanded officially on March 1.
Mike Beazley, licensee of Harcourts Optimize Realty, bought Professionals operator Glenbarry RE Ltd from Barry Joblin, and merged the two operations under the Harcourts banner.
This is the new owner's second expansion since creating Optimize when he left Bayleys four years ago. Harcourts offered him the Whangarei licence in 2009 after he had been trading independently for just a year.
Absorbing Professionals has brought new clients, a substantial property management portfolio, a larger office and boosted the Harcourts Whangarei workforce to 22. Last weekend the business crossed the road from 134 Bank St to the former Professionals premises at 141 Bank St, following renovation and rebranding of the building.
Former Professionals/Glenbarry licensee Barry Joblin stays on as a full-time sales consultant.
He entered the industry in 1983 in Hamilton, came north to join the Housing Corporation as a lending manager and then became manager for Housing New Zealand Northland (the new name), before returning to real estate, eventually building an eight-office Professionals operation.
The financial realities which led him to sell the business actually did him a favour, he says. "It's got me back into full-time selling and it's surprised me, I've found that's what I really enjoy."
But The Professionals is staging a quick come-back in Whangarei thanks to Valerie Hanger, a former member of the management team who will officially open a replacement agency next month. She formerly owned the Mangawhai office and for the past few months has been the national business development manager for Professionals Real Estate Group.
Meanwhile, the two Professionals operations in the Bay of Islands are half way through their disappearing act.
The co-owners of the agencies at Kerikeri and Kaikohe, Dennis Corbett and Bill Easton, bought Kerikeri's Century 21 Bay Gold Realty and took the blended operation into the Harcourts chain on February 1.
Managing director Corbett said it wasn't a case of not liking the group they were in, but realising it was "very clear where we had to go".
The firm was already benefiting from having access to the support systems and contacts of such a large, well-resourced group, he said. Two new sales consultants were already in training with the Harcourts substantial and technically-savvy education division, "The Academy".
He said the requirements of new Real Estate Agents Authority, the independent, government regulatory body for the real estate industry in New Zealand, were making for "challenging times".
"If you are with one of the majors there is so much advice available on compliance and management issues, so much support for owners and staff."
Six Century 21 staff had joined the business which meant Harcourts Bay of Islands opened with three property managers, 12 salespeople and three in administration.
The business stays in the same building it has occupied for several years in central Kerikeri.
A strategic move which may temporarily confuse the locals is the re-emergence and second disappearance of a Professionals Kaikohe, within about six weeks.
Dianne Quinn - licensee of Professionals Paihia - grabbed the opportunity of opening a replacement Professionals Kaikohe when Dennis Corbett and Bill Easton changed their Kaikohe and Kerikeri agencies to Harcourts.
But it turned out that she too had plans.
Dianne Quinn will take both her Professionals agencies (Paihia and Kaikohe) into the Ray White Group on April 2, along with a satellite office she plans to reopen in Kawakawa.
She says joining a growing international brand will benefit vendors, purchasers and the company.
In yet another twist, the licensee of Ray White Ruakaka, Brent Casey, joined Harcourts on January 1.
This came about because his Ray White licence was terminated when large Whangarei independent Allens Real Estate Ltd joined Ray White last year. This meant Allens' Tutukaka and One Tree Pt branches also became Ray White businesses. With One Tree Pt so close to Ruakaka something had to give, and it was Brent Casey.
Professionals Jean Johnson Realty of Dargaville also joined Ray White recently, is trading as Ray White Jean Johnson Real Estate Ltd.
Harcourts and Ray White are franchised operations, whereas Professionals is a co-operative marketing network. Professionals Global Ltd has 300 offices throughout the Asia and Pacific Region.