The big boys in real estate

VICKI HOLDER focuses on three of the major players in the real estate agency business.

If you're an Aucklander you can't avoid the big real estate agencies. Bold, instantly recognisable branding shouts at you from almost every shopping centre, on signs outside offices and homes and from pages of newspapers and specialist magazines.

The size of the main players' operations means high-profile promotion and great visibility. It also gives their customers a huge database to draw on - contact lists of possible buyers are huge. Once a salesperson has secured a listing, teams of related salespeople from other offices will trek through the property. Each heightens the opportunity for providing prospective buyers.

The marketing and creative departments within the bigger organisations offer specialist skills and computerised communications to take the burden off the salespeople, so that they can devote themselves to the business of selling. And although, the financial weight of carrying this expertise might sound onerous, economies of scale make it feasible and give the customers the advantage.

As the big agencies get bigger, on-going training becomes increasingly important. As well as developing in-house systems, most agencies bring in experienced salespeople from overseas to inspire and motivate.

But what sets one agency apart from the next? This week, three of the main players have their say.

BARFOOT & THOMPSON

Peter Thompson, director.

Your focus?

"We focus on residential, commercial, rural and property management, with our biggest growth in commercial and rural. Within the residential sector, we cover all price ranges and our 37.2 per cent market share [REINZ] is consistently right through each locality and price range."

Your areas?

"We cover the greater Auckland area from Warkworth to Pukekohe, plus Whangarei. Our philosophy is to concentrate on the market we own rather than spread through the country like a lot of other companies."

Benefits offered to clients?

- A family business offering family values of honesty and integrity.

- Well-established, owning 80 per cent of its buildings, so we offer lower commission rates.

- The only big company that doesn't accept phantom bids at auctions, which we think has worked in Barfoot's favour.

- High profile marketing.

- Creative marketing teams provide better advertising for open homes.

- Excellent customer feedback to vendors.

- Vendors classified as number one.

RAY WHITE

Carey Smith, chief executive New Zealand.

Your focus?

"To grow our transaction ability through our elite membership, office and salesperson level. An increased number of offices has seen Ray White increase its market share to become the number two agency in New Zealand. We're number two by virtue of the number of offices we have in the country plus a whole series of benchmarks we have looked at, including the number of sales made and turnover."

Your areas?

"We're an international company with 110 locations in New Zealand and 41 Auckland offices. During the past 12 months the Auckland agency practice has grown by 116 per cent compared to the previous year."

Your strengths?

"The quality of our business owners and salespeople, which has been brought about through quality skill-training and marketing. They understand vendors' needs and how to apply their skills in responding to those needs."

Your selling points?

Choice - this defines our uniqueness and approach to clients' needs. Our range of services includes property management, commercial sales and leasing and an extensive rural network. We are the only agency with an infrastructure to offer a broad range of financial services and investment options."

Benefits to clients?

- We understand the most effective way to sell real estate.

- The way we respond to clients.

- The size of our network and skill level of our people brings a high transaction rate and, most importantly, a premium price.

HARCOURTS

Paul Wright, co-owner.

Your focus?

"We are recognised for our residential sales, with 20 per cent of the New Zealand market. We also specialise in rural sales with around 15 per cent of the rural/lifestyle market."

Your areas?

"Harcourts has 169 offices spread across every town and city in New Zealand."

Your strengths?

"We focus on training and inducting our people. Harcourts Academy provides comprehensive training for people new to the industry, courses for managers and sales managers, business owners and executive members. A clear career path is established with training appropriate for each stage of a person's desired development.

"Leading edge web-based technology provides online software to run our franchise owners' businesses, manage their data, financial and trust accounts, provide sales consultants with online presentations, database management and live access to all property listed. The easy-to-use, customer-driven website has the largest number of properties for sale on any company site. We have 145,000 visitors a month spending more than 12 minutes surfing our site.

"We have some of the best auctioneers in New Zealand. Bluebook is recognised as the leading, most widely read property magazine in New Zealand."

Your selling points?

- Highest top-of-mind awareness.

- Highest brand preference, most preferred and professional agents (AC Nielson's annual survey).

- Largest number of offices.

- Only New Zealand agency to have expanded into Australia.

- Our systems supply every piece of information necessary to run an office and help a sales consultant to prosper.

Benefits to clients?

- Commitment and expertise.

- Strength of our auctions, marketing, Bluebook, size, coverage and referral base.

- The best website, in our opinion.

- Trained sales consultants.

- New Zealand ownership and values.


Next week, Bayleys, Harveys and LJ Hooker have their say.