Selling your home ...
Category General Market
The biggest financial investment that MOST people make in their entire life, is buying property. When selling this significant investment it’s as important to have the right team behind you. And why NOT?
We’ve recently caught up with David Helena Co- Founder and Co-owner of Kingstons Real Estate.
Thanks for joining us David, how important is it when choosing an agency to sell your home? “My views on the matter are simple, if you have R1, 000,000 to invest in the stock market, would you want some average Joe that works on it part time, obviously not. You’d want the best return on investment, someone who takes pride in their work and has a track record to prove past performance. Selling property in my eyes should be handled with as much professionalism. Agents have often been criticized for under delivery in service, and lack of communication during the transfer process. An agent’s job is to provide an accurate and justifiable listing price for a seller’s property, giving it the proper marketing and exposure that it needs to reach potential buyers, be on call to deliver on buyers needs for viewings, be part of the negotiation process during the offer stage and give a hand held service throughout the transfer process to both parties.”
This sounds very simple, but why do you think that agents drop the ball in so many of these avenues? “Difficult to say why, I’ve been privileged enough to have worked in the property market abroad and in my experience comparing the industry overseas, SA has certainly lagged behind. Its part and parcel to why we founded Kingstons Real Estate. We explored a few franchise routes with some big names and realised very quickly that if we wanted to really change the industry as a whole we’d need to start from scratch. A scary statistic is that the average age of Estate agent in SA is 56, now I’m not knocking the older generation, not at all. But comparing the industry to thriving companies overseas, it’s substantially higher. We believe our team is enthusiastic day in and day out, our standards in service delivery are high in every single way we go about our business, all our Property Brokers are full time, our offices are open 7 days a week, and our calls are always answered.“
Wow average age 56 years old that’s astounding! How have you faired against some of the more seasoned agents? “Quite well to be honest, compared that of the average agency statically, properties that are listed with Kingstons receive double the amount of views and as a result consistently received more than double the amount of enquiries. (Stats provided by Property24). , Regardless of the properties price, if its R10, 000,000 in Ebotse Golf Estate or R150, 000 in Benoni CBD, every single one of our properties has been photographed by a professional. Buyer’s demands are getting increasingly higher and the evolution in technology has without a doubt contributed to this.”
You mention technology, how much of a role do you think this plays in the modern day market? “A huge part, everything nowadays is digital, smart phones, smart watches, tablets, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, WeChat… it’s hard even for me to keep up and I’m a self-proclaimed techno buff. At Kingstons we thrive on it and embrace it. Studies has shown that majority of people who find their property will find it online, we make sure our properties are visible in as many as these avenues as possible, we’re constantly working on our digital marketing and evolving it every day.”
Interesting, so where is Kingstons going in the future? “We have high ambitions for our business, in the short term that we’ve been around, we’ve experienced phenomenal growth year on year. We hope to have new offices opening in the not too distant future. In line with this our team is ever expanding, equally as important our market share is constantly increasing. We’re confident that we’ve got the right team in place to take us to another level in 2016 and beyond. Our energy and focus right now is making more and more people aware of our brand and through sheer hard work and positive word of mouth. The best way to do this is by proving ourselves day in and day out.”
Great thanks for your time. For more information on Kingstons Real Estate visit www.kingstons.co.za , email info@kingstons.co.za or call 010 020 2431.
Author: The Property Guru
