Today’s estate agent has to be an all-round professional, because the demands are so much greater than previously. ‘If ever there was a profession which underwent a radical change in its image, it is that of the estate agent,’ says Mike Greeff, Greeff Properties’ Chief Executive. ‘When I first started working as an agent,’ says Mike, ‘you often were given
no training at all and many people passed no exams. All you needed was a map of the area, last week’s property pages, a telephone book, a car, a smooth tongue and reasonably good manners – and, believe me, some agents did not have even these. ‘Today the “complete” agent will have had to acquire knowledge of financial and tax matters (including those related to foreign buyers), property law and economic trends – and last, but not least, computer skills, because 50% of modern-day communication is via email or sms. You simply cannot pretend to be an adviser to people spending anything from R1- to R25- million without knowing all about these and other matters.’

These days, it’s necessary to do a complete comparative market analysis on every sale, says Mike. It’s essential toknow the prices achieved for almost all other properties sold in the area, their sizes, virtues and pitfalls – as well as those still on the market and the possible reasons for their not selling, if this is the case. Says Mike: ‘There’s almost nothing that so enhances an agent’s reputation as being able to explain and justify how he came to his valuation. If he is really professional about this, the client will probably trust him and go along with his view, and a sale is likely to follow within the next four to twelve weeks. If he is not properly equipped to do this and allows the client to insist on a
different, usually higher price, he is letting himself in for weeks of frustration and, most probably, an eventual bust-up with the person he is supposed to be trying to help. In the process, the company might well have lost many thousands of rands on advertising.’ How does an estate agency raise the level of professionalism of its agents? Mike says that he has little faith in the often-adopted method of handing out documentation which agents are expected to read. ‘As in every good learning process, its essential to get the pupil to think, not just to assimilate what he has learned. To achieve this, it is necessary to have regular training in which the trainees instruct the lecturer and difficult questions are asked on both sides.’ To be successful, adds Mike, training should be ongoing, preferably at least once a week, and should relate not just to basics but also to the latest changes in property matters, particularly property law and financial matters – and should be given wherever possible by top people in the profession. ‘Over the last year or more we’ve received training from Buchanan Boyes, BoE, Trevor Gore, Steve Harris and Ian McCallum. This has put Greeff’s agents in great stead to advise clients on many difficult matters.’

Greeff Properties very seldom recruit a rookie agent – over 90% of those who join them have already proved themselves in one or other agencies and often, too, in other territories. Greeff Properties’s formula for the creation of a professional team obviously works. In the six years since he formed his own company, Mike has grown it to a turnover of R600-million per annum – and, in an industry where 80% of those employed do not survive more than two years, he has date been able to hold on to 89% of his staff, of whom 19 have now been with him for over three of his six years in business. What is more, last year this core group had average sales of R72-million per person. Says Mike: ‘I’m a great believer in keeping teams small. We could and probably will grow to 50 agents in time but I would never want to get bigger than that nor expand my territory beyond the Cape Town metropole. ‘The reason for this is that I believe wholeheartedly in keeping close to every one of our agents in good times and in bad – perhaps most importantly in bad times. Once that personal contact goes, the esprit de corps goes too – and from then on you have a lifeless group working simply to earn a living, without vision and without inspiration. With ongoing personal contact, sympathy and encouragement from management, you can generate enthusiasm that overcomes obstacles and helps the agent perform far better than he or she ever imagined possible.’