Archive for the ‘real estate’ Category

Ray White is pleased to welcome one of the highest performing licensee salespeople in Hamilton – Sue Hall – to the Group.  Sue and her business partner, Richard Jacobsen, have joined the group as franchise owners for their business known as Hamilton City and which is located on Willoughby Street in Hamilton.

Sue has an extensive background in real estate, with 14 years of experience in dealing with properties in and around the Hamilton area. Sue was not only the No1 sales consultant for the Harcourts Hamilton group but was also consistently ranked as one of the top 20 sales agents for Harcourts in New Zealand.

In joining the Ray White Group with her own office, Sue said this was a natural career step that she has been considering for some time. “Being able to own our own business is something that we have been working towards and with the assistance of Ray White, we have been able to achieve. I have been fortunate to have a high performing real estate career and this has given me the step up into office ownership.”

Richard Jacobsen, who is co-owner with Sue Hall, said “Opening a new office with Ray White will enable Sue to share her skills in leadership and sales amongst a high performing team. We are thrilled to be part of the Ray White Group and with their systems, technology and back up, we are sure to be able to make a success of this business.”

Carey Smith, NZ Chief Executive for Ray White said that “Sue Hall in her time in real estate has achieved numerous accolades and is recognised as one of the top performers of the industry. Her level of skill, knowledge and dedication to the industry has seen her achieve the highest levels.  Sue and Richard join us as co-owners and they are an exciting addition to our growth in the Hamilton region.”

Sue has a team of three who continue to support her ongoing listings and sales. The new office is currently being fitted out and is expected to be open for trading from 1 October 2011.  In the meantime Sue Hall is now listing and selling property and can be contacted on 0800 783 425 or sue.hall@raywhite.com.

.

Ray White New Zealand is pleased to announce their Franchise Owners Symposium this year will be held in Queenstown on 7^th and 8^th September 2011. The Ray White Group has continued to see extraordinary growth during the past 12 months, with 18 new offices joining and this has set another new record for growth in office numbers.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White NZ said said “the objective of the Franchise Owners Symposium is to look at the Group’s strategy as if we were in 2016.  Our strategy is centred on a series of questions that will invite in-depth discussion on the core values of the Group which in turn will allow the strategy to be formalised and give guiding principles for the Group over the next five years.”

Please Click the Image for Further Details

The Symposium will also provide a message of opportunity, with business leaders John Wall from Talent 2 together with Steven D’Souza from Kalamazoo providing keynote addresses on their personal businesses and how they have moved to market leadership in their respective fields.

The Ray White Group has 133 franchise offices and is seen to be one of the market leaders in New Zealand. The Group facilitates 21,000 property appointments per annum and is the leader in the field of property management; looking after 14,600 properties for landlords.  The Group also has a highly successful commercial and rural operation, while offering financial solutions through leading facilitator The Loan Market..

.

The July 2011 results for the Ray White Group reflected an increase in trading over the similar period last year; however was slightly down on the results from last month. The Group’s controlled listings were down almost 25% which is reflective of the shorter days on market and prices holding throughout the majority of New Zealand.

The top office for the month was Ray White Auckland Central Commercial, completing sales in excess of $16 million. The Ray White Remuera office was number two. Ray White Metro in Christchurch completed sales of $8.5 million, while Ray White Ponsonby and Ray White City Apartments also had a strong month with sales over $8 million.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White said that the results reflected the lack of new listings which are being presented to the market. “When you look closer at the numbers, Auckland continues to show increases on last year’s turnover however there are far less properties being listed for sale. This will inevitably put pressure on prices and will also provide more buyer competition for each property actively marketed.  Also of interest is the Canterbury market where sales were at the same level as the same time last year. There are a lot less properties coming to the market in this area but the take up of stock and the reduction in the total properties available has been considerable.  Across New Zealand our results were similar to that of 2010 and while listing stock remains the driver to many key indicators, there are certainly a good number of properties turning over in the current market. The other variables that we see going forward include the upcoming interest rate announcement in September and the activity that will result from the Rugby World Cup.”

The Ray White Group has offices across the country and lists on average 21,000 properties per annum. The Group is also the leading facilitator of property management in New Zealand with 14,600 properties managed for landlords.

.

Ray White recently launched its new national website together with 135 local office websites in mid May 2011.  The recent Google analytics report for the collective Ray White websites showed that during the past month there have been a total of 241,228 visits to our sites.  Of those 35% came from direct traffic, 19% came from referring sites, with the balance coming from search engines.

One of the changes to the referring sites shows that Facebook is now the highest referrer for the Ray White Group for individual properties that are visited from a primary referral source.  During the past 12 months Facebook has consistently moved up the rankings and is now a clear number one referrer to our company website.  Another area of interest in 2010 for the same period the average visitor viewed 3.3 pages and stayed on our site 2.59 minutes.  In a snapshot that was taken last week for the same period, our total visitors has increased by 33%, with the average pages viewed just under doubling to 6.37 and the average time on our site has also increased substantially to 4.32 minutes.

Collectively this shows the consistent and ongoing optimization that the Ray White Group has been putting into their web platform to maintain one of the leading positions in the industry.

Keith Ashkettle, head of technology for Ray White New Zealand, said that two key indicators for visitors were the speed of the site and the rich content of their experience when they come to the site. “Our property display now has integrated features which include school zones, a full suite of mapping and community information.  This has translated into the visitor spending more time on our site to get much greater detail of the property they are showing interest in.”  He went on to say that the enquiry rate from the local Ray White sites has also increased substantially and this has been a highlight in the response to our new platform.

The Ray White Group partner with Trade Me Property, realestate.co.nz and also have total membership to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.  The new web platform is designed to respond at a national, local and individual level and this has kept Ray White as one of the industry leaders in technology in the real estate agency business.

.

The Ray White Group has been a member of the SuperGold Card programme since it was first launched in 2007. The SuperGold Card membership base now stands at more than 5,000 outlets, where SuperGold Card holders can receive discounts and concessions.

Every eligible senior and veteran is given a SuperGold Card and this is issued free of charge along with the SuperGold Card directory, which is also available online.  The number of people eligible for a SuperGold Card was 2010 is 625,000.

The Ray White Group is the only fully subscribed National franchise participant in the SuperGold Card programme and we offer 10% discount to those sellers who hold a SuperGold Card and list their property with the Ray White Group. Please see conditions on the SuperGold web site.

We have been given consistent recognition within the SuperGold Card directory and we are pleased to confirm that as a group we have re-signed our membership with the SuperGold Card programme for a further 12 months until June 2012.

.

Two of the most familiar names in the Ray White Group will come together on 29^th July at Eden Park to present a full day that is described as the ‘Holy Grail of Real Estate’.

Simon Damerell, co-principal of Ray White Ponsonby, and Darryl Spense, a multiple Elite performer, will provide practical advice, skills and tools which will put those who attend on a path to riches and personal satisfaction.

For further information on the programme and seminar schedule please click here. Please see here for booking information.

The Locals Limited, who are known as Ray White Kingsland, have recommitted with the Ray White Group for their second term.  Just over five years ago, Chris and Lesley Hawes opened their office in Kingsland and from the start have maintained market shares which have been recognised and awarded in the Ray White Group.  The past five years has seen exceptional growth for the Kingsland business. It has gone from strength-to-strength, with Lesley Hawes consistently maintaining a top position in our national awards and more recently in March, both Lesley and Ruth Hawes were awarded individually the number one salespeople nationally for Ray White.

The business realigned with a new company name – The Locals Limited – and this embellishes the continued community involvement Ray White Kingsland has.  Chris Hawes said that their business had undergone considerable positive change to reflect their desire to add value to the community. He said “We pride ourselves on our involvement supporting events and fundraisers throughout our trade area.  Our business has grown to have a high market share in residential sales and we have also established a highly successful property management business.”

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said that the Kingsland office has a strong family orientation.  “This sits alongside perfectly with the Ray White family values.  The way that the individuals come together as a team at Ray White Kingsland is unmatched, potentially within the industry. The volume of sales produced by Lesley and Ruth is consistently recognised and they are the current joint number one sales operators for our group.  Their new company name reflects their continued drive towards lifting market share in their local trade area.  Everything that they do is about delivering the highest standards.”

The Ray White Kingsland team are situated at 437 New North Road, Kingsland.  Their website is rwkingsland.co.nz.

.

Just over 150 members of Ray White North Shore attended a quarterly breakfast function held in Takapuna this morning.

The awards were supported by the Loan Market Group, with Chief Executive David Hart speaking about current interest rates, the availability of finance and the introduction of marketing support for our members to provide to potential sellers.

The first awards presented recognised top Loan Market referrals.  Other awards presented included individual sales turnover, business growth and auction and tender marketing; with office awards also categorised in sales turnover, business growth and marketing.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, spoke on the new web presence of the Group and the pending release of individual websites that will be available for every Ray White member. He went on to say that the public awareness of property, and in particular agents, was predominantly first introduced to potential clients through the web. Individual sales agents having websites will be a credibility statement for the best in the industry.  He also congratulated the award winners in market conditions that are very much about ensuring that negotiations and marketing remained at the forefront of the sale process.

Other awards recognised were the first two Premier members on the North Shore for 2011.  Liz Parker and Helene Brownlee, who are both current Elite members, have achieved Premier status for 2011 in four months of trading. They were also recognised as the top salespeople on the North Shore together with Ann Emerson from Browns Bay.

Pictured here are the top salespeople who were recognised at the North Shore Quarterly Awards held at the Spencer on Byron.

The Ray White Group is proud to welcome the new franchise owners of Ray White Epsom, being Core Group Realty Limited with shareholders Margaret Simpson, Robin McDowall and Linda Galbraith.  The shareholders of Core Group Realty Limited have come together from varying real estate backgrounds and the combination and experience they bring is expected to reposition Ray White Epsom to a new level.

Margaret Simpson, licensee agent for Core Group Realty Limited, said that they are excited to take on the ownership of Ray White Epsom. “The experience of the leadership team will allow the business to focus on the marketing and selling of real estate throughout Epsom, Parnell and surrounding suburbs. Having Robin and Linda as shareholders and active salespeople will add a further dimension to our business.”

Robin McDowall has a highly experienced sales background throughout the inner eastern suburbs.  Linda Galbraith has been operating as a high profile salesperson for over 20 years, consistently achieving successful results in the high-end market.

Carey Smith, NZ Chief Executive, said he welcomed the new owners to the Group.  “Having Margaret, Robin and Linda as franchise owners with the Ray White Group will allow for further growth in sales throughout the Epsom, Parnell and surrounding suburbs.  Linda Galbraith in particular has a high profile in the high-end market and will add to the strengths that both Robin McDowall and Margaret Simpson bring to the leadership team of Ray White Epsom.”

The Ray White Epsom franchise was under the previous ownership of Pat and Mary Taylor, who will continue as Ray White members through the rental division.  The new ownership of the Ray White Epsom office takes place on 1^st June 2011.

The Ray White Group is pleased to announce the opening of Ray White Manukau City located on the corner of Great South Road and Te Irirangi Drive in high profile Westpac named building inManukau.  The office is under the Mountfort Group, with the leader of the office being Mark Te Whare. Mark continues to have a distinguished career in the real estate industry after spending five years in Brisbane with Ray White as a senior auctioneer and then joining Ray White New Zealand three years ago to undertake the role of National Chief Auctioneer. Mark has taken the step into business leadership through the Manukau franchise.  The team joining Mark are high profile performers including Adam Thomson, Garrick Smart, Levani Lum-On, Mandeep Gill, Chanelle Breeze and Gabriel Tuhoro.

Carey Smith, Ray White New Zealand Chief Executive, said he was thrilled to have Mark and the team on board in Manukau. “The Ray White Group is considered a market leader in South Auckland and the addition of Mark and his team joining the Group in Manukau will add to that presence.  I expect the business will be dynamic given the individuals involved and will also have an accent on auction marketing.”

The business will continue to grow in the foreseeable future, with additional services including property management, financial lending and utilities.

For further information on the Manukau franchise please see their local website.