Ray White's endless pursuit of leadership

THERE is no doubt that growth is in the DNA of Australasia’s largest property group, which is still owned and led by the White family after 116 years.

In the calendar year 2018, some of the best real estate businesses across Australia and New Zealand decided to rebrand to join Ray White.

There were 132 new franchise agreements signed in the year to December 2018 at Ray White, which includes 72 franchise renewals to take the total office network to over 1000 internationally.

Ray White does not seek to get bigger for the sake of it but is driven by the pursuit of leadership in every market across Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Ray White Group director Dan White said the long established franchise group was definitely not looking to have more offices for the sake of it, just leaders in key markets.

“Ray White has immense scale and vast geographic spread so what we are looking for is leadership,” said Mr White (pictured above).

“Other franchise groups may be looking for more offices, but not us, our recruitment focus is on our ‘next leaders’ to future proof us all.”

There was also two very significant changes in ownership namely in Double Bay and Erskineville with Elliott Placks becoming the sole owner of Ray White Double Bay and Ercan Ersan, one of the group’s leading agents, becoming a director at Erskineville.

Ray White NSW Blue CEO Jason Andrew (pictured above) said many agents had recently been exploring the possibility of joining the leading brand, with several key changes planned for the first quarter of the year.

“A softer market has led agents to consider if they have the right leadership and environment to confront this market,” Mr Andrew said.

“Good people make good leaders. If you sit down at a cafe with a leader, they are measured and considerate to wait staff. They say please and thank you, they make eye contact and laugh. In their offices their people ask questions, they too are polite and attentive.

“Leadership can be spotted a mile away. Leaders want to build a business, they don't want their sole focus to be selling.

“Paradoxically, when you first open the doors, selling is what keeps the doors open. But successful leaders have a plan - they are process driven and forever inquisitive.

“They work with their corporate office versus working against it. Successful leaders see the franchisee franchisor relationship as a partnership that is equitable."

We also welcomed nine new offices - Berwick, Clayton, Geelong, Gladstone Park and Myrtleford in 2018, taking the office network to 110 offices in our Victoria and Tasmania residential and country network.

Victorian and Tasmanian CEO Domenic Belfiore (pictured here) also welcomed new principals to existing businesses Mildura and South Morang. Both Berwick and Clayton were existing business owners expanding into their second office with new partners. "Gladstone Park were two successful agents from a competitor who opened a business and Myrtleford was a change of ownership," he said.

It’s been an exciting year for our WA network which swelled to 56 offices in 2018 when Ray White Carters, Ray White Fremantle and Ray White Cottesloe I Mosman Park joined us.

In addition, Nick Di Rosso became a partner at Ray White Uxcel.

Ray White Western Australia CEO Mark Whiteman hoped to add four to five quality new businesses to the group in 2019.

“We are always looking for a high work ethic (they must have a big motor), track record for success in their area, ambition to build a great business,” said Mr Whiteman (pictured above).

“To be a successful owner of a Ray White franchise you must have the ambition to build a great business, plus consistency, fairness and a balance between long term vision and a strong sense of urgency.”

In Queensland, Ray White welcomed nine new offices and facilitated five changes of ownership to take the network to more than 200 offices.

Ray White Queensland CEO Tony Warland said January 2018 was a bumper month because Julie Mahoney joined the group in Townsville and “quite quickly we became a stronger business for her relationship with the local community and her very strong print media presence.”

“Then we had a long established family business on the Redcliffe peninsula join us when Damien and Tyrone Misso joined us and opened Ray White Woody Point,” said Mr Warland (pictured above).

“Let’s not make any secret about it, the hardest game in our industry is having the courage to open your own business and the necessity to change to our brand.

“It’s very hard for people to change but Ray White Queensland has a wonderful stable of leaders developing in our Next Leaders Program.

“We also truly recognise and acknowledge the importance of succession planning in an existing business.

“It’s not easy being in a family business that is successful as the expectations are high and so the responsibility is even higher.

“Ray White in Queensland is not suffering from coverage as far as numbers of offices go. We went for a long time in some areas without business owners as we were pursuing leadership.

“We are looking for people who are restless and those who understand that no matter what bar they set they want to fly about that.

“In this industry, there are many established businesses who are financially stable at the end of their careers and they are not taking any risks to pursue growth, they are just maintaining what they have achieved.

“But market share cannot be made, it has to be taken. There is no more market share out there, so if you want to grow you have to take if off someone.”

Across Ray White’s New Zealand network there were more than 55 changes during 2018.

Ray White added 260 productive members during the year and has a market share of 19.2 per cent across New Zealand.

The movements include some 17 new offices, with the majority of those being in Auckland and the Central North Island, 19 renewals, including the Mountfort Baker Group and three other top 20 offices plus 11 change-overs, which featured top businesses being Hamilton together with Kohimarama and St Heliers.

Ray White New Zealand CEO Carey Smith said Austar Realty joined our group with nine offices in West Auckland.

“This also involved a merger of one existing Ray White business in Glen Eden. Austar Realty came on board with eight residential offices and one commercial office, together with two property management businesses. Over 100 members joined Ray White and they on-boarded on 1 May 2018,” said Mr Smith (pictured above).

City Realty extended their group with a new office in Central Auckland which is known as Ray White Eden Terrace.

In the Central North Island, Gregg Tickelpenny's Te Awamutu group opened their third office in Te Kuiti and also a further office in Taumarunui.

In the area of property management, three new offices opened. Best Property Management in the Eastern Bays of Auckland. Hamilton City Property Management. Together with Pip Nielsen Property Management in Christchurch.

“Renewals remain a very important part of our retention. Early in the year, Greg Purcell's business in Papamoa and Mt Maunganui re-signed. In the Upper South Island, the foundation office of Richmond together with Nelson recommitted," he said.

“Top 20 businesses including Ellerslie, Manurewa, Rolleston and Wanganui all recommitted for further terms. In the Eastern Beaches; the Mountfort Baker Group, the largest combined franchise in Ray White, recommitted with the company."

Change-overs for the company included Hamilton City, which is a succession plan now with Fraser Coombes and Mark Keesom. In the Eastern Beaches, Wayne Maguire now has three offices - Mission Bay, St Heliers and Kohimarama.

In Central Auckland, Kingsland changed hands in sales and also separately property management. Jarod Cooksley took control of Mt Eden while Matthew Smith added Raglan to his coastal group of offices.

Media Contact
Ray White media manager
Alex Tilbury
atilbury@raywhite.com
0413 842 112