1 Year

It’s birthday month. On the 6th of October 2020, our first agent joined us and our first listings  started going live. I am privileged to mark this milestone for Independent Agent. While this  company was not quite born in a shed in the way of many kiwi businesses, my house is a  barn-style and I work from home… close! As I am writing, most of the team, those in  Northland, Auckland and Waikato, are in a level 3 lockdown. We have a team member in the  Bay of Plenty who is in level 2 and enjoying a few more freedoms.

As a bit of a birthday present, we had our best sales week so far. In the second week of  October over $11,500,000 worth of property sales went unconditional. It was an affirmation  for all of us that we are on the right track.

With wins come challenges. Three agents joined us during lockdown and two of them I have  never met face to face. I am a non-essential worker with two young school-aged children at  home, with a work-from-home business. That creates challenges too. In the wider  environment as well as dealing with the fall-out created by Covid-19, there is run-away  house prices, high inflation, rising interest rates.

While early October 2020 saw our first agent come on board, it took 6 months for the next  agent to join. Over this time I was relentlessly recruiting. I would like to thank Rochelle  Henderson for her confidence in me as the first salesperson to join. And I would like to  thank Stuart White for being courageous and trusting enough to be the second.

I managed to keep faith over the 6 months between Rochelle starting and Stuart joining  with the belief that what I am doing is going to work, and most importantly, that what I am  offering is worthwhile and a service of value.

Since April 1 this year when Stuart joined, we have been showing steady recruitment  growth. Agents have started to call me. People have started to request connection with me  on LinkedIn; I didn’t exist on LinkedIn 18 months ago. But I continue to consistently do the  basics. You can expect to hear from me! Phone calls and follow up, phone calls and follow  up.

We welcomed Reema Sharma and Cecilia Tan in June and July, followed by Vanessa Killeen  and Steve McNally over July and August. Mark Charlesworth requested a second catch up out of the blue. He signed up in August too. Swati Batra joined Stuarts team in August, our  first brand new agent (she has done two deals since starting). Donna Scott from Tauranga  joined in August. August was a blur. Bharat Chadha came aboard in September and Pavithra  Pillay started in October. Charlotte Wilson has just joined the team. You can check us all out  on our website, www.independentagent.co.nz/staff.

We have two people who are already in the real estate industry sitting their licenses at the  moment, and there are a few more things going on in the recruitment department this  month too. But you know real estate recruitment, it’s all hush hush…

Without management and support we would not have grown, so a few more quick  acknowledgements. Matt Shirley goes by several titles but let’s just keep it simple and say  that him and I co-manage the sales team. Kim is our operations manager. She keeps me on track and makes sure that all the moving parts keep moving. Michelle is our administrator and among other things gets our listings up on line and keeps the deals and listings  progressing through the system.

Some of the agents have assistants and there is a large team of other contractors who are  also closely involved with the business.

I’m going to wrap this by saying thank you again. None of these things would have  happened without the trust of this great bunch of people I am privileged to work with. You  can be sure that we are looking forward to meeting new people, facing new challenges and  learning, growing, and having fun over the next 12 months. And selling a ton of real estate  in the process.

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Welcome this month to:

Pavithra Pillay’s ‘independent’ real estate company was recently absorbed into one of the  big brands, and a fortuitous phone call from my team put us in contact with each other.  Pavithra has been selling Auckland’s North Shore for the past 15 years and is well  established in Millwater and the new suburb of Milldale. She has already made an impact and has grabbed the ideals of Independent Agent and run with them. I look forward to  seeing her continue to go from strength to strength. Pavithra has a great story and has built  her real estate business through exceptional service, self-investment and being a delight to  deal with.

Charlotte Wilson has just joined us from Mangawhai. She comes to us off the back of two  years at the number one position in her former real estate company. As you would expect,  she has a strong position in her area and we are thrilled to have her energy and drive on the  team. She has big plans and we look forward to supporting her all the way.