How we got here, an inside perspective

I am kind of ‘cheating’ this week, as I wrote the message below for a feature in the Rodney Homed publication. The great thing is, this allows you a chance to get to know me a little better. You can look back in time and connect the dots to see how Independent Agent came about in the first place.

Keeping it Real in Real Estate
A few thoughts from Matt Jones of Independent Agent

An Inside Perspective
From the inside, the world of a real estate agent is filled with even more peculiarities than it seems from the outside. It is an industry with its own personalities, gurus, manuals, sayings, beliefs and even its own act of parliament. Most of the ideas that float around inside the industry don’t feature all that much in the world outside of real estate.

For the most part, the only time that members of the public deals with an agent is in the highly stressful periods of buying and selling a home. During these brief interludes, most of the world has concluded that real estate agents are generally speaking not the kind of person that you want your kids to aspire to, or aspire to partner up with for that matter!

A Bit about Me
When I got in to real estate it was purely to earn money. I was a school teacher and I didn’t own a house. I had almost no interactions with real estate agents, and to be totally honest didn’t know what on earth I was doing. And while I was always uncomfortable to be associated with such a maligned profession, I thought that as long as I kept true to my ethics, maybe I could become proud of what I was doing in real estate.

And so, even though being a stereotypical salesperson never sat well with me, it surely happened anyway. In a few short years I was driving a brand-new car, spending more than I was earning, and cutting deals as fast as I could in the fast-moving world of apartment sales, discovering along the way that in fact I was not being true to myself, and eventually paying the consequences.

Fast forward a few decades, and after making several twists and turns within real estate, I can well and truly say that I have moved on from the culture and environment I was in and enjoy a different perspective on the industry. Apart from a brief nine-month stint as a working musician, I remained in the real estate industry in one way or another. It was recently a shock to return to the ‘boiler room’ style of real estate office work after operating my own business on my own for a number of years. I very quickly decided that the office- based real estate set up was not what I was looking for, and I made the assumption that I was not the only person that felt the same way. I started searching for an alternative.

Introducing Independent Agent
With no back-up plan other than the creation of a licensed real estate agency that I could sell property from should I need to do so myself, I created Independent Agent. Independent Agent is a full-service real estate agency, staffed by grown-up real estate agents. The ideal team member has their own identity in the industry and a good serving of life and business experience. They have their own profile and have no need for the traditional bricks and mortar office. They are recognised for the experience that they have gained. The agents that are attracted to and best suited for this business are those who realise that it is their hard work, marketing and market position that their clients are attracted to. The sellers and purchasers want to deal with them. It is not the banner that appears beside their name that gets them their business in their neighbourhoods.

Living Local
Whilst Independent Agent is a nationwide business, I am a Puhoi resident, and have lived on the Shore almost all of my life. I love to get involved with all that this wonderful area has to offer, where you might find my family and I trying a spot of fishing in the Mahurangi Harbour, playing a tune or two at a local market, or chasing waves on either coast. This area is home, and I feel privileged and humbled to be working with some of the most professional and hardest working agents that I have met in my two decades in the real estate business.

AND finally, WELCOME to Rosalind Warren
I was immediately impressed with Rosalind’s marketing and presence close to home (for me) in her patch, Orewa. With a solid history in the region, plenty of repeat business and long standing clients, I know that Rosalind has got to the stage of her career where this model will really suit her. We are looking forward to working alongside Rosalind as she brings her branding plans to fruition whilst continuing to serve her clients with care, attention and excellent results under her own name.