Independent Agent – Origin Story Part II

So I had an idea. But it was not very specific to be fair. Let’s delve into what fed the concept of Independent Agent, and how we took our first steps to get where we are today, three and a half years later. 

My Background
My first real estate boss, Martin Dunn from City Sales, told me I was a lone ranger. He looked at my ‘list and sell’ ratio, which was very high. I was selling property that nobody in the office was interested in, and I was closing my own enquiry. It wasn’t a deliberate ploy to keep all the commission – I had come from school teaching and was on track to earn three times that salary in my first year. Not on purpose, but that is how it went for me. 

After a few years at my next real estate company, Ray White City Apartments, I was keen to work outside the usual branding and try to forge my own identity. I teamed up with my mate Damian Piggin and we started ‘Piggin and Jones’ with the byline ‘experience is priceless’ in the 2010’s.

We had shifted from other agencies to come to this point, and our clients still liked us and wanted to work with us. It was pretty clear that it was Damian and I the apartment sellers were coming to, not a brand. We thought that we could take on the main competitor in this sector. Our goal – to do as much business between the two of us as their entire office. 

We had an early online newsletter, and very specifically targeted Auction as the way to market. The idea worked well and we were recognised in the national awards and both achieved in the top 20 (12th and 13th place) and collected #1 marketing awards in the Ray White Group because of the volume of Auctions held. 

So we had built a brand within a brand. In the process, we got pretty passionate about Ray White and what it could do for us. The fact that Damian still works in the brand, despite changing his focus from apartments into residential homes, and even moving to another franchise speaks to this.

Some 10 years or so later I had the opportunity to come back into the Ray White City Apartments office in a management position. After a short time I realised that it was time for me to move on. I needed to apply myself to something that would reflect what I wanted for the next stage of my life and my career. I wanted to bridge the gap between real estate agencies as I was seeing them, and the kind of business that I wanted to create. 

Next week I talk about my next steps with Independent Agent, thinking about all I had – my Client Base of One. 

(This story follows on from Part 1 that I shared last week which you can read here.)