Andrew Johns had worked with real estate franchise LJ Hooker for 23 years when he first heard about One Agency. He researched the real estate group online and liked the concept of what the group offered.
Making the choice between a real estate franchise and an independent agency can be a real stumbling block as both offer advantages and disadvantages. Andrew looked at the Ray White, Harcourts and Realmark franchises and then weighed them up against starting a boutique brand of his own, before deciding to join the One Agency group.
“I liked the branding and its colours, but more importantly, I felt it would be a great advantage to be part of a group rather than acting independently,” he says.
Andrew set up One Agency South covering the Cockburn, Fremantle and Melville areas, South of the river in Perth, WA.
“We were already trading as an LJ Hooker office so really it was just a rebrand. Paul Davies (MD of One Agency) visited our office on a couple of occasions and the team at One Agency head office were very helpful with any requests we had.”
Don’t be nervous about it and take the plunge before someone else gets your preferred area. Seize the moment!
“Before joining One Agency I went to their conference in Sydney and met a lot of the other members, which was also a deciding factor for joining One Agency. Now I’ve come to know some of the members in WA and have found them all to be very enthusiastic about the brand.”
Andrew had been considering leaving the LJ Hooker franchise for two years prior to making the decision. We asked Andrew how difficult it was to take the leap from a franchise business to a real estate group.
“Coming from a large brand and having a large property management portfolio, it was a bit of a hard decision. However after making the decision and moving forward with One Agency we have realised that there is no need to be part of a franchise group and in actual fact many of our existing customers were very positive about the change. We didn’t lose any managements as a result of rebranding.”
Another deciding factor for Andrew was that One Agency offered him the freedom to build his business the way he wants to without constraint.
They’re forging ahead with online marketing, utilising Facebook, their own website oneagencysouth.com.au, Google Adwords and LinkedIn to help promote the business. They are also using vendor funded advertising in local papers. Andrew has an in-house auctioneer who has 25 years of experience and who also trains their salespeople about the auction and set date sale process.
We asked him what advice he could offer to those agents considering making the move to One Agency.
“Don’t be nervous about it and take the plunge before someone else gets your preferred area. Seize the moment!”
Contact Andrew Johns
T 08 6311 3333
E andrewj@oneagencysouth.com.au
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