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Rawson slams irresponsible statements

2008-05-26

Bill Rawson, Chairman of Rawson Properties, has taken issue - "strongly" - with at least four leaders in the estate agency sector regarding their public statements on the so-called mass exodus of agents from the industry.

Rawson said that almost all the statements he has seen have been irresponsible and have been based on unreliable figures or, in some cases, on pure speculation.

"It may be," he said, "that the drastic loss of agents from the industry quoted by some reflects the situation in their own companies - but that scenario is not supported by the only reliable source of statistics on this matter, the Estate Agency Affairs Board."

Rawson said that the EAAB’s “commendable and highly factual” half page advertisement which appeared in The Sunday Times recently and which set out the problems they are encountering and the mistakes agents make in their efforts to register reveals that 42,868 agents are currently registered with the EAAB. To this figure, he said, could be added anything up to 20,000 other agents who in many cases have paid their deposits to the Board (R9 million received payments have still to be allocated) but who have as yet not been certificated.

“There are,” said Rawson, “a host of reasons for the delays in registration. In some instances the postal services have let the Board down badly. In others the Board itself has accepted that it has fallen behind. Then again it has to be realised that the application or renewal systems are complicated and many agents have failed to give the Board the details and information they require - and as a result the applications have not been processed.”

The Board, said Rawson, will have to catch up with the latest technologies and introduce web-based initial applications and renewal debit payments - and, he said, he has no doubt that the vast majority of estate agents will welcome this.

“The temporary difficulties outlined so pertinently by the Board should not, however, obscure the fact that the EAAB is working hard to remedy the registration crisis and has employed extra staff for this purpose. The difficulties should also not make us forget that the industry has held onto 60,000 agents, most of whom are perfectly capable of riding out the current slow-down and have no intention of leaving. I estimate that right now for every three agents leaving the profession a further two are joining it. The exodus so blithely referred to by some is, in my view, a massive exaggeration. It is not taking place.”

The new franchise model adopted by many big agencies, added Rawson, is attracting a more qualified and competent type of applicant to the industry than has ever been seen before.

“Property marketing is now regarded by many as a challenging, worthwhile career suited to those with an entrepreneurial spirit.”

The new image of the industry, said Rawson, will be steadily enhanced by the training now being made compulsory by the EAAB and SETA and, along with the increased competition between the big branded groups, will usher in an era in which all agents are more professional.

“We are already seeing clear evidence,” he said, “that the take-it-or-leave-it attitude of some agents engendered by the boom is giving way to a more professional, better informed and far more service-orientated mindset in which far more sophisticated marketing and regular report backs to the clients are now the accepted practice.”

Asked about the constraints currently affecting the industry that have been blamed for some agents leaving, Rawson said that the National Credit Act, the higher interest rates and the Eskom power cuts have undoubtedly caused a slow-down in sales, but, he said, prices remain stable.

“The Eskom cuts have hit developers far more than agents,” said Rawson, “but of course there are some agents who specialise in new developments who will now be feeling the pinch.”

All the major agency groups, said Rawson, have ambitious, defined growth plans and are working to increase their sales and market penetration.