Harry Nicolaides started off his career as an estate agent for a local company in 1990. Thereafter he got involved with commercial property and business broking where he enjoyed major successes. In 2001, Harry went back to his real passion - the residential market. When the opportunity arose for Harry to acquire the CENTURY 21 Master Licence for South Africa, he jumped at the chance and, after extensive negotiations and a thorough qualification process with CENTURY 21 Global, Harry was granted the licence at the beginning of the year. As the new CEO of CENTURY 21 South Africa, Harry speaks to Property Professional about why he got involved with the CENTURY 21 brand and what the company's objectives are for the year ahead.

Do you remember the first property you sold?

It was a property in Witkoppie Ridge (a suburb of Boksburg) which was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, double garage idyllic family home, for a price of R104 000. What I found interesting was how easily I closed the deal. From that moment I understood that an agent's sole function is to present a property to the market at the correct price, and the property will sell itself. The key, though, was to offer the seller an honest and thorough marketing strategy. All the agent has to do is show the property to as many qualified buyers in the quickest possible time through correct marketing and the property sells itself.

How and why did you get involved in the CENTURY 21 brand?

Once I sold my interests in my previous company in 2008, I researched the market thoroughly and came across CENTURY 21. I then investigated the CENTURY 21 brand as extensively as I could in order for me to understand why it is such a global phenomenon in the residential property market. My conclusion was that no matter what anyone says, somewhere along the line CENTURY 21's systems, tools, aesthetics and, especially, its ethos has to be favourable with our millions of clients worldwide for it to be such a global success. My decision was made when I visited CENTURY 21's global head office in New Jersey USA and I discovered that CENTURY 21 is primarily a property company and not purely a franchise company whose success is based merely on the number of franchisees they sign up.

What are your objectives for the company this year?

Although CENTURY 21 has been in South Africa for the last couple of years its success has been limited due to the unfortunate and sad passing of the previous licence holder. My focus now is to nurture and support our existing 17 franchisees around the country and to ensure they experience the true value and power of the CENTURY 21 brand. This is the only way to achieve our second objectiv, which is to grow our footprint by recruiting new franchisees. I believe we will achieve these objectives with a combination of the launch of our new redesigned website, an ongoing national training programme, a revised national client referral system and, most importantly, a prestigious award and incentive scheme for our agents and franchisees. The bottom line, though, is to institute my philosophy that it is the agents and the franchisees that make the brand sucessful, and not the other way around. That is hwy we treat all our franchisees and agents as clients of ours and ensure service delivery to them.

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?

The best piece of advice I have come across is a quote from Warren Buffet who says: ‘Take my people away and leave me with the business, I will fail, but take my business away and leave me with my people and I will be back where was within two years'. That means that brands, systems, tools and clever marketing are not enough to make a business successful. The most important aspect of making a business successful is the people. Therefore with us human capital is priority and human capital in our terms are our franchisees and our agents.

What piece of advice would you give to those looking to enter the industry as an estate agent?

What's going to determine the success of an estate agent entering the market is the mindset of that agent. Service includes knowledge of the industry, the legalities, financing structures, specialised knowledge on the relevant suburb, on trends and the knowledge of how to make the buying and selling of a home a pleasant experience. If an agents mind-set is about service, they will succeed.

If there was one thing that you could change about the South African property market, what would it be?

I think banks should get back to basics and admit that property, not risky speculative investmetn banking, is the cornerstone of wealth creation. Banks must admit that historically it was property assets that gave them the foundation to become sucessful businesses. These banks, together with the government, sould incentivise people to invest in property by offering credit at a much reduced rate on propety transactions. It's a question of 'good debt vs. bad debt'. This would stimulate the property industry from the bottom up and put it in a position where we can eliminate squatter camps and replace them with dignified family homes for the less fortunate.

What, in your opinion, is the biggest challenge currently facing the South African property market?

I believe the biggest challenge facing the South African property market is political sentiment on all sides. South Africans in the majority have united and are proud of our ‘rainbow nation'. Unfortunately, some politicians and people of influence are bent on engaging in negative political debate in order to further their own personal agendas and not the welfare of the nation as a whole. This has created an atmosphere where ordinary people don't feel safe in their homes, and entrepreneurs don't invest enough to create a stable job market which would stimulate the property market further. It also inhibits the investment of capital (foreign and local) into the property market.

Source: Property Professional - May / June 2010