Mike Pero Real Estate Bucks the National Trend

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Mike Pero Real Estate (MPRE) is proving popular with agents as it launches into the New Zealand market, despite Real Estate Agents Authority figures revealing that a quarter of New Zealand real estate agents (around 5,000) have abandoned the industry in the past year. According to a survey by Colmar Brunton earlier this year, nine out of ten Kiwis believe now is the right time to enter the market, with a company that has new values, lower fees and more transparency.

“It seems that it’s not just homeowners who are looking for more options when it comes to selling their homes,” explains Mike Pero. “Agents are also looking for new ways to do business in their industry. And that’s what we are offering them.”

MPRE offers customers a reduced commission rate of 2.95 per cent (plus gst) to sell their homes. With agents already on board in Auckland and Christchurch, MPRE last week began marketing the company on radio and in print and is actively engaging with potential agents in Auckland and Christchurch. Later this year, Pero expects to expand through other centres.

Mr Pero says until now, the real estate industry has been unable to provide long-term incentives and ownership opportunities for high performing salespeople. Changes to the Real Estate Agents Act have allowed MPRE to offer agents the opportunity to own a part of the Mike Pero brand and a territory in their city, a model that has been proven in the home loan industry, where Mike Pero brokers own their businesses.

“We really believe in the owner/operator business. After several years of hard work, why walk away from it all under the traditional real estate system? At MPRE, we offer our people ‘real’ ownership. We want our salespeople to be ambitious and tenacious and will provide them with the tools and brand quality to succeed. We will only take on board agents with a successful track record, and to date our average experience level has been over six years. We won’t take on new agents, because we believe industry experience is vital. We’ll leave the ‘mud on the wall’ practice to the more traditional operators. We do not believe in carrying non-performers – it just adds to the expense of the operation and the fees to the customer.” says Mr Pero.

Times have changed and, like many businesses, Mr Pero says real estate has been revolutionised by technology.

“It’s now less about bricks and mortar and more about clicks and mortar. Marketing and communication through the Internet and mobile phone technologies is massive in this industry – you don’t need to have huge overhead costs that are then passed on to customers through high commission rates. Our agents are encouraged to work smarter – making good use of i-Pads, smart phones and better ways of marketing to prospective buyers. Our company makes better use of agents’ time, meaning they will individually earn more, while they deliver a lower fee to their clients, even at the same number of sales. Realistically, with a better proposition for the home seller, the agents sales will increase, we believe, more than twofold. Effectively, we have taken a large part of the administration and management overheads out and shared those savings between the customer and the agent. Our sales team are encouraged to invest in their business and they aren’t the type of people who will ‘give it a shot’ and move on. Our people are in for the long haul and see marketing real estate as a lifestyle choice,” concludes Mr Pero.

Salespeople and home sellers wishing to learn more are encouraged to view the website at www.mpre.co.nz or call 0800 500 123 (in confidence).

ENDS

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