Archive for the 'Community' Category
We are turning yellow and grey!!! Can’t wait to zap around in a bright yellow mini! The energy here is palpable. Everyone is buzzing with excitement. We are coming out of winter in to spring… Ha! How appropriate we are turning yellow!
Oh … sorry … you want to know why we are turning yellow and grey??? Well! Exciting stuff … as of early October this year we will become Ray White Allens! Yep, we have gone international and all that that implies.
New IT systems, new marketing, access to wonderfully up to the minute information and resources – including a few new staff from the existing Ray White business here in Whangarei who have been invited to join us. And some new business cards that’ll show every freckle (read wrinkle!) on my face!!! Oh well, you can’t control everything … (not for lack of trying …)
For us in Property Management it also means new properties, new owners, new tenants, and new staff. We have two more very experienced property managers coming to us, and I’ll introduce them in weeks to come, but suffice to say I am fair vibrating with excitement! The only down side is we loose Vanessa out of our office … *sigh* … it’s been fun. Oh well, our loss is the sales team’s gain.
Click here for Monty’s (Our Company Directors’) blog … It will be much more information than my scattered thoughts … Catch up again soon, when I can catch my breath …
Here’s a sneak peek at the official release hitting papers this week!
Exciting changes ahead here at Allens
As part of our commitment to building a stronger real estate agency able to better serve Northlanders we have made the decision to take another step forward. Currently operating as Allens Real Estate, as of 1 October 2011 we will be joining forces to partner with the Ray White Group – offering our customers even greater value through our collective expertise – and will be known as Ray White Allens. Still locally owned and operated, the company will now be backed by one of New Zealand’s and Australasia’s largest real estate brand, and we remain as committed to upholding our traditional family values and community involvement as we are to progress and innovate.
Other than a name change it will be business as usual. We’ll be based in the same locations, with the same friendly team and culture. Becoming part of the international Ray White Group simply means we can provide you with cutting edge technology which will result in far superior marketing and greater local, national and international exposure for our customers properties.
Over the next few weeks you will start to see some dramatic visual changes take place as we rebrand our three offices at Whangarei, Tutukaka Coast and Bream Bay. Also undergoing a makeover will be the Allens Minis, website, stationery, flyers and marketing – as we take steps to become ‘Ray White Allens’. (Our Company name ‘Goode Leith Realty Ltd’ stays the same – simply our trading name and external look will undergo a change.)
Although we may be taking on a new name (and some bright new colours), of course, as we build a stronger real estate company – some things will never change – and we’re proud to have the same friendly faces and community spirit that make us who we are. We will always be proudly Northland owned and operated. The new Ray White Allens will take on our national and international competitors with a spirit to make Northland proud.
September 12 2011 | Community and Management and Marketing and Media and Relationships | No Comments »
Is that right? Have a conundrum? Or is it that I am in a conundrum??
Anywho … Val, one of our Property Managers, is leaving our department. So we have started advertising the position, and have been fielding applications for the role.
I am, truly blown away by the calibre of applicants, and by the sheer number of applicants! And I feel more than a little intimidated by the task at hand.
For me it isn’t about finding someone with experience … Although that would certainly free up my work load for the next 12 months or so! There are so many factors to consider. We want them to develop a sense of ownership in the role, while still remaining coachable. We want their customer service skill level to be extremely high but they also need a little “mongrel” in them. We want them to have the ability to think outside the square, but to stay within the guide lines. We want them to be able to grasp the seriousness, the bigness of the role, while not being intimidated by it. We want someone who doesn’t take drama so personally that they get reactive, but take it as a personal challenge to get control and resolve it. We want someone who knows about monkeys and which back they belong on. And we want to be so honest about what they are getting into that they actually understand what we will be asking … because it will change them. Property management does that. And we take that responsibility very seriously.
Don’t want much do we?
CV’s do not help. Interviews are ok, but we are so aware that our interviewees are on their best behaviour; they are saying everything that is professional. They present themselves in the best possible light. This is normal. But we want the truth. We want to know, among other things … how they handle stress … honestly. When someone you are in the process of evicting sits across the table from you crying, begging for another chance or home, how is that really going to effect you? But no one wants to expose themselves in that way to us. Even when we ask leading questions …
If only they knew that if they did, if they were the sort to be authentic and open and transparent … Well then we would be in a position to really talk.
June 30 2011 | Community and Management and Relationships | 1 Comment »
Man what a week! I have been so busy being a Property Manager I have struggled to find time to sit and chat with you!
Well, we have just had our annual Allens Awards. Yay! We had such a great time. The directors hired a bus, a flash one I might add, for us to get to our destination safely and we all climbed aboard dressed in red in black, again, in support of Canterbury. You would have laughed to see us standing on the side of the road waiting for the bus. I know we are lucky we didn’t cause an accident, merely the odd case of whiplash… *hehehehe*
I don’t get many chances to glam up, so I did the total girly thing. I even painted my nails. I know, I know… But I believe the occasion warranted it. So as I stood there all dressed up I looked around me. Standing next to me on the footpath were two lady bugs, a very sexy wizard, a rugged rugby player, a dainty devil (in no disguise complete with tail and horns), one very glamorous “red” head, and even a man who was inspired to adorn his black shirt with red chillies! Fantastic!
This is not public knowledge, but Allens also donated one thousand dollars to Canterbury instead of buying the normal flowers and gifts for the winners. There was no grand gesture. No front page photo in any of the local rags. No mention of it on the local airwaves. And having been, as previously mentioned, immersed in the advertising game called newspapers, I know a little about this.
This says to me that they give because they care. Not for the publicity or the kudos. Not as a way to give with one hand but with their eye on what they will get from the giving. They give because they see an opportunity to respond to their best natures, as they frequently do. Christchurch is absolutely none the wiser. But their worst nightmare has provided so many opportunities for the rest of the country to be generous, to be compassionate, to be supportive. And while most of the country moves on, it is nice to be a part of a culture that remembers. A culture that is being giving.
We can do many things and we can be many things… but we aren’t Human Doings… We are Human Beings. And by working here I am constantly inspired to be the best I can be.
And if you’re keen on checking out more of the photos from our Allens Awards CLICK HERE to have a look on our Allens Facebook page.
June 02 2011 | Community and Marketing and Media and Society | No Comments »
Gosh I met the most delightful lady today.
I knew when I made the appointment to show a two bedroom unit to this lady today that it would not suit her. But I still go through the motions as I really can’t make that call for her. And who knows, I just might be surprised! She has a 14 year old son and the unit is situated in what could be mistaken for a retirement settlement.
She walked in and said “well I love it, and I know I would never go short of jam and baking here, but I wouldn’t feel like I could have a wine on the deck here. It wouldn’t be respectful to the neighbours.” How honest is that! We’ll find something for her, she isn’t in a hurry. All this is by the by … The real buzz I got from her was her telling me how she got it into her head last year to travel to Gallipoli for Anzac day. She isn’t a frequent traveller, and had been to Aussie only three times to visit people, so she had never done anything like this before. Hubby, she said, want to come? Nope! Kids, she said, want to come? Nope. So she booked a single ticket.
She had arranged to meet a friend at Istanbul. However when she arrived, it turned out her friend was caught up on the other side of the world unable to fly over because of the Icelandic volcano that erupted spewing ash for Africa. So, after doing the traditionally feminine thing, surrendering to a good cry in the ladies, she found some courage, and the information desk, and asked for help. Now despite the sign for the information desk being in English … she discovered that no-one there spoke English!
I probably would have heading back to the bog for a second bash at being all girlie …
But she stood tall, looked around and shouted as loud as she could in the middle of the airport, “Does anyone here speak English?” And was lucky enough to be approached by two English speaking people who directed her to the underground … Now to accommodate the modern byte size attention span, I will cut a long and exciting story short. She travelled on train, bus and ferry for eight hours in a country where English is a foreign language to find the hotel she was booked into. Alone. Was she terrified? Yip. Did she do it anyway? Yip! And she says she came back with a changed view of herself and of life. Now, she is like, Just do it. Now! Life is too short not to. Do what ever it is your heart tells you to do. Your heart will guide and protect you if you follow it, she said. (I know it was a “truth” as my tears welled up … a sure sign of authenticity!)
I felt inspired. I wanted to rush out there and then to buy a ticket to Bali, (after watching Eat, Pray, Love on the weekend). I thought of all the things I hesitate about in life, and I don’t just mean overseas travel. I decided to take action TODAY on some things I had been putting off. And I did. And it felt GOOD.
So, back to property management. So I didn’t rent the unit to her, but it was time very well spent.
I am so very lucky! I totally love the fact that I get paid to meet the most amazing people, to be inspired, to laugh, and cry sometimes. I get paid to meet people I would never ordinarily come across. These people make a difference to my life and they don’t even realise it.
So, who made a difference in your life today?
April 08 2011 | Community and Relationships and Society and Tenants and Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
