Archive for the 'Marketing and Media' 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 »
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 »
Ok, fasten your reading glasses, I am about to rant!
Let’s start with the media! Oh where do I start with the media?
Maybe with the observation that whatever they say about the real estate market, sales or rentals, tends not to be so much unbiased reporting of facts, but more of a “it’s a slow news day so lets see how we can stuff with the markets today” kind of reporting?
Or shall I start with the totally insensitive (oh I am seriously embarrassed you are asking those questions) reporting that happened in the first 24 hours after the Christchurch quake? “So you called your daughter to say good bye, and how did that feel? And how did your daughter feel?” All while the poor woman was trapped under her desk and she didn’t even know if she was going to be rescued! OMG! Ahhhhhh!!! Bloody idiot!
It is high time society learnt that the media can not be trusted. Just because they say something, it doesn’t make it true! What do they say… 98% of all stats are made up? (I just made that up… see how easy it is?!) The media can make any situation look any way they want it to! And they do! That’s why I loved Paul Henry. At least he was both brutally honest in his opinion and he was completely transparent about his bias. And he challenged everything that didn’t make sense to him. Arrogant? Undoubtedly! But he provoked both thought and discussion. He shone a spotlight on festering scabby sores that needed to be opened up to heal. (Ewww! … Did I write that?)
Gone are the days when you switched the news on and got a “balanced”, well prepared, thoroughly investigated story. Or maybe it never existed. Maybe I just thought what they said was balanced and true. Maybe I was naive. All I know is right now I find myself turning the news off more and more, and I find myself uttering the Tui advert: “Yeah, right …”
Why am I ranting? What provoked this particular rant? Well, the local paper ran a front page article specifying a real demand for a particular section of the rental market. “Can’t get enough of them!” ”Real shortage”… Bullocks.
However I am glad they didn’t call me this time for my input, because they completely misquoted me last time, with entirely the wrong context. This time, I called around a few other Property Management firms in town to see why our experience was different from what was (apparently) happening out there in the marketplace. Ahhh … turns out these people were just as confused as us. “Really?” They said… “Really??”
Hmmm. The truth is, what happens in Auckland is not immediately reflected in Whangarei. Or even for months. We can tend to track their market over time, however we have an over-supply at present. Not an under-supply. And when we look at terms of “high-end” or “top-end” then that is a subjective thing as well. Allens “top-end” is $450pw and over. And these are the properties that are sitting. Another Property Management firm in town describes high-end as $380 – $450pw and these properties are moving okay for them. Our mid range is also moving very well – in fact, we are constantly seeking out more…
I heard Sarah Palin on the weekend using a word I fell in love with. “Sheeple”. A Google search defines “sheeple” as: (a portmanteau of “sheep” and “people”) is a term of disparagement, in which people are likened to sheep; and: People who unquestioningly accept as true whatever their political leaders say or who adopt popular opinion as their own without scrutiny. - Let’s not be sheeple people. Let’s think for ourselves and make our own decisions. Become informed, and not by watching TV news programs! And if you want to know what’s going on in the rental market, call us. We’ll tell you the truth.
March 16 2011 | Investors and Marketing and Media | No Comments »
