PE estate agent goes extra mile
‘Work ethic, integrity’ keep competitive edge sharp
PROPERTY is a numbers game: with that comes competition. Derrick Wademan, principal of Fine and Country Port Elizabeth, considers his competitive edge to be “the Johannesburg business work ethic I’ve brought to the city”.
He describes the Port Elizabeth business climate as “very laid back”. He loves dealing with people, a quality which stands one in good stead when working with clients seven days a week.
His business philosophy is based on the golden rule of “doing unto others as you would be done by”.
“Going the extra mile,” Wademan said. “Most important is integrity. If I say I am going to phone you I do.”
He returns all his calls before going home at night and explains this as a service delivery standard.
All Wademan’s agents at the Fine and Country PE office are interns. He is instilling a service ethic and integrity into them.
Each team member sends a weekly report to their clients. Wademan’s educational qualifications include a national technical diploma in civil engineering, a postgraduate degree in financial planning and being a registered builder with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC).
“I’ve managed to bring my skills and interests together,” Wademan said.
He gives holistic advice and thinking out of the box is his strength.
“I am very solution-orientated,” Wademan explained. “As my wife, who is a chartered accountant, says – ignorance is expensive.”
He recently counselled a home owner who thought he needed to sell his home. He was, as Wademan described it, “in a financial pickle”. Together they assessed the client’s retirement planning, insurance, tax and debts.
“I told him ‘you must not sell your house’,” Wademan said.
He refigured his client’s insurance and identified that his client was eligible for a tax rebate.
Wademan cited another example where a couple in their 60s had been trying to buy a house for 10 years. He succeeded by structuring the whole purchase differently.
The solution was to have the property registered in the mom’s name (who was the main income earner) and in her daughter’s name, with both of them liable for payments.
”The banks don’t want a 60-year-old to sign a 20-year bond as you may not live that long,” he said.
Fine and Country is an up-market brand with 35 franchise offices in South Africa and a head office in London.
Their motto, “We are your realtors for life”, is what Wademan sets his sights on.
“Statistics indicate that the average South African moves five to seven times in their lifetime,” he said.
“If I am reliable, trustworthy and successful ,why wouldn’t you want to buy all five houses from me?” Wademan asked.
There is a national shortage of homes to be rented.
“It is cheaper to rent a home,” he said.
“A lot of people are getting into a jam trying to save on the estate agent’s fee,” Wademan noted. “Some landlords are struggling to get their tenants out and resort to legal action to evict them.”
Much of the market is over indebted. Buyers are capitalising on prevailing market conditions and are making undervalued offers, knowing that a buyer’s back is against the wall. “It is scary,” Wademan said.
However, he believes that the market has turned the corner, albeit very slowly.
Wademan hopes to tap into the R600 000 to R900 000 emerging market, from the so-called “Black diamonds”. Although many buyers are under debt review, once they have declared themselves insolvent, there is help at hand.
“With changes to the Insolvency Act their credit record can be squeaky clean after 18 months. In the past they had to wait five years,” Wademan said.
As a registered financial planner he can counsel buyers who are under debt review.
Fine and Country Port Elizabeth is located at Metropolitan Centre, 277 Cape Road, PE, or telephone (041) 363-2814 or 082-576-0263.