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An established Aussie franchise brand has branched out into real estate by opening its first real estate office.
Jim’s Group, formerly recognised as Jim’s Mowing, has moved into the real estate business with the opening of Jim’s Real Estate in Victoria.
Co-founder of Jim’s Real Estate Trish Mewett said that the founding company had been on the cards for a while and late last year she decided to move ahead.
“It was a unanimous vote to start Jim’s Real Estate as long as, of course, at some stage property management was included because Jim is really quite passionate about people having their properties looked after,” Ms Mewett said.
Leading the charge for Jim’s Real Estate is Ms Mewett and Jamie Byard, both of whom combine their knowledge of real estate and franchising to create the agency.
The first office to open was in Melbourne by franchisee Peter Raja, who managed to sell the first home under Jim’s banner last week.
Mr Raja utilised the services of other Jim divisions in the lead up to his first sale including Jim’s Property Maintenance and Jim’s Building Inspections.
“Peter, when selling that property, has given those services to his owner so his owner, of course, has that great experience and that’s an arrangement that Peter has with that franchisee,” Ms Mewett said.
These services do not come free, but using them does allow for an element of cross-marketing by various franchisees, the co-founder added.
“It’s about that cross-selling with each other and, of course, there is no doubt that some discounts happen as they are in the same group and there is some cross-promotion with it,” Ms Mewett said.
The service value-add is important to attach to the customer experience when selling but will be invaluable when the move is made into property management, Ms Mewett continued.
“What we will have in place is what we will call a preventative maintenance program so our owners will have the option to choose an ongoing visit by a maintenance person to try and prevent those costly maintenance events for an owner,” Ms Mewett said.
To set Jim’s Real Estate apart, aside from the value-add of other Jim’s services, Jim’s Real Estate franchisees keep 100 per cent of the sales, Ms Mewett noted.
“The bonus to the client from that is that they have more control and more say in the commission that they pay as our franchisees can be more flexible on it,” the co-founder said.
Jim’s Real Estate has set its sights on Victoria for now but may expand into new markets by the end of the year, Ms Mewett said.
“We are only in Victoria and that is on purpose. We don’t want to move until we have betted down the foundations of our business.
“We will potentially move onto NSW by the end of this year.”
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