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A veteran of the industry is embracing change as he grows his newly minted agency.
“When I started, there were five real estate companies and that was the only choice you had. The rules were that you had to have an office space, whereas it has changed now, and everything is cloud based,” Paul May said.
Mr May, who has decades of experience under his belt, has recently launched his independent brand with the help of @realty’s OASIS platform.
The newly launched Paul May Real Estate serves Melbourne’s south-east, with particular focus on the city of Casey, where Mr May has deep ties.
The agent cut his teeth working for several major franchises in Cranbourne, where he learnt the importance of building a database and actively prospecting by creating long-running relationships.
“A really important lesson for me was to take the long view because a buyer today will be a vendor tomorrow so it’s important not to think short term,” he said.
“I gained a lot working for these businesses, but it was always my goal to have my own business.”
While his plans were delayed by the pandemic, he was finally able to launch at the beginning of this year, after weighing up several options for going it alone and settling on the OASIS platform.
“@realty had everything I needed right now in relation to their back-end systems, support and marketing – all that makes my life so much easier,” Mr May remarked.
“I don’t need to worry about trust accounts, marketing or settlements because they take care of all of it. If I was to hire those people separately to do that work, it would cost me significantly more.”
The agent felt that joining up with @realty allowed him to focus on the parts of his job that ignited his passion, while having other important tasks taken care of.
“Signing up with @realty gives you the opportunity of running your own company with your own brand from your own home and still getting out there and doing what you need to do,” Mr May said.
To him, that means fostering the kind of one-on-one relationships that have allowed him to succeed during his many years in the industry and which he believes are becoming increasingly important to vendors.
“I believe most people out there are not focused on going to a brand anymore – they are focused on using an individual agent,” Mr May said.
“At the same time, a lot more agents are looking for more money in their pocket for the hard work they do and that’s one reason they are going independent, so it’s creating an irresistible cycle in some ways.”
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