Harcourts Milford Wins Big at National Awards

This week is the highlight of the Harcourts year-we’ve just had our annual conference and national awards. And Harcourts Milford are the champions. We have cleaned up at the national awards, with multiple awards in property management, total sales and income per sales consultant. It is truly an honour to be part of this team. We have been there now for 10 years and really that experience is the strength of Harcourts Milford. Most of our team have been there for 5 years or more and that experience, a strong work ethic and great leadership from Martin Cooper and Grant Henderson has resulted in our office winning the top awards in the largest real estate company in New Zealand. The result is fantastic and we are really proud of our achievement.During the week we heard of Harcourts plans for the future, and international speakers advised us  on trends in social media and prospecting for business. The highlight was hearing from Li Cunxin, whose story is told in the book and film, “Mao’s Last Dancer”.I also entered the novice auctioneer champs. I thought I was great but some guy from Christchurch won the prize!Last year, despite the recession, Harcourts total sale of homes and property topped $20 billion for the first time up from $18 billion last year. Thats a lot of homes! The biggest increases were in the Auckland market as we increased market share. And Harcourts has now entered the California market, after experiencing strong growth in Aussie, South Africa and in China. I remember starting at Harcourts in 1999 when sales volume was $4 billion and Harcourts were just starting out in Queensland, and now we are starting up in the United States, not bad for a Kiwi company!We heard from Matt Ferrara, who spoke on Social Media and how buyers and sellers, especially Generation X and Y, are turning to the internet and about how real estate agents need to grow online  relationships with their clients to be successful in the future. This was backed up by Gregg Toyama, who confirmed my suspicion that newspaper advertising is on the way out, and that buyers will turn to their online networks before they go to the real estate website portals. I was really encouraged and motivated to continue blogging. Thanks for reading my blogs! We then heard from Rick DeLuca from the USA and Aussie James Tostevin who reminded us that real estate is not just technology but face to face relationships. At the end of the day it is our relationships with you, our buyers and sellers, when we speak to you at Open Homes, on the phone and face to face, that count. The conference closed when Li Cunxin, the man known as “Mao’s Last Dancer” spoke to us. His life has been portrayed in the best selling auto biography and film, and he was the subject of a diplomatic row between the United States and China. He is a beautiful ballet dancer. Immediately after the conference Pip and I went to see the film. It was inspiring.This is what I learnt. As a young boy he was given an opportunity, just a sniff — and the opportunity almost walked out the door. He grabbed that opportunity with both hands. We are all given opportunities, often we don’t see those opportunities and when we do we often don’t grab them. Somehow that little boy in a remote village knew that opportunity was knocking. Yes, he was in the right place at the right time, but he worked hard, remember you need 10000 hours of practice to be world class! The School he was at in Beijing was very tough, yet despite the fact he did not like ballet he put in extra hours at night to be successful. And he got help; he needed a mentor. First it was a teacher in Beijing and later the director of the Houston Ballet Company. All great people seek out and get help. Sometimes we turn away those who most want to help or don’t notice them. Learn to recognise those that can help you get to where you want to be.I am proud to work for Harcourts, and especially Harcourts Milford and Cooper and Co on the North Shore. Our office is confident and strong and we are growing our market share. The conference had a great feeling of confidence and anticipation for the future and there is a real sense that Harcourts Milford is leading not only in our market but nationally. Harcourts is one of the top 4 real estate companies in the world and we can sense that there are great things in store!