Housing in Southern Africa October-November 2016

News

Fake Sisulu social media pages T he Ministry of Human Settle- ments has warned that there are a number of fake LinkedIn accounts under Lindiwe Sisulu and all of them are fake.

Facebook has 10 accounts under the username Lindiwe Sisulu. Of these, there is only one legitimate ac- count, which has an underscore in be- tween the username – Lindiwe_Sisulu. Industry stakeholders, media and members of the public are advised to block these accounts and also report them to the respective social media platforms. ■

and Facebook accounts, which claim to be those of Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. The Ministry says that these fake accounts promise people tenders, work and economic opportunities within the human settlements sector in the name of Minister Sisulu. There are currently five LinkedIn

President of the National Association of Realtors, in the UnitedStates, TomSalomone recentlyaddressedSouth African estate agents on the technology challenges facing estate agents today and what it takes to make a great agent. Are realtors a thing of the past?

D elegates at the Real Estate Business Owners of South Africa (REBOSA), Salomone said that the peak home buying years are between 25 and 45 years old. The sheer size of the millennial gen- eration should mean a peak in home sales and a good time for realtors. There are now even more millennials than baby boomers. Census records indicate 92 million millennials versus 77 million baby boomers in the USA.” According to Salomone technology is central to themillennial generation as primary home buyers, their reli- ance on tech is dramatically influ- encing the way property is bought and sold. “Agents are increasingly finding more value in advertising on the prop- erty portals, as opposed tonewspaper adverts as the buyers are online.” Jan le Roux, Chairman of REBOSA agrees and adds, “At themomentmaking use of tech like portals and social media is quite advanced in the US and it’s been very informative to learn how estate agents there are incorporating this into their marketing and sales. Real estate is a relationship-centric busi- ness.” While it is imperative that agents become tech savvy in order to reach the millennial generation Salomone

a real estate agent by the time they buy. He says that it is at this junction where estate agents have won the game for years, and will continue to do so. “Practitioners must never un- derestimate the importance of the human factor in the transaction and that’s where we all need to master our skills. Relationships cannot be replaced by algorithms and technol- ogy platforms butweneed continually update our knowledge of new tech- nologies,” says Salomone. Le Roux adds, “We firmly supports our estate agents and provide them with thebest informationandwewere delighted that Tom Salomone shared his knowledge, insights and inspired REBOSA members.” ■

says that the biggest question he is asked wherever he goes is, ‘Will technology render the role of an estate agent obsolete?’ “The answer is always a resounding ‘no’, there is a new threat every day; sometimes it’s a start up looking for more home buyers by under cutting agent com- mission rates, or by offering an online transaction platform that by-passes the need for an agent altogether! And we’re only at the beginning of this transformation, where new tech- nology and business models seek to make inroads into gaining consumer trust, inmanaging themost important transaction in their lives.” According to Salomone, even though 50% of buyers in the US start house hunting online, 90% will use

October/November 2016