hasn’t really met the client’s expectations when it comes to level of service and communication in relation to the price they paid. We thought there was enormous opportunity for someone to come in to real estate and do things better,” he said. So Go Gecko introduced capped commissions of $5950 regardless of how much the property sells for. “I believe it’s an honest, fair and decent price for the average mum and dad client.” “For example, in Queensland agents earn around 2.5 per cent, so if an agent sells a $400,000 house, which is about median, the traditional commission paid is $11,000.” “Our clients pay $5,950, so you can see there’s a significant benefit for the client. What that means is the phone rings, clients are keen to put us on their shopping list and we get our share of the listings,” Geoff said. Geoff said the high volume of sales is beneficial for Go Gecko agents. “The opportunities that exist for sales people in Go Gecko is that they get two years of real estate experience in six months,” he said. “So it improves the quality of our sales agents,” he said. ‘We’re not very well liked inside of the industry – older traditional guys believe we are destroying the industry, but we just think we are doing it better by providing a full Real Estate service at a lower price, we’re offering an alternative,” he said. “It’s just a new business model, we have lower overheads, small offices, so lower rents, just three or four agents per office, so a lower wages bill, but the high volume of sales allows Go Gecko agents to earn a reasonable income averaging $80-120,000 per year.”
Strong Growth Go Gecko have taken a cautious but proactive approach to their growth strategy. “In 2006 we sold a few franchises, we went from five to 13 or 14 in 2007, then we sat still for the next year, to see how they were going. “We strongly believe in ‘learning the lessons that need to be learnt’. We could have continued to grow more rapidly but we found that whilst some franchises worked really well, some took time, so we analysed what worked and what didn’t’ work, then put the best parts into place for our next growth phase,” he explained.
the next three months,” Geoff said.
marketing methods to get the message out
Geoff says the franchisee mix for Go Gecko agents is about 50 per cent of existing agents taking up the Go Gecko brand and the other half new franchisees setting up new agencies.
“We are a lower price operator - we need volume. The ones that copy us don’t get the volume.
“Many agents see the value and are jumping on board,” he said. Geoff explained that potential franchisees don’t need to have a real estate background, but some kind of business background is necessary. “We ask two question when people enquire. ‘Have you been in real estate? and ‘Have you run a business before?’ If they answer a yes to one of these questions then we can move forward? “People with a business background see this as a business that can work – so we are encouraging that as well and generally they are very successful”. Geoff says Go Gecko franchisees cover all demographics. “The last three we have opened have been female franchisees, and there are a lot of husband and wife teams,”.
Profitable business Geoff said that with Go Gecko’s fairly low set up and operating costs, franchisees can be very profitable in a short amount of time. “For example, one of our new agents paid the franchisee fee and set up cost to kick off – and he recouped all outlays in 6 months,” he said.
The next growth phase saw the Go Gecko network increase to 23 outlets.
“We are the pioneers of capped commissions in Australia, but since we started, there have been others who have tried to follow suit, who are cheaper but who have not been successful.”
“We are starting a significant growth push now. We opened two offices yesterday, which takes us up to 31 now, and 11 more will be opening in
“Typically what happens is individual offices who have been struggling try and copy us but they still have a traditional high cost structure and they don’t have our
“We get the volume through our marketing program which includes radio advertising, local newspaper advertising, and every one of our signs has our message on it which is ‘commission capped at $5950. “We rely heavily on local media because we want to be seen to be in touch with the community and promote brand awareness in the community. We have carved out a nice niche,” he said.
Strong support Go Gecko’s franchise recruitment process is covered by the Franchising Code of Conduct It generally takes 8-9 weeks from the first meeting, to signing the Franchise Agreement. “We have several meetings with potential franchisees and after each meeting we get them to do ‘homework’ before the next meeting. They do need to get a real estate licence – and requirements for this depends on what State they are from. “Establishing an office can be pretty quick, once they have got the lease. We ask our agents to seek the highest profile site at the lowest price. We do want them in retail type spaces and they should be looking at about $2000 a month rent – if they pay more than that then the profile value must be there. In terms of size, we suggest around 60 square metres – small sites, but in high profile retail locations. We want them to be kings of their own castles,” he said. Geoff says Go Gecko provides ongoing support and assistance to all their franchisees. “At corporate level we recently introduced a franchise advisory council, where a couple of franchisees will sit on the council with myself and the general manager, and other
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