A successful leadership transition in a real estate company is always challenging but over the last six months, a smooth transition has been underway at Devler Estates trading as Chas Everitt Cape Town South.
Sally Gracie, a familiar name in the Constantiaberg luxury real estate market, has replaced her brother, André de Villiers as MD of the well established local franchise that has been trading in the area consecutively as Steer / ERA Steer and since 2006, as Chas Everitt Cape Town South.
De Villiers, who has 34 years of Cape Town real estate experience, will be expanding his social media business eNeighbourhoods.com and is moving to Ireland, however, he Villiers will remain very active in the Chas Everitt franchise retaining the franchise Marketing Manager position.
Bruce Haywood, a popular and experienced figure in the South Peninsula real estate industry remains the Sales Manager and has recently become a shareholder in the business. Bruce Haywood and Sally Gracie enjoy a complimentary working relationship which will continue to serve the business well. Bruce’s knowledge of the territory and the industry, as well as his amiable manner, are a great value to the business. The Chas Everitt team covers a wide variety of markets in a substantial multi-territory franchise, stretching from Observatory to Simon’s Town.
Managing Director, Sally Gracie feels strongly that real estate leadership is too often removed from active selling which inevitably creates a distance between the team leadership and the body of agents. To this end, Sally will remain the Luxury Property Team leader and the resident agent at Stonehurst Estate where she is the longest-serving accredited agent.
“Being at the coalface of real estate sales every day is important to both Bruce and me, and with the experienced administrative support we have, we are able to guide our sales team with credibility as successful salespeople in management, not management people just talking about sales. One may be surprised to know how uncommon that is in this industry and what a difference it can make,” said Gracie.
Prior to starting in real estate sales in 2008, Gracie worked for Southern Life Properties, as a Centre Manager at Durbanville Centre. Later, she was involved in managing both residential and commercial property for German-based Investment buyers and also worked for the British Consulate in Cape Town, heading up their management division, overseeing the housing and office compliment for the diplomatic staff.
Sally Gracie has introduced a new ‘Team Leader’ structure which will be a key to Chas Everitt Cape Town South extending coverage of the large franchise area. The ‘Team Leader’ structure will benefit experienced agents who can grow their own positions in the business, and effectively grow new agents (interns) to the industry. This structure aims to provide an extra level of hands-on sales support to new agents. Significantly, this structure is directly based on Sally’s own proven success with a Team Leader position. One of Chas Everitt’s Master Agents, Joan Ross has been the first to embrace this opportunity and will build her team in the Diep River to Kenilworth area.
Chas Everitt Cape Town South has always been at the cutting edge of technology and embraces change. According to Sally Gracie that innovation is a key ingredient in making the real estate franchise strong and different. “As a consumer solution orientated business there are some very exciting changes ahead,” she said.
Chas Everitt Cape Town South will be opening the fourth office to their physical presence in the Newlands / Rondebosch area next year.
