By Kathy Salter
Over the course of its more than 110-year history, REINSW has had an enduring impact on its members. Here, leaders of two longstanding member agencies reflect on how the Institute has impacted their businesses.
Croll Real Estate
Andrew Croll, Director at Croll Real Estate in Sydney’s Neutral Bay, is the third generation of the Croll family to run the business, which was started in 1904 by his grandfather, Andrew Rayleigh Croll.
Unable to join the army during the First World War because of the quality of his teeth, Andrew Rayleigh continued the business until he was joined by his brother at the end of the conflict. While his brother held down the fort, Andrew tried his hand at new ventures as varied as an orchard and a shock absorber business, but decided to return to real estate, starting a second agency in the Sydney CBD. Both the CBD and the Neutral Bay businesses thrived, and Andrew decided to return to the North Shore office and ran the agency until his death in 1957.
Meanwhile, Andrew Raleigh’s son Colin, now 93 and still a Director, had decided he wanted to follow his father into the real estate world. Much to his frustration, his father wouldn’t allow him to join the agency until he had learned the business from someone else first. Colin did as he was told and was eventually given permission to work with his father in the Neutral Bay office, which he took over at the age of 27, after his father’s death.
“I’ve never retired. I’m just slowly drifting out. But Andrew is doing a better job than I ever could. He must get that from his mother!”
– Colin Croll, Croll Real Estate
Just a few years after Croll Real Estate first opened its doors, REINSW was launched by a group of like-minded real estate agents to represent and bring order to the sector. Andrew Raleigh Croll was one of the first members. Colin started attending meetings after joining his father in the Neutral Bay office and his lasting memory is of making the challenging journey all the way to the nearest branch in Roseville.
Throughout this era, Colin says that the greatest benefit of REINSW membership was having access to the latest industry information and qualified advice.
“We found their advice very helpful,” he said. “We could ring them up with a problem and we’d either get the information we needed from the Institute or someone the Institute directed us to. They were good at that.”
Today, Andrew Croll also highlights the REINSW Helpline as an important benefit of membership.
“They are very helpful, invaluable,” he said, echoing his father’s words. “One of the other areas that helps us the most is REI Forms Live, especially as an independent agency.”
With each generation of leadership, Croll Real Estate has roughly doubled in size. Today, Andrew’s focus is on streamlining the business and staying at the forefront of technology, while maintaining the agency’s values that have held strong for nearly 120 years.
Colin tells of how one of Croll’s biggest landlords started to work with them in the 1930s and they are still doing business with the grandchildren nearly a century later.
“I’ve never retired,” Colin said. “I’m just slowly drifting out. But Andrew is doing a better job than I ever could. He must get that from his mother!”
Shead Property
When Dick Crampton, Principal and Managing Director at Shead Property, started his real estate career in the 1970s, he remembers being a regular at REINSW’s monthly meetings.
“In those days, it had a lot more to do with the ethics of real estate because there was very little government control,” he said. “There were no agency agreements in writing, so the Institute would often get involved with adjudicating disputes between members.”
After cutting his teeth in real estate on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Dick moved to Chatswood to join Shead Property in 1980. The office had been owned by the Shead family since Frank and Emma Shead took it over in 1928 from an ex-policeman turned real estate agent called Stevens.
Frank and Emma bought Stevens and Son when already in their fifties, and operated out of No 6 Railway Street in Chatswood. The business remained at this address until 1993, before moving to 1 Help Street and then to 75 Archer Street in 2011, where Shead Property is still based today.
Dick’s role in the business grew and, in 1985, he purchased it from the Shead family, along with three partners, Marylin Sorensen, Stuart Barlow and Richard Sombroek.
“REINSW pushes hard to make laws practical for real estate agents, and they do a good job of keeping that under control and putting our case forward.”
– Dick Crampton, Shead Property
Shead Property was an early member of REINSW, with records showing their membership as far back as the early 1950s. Fast forward to the 1970s, and Dick Crampton remembers starting training for his Real Estate Licence with the Institute.
As the industry became more regulated, Dick has seen the focus of REINSW shift to a greater focus on training and also on lobbying and legislation.
“REINSW pushes hard to make laws practical for real estate agents, and they do a good job of keeping that under control and putting our case forward,” he said.
Today, the team at Shead find that REI Forms Live is “one of the biggest benefits” of their membership. Dick remembers years past, when the agency used to buy large books of hard copy forms to manage sales and property management agreements.
“The world is changing,” he said, adding that one of the most helpful functions of REINSW is keeping members up to date with what those changes are.
Today, the culture at Shead Property draws on its history and values, while still looking to the future and embracing new processes and technology. The team includes members who have been with the agency for more than 20 years, helping support a culture of ethics, trust and integrity.
When Dick asked his team what they thought was special about working at Shead, they told him it was all about the culture. Now, with around 40 employees, Dick is proud that his team reflects the multicultural mix of the local area and that the younger members of staff are ensuring that the future of the agency is in good hands. Among those newer team members are Bill Geroulis and Dick’s son Nicholas who is now General Manager and preparing to take the reins from Dick.