Traditionally there have always been 3 types of property companies:
- Developers, whose business model is to manufacture and deliver a product – whether for a home owner or investor, it doesn’t matter.
- Real estate agents, whose model is (typically) to sell someone a home. People don’t change homes often, so there’s little need for an ongoing relationship.
- Project marketers, whose model is to service developers and sell new/off-the-plan properties – to them, the more listings the better. These companies mushroom during a property boom, and fade as the market cools. They also don’t mind too much whether their buyer is a home owner/investor, whether or not they settle, or hold the asset long-term.
While Ironfish has its own development arms, operates under a real estate license and does sell new and off-the-plan properties, we do not fit in any of these industries. In founding Ironfish we created our own model – an innovation in itself.
What we saw in the market, was a big emphasis on sales transactions and little emphasis on long-term service for investor. We also noticed that there was very little-to-no financial or wealth education available. Given our own experience as investors, we wanted to help more people understand the need to build assets and wealth for the future and help them take action.
So, from day one, we put investors at the top of our value chain; if customers are happy with the service we provide and with the quality of properties we recommend, they will trust us and come back to us for future investments.
With a strong customer base, track record and reputation, we have the ability and group buying power to work with leading developers in Australia, in turn, securing excellent pre-market opportunities for our investors that simply can not be found on typical real estate platforms like Domain or Realestate.com or via new players in the market.
With this sound foundation we have a great platform for staff to grow and develop with us in long-term careers.
With this model established, we then looked to quickly scale up nationally. Having a national reach with localised service was also a novel concept at the time, and to this day has not been replicated in our industry at our scale.
As we know, the property market works in cycles, and cities are always at different points in the cycle. Helping investors in Sydney, for example, to take advantage of Melbourne market opportunities was a key service we could provide our investors.
In building out a national network, we thought about a franchise model, but were not convinced we could keep our customer-centric culture and service consistent. Instead, we opted for a genuine ‘partnership’ model with multiple business partners with a shared vision – also a unique concept in the industry.
