Redifining the real-estate transaction business

Redefining the real-estate transaction business Sunfin Realty is Vadodara’s largest professional real estate services company having conducted more than 2500 transactions in last eight years. Abhijit Bhagwat, Founder & CEO of Sunfin Realty Pvt Ltd spoke to Realty Plus about his company and its services. Bhagwat had worked with ICICI Bank in various leadership roles at Pune, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bangalore. And as home loans business is directly associated with real estate industry, he gradually developed keen interest and experience real estate. Following his desire to do something on his own, he left the s corporate career and started his own venture Sunfin Realty in 2008. Today, the company is the only Gold rated real estate agency by CRISIL in Gujarat and has won the ‘Realtor of the Year’ award by Realty Plus twice in a row. The company offers comprehensive property search and broking services to individuals and corporates for wide range of properties including residential, commercial, industrial and land parcels. So whether one wants to buy, sell, rent, lease, develop or invest in property,it provides all the solutions.“My seven years’ experience in a highly professional and organised set up influenced my thought process and paved the way for the professional accomplishment of the company,” added Bhagwat. Any business is about ‘People Management & Process Management’ and more so for real estate transaction business as it is part of service industry. The Differentiators Sunfin which started with four people on board after eight year has more than 30 employees today. This rapid success can be attributed to its strong business model which is backed by robust process, smart people management and innovative business development strategies. There is a huge thrust on people development and usage of technology to improve efficiency. It was the first real estate broking company in Gujarat to have its own portal -(www. BarodaRealty.com)  way back in 2008 and now has implemented its own customised CRM software managing the entire business flow right from lead generation to   closures. Bhagwat said,“Sunfin is now well-versed in the art of real estate transactions facilitation and now wants to scale it up on regional level in next five years and  nationally within this decade.” Real estate industry as such is quite unorganised and more so for the real estate transactions business.   On Vadodra Real estate “Vadodara is Gujarat’s third largest city with population of around two million.  It is considered the educational & cultural capital of Gujarat. The cost of living as well as real estate prices are lower here as compared to Ahmedabad and Surat.  Unlike many other Tier-II cities in the country, Vadodara is highly cosmopolitan and industrialised. I feel that Vadodara will grow in the next two decades the same way as Pune & Bangalore did in last two decades. Importance of broker as a channel partner for developers A Broker / Realtor is like eyes and ears on the ground for a developer. As a channel partner a broker offers a helping hand to the sales team of the developer company. Nobody knows a property buyer like his real estate consultant.  Hence the conversion chances of a customer brought in by a broker are far more than a walk in customer for a builder. Also, a broker is an unpaid canvasser for the project. He promotes the project to hundreds of customers, out of which few clients may visit the site and finally few will be interested in buying.  The builder pays to the broker only for the customer who has bought, but he gets the word of mouth promotion to hundreds of potential clients absolutely free. Transformations in the broking sector A lot is happening in the real estate broking sector. Large number of corporate players &start-ups are eyeing the lucrative business potential.  Especially the equity broking companies and financial products distribution companies are entering real estate broking business. The Industry is fast moving from being unorganised towards getting more professional. This sector largely has ‘small individual operators’ but would see emergence of a lot of organised realty companies. Majority of real estate broking business would move to such organised players. Technology and branding will be the key drivers of growth in coming future. Impact of RERA on broking business RERA is going to hugely impact both the real estate development and broking industries.It is going to punish the erring players - both developers & brokers.Eventually, it would benefit the organised and professional players, be it developers or realtors. Role & importance of National Association of Realtors (NAR) India NAR India is a credible voice of realtors in the country. One thing that the entire broker’s community in this country is desperately looking for is credibility because majority of the players still are unprofessional and untrained. The customers trust levels on brokers is relatively very less in India as compared to developed countries. Getting associated with industry bodies like NAR provides avenues for self-up gradation, education and networking opportunities.