Annual Report, IEASA Border 2011

Being part of the IEASA Border Team and guiding and assisting them to come to their full potential has been an honour. We have been able to achieve a lot in a year that has gone by in a wink. Without the board members’ support and hard work, nothing that we achieved would have been possible. I would like to thank the current board members for their continual support.

 

1.     Current Regional Board :

 

We are proud to have 11 very experienced and dedicated directors on the team. The 11 directors meet monthly on the 3^rd Thursday of every month.  Each director is allocated a specific portfolio that he/she is responsible for.

 

NAME	PORTFOLIO/ DESIGNATION
Sanet van de Merwe	Chairperson / Website /Regional Rep
Antoinette Clark	Vice Chairperson / Education
Aubrey Klinkradt	Ethics
Suzette Roberson	Socials/Networking
Sandra Schwedhelm	Ex Officio/ RPL
Les McLachlan	Rentals
Vuyokazi Kayula	Website / Newsletter
Tzikadshe Nemato	Membership / Seta
Desmond Nish	Commercial & Industrial / Queenstown
Michele Gravett	Membership / Networking
Penelope Lindstrom	Ethics

 

Although we all have our own businesses and busy schedules, the general attendance of the meetings has remained stable. The board members have certain obligations and functions and often get requests from the National office that must be dealt with within certain deadlines. The board is always positive and the matters at hand are dealt with in a professional manner. 

 

We are sad to bid farewell to Sandy Schwedhelm and Des Nish who, because of other responsibilities, they are unable to stand for re-election. We would like to thank them for their valuable input and hard work during their term on the board.  They will be greatly missed.

 

2.     Membership 

 

We currently have 310 members (297 Paid up as at the 1/8/2009) with the following New Memberships since September 2009:  Zikiza Properties, Auctions Africa, A + C Properties (Royal Square Investments 238 CC, Karen May Real Estate, Robin Estates, Mncedi Properties CC, South Ocean Property Realtors, Sabelo Capa Properties, K & K Properties, Batting Properties

 

The Queenstown Sub Committee, formed during 2009, continues to function very well and has monthly meetings. They organize their own Training mornings although they do sometimes attend the EL events. We are very proud of their continual attempts and successes.

3.    Benefits

 

The IEASA is committed to provide you with quality service and benefits, which are in line with our accepted vision and mission. The following benefits can be highlighted:

 

·         Industry Representation with Local Authorities, banks, media, Provincial Government

·         Technical Assistance – informative seminars at reduced prices for members.

·         Professional Standards: Code of Conduct - An Ethical Standards Committee attends to complaints and disputes between and against members and although additional arbitration is available where necessary, the high legal costs of taking matters to court are avoided. 

·         Personal Benefits

o    Committees monitor the interests of agents dealing in residential, commercial and industrial property management, agricultural, sectional title and share block, etc.

o    Annual Glossy Newsletter – distributed to all members and National Board.

·         A Free copy of the RPPI (Residential Property Price Indicator) is circulated to all participating members each month. (The previous cost of this was approximately R40.00 per agent per annum).   The RPPI provides you with sale details provided by all contributing companies on a monthly basis, helping you to keep up to date with current market prices and is an invaluable tool when doing a Comparative Market Analysis

·         Additional Benefits:   The Institute is committed to professionalism and the maintenance of standards, to exciting and informative seminars, and to image building, advertising and public relations.  We are affiliated to other property associations and also maintain contact with international associations through our National body in order to keep our members as well informed as possible.   All information of general interest is sent to members on an individual basis.    Members also have free access to the Institute’s web site with links to American and European property associations.

·         Social Benefits:   We try to arrange several get-togethers a year for purely social reasons.  

 

4.    Training

 

The IEASA Border mainly focuses on training through the Property Mornings that we organize quarterly. We also initiated NQF 4 & 5 training sessions at a discounted rate by SAREA.  Approximately 4 sessions have been held to date. The SAPTG Road Show presented in conjunction with IEASA also proved to be very informative.  The following training events were organized since the last AGM.

 

Organised events:

·         Property Morning – 8 October 2009.  Programme included Sectionalizing of Private Property from a legal and municipal point of view; Sectionalising of Private Property; Market Overview – Unlocking Value by NFB.

·         2 SAPTG Road Shows

·         Property Morning – 25 February 2010.  Programme included Debt Collections, Evictions, the Effect of Debt Management and Rental Payments, Property Management & Bodies Corporate – Rental Deposits, Interest & Trust Accounts, and Motivational DVD by Smith Tabata.

·         Property Morning – 25 May 2010.  Programme included a brief update of new developments in the law which affect agents and attorneys by Bax Kaplan Inc. A motivational speaker, Graham Gavin spoke about “Compete & Win”. Graham discussed the power of shifting to a business mindset by indentifying the choke points and blocks to building a thriving Real Estate Business and Real Edge Negotiating. The morning was ended with a discussion of the  New Housing & Rentals Act 50 of 1999 by Thandeka Cebe, General Manager for Housing Asset Management.

 

The support of our members is great at the Property Mornings and a lot of valuable information changes hands.

 

5.    Ethical Standards  

 

The Ethical Standards Sub-Committee has had several enquiries that they had to handle but were able to resolve all matters before dispute procedures were necessary.  We thank Aubrey and Penny for their expertise in handling the enquiries and problems. Our members’ continual efforts to avoid expensive legal action when complaints or disputes arise are appreciated. Members must realize that they do have access to an informed mediation panel through the Institute at a minimal cost.

 

6.    Social Events

 

During 2009/ 2010 we have had a few social events although some events had to be cancelled due to bad weather or poor response. 

 

·         November 2009 - End-of-Year Christmas Luncheon was greatly enjoyed by all present.

·         4 June 2010 – Bowls Day at Bonza Bay Club

 

We are planning a Principals Breakfast as a ‘first’ for the region and are looking forward to an exciting morning.

 

7.    SSETA

 

We have three members of IEASA who represent the property industry on the Border Kei Regional Council of the SSETA. They are Les MacLachlan, Tsika Nemato, and I. Our representation on the Council has led to more direct contact and smoother communication channels between IEASA and SSETA.  Most of the SDL paying members who applied for bursaries for their NQF 4 qualification received the bursaries and completed their NQF 4.

 

8.    Regional Advisory Council

 

Three Regional Advisory meetings were attended, two in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town. The directors and the members were updated on the matters of general interest that were discussed.

 

9.    Website

 

The IEASA Website is continuously being updated with articles of interest. The membership database has also been uploaded and Glynis needs to be thanked for her special efforts with this time consuming task.   

 

Our Newsletter that was completed during July will, for the first time, be distributed at the AGM.  Thanks to Vuyo for all her efforts to keep up the high standard that she set the previous year.

 

10.  Finances

 

Our finances remain stable and we ended the year with a R16096.00 profit.   Cash on hand at the end of the financial year was R94062.00.  The region’s finances are regarded as stable and we are able to meet all our financial obligations.     

 

Once again a sincere thank you to all our members for their continued support and participation and to the Board Members for their unceasing and unselfish hard work, it is greatly appreciated.

 

Best IEASA wishes for 2010/11!!

 

Sanet van de Merwe

Chairperson – IEASA Border Region