 It's Youth Month and we are discussing young people who are making bold moves in the property industry. They are taking and getting investing and gunning for the top spots in South Africa's biggest property powerhouses. While we're at it tonight, join myself and Nigel Adriansa at the end of the podcast as he unpacks the sort after home buying masterclass. Next, this is going to make your home buying experience as relaxing as a walk in the park. This is the Private Property Podcast. My name is Dubey. Thank you so much for joining us. Our guest tonight holds a bachelor's in business science economics. He is passionate about real estate and he is at one of the leading real estate property houses in South Africa, Remax. He is young and has proved that all the amazing things that are being said about being in the property game are true. Viewers at home, help me welcome Mike Petropoulos. Good evening, Mike, and thank you so much for joining us. Hi, Dubey. Thank you very much for having me on your podcast. It's truly an honor and that was an incredible introduction. I must say. That is all you. I'm pretty blessed. Thank you. And we're talking young people who are in the property space and who are in the property game. And you are a real estate agent and it takes real guts to be in this profession, especially because, you know, not a lot of young people are here. Tell us what you enjoy about working as a real estate agent. So I think the best way to answer that question is to basically give you some context as to why I joined in the first place. So basically my dream in life is to be involved in a team that contributes to skylines. You know what I mean? I want to be involved in teams that build high-level skyscrapers and sell them out. And that's a really big dream to have. So I'm sitting here thinking, how do I get there? You know what I mean? What is property in the first place? So my decision was, do I go back and study a property degree? You know, I don't have the money for that. What's the way to answer a question like that? And I figured the best way to learn is to jump in the industry and figure it out. And being an estate agent, I mean, I don't have a salary. I'm a trade commission. So if I don't figure it out, I don't eat. So at the end of the day, I feel like that's the best thing for me is being in an industry where you're constantly learning. You're interacting with so many different clients, developers, high-end investors, all of that. And being on the job, learning, it's the best experience. And it keeps you hungry and motivated. And obviously, it's very scary not having that backdrop. But I mean, there's no ceiling either. And if you have the right temperaments, I think it's an incredible industry. Sure. You did business science economics. And you were just talking about how you were thinking and probably saying, maybe I should go back and do a property degree. What kind of qualification would you advise one who wants to become a real estate agent to do? So the beauty of the industry is that there's low barriers to entry. And I suppose that can be a bad thing as well. But I've seen some people that haven't been able to afford to go to university. They haven't been privileged enough to get funding or anything like that. And they've come into an industry brand new with just a lot of passion and an incredible work ethic. And they have made successes of themselves because of the low barriers to entry. But that being said, you do need a qualification to become a full-status estate agent. So I want to take you through the process of that a little bit. Step one is join a real estate firm such as Remax, which I joined, and become an intern in that firm. Then you're going to be signed up for an internship. It's about a 12-month period. During this, you need to get an NQF4. So I, having an honours degree, it's an NQF8. So it's significantly lower. But you'll be doing this in your logbook for 12 months. During this logbook that you're going to be completing, it's basically like a work-based experience and evidence learning. And you're going to be completing this logbook. Once you've done that, and you've got your NQF, you then write a board exam, which is a PDE4. And that allows you to be a fully qualified estate agent. Sure. And you know, our guest yesterday was also talking about that internship and how important it was for him. And you're also talking about how you are only earning on commission. So I want you to take us through your experiences. And particularly, rather, your most memorable experience since you joined Remax, which memory stands out for you? And you're like, this experience was absolutely phenomenal. And I made the right decision. That's a good question, but a tough one. Because, I mean, there was something that happened to me last week. And I was like, my life is a movie. You know, just with the type of high-end clients, I'm serving that it's a dream. But I actually think the best story to tell would probably be the first time I got a high-end listing. So this was $1 million, so $16 million round at the time. And it's a good story because it goes to show the way you carry yourself is extremely important. So I think this was my second listing I ever got. And you don't just walk into a brand new industry and you're like, you know what? That's $16 million roundhouse. I'm going to sell it. And he's going to let me sell it. He's going to let me sell it. You know what I mean? It's like, you're scared. You're going to go for a little bit of lower property. So I went there. I think the property was about a million round. I called the person, got a foot in the door, managed to get a meeting to do the listing presentation. But the thing is, whether your property is worth $50 million, whether it's worth $1 million, you're giving me a shot. You're giving me an opportunity here. I need to go out and give my all. You know what I mean? So I arrived there in a full suit. I know everything about that property. I know what it sold for in the past. I know who the last three owners were. I know what all the properties around it sold for. I know what the market trends are. I know everything. So I walk into there this appointment for $1 million and I walk in there and I do my best. I do my listing presentation. And turns out the guy looked at me and he's like, you know what? I like this. I like the way you came prepared. I like the way you carry yourself. We have something a little bit special for you. And that really just opened up my mind as to how lucrative and wide the property game is from an investment perspective. You have people with such expensive properties that also have small properties in their portfolio. And it really goes to show that it's a relationship-based industry. And it's truly something that I'm in awe of. I love that. Yeah. And better be prepared, right? Because you never know what's going to happen in the conversation. Exactly. So what would you have done differently if you had known what you know now before beginning your real estate career? So that's a difficult one, because I don't think I have any regrets, you know what I mean? Everything I've learned, I've learned for a reason. And I'm happy that I learned that early on. What I will say is that a lot of people think of the real estate industry as the type of career where you can just jump in and earn a million rand. And I mean, it's possible. It is possible. But it's very improbable. So you get told stories about, you know, you want to sell a property, it takes three months for it to register, save up about six months, all of that. And I was told this, and I was prepared for it. But in my mind, I was like, you know what? That's not going to be the case for me. I'm going to walk in there, make a sale in my first week, and get a rental the next day, and I'll be sorted for life. You know what I mean? And I was warned about it before, but you just have that mentality. But the correct mentality is you're building a business. And you need to get that in your head. No matter how good you are, this is a business. It's going to take some time. So it's just the hit that I took. It took me six months to make my first sale, to put it in perspective, which is about on par. But for me, I was like, you know, that's, I can do better. You know what I mean? But I think you need to be very prepared going in. And I think I would have prepped myself a little bit more for that. It takes some time. It's a lot of hard work, and it pays off in the end. Sure, it definitely does pay off. Thank you so much, Mike, for joining us tonight. But before I let you go, one last word, one last word that you would give somebody who wants to become a real estate agent, or even wants to maybe change careers and come into the property industry as a real estate agent. What would you say they need to do? So step one, find a fallback is in six-month savings. Or if you can move back home, I was fortunate enough to do that. So just be prepared that it's going to take some time. But this is another thing that I would highly recommend. Find somebody that's doing really, really well and reach out to them. I mean, our entire game is about lead generation, cold calling, emailing, getting your face in front of clients. Do that with an agent that you've seen is successful. And basically, tell them you'll work for them for free. Do it all, get your foot in the door, learn from them, learn on the job. And I would say that step one is find somebody to mentor you. I think it's incredibly important. Thank you so much for taking our time out of your busy schedule to talk to us. We really, really appreciate it. And sharing those great property insights with our viewers at home. We wish you all the best in success. I told you earlier that patropolis really sounds like metropolis. So really, this was something that was aligned for you. Thank you so much for joining us and have a good one. Thank you very much. Have a great evening. Now let's get to know more about the property powerhouse Remax. Here are the five fast facts. Number one, Remax is an American real estate agency founded in 1973 by Dave Linniger and Gale A. Linniger. Their headquarters are currently in Denver, Colorado. Number two, nobody sells more real estate in the world than Remax. The company has more than 140,000 agents with about 9,000 offices and a strong presence in more than 110 countries and territories around the world. Number three, the Remax hot air balloon fleet is the largest corporate balloon fleet in the world. Can you believe it? Number four, in 2021 and 2022, Remax in the Southern African region was awarded the prestigious title of the best real estate brokerage in South Africa in the annual Luxury Lifestyle Awards. Number five, black excellence. Z-Capital properties are a well-known black empowerment company that has bought 45% ownership interest in Remax Southern Africa. And that's it for our five fast facts tonight. Hope you now know a little bit more about Remax properties. Tonight, I told you that Nigel Arendt is going to be joining me later on. Nigel, are you there? Nigel is here. Thank you so much for joining us, Nigel, tonight. And we're looking forward to a little bit more about the first-time homebuyer's masterclass. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And thank you for having me. Thank you so much. To answer the burning question on everybody's mind, I will invite you to play a game with me. That's called Why Should I Care? So you're going to answer the five questions that I'm going to ask you, short and sweet, as quick as possible. And for that, you will be able to, I'm going to let you announce the 500-ranked cash prize winner for tonight, as well as say goodbye to our guests. So are you ready? Absolutely. Number one, what is the first-time homebuyer's masterclass? All right, so it's a masterclass that's going to be over a period of about three or four hours on the 21st of June, where the EDBF and private property have partnered to assist the man on the street to purchase their first property. So let's not be sexist and say the person on the street. Anybody who wishes to purchase their first home, we will be running this masterclass to teach you exactly how to do so. It's an in-person course, so you have to physically be there. It is going to be hosted in Mondrand in the Pratialatah. And we'll do things like we'll talk about the legal aspects of purchasing your first home, how to raise a bond, and all those other things that we're going to talk about, finding the right property, and what if I've got a bad credit record? So those are the things we're going to be talking about. Sure. And jumping on to the second question, who is EDBF Property Academy and what exactly do they do? Well, that's a much longer answer, but let me try and do it as quickly as I possibly can. So the EDBF Property Academy has been in existence now for almost six years, and our main focus is teaching people how to become property investors. So we will teach you all the aspects that you need to know of property management, facilities management, how to find the right property for investment, how to raise capital, how to structure your portfolio legally, as well as financially, how to use the best tax structures. So all of those kinds of things we teach in our academy, and the course that we have is normally a three-year course, but it is purely geared towards teaching people how to use property as an investment tool. Sure. And quick question in terms of three things that I know that I will learn if I attend this masterclass. What are those three things, high level? All right, so number one, finding the right property for your purposes. Number two, understanding the legal processes that go into buying your first home. And number three, which is probably the biggest one, is where to find the money. And what it means to buy a bond or to buy property through a bond and how to raise a bond to purchase that first home. Great. And how much is a ticket? How much gets a ticket? All right, so it's actually quite cheap. It's only $350 for the morning, and that includes the venue costs, the coffee and snacks, and all the learnings that you're going to have, as well as the connection with other people and some networking that you will have with something like 120 people that will be there on the morning. And where can I buy the tickets? So you'll have to go to the education.privateproperty.co website. You go to private property, there'll be a link. You'll click through, and it will take you to the education platform where you can then purchase your ticket for $350. Sounds like you are going to be seeing me on Saturday, Nigel. Thank you so much for joining us, and over to you to announce the winner of that $500 cash prize for tonight. All right, people, so tonight's winner of the $500 cash prize sponsored by private property is Nombuso Libre Tetois. So congratulations to you. We hope you enjoy the $500 that is on its way to you. Thank you so much for that, Nigel, and remember, a healthy dose of property information might just be what you need to get you back on your property A game. This is the Private Property Podcast. My name is Dumi. Have a good night.