Raine & Horne attracts next generation agents to business ownership in Adelaide

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Two of Adelaide’s best young gun agents have joined forces to launch Raine & Horne’s brand-new office in Unley.

The joint owners of Raine & Horne Unley are Con Pappas and Jacky Yang, and the dynamic duo represent the new wave of highly educated, energetic and multilingual agents taking the Adelaide property market by storm, said James Trimble, General Manager, Raine & Horne.

Mr Pappas has a Bachelor of Medical Science from Flinders University and enjoyed a successful sales and marketing career in the pharmaceutical industry before transferring his highly honed sales skills to real estate in 2014. Mr Yang, who matriculated from the University of Adelaide with an accounting degree has since enjoyed an award-winning sales and property management career with another leading property brand.

“Jacky and Con seamlessly combine their academic training with the latest digital marketing techniques to forensically create bespoke marketing plans for their vendors whether they are a homeowner in Unley or Parkside, or a developer promoting off-the-plan apartments,” said Mr Trimble.

“We are delighted Con and Jacky are working together with the backing of the Raine & Horne brand and I’m excited by the possibilities they will create for their vendors, buyers, investors and tenants in Adelaide’s affluent inner south property markets.” 

Mr Pappas said he was attracted to Raine & Horne due to the firm’s commitment to the latest digital technologies. “We considered quite a few different agencies, and there’s a couple of factors that attracted us to Raine & Horne,” he said.

“Firstly, I found that the professionalism of the senior leadership team was a huge selling point because I’ve been in discussions with other agencies. I was impressed with James Trimble’s professionalism, while his responsive and structured approach appealed to me.”

Doing the digital marketing heavy lifting

The new business owners are also delighted that Raine & Horne is doing the heavy lifting at the digital marketing coalface. “They’ve invested heavily in the digital space, which has left a lot of the other agencies in the shadows,” Mr Pappas commented.  

“I believe a cutting-edge digital marketing program such as Amplify can help convince and instil confidence in a seller that we’re going to get the best price for them.

“Because the reality is we don’t know emphatically where the best price will come from, but if you can broaden that audience using social media then you’re going to have a better chance of finding the right buyer and delivering the best price.”

As a marketing professional who has enjoyed stints with some of the biggest global pharmaceutical brands including Sanofi Aventis, Biogen, Idec and Alcon Laboratories, Mr Pappas says a digital strategy is critical to successful off-the-plan sales.

“There’s a lot of buyers interested in buying property off the plan and they’re on Facebook, Google, and all the digital platforms. When you think about the number of people using these digital platforms, there’s a vast audience that Amplify helps us reach.

“Better still the campaigns you can run on Amplify are significantly more affordable than trying to reach similar numbers of buyers through the traditional portals.”

Community award winning agent

Mr Yang is the Vice President of Chinatown Adelaide South Australia Inc. In 2019, he was presented with a Multiculturalism Contribution Award by the Governor of South Australia, His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le AC on behalf of Chinatown Adelaide South Australia Inc.

“Jacky has built a significant network within the local Chinese community through his role with the Adelaide Chinatown Society,” said Mr Pappas.

“Jacky also has plenty of experience in off the plan sales and has sold a lot of property to local and international buyers. He's very, very well experienced with a program called WeChat, which is used by pretty much all Chinese buyers, and is very similar to WhatsApp.

“We believe that with my connections with the local community and Jacky’s reach we offer our vendors in Unley, Parkside and surrounding suburbs access to new markets that our competitors are unable to reach.”

Mr Yang said he expects the Unley and Parkside markets to attract plenty of demand in 2020, especially with more buyers from Hong Kong and Mainland China recognising the region’s lifestyle, employment and educational advantages.

“Unley with a median house price of $1 million is a priority suburb for international buyers given its proximity to many excellent schools such as Brighton High School, Glenunga International High School, Unley High School and Walford Anglican School for Girls,” said Mr Yang.

For all your sales and property management needs contact Raine & Horne Unley on (08) 8372 2988 or visit Shop 4 215-217 Unley Road Malvern, which is right next door to the iconic Cremorne Hotel.