19 ways Villa Secrets will attract Sole Mandates.

By Nick Ray Ball 1st September 2016

A sole mandate is when a villa or apartment owner, trusts one company, or in this case one group/network of companies to market their property and manage their bookings calendar.

The acquisition of property mandates is the biggest non-technical profit centre a Villa Secrets company can create.

In year three of the ‘Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals – 2017 to 2020 Financial Roadmap’ income from 8 (mid to high-end) property mandates is the source of 39% of income ZAR 5,500,000 ($340,000).

It’s important to note that over half the income is created from enquiries to the mandated villas own websites or distribution channels which lead to bookings in other villas. As we include this income in our calculations we can afford to dedicate over ZAR 110,000 ($7,500) to each 5-star villa in start-up costs (website and subscriptions) and follow up with an additional marketing budget of over ZAR 150,000 per year ($10,000).

For villas that offer a 3 month ‘for sale’ mandate in addition to a rental mandate to the Villa Secrets Realtors when the client wishes to sell this direct marketing budget can be increased and in particular to include the creation of beautiful print broachers.

For a top end villa (six or seven-star) villa the direct marketing budget increases further, and will include the villa seen in large Ads in magazines such as ‘Conde Nast Vogue or Traveller.’

Compare this minimum of ZAR 110,000 in start-up costs and over ZAR 150,000 per year thereafter to the highest direct marketing contribution of any of our competitors being ZAR 0.00 ($0.00) and we can immediately see one clear Unique Selling Point of Villa Secrets.

Other unique selling points to villa owners follow in ’Many Reasons why a Villa Secrets Mandate is so profitable for a Villa Owner?’

For now, we will present ‘19 ways in which Villa Secrets will acquire mandates’

1. Villa Secrets Property Managers

Villa Secrets will not have its own property management division as such. As many of the local villas and most of the villas we wish to market internationally are in the hands of property managers. Who would not refer our service to the owner if we were offering a rival property management service.

Instead Villa Secrets is creating the CMS (Content Management Suite) for property managers to add their details to our websites in a section called ‘Property Managers.’ So long as we have not had a serious complaint and the managers either have good experience with references or seem very capable any property manager can join.
When Villa Secrets talks to an owner regarding a potential mandate they choose the manager they prefer.

Property managers can be contacted directly via Villa Secrets email addresses that are copied to the Villa Secrets ‘mandate recruiters.’ There is no fee to a property manager for the introduction. But the deal is that Villa Secrets gains the marketing & booking mandate.

Of the top property managers we have proposed this to, all have said yes.

2. Advertising on Google

One of the reasons for having a strong property management page/pages is that when searching for a company to market a villa, most owners first type in ‘Property Management’ into Google. Very few type in Property Marketing.

All our websites will advertise at the top of Google for property management related search terms, which in turn leads to property marketing mandate opportunities.

Adverting in positions 1, 2, 3 & 4 and in addition applying SEO to the property manager pages will see over 60% of people who use Google coming to Villa Secrets. And 75% of people who use Google will visit one or another Villa Secrets company before looking at others.

3. Dedicated Networker / Mandate Hunter

From the word go a dedicated ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ has been budgeted for in the Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals division. With a salary that increases as the company grows.

Having a dedicated ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ will see success given the ammunition this valued staff member has to work with. Note that this staff member will also network with local and international villa agencies and in general look for not only sole mandates but also preferential deals.

4. Villa Secrets Property Database

The Villa Secrets property database was started in 2002 with www.CapeVillas.com, it was added in 2014 & 2015 by the previous managers of www.Cape-Town-Luxury-Villas.com and it contains the contact details for over 200 villa owner who use the Razor Booking System.

Of the 1,400 villas and apartments recoded it’s likely that 400 or more are still active. This collection of villas is a great starting point for the ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ to work from.

5. Prospecting

In addition to the Villa Secrets database comes a lot of other sources of villas. Cape Stay, HomeAway, Airbnb, Booking.com, Nightsbridge and Gum Tree to name some of the biggest.

6. Photoshoots, Blogs & Articles.

As soon as ‘Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals’ is formed we are hiring a full time photographer and a second copywriter.

Their job is to photograph and create an article for about 150 villas each year. Each time creating an opportunity to show a villa owner or property manager how good we make them look. And each time a great point for the ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ to jump in and try to secure a mandate.

7. Enquiries to Villa Secrets Websites

As there will be a comprehensive property manager and ‘advantages of Villa Secrets property marketing’ pages on all our websites, we would expect to gain a few quality opportunities each year from visitors to the websites.

8. Local Press & Leaflet Drops

In 2002 Cape Villas.com started its life as a website and a quality leaflet drop. It will be to our advantage to repeat such leaflet drops and in addition for the ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ prospecting door to door.

9. Domestic Scouting

Another way to gain access to Villa Owners is domestically. We are currently working in an informal way with a previous Cape Villas domestic who is providing some very interesting leads, all at the very top end.

10. Villa Secrets Magazine

Following the success of the Cape Villas Magazine and the creation of the Magazine CMS, which will allow us to easily create magazines. Whilst there is a big plan for a mass distribution magazine, a small run of 3, 000 to 5,000 would not break the bank and would be a valuable asset for the ‘Networker / Mandate Hunter’ in two respects.
a. Prime placement in the magazine can be given as reward for an owner giving us a mandate.
b. Distribution of the magazine to all the mid to top end villas and in general to offices and hotels in Cape Town will see new owners coming to us.

11. Villas Cloud

Whilst plans for Villas Cloud (The Villa Secrets Booking System) are not currently expected to start until early 2018. Additional investment (made by others joining the network) will see the project begin sooner.
The Villas Cloud booking system is designed to connect to all distribution channels and provide a very simple and transparent booking platform. There are also plans to buy into or recruit some strategically important existing PMS (Property Management Systems).

This action will greatly improve the chances of securing a mandate for owners and property managers on the systems.

Other Villa Secrets Networks
The Following points are specific to other Villa Secrets Cape Town companies all of whom will also recruit Villa Mandates.

Please note villas are not recruited to an individual company, but instead to the collection of companies in the Network. Where after the company that recruited the mandate will receive 10% of each booking and the company that books the villa will receive 15%.

It is our position that only by working as a team/network, with more competition within that team for the recruitment of villas, can the Villa Secrets Network reach its target of 50 exclusive quality villas or luxury apartments by 2019.

12. Properties Sold by Villa Secrets Realtors

Currently (with the exception of Dogon Group) all Cape Town realtors have either small or no vacation rentals divisions. As a result, realtors who have sold quality properties do not offer a short term rental service, instead offering a long term rental service. This is suitable for some owners, but is not at all suitable for owners who live outside Cape Town and wishes to go on vacation at their holiday homes.

In my experience that has seen Denise Dogon CEO of Dogon Group, Ian Slott MD of Seeff and Senior Directors from Sotheby’s all ask me to create them vacation rental divisions (before I had a plan to do so). It is not the case that big estate agencies do not want or see merit in vacation rentals, but instead that as it’s a different business model for some reason in Cape Town and across the Globe, Estate Agencies do not capitalise on vacation rentals.

One only has to look at Dogon Group to see how an estate agent can capitalise
a. Mandates for Vacation Rentals will mostly turn into mandates for sale, when the seller wants to sell.
b. Some of the biggest properties sold are to clients that originally came to Cape Town on a villa holiday. If the villa rental company they booked their holiday with has a real estate offering, clients will often first look for properties to buy from the company they already know. Particularly of there are properties for sale on their website

Villa Secrets has firm plans to recruit one top local and one top international realtor to the Cape Town Network. The exact framework for this arrangement is fluid. However, the primary profit centres for the realtors is income from securing property mandates for short term rental and property sales made from all rental mandates created with an additional ‘for sale’ option from any Villa Secrets company.

It may be the case that the realtors run their own villa rentals department or the business may be run by Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals on a profit share/referral basis.

In the case of mandates for sale that were recruited by ‘Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals’ or any non-realtor in the network, the realtor will manage the sales process and pay a referral of typically 25%.

13. Properties Designed by Architects

There are a few architects in Cape Town that have consistently created exceptional homes. The most famous being the internationally known architect ‘Stefan Antoni’ See here or here.

In the same way it is profitable for real estate companies to recruit Villas. It is equally profitable for architectural companies. Albeit there is a lot more in it for architectural companies than simply collecting mandates as a part of M-Systems (as is described at the end of this document).

14. Properties Built by Developers

What works for realtors and architects also applies to property developers, and like the architectural companies M-Systems is a good additional point of interest.

15. Villa Secrets Africa – Villa Marketing Contracts

Moving out of Cape Town and into Africa ‘Villa Secrets Africa’ will attempt to secure marketing contracts for some of Africa’s finest homes, from exclusive use safari lodges to private islands.

Whilst it is early days for this line of enquiry, we are considering that in some or many cases Villa Secrets will work alongside traditional local marketing companies at a rate closer to 5%. And work in tandem with them to achieve the maximum occupancy for the owner.

As with Villa Secrets Cape Town Luxury Rentals mandates, each contract is not only a source of commission, it is a source of bookings, and as such Villa Secrets Africa could afford to be more competitive in this marketplace.

16. Villa Secrets Apartments – Block Contracts

Potentially accessed via developers and architects, but in addition via a dedicated apartments division ‘Villa Secrets Cape Town Apartments Rentals.’

Gaining the marketing rights for a big block of five star villas has the potential to make a lot of money, and as with all mandates exclusive to the Network, increases the stock for Villa Secrets companies to book or sell.

M-Systems

The Following systems are particular to our advanced system design ‘M Systems’ which we have not counted in our projections until 2020. However, that does not mean it will necessarily take so long to create. A lot comes down to how the world of theoretical physics views our business/economics interpretation/simulation of M Theory.

17. System 6 ‘The Theory of Every Business’

The Theory of Every Business is a massive idea, a gigantic real estate resort development from which the S-World Network expends into many other businesses. As many of those that supply and build. Then all of those that trade and work from the development join the network.

The Theory of Every Business was my first book written in 2012 framed around a macroeconomic network of all businesses.

Even a sniff of success in this field will impress villa owners, realtors and most everyone in property.

(See M-Systems & S-World ‘American Butterfly’)

18. System 7. S-World VBN (Virtual Business Network)

Continuing the ‘Theory of Every Business’ theme, S-World VBN, looks in the not too distant future to do a deal with ‘The SIMS’ to create a mass online game, that first creates a virtual world mapped around our real world. Then sees land owners, realtors, developers and even governments upload big and small plots of land. Where after the games use the SIM CITY gaming engine (or an adaptation of the same) to virtually build the different resort developments on the different plots.

As soon as we have enough for the deposit on the land, we will buy it, choose from the various deigns. And reward the designers/game players with a lot of cash. Where after we go into detail, using a combination of the SIMS property rendering engine, which we hope to convince Stefan Antoni and other eminent architects to create and add structure sections and add furniture and other fixtures.

And then alongside the other 16 Unique Selling points presented in ‘The Theory of Every Business,’ Chapter 3 ‘The Locations Butterfly’ and of course the growing Villa Secrets network we sell the houses off plan. This time with the gameplays designing the houses and architects who created the structure sections being paid… A lot.

This will be the first mass online game that will provide a living for many of its users.

Like ‘The Theory of Every Business,’ just a sniff of success in this field, will impress villa owners, realtors and most everyone in property.

19. System 8. S-World VSN (Virtual Social Network)

S-World VSN takes the framework created in S-World VBN and seeks to render the world in 3D. In a framework that can sit within all the social networks.

This idea is steeped in history, from the world first low bandwidth Virtual Tour which I created in 2002 to how S-World got its name in 2011.

From Sienna (my daughter) to the SIENNA ‘Super Intelligent Engine for New Network Access’ networking software to ‘Sienna’s World’ when the networking software was planned to submerge within a 3D Virtual World. Where after ‘Sienna’s World’ was shortened to ‘S-World.’

Technically all we need is to adapt Google (or another’s) cell phone cameras to create virtual tours. Then render the world, and let users jump in and out of each other’s locations via the GPS chips in their cell phones.

Commercial applications range from creating highly accurate (so one can see the view from every window) 3D renderings of villas and other accommodations, to having an e-commerce offering from each shop in S-World, which considering the plan in to map the whole world, is an ecommerce platform for every shop in the world.