SELLING DREAMS WITH PROPERTYGUYS.COMBy Mallory Whitty

If you had told me 10 years ago I would be one of PropertyGuys.com’s top 10 Canadian franchisees, I would not have believed it. A top-performing franchisee before the age of 30 at an innovative real estate company dominating the industry in a small territory in rural Nova Scotia sounds far-fetched, but after my seven years with the franchise system, I’ve learned nothing is out of reach if you work hard and pour passion into everything you do. Today, I’m a PropertyGuys.com franchisee in Nova Scotia’s Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough counties.

Finding focusAs a child growing up in Brookfield, N.S., I watched my mom dive into her own entrepreneurial adventures. She was a teacher, had a drivers’ education business she ran after school, and also owned a clothing store called Designer Duds for Kids—she hand-sewed all of the clothing herself. Looking back, I can see that my entrepreneurial spirit was influenced heavily by her work ethic and encouragement.

Rather than lemonade stands or taking over the family business, competitive dance was my first passion. I spent hours in the studio and was considered a well-rounded dancer. From jazz, tap and ballet to contemporary and hip-hop, I did it all. When it came time to decide what to do after high school, I applied to Toronto’s Ryerson University for both its competitive dance and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Comm.) programs.

On the day I was to fly to Toronto for my dance audition at Ryerson, I arrived at the airport to discover the airline I booked with had gone bankrupt. Needless to say, I didn’t make my flight or audition. I started business school in September 2006. I like to think of this as the first of many blessings in disguise on my path to success.

At Ryerson, I joined the competitive dance team and after two years studying business, I confidently walked away from the program believing business just wasn’t for me. I transferred back to the east coast to be closer to home and began attending Saint Mary’s University (SMU) with little direction and no declared major.

Like many twenty-somethings, I could never quite put my finger on what I wanted to be, and even after four years of post-secondary school and a pile of student debt, I was no further along on my quest for professional happiness. This feeling of being hungry for change but not quite sure what to sink your teeth into is an experience that I think many future business owners share, no matter their life stage.

Pitching my idea on Dragon’s Den was both the longest and the shortest eight minutes of my life. It is still somewhat of a blur.

One day in early October 2009, I received a call from my former employer and mentor, Daina Hernden. She was the owner of PropertyGuys.com’s Colchester county franchise location.

Daina and I met when I was 15 years old. Brookfield wasn’t too far from Truro, N.S., where she owned a boutique downtown. When my grade nine prom was approaching, I set out to find a dress. After spending about an hour at her store, trying on umpteen dresses and blabbering on about how I was ‘graduating,’ she hired me on the spot.

Daina had seen something in me back then that I didn’t even realize I had : the ability to sell through enthusiasm for a product. I spent my high school career working for her in each of her business ventures. We very quickly became close friends. As it turned out, I didn’t quite enjoy the theory behind business as much as I did watching her exciting practical applications.

When she called, Daina had been running her PropertyGuys.com franchise for about a year. I had heard of it, but I didn’t know much about the company.

On this particular day, she was calling to discuss an opportunity. PropertyGuys.com and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation

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SELLING DREAMS WITH PROPERTYGUYS.COMBy Mallory Whitty

(CYBF) were holding a contest to award a franchise valued at $100,000. They wanted to see how many young Canadians possessed what they dubbed the “ypreneur gene,” hence it was called the, YPG contest. The winner could choose any available territory in Canada. All you had to do was make a video explaining how you would market PropertyGuys.com on a $100 budget, then get as many people to vote for your video as possible.

Sparks flyIt took me a total of two hours to fall in love with PropertyGuys.com, during which I looked at their website and listened to Daina’s pitch. It was suddenly abundantly clear to me how the traditional real estate model was broken and there was a gap in the market for a service like this.

I recognized the franchise system as a new wave in real estate, harnessing the power of technology to help Canadians sell their properties more efficiently online, like how Netflix revolutionized television. Rather than typical real estate agents who charge high commission fees when closing a sale, PropertyGuys.com charges a flat marketing fee and works with a team of experts to leave no stone unturned for private sellers. Under this model, sellers have the ability to sell more quickly and for more money, as asking prices aren’t inflated to cover costs.

From real estate lawyers, to professional appraisers and expert marketers, the PropertyGuys.com difference means sellers get a full-service experience, at a fraction of the cost of using an agent. I loved the company’s customer-centric approach recognizing how hard Canadians work for their money and deserve to keep more of it in the bank, without sacrificing expertise or technology when selling their property.

The more I learned, the more it appealed to me and I realized the company spoke my language. Have fun, work hard and think outside the box. This was my tribe. It was like a light went off. I finally connected my entrepreneurial spirit with never quite feeling like I fit into a classroom environment. Reading case studies didn’t work for me, I needed to get hands-on experience. At the age of 22, I’d found my passion : PropertyGuys.com.

Journey to Dragon’s DenWithin a day, I had posted my contest entry video online and started getting votes. I knew the top five videos would make it to the next round, so I began to strategize ways to get as many votes as possible.

I blasted links through social media channels, harassed my friends into sharing them and got my community involved. I finished the contest leading the top five.

From here, I submitted six essay questions that would be reviewed by the PropertyGuys.com head office team, after which the top three contestants would be announced. Sure enough, when the top three contestants were announced, I was on the list. This meant I would fly to Toronto to compete for the franchise on an episode of Dragon’s Den. Each contestant had eight minutes in front of the Dragons to plead their case as to why they should win the $100,000 franchise.

In the dragon’s lairThe three finalists were shuttled down to the CBC building where the taping of the show would take place. Arlene Dickinson, Jim Treliving and one ‘honourary’ Dragon, Ken LeBlanc, the CEO of PropertyGuys.com, waited for me.

After a whirlwind of photos and interviews, I was standing backstage waiting for my eight minutes. They were both the longest and the shortest minutes of my life. It is still somewhat of a blur, but I remember Arlene slamming the $100,000 on my podium and saying, “You’ve got my vote,” at six minutes in.

I left the stage feeling confident and excited as we waited for the Dragons to deliberate. After five minutes, Ken came on the stage and announced the winner. To my utter shock, it wasn’t me.

Forging aheadI was disappointed, but there was no way I was ready to give up the passion I felt. I asked Daina for advice on what to do next. She simply said, “Find a way to buy a franchise.”

When she mentioned she was hiring someone to work in her territory, I jumped at the chance. There was no denying I was meant to be part of the PropertyGuys.com family. I loved everything about the job and enjoyed going through listings, seeing nice houses, meeting

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SELLING DREAMS WITH PROPERTYGUYS.COMBy Mallory Whitty

homeowners, creating relationships and then coming home, putting on my slippers and uploading listings. I even liked installing signs.

My third day on the job, I looked at Daina and said, “I can do this.” I carefully crafted an e-mail to Ken and asked if the Pictou franchise was still available. He got back to me the same day and told me there were a few interested parties, but they were saving it for someone special and it was mine if I wanted it.

Armed with support from friends and family (especially my mom) and a business loan, within a week I was signing the papers for the franchise rights to Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, with a plan to open in September 2010.

I worked full-time with Daina from May to September, soaking up as much knowledge, advice and best practices as I could.

Learning to listDuring the summer of 2010, I attended PropertyGuys.com University (PGU), a week-long mandatory training program in Moncton, N.B., designed to arm new franchisees with the knowledge and skills they need to hit the ground running. As I had been working full-time in the business for a few months with an incredible mentor, I felt more prepared than most people in the class.

However, I was also 20 years younger than everyone else, and that made me stand out to some classmates as inexperienced. Thankfully, head office didn’t see it that way, and their support from day one has helped me maintain confidence in my business and myself.

I left PGU determined to succeed. I was also going to show people that my age wasn’t going to hold me back, but instead make me work harder to prove any naysayers wrong.

September arrived and there I was, the youngest franchisee in Canada, living with my mother. If anyone had something to prove, it was me. Failure was not an option—in fact, it never even crossed my mind.

Love at first siteSelling the concept of PropertyGuys.com and the product was the easy part. I knew I could do that. My shortcomings at first were the nitty gritty of actually running a business. I didn’t know the first thing

about how to start one. I didn’t have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) number, and I didn’t know how to register my business’ name.

No matter what struggle arose, I just kept telling myself to get out there and sell. I’d figure everything else out. And I did.

I worked really hard to establish myself in the market over that fall and winter. I even resorted to sampling customers with complimentary listings just to get our round signs on lawns. I would have a celebration every time a sign went up—it didn’t matter how much money I made. I could see the big picture. Signs on lawns are the best marketing for a real estate company and I knew that to get people to consider using PropertyGuys.com, I needed credible results and referrals from local homeowners who had a great experience using our system.

I remember my first customers who sold their property. It was on Hawthorne Street in Antigonish, NS, and I listed it in the middle of January 2011. The homeowner called me two weeks later to ask me to put the ‘sold’ sign on the lawn. In a sea of stale agent listings in the dead of winter, the house with the big, round lollipop sign sold within two weeks. Suddenly, PropertyGuys.com had credibility in my market.

Navigating the industryIn the beginning, it’s easy to feel like you’re on your own. Competitors greatly outnumbered me in my market and I was a team of one when I first started. However, one of the great things about owning a franchise is the support of the franchisor. Within PropertyGuys.com, we have fellow franchisees, mentors and coaches to support us. In my very first conversation with my coach Nick, he assured me things were going to pick up and this was the natural pace of the real estate market. He told me to hold on and stay the course, I was doing everything as prescribed.

He was right, of course. Eventually, spring arrived and my hard work started to pay off. All the signs I put up over the winter had given me the foothold I needed to penetrate the spring market. My phone started to ring.

Now, instead of hearing, “What is PropertyGuys.com?” I heard, “I see your signs everywhere!” Many of our customers’ listings started to sell and I was getting amazing testimonials from clients. The money started flowing, people were exited about PropertyGuys.com and I knew I could run my own business.

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SELLING DREAMS WITH PROPERTYGUYS.COMBy Mallory Whitty

My franchise became an extension of who I was. It wasn’t just a job—it was my life. I wasn’t just Mallory, the visionary of the company. I was Mallory, the receptionist who takes your call. I was Mallory, the sign installer who pounds posts into the frozen ground and replaces them after a windstorm takes them out two weeks later. I was Mallory, the lead buzz generator, photographer and marketer. I’ve learned owning my business isn’t a sprint, but actually a marathon. It’s about working hard every single day, learning every detail and then hiring a team to complete day-to-day tasks so that you can focus on networking, strategic planning and managing the business.

There really is no typical day, which is one thing I love about this franchise system. Some days I’ll be walking through million-dollar homes with sellers, others I’ll be at my house with my dog uploading listings and editing photos. The day might start off more glamorous with an interview behind-the-scenes at the local radio show, or I may be handing out branded shirts at a community event, or I could even be travelling to Moncton to share my experience with new franchisees. No matter the day, I’m always chatting with clients and sharing what PropertyGuys.com is about. Of course, the best days always involve celebrating a new sold sign with a happy seller!

Strides forwardI’ve been with the franchise system nearly seven years now, and my love for PropertyGuys.com has only grown deeper.

The PropertyGuys.com business model works well in any market. In urban centres where housing prices continue to rise, sellers stand to give up more money on commissions than ever before. As shown by my success, the model also bodes well in rural areas like my small territory in Nova Scotia because typically rural markets are buyers’ markets. This means that there are more people trying to sell properties than buy homes in the area. That makes sellers have to compete on price. With PropertyGuys.com, sellers can walk away with more money because they don’t have to factor in a listing agent’s commission, if any at all. There’s no age limit on wanting to keep more money on the sale of a house. We’ve been able to help everyone from single professionals in their 20s to 90-year-old couples looking to downsize.

With a few tips, a team of experts on their side, and an easy to navigate platform, most clients find the process very easy. They feel in control of their sale, but that they’re not alone. There is nothing more frustrating than someone having his or her biggest asset on the market and not having a clue if anyone likes it. With us, clients feel like they’re in the driver’s seat because they’re often connecting with buyers directly.

The most rewarding part of my job is when a client will tell me their house sold and what they’re going to do with the money they saved by using PropertyGuys.com. Whether they’re using it to go on vacation, to help pay for their daughter’s university or decide to put it toward the down payment on their next home, I get to live vicariously through them.

Finding successOut of PropertyGuys.com’s 115 Canadian franchise locations from coast-to-coast, mine ranks in seventh place so far this year and that is purely based on listings. It doesn’t matter if I only have 36,000

dwellings in my territory; I’m being compared to areas that have 250,000 dwellings. Market share percentage is what leads to real estate domination in any area.

In Antigonish county, we currently have 56 per cent market share, or better described, as one out of two listings are PropertyGuys.com customers in the area.

It’s been a wonderful experience being part of the franchisee family. I feel that I could never have reached such success in this business on my own. I needed the support of the team at head office and fellow franchisees because I didn’t have any experience going in. I had gusto, but needed a lot of direction and mentorship.

In addition to a culture of collaboration, we have amazing business development meetings and technical support. The PropertyGuys.com system is strengthened by our user friendly website, culture and marketing materials that hit the mark. From social media banners, Facebook ads, to postcards and radio ads, there’s always a collaborative process between franchisees and the franchisor that lead to results across the board.

My favourite support benefit is our franchise Resource Centre provided by head office. This team of nearly 20 people is an extension of our business and not only does lead-generating for each franchise location, but also aides in customer experience calls to make sure sellers are comfortable and confident in our system. They will even call selling prospects in every city to explain that someone from PropertyGuys.com is in their community and would be happy to meet for coffee. They will then book that appointment in my calendar and I get an e-mail saying I have an appointment to chat with a seller who wants some more information. It’s seamless.

Hard work mattersIt’s hard to believe it was only a few years ago that I wasn’t sure of where my path would take me. From figuring out my passion to becoming a top franchisee in Canada, a lot has happened. In 2013, I won the Cathy Young Perseverance Award, an award named after a franchisee who passed away from cancer. It recognizes a franchisee that has overcome adversity. This was a huge point in my career, as I felt the franchise system was congratulating me on the success I had achieved so far, but I didn’t stop there.

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SELLING DREAMS WITH PROPERTYGUYS.COMBy Mallory Whitty

In 2016 I took home the Private Sale Professional Award, which is given to someone who embodies the characteristics and traits of an ideal franchisee. These successes have validated my hard work and passion for PropertyGuys.com.

I’ve also been fortunate to be able to share my enthusiasm and bring an amazing team into the business. I work with a property marketing expert named Kristian and an administration assistant, Traci, who helps out with the daily paperwork and micro details that I’m not great at, as well as two sign installers.

There is no ceiling restricting what my team can do. The harder we work, the more money we can help our clients save and the more money we get to put into the business. My job is not 9 to 5. I have the freedom to schedule things when they work for my lifestyle. Most of the time, I can even work from the comfort of my home office, spend a weekend away with my husband, Andrew, or enjoy a morning hike with my dog, Stella, if I want to.

Being part of a franchise system has taught me that we are always more powerful as a team than on our own.

I’ve always believed in the PropertyGuys.com model, however it’s hard to be a disruptor. It’s not easy to come in and shake things up

without a little resistance. You need to grow a thick skin. At first I felt nervous about promoting an alternative approach, but the strength of our system gave me the confidence and resources to stand on my own two feet and change the face of real estate in my area.

My business will always be a work in progress because I won’t stop until I’m number one in the country, and then I’ll need to work hard to retain that top spot. The entrepreneurial rollercoaster is a ride that I’m willing to take. I’ve found great success in my territory and owning my own business has been the most rewarding experience of my life.

I truly thought winning this franchise was going to be my life story, but as it turns out, losing it was.

Mallory Whitty is a PropertyGuys.com franchisee for Nova Scotia’s Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough counties. For more information, contact her via e-mail at mwhitty@propertyguys.com.

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