People that have known and dealt with Roland D'Ivry Russel over the years, will be sad to know that he passed away in February this year.
Ursula, his wife, passed away in December 2008.
Roland will be sadly missed by friends and colleges.
I hope everyone had a wonderful festive season and that you’re looking forward to another trip around the sun.
The project has taken a lot longer, and required a lot more of my time than I anticipated, but I’m delighted with the results. I really have to thank my lucky stars (and my brother) that I found such a great builder – his knowledge, experience and expertise – not to mention patience – has been a blessing.
Along with new offices, I’ve also decided on a new logo. In line with my marketing which promotes property near the
We’ve had some pretty wild discussions about which animal we want as our emblem… after all, what does a giraffe say about my company? Do we want realistic looking giraffes, contempory, stylized, cartoons? They’re proving to be very versatile – they can look elegant, inquisitive, superior, supercilious, and comical in turns.
In fact we plan to use a variety of images for different applications. If you have any pictures that we could add to our library, we really would appreciate them.
Life in this corner of the world is still peaceful. We’ve had 460mm of rain to date – and everything is looking fresh and green – with the exception of the mopane trees which are largely devoid of leaves. This years crop of mopane worms was quite phenomenal – as was the number of (human) predators scouring the countryside. It seems amazing that any survive long enough to pupate. And of course there are babies everywhere – I saw the sweetest little gnus in Grietje the other day.
With regard to Zuma’s election – it’s a bit like the land claims… there’s a lot of talk about what they’re going to do and what’s going to happen….. but it all seems to work on
Everything of the best for 2008, and thank you for your support!
I’m turning into my mother!! I used to listen to her bemoaning the fact that there were never enough hours in a day – now I’m singing the same song!!
The property market has dropped off considerably by comparison to last year, due to the hike in interest rates, the new fica laws kicking in, and the fact that the land claims commissioner has turned his attention to the Phalaborwa area.It would be logical to assume that I’d have more time on my hands.
In fact my agency has grown, people are taking more time and looking more carefully at the options available in the property market, and I got sidetracked doing a Specialist Course in Sectional Title through Paddocks and the University of Cape Town.It’s a sad thing in South Africa that there aren’t more training programs for Estate Agents. The larger franchises have some in house training and motivational courses, but otherwise it’s pretty much a vacuum out there.
Anyway, classes are now over and I can concentrate on business once again.I’ve decided to concentrate on holiday homes, farms and lodges, which require a different set of skills to the residential market.
That said, I will be taking on the marketing of some of the new (for Phalaborwa) lock up and go cluster developments that are coming on the market. Investors take note!!
