COFFEE houses have been popular venues for political discussion, artistic expression, and business deals since they came to Europe from the east in the 1600s.
Of course today, catching up for a coffee is among the most common ways to have an informal business meeting; and Perth real estate agent Erit David is looking to use that connection to her advantage in a tight property market.
A director of Equinox Realty, Mrs David has opened a new office in Dianella - an office disguised as a coffee shop.
The Equinox Coffee House is a new concept borne from Mrs David’s need to raise her profile in the local market, where she has worked in real estate for 18 years, relying solely on word of mouth.
“Referrals were enough for 18 years but now, certainly, we need to be thinking a little bit outside the square because the market’s really tightened up,” Mrs David said.
“There are certainly houses for sale, but to get market share in a particular area we needed to do something different.”
The idea was, essentially, common sense for Mrs David.
“I’ve never done business in an office; I go to people’s homes or we go and meet in coffee shops - that’s the way people prefer to do business,” she said.
While Mrs David has always had an administration office in Leederville, she said she never had any desire to have a ‘shop-front’ like traditional real estate offices, where people can peruse listings in the shop window.
“Buyers and sellers used to rely heavily on real estate agents to give them information, but today (with the internet) they just really don’t need that,” she said.
Mrs David believes the anonymity offered by online browsing was leading to breakdowns in personal relationships, which she said was an integral part of her business and becoming even more so amid growing competition.
“Creating this space then gave people a reason to come and stand at the window, look at what’s for sale, and come inside, have a chat and build relationships,” Mrs David told WA Business News.
“The problem with having a traditional real estate office is that you’ve got to employ a full-time receptionist to sit at the front, so I thought we should make the reception area a profit centre.
“It’s a way that I don’t have to employ a receptionist and it can become a self-funding part of the business.”
It has also provided an outlet for Mrs David’s husband, Phil David, to sell his personal brand of brownies and for Equinox’s graphic designer to market cupcakes.
“No-one has to buy a house when they come in here, if you’re a local person just looking for a coffee shop then you can just have a coffee,” Mrs David said.
“But it was an initiative I took for us as sellers to have a reason to attract people into the store and to have a point of difference in the market.”
Mrs David established Equinox Realty about four years ago and has since grown her team to nine staff members.
While her current plan is to retain the Leederville site as an administration office, she hasn’t ruled out converting it into a second coffee house-style space.
“Who knows ... I like to do things so they can be replicated, so we could very well open more.”
