Abstract not available

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the difference between front-line employees' perception of service versus the customer's perception of the service delivery within the New Zealand Real Estate Industry. This research examines the service perception of the service delivery within the real estate industry using an exploratory study, pre-test and a survey. The lack of knowledge within real estate particularly around the importance of services has been a major motivator for this research. In reviewing the literature, a substantial amount of literature was available on service delivery however there was a gap in the literature on the service delivery in the real estate industry. This research addresses this gap through analysing the real estate industry, focusing on the Auckland market. Four dimensions of service were identified using SERVQUAL. Findings from the factor analysis showed that employees and clients have different perceptions of service. The management implications are wide and will positively impact the industry. For the industry, increasing service delivery will ensure the industry gains a more professional image and standing within New Zealand business.

<p>Every year a number of tenant-owner flat deals are concluded and the availability of real estate agents on the market is today very widespread. It has become increasingly difficult for estate agents to distinguish themselves in a way that makes the estate agent the customer’s choice. Estate agents must have a good understanding of what is important to the customer. An apartment deal is, for most people, an important event in their life. Which is the key factor for a customer in choosing a particular estate agent?</p><p>The purpose: The main purpose of this study is to examine which criteria customers consider to be important when they choose real estate agents to sell their apartments. Which criteria affect their choice and which criterion is considered to be the determining factor?</p><p>As part of the purpose we will also examine how the real estate agents distinguish themselves and which factors are used to get the customers to choose them. Are these factors the same factors which guide customers to finally choose a particular real estate agent?</p><p>Method: The method that we have chosen to serve our purpose in the best possible way is, partly, by interviews with real estate agents and, partly, by surveys among customers of the companies. The estate agents we have interviewed are Svensk Fastighetsförmedling and Svenska Mäklarhuset. In order to collect information we have also chosen to use several kinds of sources such as the Internet and various kinds of literature.</p><p>Conclusion: We came to the conclusion that the criterion that appeared to be the most important for both estate agent companies, was that the apartment was advertised on the Internet. Just as important for the clients of Svensk Fastighetsförmedling was that the real estate agents appear to be reliable and serious. This criterion took second place with clients of Svenska Mäklarhuset. What appeared to be the decisive factor among the clients for their choice of a real estate agent was the personal chemistry between the client and the real estate agent’s broker. It seems that both companies, among other things, have chosen the “softer values” to communicate and market themselves.</p> / <p>Varje år avslutas ett antal bostadsrättsaffärer och utbudet av fastighetsmäklare på marknaden idag är väldigt stort. Det blir allt svårare för fastighetsmäklarföretagen att utmärka sig och få kunderna att välja just dem. Fastighetsmäklarföretagen måste ha en god uppfattning om vad kunderna tycker är betydelsefullt. En bostadsrättsaffär är för många en viktig händelse i livet. Vad är det som avgör vilket fastighetsmäklarföretag kunden slutligen väljer?</p><p>Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna rapport är att undersöka vilka kriterier konsumenterna tycker är viktiga när de väljer fastighetsmäklarföretag för att sälja deras bostadsrätt. Vilka kriterier påverkar valet och vilket är det avgörande?</p><p>Som delsyfte kommer vi även att undersöka hur fastighetsmäklarföretagen utmärker sig själva och vilka faktorer de använder sig av för att få kunderna att välja just dem. Är det dessa faktorer kunderna verkligen går efter i slutändan när de väljer fastighetsmäklarföretag?</p><p>Metod: De metoder vi har valt att använda oss av för att på bästa sätt besvara vårt syfte är dels intervjuer med fastighetsmäklare och dels en enkätundersökning bland företagens kunder. De fastighetsmäklarföretag vi har intervjuat är Svensk fastighetsförmedling, Farsta samt Svenska Mäklarhuset, Södermalm. Även andra typer av källor, i form av Internet och diverse litteratur, har använts för att samla in data.</p><p>Slutsatser: Vi kom fram till att det kriterium som framstod som mest betydelsefullt för båda företagen var att objektet annonseras på Internet. Lika betydelsefullt för Svensk Fastighetsförmedlings kunder var att fastighetsmäklarföretaget uppfattas som pålitliga och seriösa. Detta kriterium kom på andra plats hos Svenska Mäklarhusets kunder. Det som visade sig vara avgörande för kunderna vid valet av fastighetsmäklarföretag var personkemi med fastighetsmäklaren. Det är även bland annat dessa ”mjuka” värden som båda företagen har valt att marknadsföra och kommunicera ut.</p>

Every year a number of tenant-owner flat deals are concluded and the availability of real estate agents on the market is today very widespread. It has become increasingly difficult for estate agents to distinguish themselves in a way that makes the estate agent the customer’s choice. Estate agents must have a good understanding of what is important to the customer. An apartment deal is, for most people, an important event in their life. Which is the key factor for a customer in choosing a particular estate agent? The purpose: The main purpose of this study is to examine which criteria customers consider to be important when they choose real estate agents to sell their apartments. Which criteria affect their choice and which criterion is considered to be the determining factor? As part of the purpose we will also examine how the real estate agents distinguish themselves and which factors are used to get the customers to choose them. Are these factors the same factors which guide customers to finally choose a particular real estate agent? Method: The method that we have chosen to serve our purpose in the best possible way is, partly, by interviews with real estate agents and, partly, by surveys among customers of the companies. The estate agents we have interviewed are Svensk Fastighetsförmedling and Svenska Mäklarhuset. In order to collect information we have also chosen to use several kinds of sources such as the Internet and various kinds of literature. Conclusion: We came to the conclusion that the criterion that appeared to be the most important for both estate agent companies, was that the apartment was advertised on the Internet. Just as important for the clients of Svensk Fastighetsförmedling was that the real estate agents appear to be reliable and serious. This criterion took second place with clients of Svenska Mäklarhuset. What appeared to be the decisive factor among the clients for their choice of a real estate agent was the personal chemistry between the client and the real estate agent’s broker. It seems that both companies, among other things, have chosen the “softer values” to communicate and market themselves. / Varje år avslutas ett antal bostadsrättsaffärer och utbudet av fastighetsmäklare på marknaden idag är väldigt stort. Det blir allt svårare för fastighetsmäklarföretagen att utmärka sig och få kunderna att välja just dem. Fastighetsmäklarföretagen måste ha en god uppfattning om vad kunderna tycker är betydelsefullt. En bostadsrättsaffär är för många en viktig händelse i livet. Vad är det som avgör vilket fastighetsmäklarföretag kunden slutligen väljer? Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna rapport är att undersöka vilka kriterier konsumenterna tycker är viktiga när de väljer fastighetsmäklarföretag för att sälja deras bostadsrätt. Vilka kriterier påverkar valet och vilket är det avgörande? Som delsyfte kommer vi även att undersöka hur fastighetsmäklarföretagen utmärker sig själva och vilka faktorer de använder sig av för att få kunderna att välja just dem. Är det dessa faktorer kunderna verkligen går efter i slutändan när de väljer fastighetsmäklarföretag? Metod: De metoder vi har valt att använda oss av för att på bästa sätt besvara vårt syfte är dels intervjuer med fastighetsmäklare och dels en enkätundersökning bland företagens kunder. De fastighetsmäklarföretag vi har intervjuat är Svensk fastighetsförmedling, Farsta samt Svenska Mäklarhuset, Södermalm. Även andra typer av källor, i form av Internet och diverse litteratur, har använts för att samla in data. Slutsatser: Vi kom fram till att det kriterium som framstod som mest betydelsefullt för båda företagen var att objektet annonseras på Internet. Lika betydelsefullt för Svensk Fastighetsförmedlings kunder var att fastighetsmäklarföretaget uppfattas som pålitliga och seriösa. Detta kriterium kom på andra plats hos Svenska Mäklarhusets kunder. Det som visade sig vara avgörande för kunderna vid valet av fastighetsmäklarföretag var personkemi med fastighetsmäklaren. Det är även bland annat dessa ”mjuka” värden som båda företagen har valt att marknadsföra och kommunicera ut.

This paper is an attempt to describe the character of business enterprise in nineteenth century Vancouver by examining real estate businessmen during the city's first boom from 1884-1893. Throughout the 1880s the area could still be described as a 'frontier' environment where rapid growth, general uncertainty, and fluid economic and social boundaries meant that the people who took an active role in a city's founding were crucial in determining the city's business culture. What makes Vancouver's situation intriguing was the fact that businessmen representing a hierarchy of salaried corporate executives, specifically the managers of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and businessmen representing a very individualistic approach to enterprise, converged on the south shore of Burrard Inlet at the same time. While not unique to Vancouver, these two conceptions of business, active on a large scale at approximately the same time, created a commercial identity and environment particular to Vancouver. Using Alfred Chandler's four stage model on the changing relationship of business and entrepreneurship to society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this paper proposes to show that, instead of following an evolutionary process of ever increasing business size and complexity through time, Vancouver's real estate industry and general business community retained the characteristics of independent personal enterprise to a greater degree than the dominant position of the CPR would suggest. Even when attempts were made to establish institutions of self-interested collectivism or move toward a style of entrepreneurial capitalism, they were all effectively applied to the advantage of the individual. The voluntary and membership organizations such as the Vancouver Real Estate Board, and the Vancouver Board of Trade, the new business syndicates like the Vancouver Improvement Company and the Vancouver Loan, Trust, Savings, and Guarantee Company, and the decisions to enter the municipal, provincial, and federal political arenas were still dominated by an individualist creed. Until the maturation of the staple based industries enabled other enterprises to adopt managerial capitalism, the philosophy of the business community would remain heavily influenced by a personal enterprise form of business operation.

Computers and business systems are used more frequently in a world where IT gradually is taking over. This is also true when it comes to the real estate valuation process where actors on the Swedish real estate market are using automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. But the real estate agents have not yet seen the charm in using these automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. Can the real estate agents also use the automatic valuation systems? We developed our three main subjects: the valuation process, an automatic valuation system and the real estate market with assistance from scientific articles. Through these articles we will present a background to real estate appraisal in general. We choose a qualitative approach where we interviewed eight real estate agents and complemented this by conducting a telephone interview with a business area manager at a private valuation institute. The result of this paper shows that the real estate firms rely on data from earlier purchases and that they use different IT-based tools in order to make an accurate appraisal. An automatic valuation system with extended information can be very helpful for the real estate agents depending on which part of the country the real estate agent works in. However the automatic valuation system can never replace the ocular inspection. In neighbourhoods where the houses look the same there’s a greater need for an extended base of information through an automatic valuation system. In areas with unique locations and houses that are difficult to compare the demands are higher on the content of the system to be correct and updated. In this way the automatic valuation system can be used in the housing market and fulfils a need in both types of areas as a complement to the ocular inspection.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the difference between front-line employees' perception of service versus the customer's perception of the service delivery within the New Zealand Real Estate Industry. This research examines the service perception of the service delivery within the real estate industry using an exploratory study, pre-test and a survey. The lack of knowledge within real estate particularly around the importance of services has been a major motivator for this research. In reviewing the literature, a substantial amount of literature was available on service delivery however there was a gap in the literature on the service delivery in the real estate industry. This research addresses this gap through analysing the real estate industry, focusing on the Auckland market. Four dimensions of service were identified using SERVQUAL. Findings from the factor analysis showed that employees and clients have different perceptions of service. The management implications are wide and will positively impact the industry. For the industry, increasing service delivery will ensure the industry gains a more professional image and standing within New Zealand business.

Thesis (MBus) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004. / Also held in print (125 leaves, 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 333.330993 EDW)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 7, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita.

Thesis (M.Bus)--Unitec New Zealand, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79).