Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa November 2013 | Page 11

E

ttiene Pretorius is a successful real
estate entrepreneur based in the East of
Pretoria. His real estate career started
in property construction, residential property
development and residential investment
and he recently bought into a residential
estate agency franchise in order to create that
funnel of information and build pipelines
of communication between buyers, sellers,
developers and professional people.
His rise to success in a few months has been
nothing short of spectacular. His business
sales turnover grew from 5 deals in the first
9 months to 76 deals in the next 6 months by
implementing game changing strategies and is
still growing.
While Ettiene has a solid track record of
success, he admits it has been a continuous
learning process. He attributes much of his
success to business coaching, which opened his
eyes to new ideas, and helped him implement
methodologies he learnt. His definition of
success is based on realising the power of his
choices, understanding his ability to impact
the people around him and mastering the art of
rapid action when facing new opportunities or
dealing with problems.
Ettiene also attributes his success to the
good upbringing provided by his parents in
the Lowveld, where he grew up. He says they
taught him to live life to the fullest and to lead
conversations by asking questions, instead of
talking.
Ettiene has been an entrepreneur all his life
and started his first business at the tender age
of six. At age 10, he made his first investment,
which taught him the principles of passive
income. However, a year later, he learnt ‘there is
no such thing as easy money’ after investing in
a pyramid scheme offering unrealistic returns
and, as a result, he lost his entire investment.
During Ettiene’s third year at university, he
made his first real estate investment. In his
fourth year, as an honours student at the age of
21, he made his first million. At the same time,
he received an award from ABSA as a Top
Entrepreneur In SA.
Ettiene identif ied a demand for student
accommodation in Potch in 2003. In his third
year at University, at age 21, he bought h