Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa October 2013 | Page 31

RESIDENTIAL
interact directly with their clients and provide
input with regards to maintenance and upkeep of
their property, ultimately building relationships
with their clients.
Importantly, communication through Social
Estate allows a scheme to keep a historical
archive of all activities, which alone is a
benefit that greatly outweighs the use of email.
Considering the turnover of trustees and
managing agents this is a huge advantage to the
scheme and future management.
The reaction from body corporates, residents
and contractors has been overwhelmingly positive
with members agreeing that Social Estate vastly
improves efficiency, accuracy and transparency,
enabling better time management and quick
decision-making that involves all relevant parties.
Says Wouter van den Heever, managing
member at Ambercom Property Management,
“We are involved in an industry that requires
clear concise communication to all stakeholders
at all times to ensure transparency and good
governance. Social Estate has made this task

significantly easier and since we started using
this product, we’ve seen greatly improved
communication between trustees and owners”.
According to Glenn, good communication is the
key to a peaceful community, “Consider a hundred
people – of ages spanning from the early 20s to 50s
and over – living together in the same space only a
few metres apart and having to abide by rules they
were never consulted on the first place. There is no
way a community like this can coexist peacefully
without the ability to communicate freely and
develop relationships”.
Glenn goes on to explain a case where Social
Estate played a pivotal role in improving social
well-being within a community. “A tenant who
lived in a sectional title scheme did not want to be
contacted at all through any medium and refused
to socialise at any level. With the ability to view
people’s profiles and peruse their activity and
behaviour through Social Estate she developed
enough confidence to begin interacting with
other members until eventually she was willing
to provide her cellphone number to all members
in the scheme through a public discussion

topic. There has been such an overwhelming
transformation with regards to her willingness to
participate and socialise that she is now driving
other members to hold a community gathering
so people can get to know each other better in
person”.
Glenn believes that Social Estate is a
valuable additional benefit of buying in a newly
developed complex. At the inception of a body
corporate, communication and a historical log
of decisions made is imperative to the future of
the scheme and can be easily achieved through
this clever social media platform, with minimal
administration requirements.
Glenn has big plans to further develop Social
Estate into a mechanism for generating income
for large communities such as residential
associations and housing estates. His aim is
to give these establishments the tool to raise
additional funds for community improvement
and spur local business growth through direct
marketing to their communities.

RESOURCES

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