Formerly operating as Global Realty Partners, Raine & Horne Mayfield, Raine & Horne New Lambton and Raine & Horne Wallsend are led by principals Colin Bice, John Hogan, Craig Fenning and Tony Tolazzi.

“This is a significant achievement for our group as Hunter Real Estate, which operated as Global Realty Partners, is an integral player in Newcastle as it services an important triangle of suburbs between New Lambton, Wallsend, and Hamilton,” said Angus Raine, Executive Chairman Raine & Horne.

Raine & Horne has an extensive network in the Hunter with offices in Newcastle CBD, Belmont, Stockton, Swansea, Cessnock, Port Stephens, Muswellbrook, Lemon Tree Passage and Nelson Bay.

In combination, Raine & Horne Wallsend, New Lambton and Hamilton have sold 6,000 properties since 2001. The Newcastle mega-office manages 1,500 rental properties, making it one of the region’s foremost property managers. Also, the office has a growing strata management business and conducts business sales. Mr Bice is a Co-principal of Raine & Horne Belmont, which rebranded to the global property group in December 2018.

“Strategically, the Hunter is among our fastest growing regional growth centres nationally, while Newcastle is one of Australia’s most significant cities ahead of the likes of Darwin and Hobart,” said Mr Raine.

Mr Bice and his fellow principals John Hogan, Craig Fenning and Tony Tolazzi will be excellent additions to the network, according to Mr Raine. “As agents and business owners, no one is better credentialled in Newcastle than Colin, John, Craig, and Tony.

A desire to stay ahead of the technology curve was central to Global Realty Partners’ decision to join the global Superbrand. “As an independent, we can’t compete with the technology and training advances provided by Raine & Horne,” Mr Bice said.

“We have a staff of 40 and paying for training, and the right sales and property management tools can be very expensive for an independent.

“Also, while we know the local real estate intimately, we don’t have the same level of knowledge about technology. Trying to keep up with technology advances is too expensive for an independent.”

Mr Bice also said Raine & Horne’s investment in first-to-market digital marketing platform such as Amplify attracted him and his co-principals to the global group. “We have seen Amplify in action through Raine & Horne Belmont over the last six months. It’s a great product.”

To illustrate, Mr Bice was recently selling two similar townhouses in the same New Lambton development with identical price tags. “We used Amplify to market one of the properties through social media and not the other. We had 600 people look at the Amplified property, and only four viewed the other property.

“With the help of Amplify and the additional interest, the property sold faster and for a better price. Better still it only cost the vendor a fraction of the cost of the leading portals to market and sell the property through Amplify.”

Raine & Horne’s ground-breaking Digikit, a web-based interactive appraisal and proposal platform is also a significant attraction. “Digikit is a great product that allows us to generate proposals and submissions in a short space of time,” Mr Bice said.

“On the day we drove to meet with Angus in Sydney to discuss the move, I had a conversation with my PA about creating an auction submission for us. After we finished the three-hour meeting at Raine & Horne, we received a call from the PA, who was still working on the presentation.

“With Digikit, I’ll be able to get that submission out much faster to my vendors than before.”

For sales and property management services in Hamilton, contact Raine & Horne Mayfield on 02 4949 2300. In Wallsend, contact Raine & Horne Wallsend on 02 4955 7511 and for New Lambton, Raine & Horne New Lambton on 02 4961 0411.