AGARWAL ESTATES: A One Stop Solution For All Your Real Estate Needs
The act of buying and selling properties in India is riddled with a lack of trust and integrity. Issues of transparency and fraud are very common in the real estate field. But things are changing for the positive, and Agarwal Estates offers incredible solutions to all your real estate needs.
Based in Bangalore, Agarwal Estates is a real estate firm that was founded in 2012. Their services have grown organically based on their customers’ needs. They started with rental advisory and have now grown to become a full-stack real estate firm that includes buying and selling of all real estate (residential, commercial & land), rental and leasing to both consumers and corporates, interior design and contracting, loans and allied services.
In terms of unique offerings in their property management services, they work in a manner where they manage both residential & commercial properties, along with rental guarantees for selected properties to the respective owner, eventually providing hassle-free and productive tenant management for the owners.
How it was started
After Manoj Agarwal returned from the US and while in his last year with Cisco, he had experiences with real estate brokers which made him recognize that there was a significant trust gap in the market. As an owner of an apartment in the U.S. and as a consumer in India, he observed the gap in quality of service and trust in the two markets. In spite of being thousands of miles away from the US, he used to receive the committed rent regularly in his account. He observed that there was a huge contrast in the work and ethics of the real estate agents of these two markets. At times, it got really challenging for him with the agents in India with whom he had to validate and cross-check all the information received during the process.
All of this led to a singular vision for Agarwal Estates during its inception – To redefine trust and change the perception of real estate services in India.
This they do by consistently providing:
- Completely transparent service with no hidden agenda
- Empowering customers by providing them with knowledge
- A process-driven approach that is predictable and allows customers visibility into what to expect
Speaking of how his clientele has grown over the years, Manoj says, “As we have never believed in advertising, all of our business comes through the references of our customers. Our customers are those who come to us knowing that they can expect to be served in a transparent and ethical manner and the service comes at a cost. We do not subsidize our services as we’re aware of the value we bring to the table. Those who are looking for the superior quality of service and trustworthy advice prefer us.”
On the subject of keeping up with trends, the firm believes that change is the only constant and the only way to thrive is to continuously learn and evolve. The team here is entrenched in a learning culture that allows it not just to keep pace with but stay ahead of the curve as far as market trends go.
Agarwal Estates places a strong emphasis on employees and consistently provides them with motivation and encouragement. Employees, in turn, feel energized to be a part of the organization. This is ensured by instilling a sense of pride derived from the perception their brand enjoys in the market. In addition to this, they invest in their employees by training and coaching them, enabling them to feel like they are consistently getting better and are on a path to mastery. Lastly, they imbue in them a sense of purpose based on the awareness that their work is responsible for the happiness of the families of their customers.
In order to inspire a workforce, there are a multitude of motivational strategies. Recognition of efforts on a constant basis is what oils the machine.
“Our employee of the year is our youngest employee. When he joined us, he had no background in real estate nor did he know how to operate a computer, but he had a great attitude and was willing to learn. When our employees see him go on a company-sponsored all-expense-paid trip to Dubai which was a part of the award he won as an employee of the year, they know that they too can achieve anything if they put their mind to it.”
Let’s take a glance at the story of its struggles.
The Story of Struggle One of the biggest challenges faced by the firm is acquiring talent that fits into the values espoused by its founder. As several real estate businesses have been built on a culture of short term gains, the talent available in the real estate market is lacking in values. This is primarily because they have not seen mentors who put a premium on trust and long-term relationships.
For this reason, Agarwal Estates has endeavored to build its core team with leaders who are not from the real estate sector. The team includes folks with a background in media, medicine, IT and investing where they were assembled for their attitude and ethics and then embarked on a steep learning curve. The process-oriented approach coupled with its learning culture ensures that new members in the team have the best resources at hand to understand the market and gain domain knowledge that quickly positions them above their counterparts in the industry.
By meticulously and through hard work, with a focus on building relationships and creating a culture of continuous improvement, Agarwal Estates has emerged as pioneers in this domain
Looking ahead, Manoj Agarwal says, “Agarwal Estate’s vision is as humble as it is audacious – to change the perception of real estate services in India. The market will go through its evolutions and with our learning culture and focus on long term relationships, we will thrive and innovate. The best is yet to come.”
About the CEO
Manoj Agarwal is a US citizen and an ex techie, who has spent a large part of his career in Cisco. What he excelled in while in the IT industry was to understand that processes matter more than individual brilliance and are the only ways to successfully scale operations.
