Key points

• Raine & Horne has added to its strong network in the St George region with the launch of a Hurstville office.
• The new office will be led by young gun agents Chris Arvanis and Jake Harrison.
• Raine & Horne’s marketing leading technologies such as Amplify, Digikit and Compass played a major role in attracting Mr Arvanis and Mr Harrison to the Superbrand. 

Hurstville, NSW (8 September 2021) Raine & Horne has added to its robust office network in the St George region by launching a brand-new Hurstville office led by young gun duo of Chris Arvanis and Jake Harrison. 

For the real estate double act, the opening of Raine & Horne Hurstville is a back to the future event as Mr Harrison, a former commercial real estate agent, also moonlighted as the cook at Mr Arvanis’ Sylvania Waters eatery – Home Pizza. “Jake was already in commercial and industrial real estate and worked out of Hurstville. He’d come over after work, take off his jacket and tie, put on his cook’s attire, and away he went.”

"I was 22 when I opened the pizzeria, the same age that Jake is right now. It's a bit like looking back in time sometimes, though now I get to do it all again, having learned what I've learned, with a partner who's even more driven than I was back then, which says a lot. Jake can draw from my experience, and I can draw from the drive. People say we're like Yin and Yang, and I fully support that in business"

Hooked on real estate

Mr Arvanis sold his restaurant in 2017 and soon got a taste for real estate by successfully selling his home in San Souci privately at 26 years old, before investing in property in North Sydney. “After hospitality, real estate felt right. So, I went ahead and got myself qualified with a full real estate licence.”

Initially, Mr Arvanis considered commercial property as a career after suggestion from his real estate mentor, Chris Schiller, known amongst the industry as “Uncle Chris”, but this changed when he contacted his former charge, Mr Harrison, who had shifted to residential real estate sales and leasing. “Jake hooked me up with an interview with his employer in Campbelltown, who was handling a lot of house and land packages and off-the-plan properties. We both got some good experience in that sector with all the new areas emerging, especially over the last two or three years.”

Returning to small business ownership

However, the plan for Mr Arvanis and Mr Harrison, the latter of whom has since sold upwards of $150 million worth of property alone, was always to return to their old stomping ground, the St George region, to establish their own real estate office. “Hurstville’s an excellent fit for us because it’s not far from our old business in Sylvania Waters. I grew up in the St George region, and Jake lives in Sylvania. 

“I wanted to operate a real estate office in Hurstville, especially having owned a restaurant in such a nearby high-end area like Sylvania Waters. Becoming familiar with the people there, and how they live, and their lifestyle and investment motivations means that Jake and I are well-placed to service their real estate needs.”

Why Raine & Horne

After considering their ownership options, Mr Arvanis and Mr Harrison decided to open their Hurstville office under the Raine & Horne banner after consulting with a business associate, Mark Ammoun, Director of Raine & Horne Commercial Bankstown. “We weren’t aware of how joining a network such as Raine & Horne worked and what was involved in setting up an office.

“Through his time in commercial real estate, Jake knew Mark who told us he’d moved to Raine & Horne and that “they are amazing,” which after my first training session, is a judgement I agree with entirely.

“The training, the systems, and software suite is pretty much what I had envisioned trying to put together as an independent. But to do so, I would have had to approach a third party and would pay many, many thousands of dollars a month trying to get everything that Raine & Horne is offering us.”

Mr Arvanis continued, “Being tech-savvy, good technology pretty much means everything to me. But I need everything integrated and seamless and smooth, and Raine & Horne delivers this in spades.”

Amplifying their success through social media 

The new team also plans “to be big on social media” This is why Raine & Horne’s first-to-market technology, Amplify, truly resonated with its latest principals. Amplify is a powerful digital marketing technology that creates multiple ads for a property and displays them to targeted audiences via social media platforms such as Facebook and Google. 

“I like the fact that Amplify uses a lot of machine learning to utilise our office’s presence on Facebook and other social media platforms much better than just a simple post on Facebook. 

“We’ll still be running separate ads through Facebook for lead generation, but everything that we do is linked through Raine & Horne’s powerful CRM tool Compass, which is very impressive.”

Mr Arvanis continued, “Another major plus for me was Raine & Horne’s DigiKitPlus. We were trying to find a suitable solution for creating digital listings presentations. 

“With DigiKitPlus, you have a link direct to Compass, and again everything is seamless, including the marketing campaign, and that’s a massive tick for me. With DigiKitPlus, our presentations are more interactive and more captivating for our vendors, and most importantly for me, I feel it better educates the viewer, which is our intent at the end of the day.”

For all your real estate sales and property management needs in Hurstville and surrounding suburbs contact Raine & Horne Hurstville on 0400 109 713.

 –ENDS– 

For further media information contact:

Chris Arvanis, Co-Principal Raine & Horne Hurstville on 0400 109 713

Olivia Rowe, Communications & Content Executive, Raine & Horne on 0432 113 569