After 25 years as a sales agent, Voradet Sivatachanon has taken the helm of a used-house broking business in Bangkok that he has struggled to support for more than 13 years.

It has been a battle through thick and thin, but Voradet has already begun restructuring Era Franchise (Thailand), a franchise operation of a US-based used-house sales agency, and he expects optimistically that the used-house market in Thailand will soon become a driving force in the country's economy.

The company was formed in 1993 as ERA Thailand, a franchise of US-based ERA Real Estate. Voradet was one of its co-founders. Over the years it has suffered many business problems, but it has dealt with more than 100,000 used houses and has succeeded in selling about 12 per cent of them.

Voradet studied and worked in the US for nearly 10 years before returning to Thailand in 1991 and going to work as a sales agent for Juldis Development, whose owner Terapot Charoonsri launched the used-house broking business in Thailand after seeing how it worked in the US.

Under Terapot's guidance, Voradet and others launched ERA Thailand in 1993. However, the used house broking business was at first not accepted in Thailand - although nobody denied payments of commission.

Terapot was convinced ERA would boost his company's sales to Bt10 billion per year, so against the odds ERA expanded a network of brokers in Thailand. There was still no interest, and to make matters worse most of its brokers used the business as a sideline, and few of them worked at it full-time.

"We learned that our most important resources were a database of used houses and a good image, so we built up our business from those strengths," Voradet says.

ERA was then caught up in the property boom, between 1993 and 1996, and its business expanded rapidly to reach 120 franchise branches in 15 provinces, with 5,000 sales agents. Even when the financial crisis struck in 1997, the property business continued for a while on a tide of carry-forward deals.

But the Tom Yam Kung crisis caught up with ERA. The number of franchises tumbled to just 40 and total annual sales plunged from Bt3 billion or Bt4 billion to Bt300 million or Bt400 million.

At the same time, the company faced the need to change its computing systems and its invaluable database became the victim of widespread computer viruses.

"It was a crisis time for the company because we had to change all our computer hardware and software to continue operations, but we had no money," Voradet recalls.

Although the company tried hard to solve its problems, it still needed financial support to keep going.

To survive, Juldis Development finally sold a majority stake of 70 per cent in the company to Shin Corp's subsidiary SC Asset. It set up a new company, ERA Franchise (Thailand), in 2000 to continue the property-broking business. The remaining shares in the new company were held by Voradet and one other investor. Voradet was appointed to ERA Franchise's top management and the company was also tasked with marketing for SC Asset.

Voradet recalls that the following two years were troublesome, and he played a leading role in solving many of the company's problems. But eventually SC Asset decided to take back its marketing responsibilities, leaving ERA Franchise struggling to pay its employees' salaries.

It was during a meeting about ERA Franchise's future that SC Asset's former president Surathian Jaktranon suggested that Voradet should buy SC Asset's 70-per-cent stake and take control of ERA Franchise himself.

Voradet bought SC Asset's shares in ERA Franchise for Bt8 million in 2005. He moved its office out of Shin Tower to a new location in the Ramkhamhaeng area.

ERA Franchise has since been restructured to modernise its management systems.

The ERA Group of Companies will soon be registered as a holding company to operate ERA Franchise, which will become a corporate franchise arm. Property Network will be set up as an individual franchise business and Realnet Corporation will be established as a reference point for members. In addition, two supporting divisions will also be set up, including corporate support and information technology.

"The restructuring will not only systemise the company's operations but also help sales agents to maintain contact with us via an electronic network," Voradet says.

The company's total sales from franchise businesses are expected to reach Bt3 billion to Bt4 billion per year, plus Bt500 million from franchisees. Its revenue is expected to grow by an average of 10 per cent per annum.

Voradet says the used-house business now has a total volume of about 300,000 units and a total market value between Bt50 billion and Bt70 billion per year. The broking service is building up its share of these transactions. The number of registered brokers is between 300 and 350 agents.

Having never once given up on the company he helped establish and the business he helped introduce to Thailand, Voradet now has a towering vision. "I believe that the used-house business will become the country's economic backbone within the next five years. It will also encourage property broking and direct selling," he says.

Voradet is also thinking of listing his company on the stock exchange. He believes this will guarantee his employees' future income and the company's future operations, even when he is no longer there to lead them.

Achara Pongvutitham

 The Nation