Elle's ERA Empire.
By Gloria Jomes
Just down the road from The Pattaya Trader Office on Soi Chaiyapruek 1 is the double fronted building that is now Elle’s “Empire”. I have personally visited the jewellery store she has here to look at the beautiful pieces for sale and bring in the odd repair. However, over the last year or so she has been spending more and more time on her property business culminating in the opening of her new ERA office right next door to her jewellery shop.
I went along to interview her and find out more.
What is ERA Elle?
“ERA is a Real Estate Brokers with 30,000 offices all over the world .They have been iIn Thailand for 26 years with the Head office in Bangkok and the Asian Regional headquarters in Singapore. I used to be a freelance agent for them and saw so much potential I decided to open an office for them here in Pattaya .”
How many agents do you have currently?
“Right now we have 5 team leaders and 10 agents per team. I aim to double this by the end of the year and my goal is to have 500 agents in 3 years time”
Do you personally take care of the training of your new recruits?
“Yes for any Thai nationals that would like to have a part time or full time job as a real estate agent. I can personally give them training we also have regular meetings every Monday. Even for people already working as local agents you might be missing the benefits of having an office. ERA can help you with connections and ensure you get paid your commission”.
What are the benefits for your customers ? I would think that languages and translations would be useful?
“Yes at my branch we have agents who can speak German and Chinese and of course English .So all of the paperwork we can translate, for example to give a Thai version and an English version and not just to translate but understand the law relating to all the necessary documents”
I should imagine this would be very useful 
especially when going to the land office where I’ve heard of friends who have spent the whole day there.
“Yes it is important to have all the correct documents ready before going. My agents usually just spend 1 hour there to complete a transaction.We are not just agents we call ourselves Trust Advisors as we help not just with the selling but with the marketing of the property.
ERA Commission Rates are 4% if sold within the first 3 months & 3% thereafter
For buyers too we have local knowledge of the area and can help them find villages or projects that they might not have known about otherwise”
So for buyers/sellers or potential agents pop in and have a chat with Elle at The ERA office on Soi Chaiyapruek 1, Jomtien.