Professionals Real Estate 
Casino Agency Switches to Professionals
BORN and bred NSW Northern Rivers resident Scott Peart has rebranded his popular real estate agency under the Professionals Group Australia banner.
Mr Peart has switched his business from the LJ Hooker brand to be now known as Professionals Casino.
Mr Peart said he believed the franchise model for real estate was becoming outdated.
“Under a franchise model, the more successful you are, the more it costs you,’’ he said. “The Professionals model is based on a set fee, which is really appealing, particularly as you become more successful.
“I looked at our five-year plan and could see significant savings and it will provide us the opportunity to put more money back into the community.”
Mr Peart says he loves the Casino region. His father operated an upholstery business in the northern NSW town while his parents-in-law owned an electrical and lighting business in the town.
“Casino is a great little community. We are only 45 minutes to the beach and the town in recent years has increasingly developed a strong family dynamic,’’ said Mr Peart
“There is a really good vibe in the community.”
Mr Peart said the Casino real estate market was exceptionally strong with the region experiencing 22 per cent price growth during the past 12 months.
“Our CRM system shows the mean price has gone up $50,000 in the past 6 months alone,’’ he said.
“Before the COVID-19 lockdown the popular 100-acre lifestyle blocks were mostly being sold to Queensland buyers.
“The Queensland buyers have obviously disappeared now because of the COVID-19 border restrictions but this year we have found a lot of retirees are moving their money out of other investments and into real estate.
“We are also seeing a lot of first-home buyers, investors and tree changers.
“A lot of people are being priced out of the Sydney market and the NSW coastal markets and so they are selling and upgrading to Casino.
“Interestingly, we have sold four properties to Sydneysiders, sight unseen, over the phone this year.”
Mr Peart’s real estate career started in in Casino in 2002 after he and his wife Sharon had owned and operated a restaurant in the town for many years.
“We owned a restaurant in Casino, we had already had our first child and we were about to have our second child,’’ he said.
“We loved running the restaurant, but it is not a very family-friendly industry. One of the restaurant’s regular clients owned a real estate agency in Casino and he offered me a job.
“So, we sold our restaurant through the agent, and I then started to work for him.
“I then managed another agency for several years before we had the opportunity to purchase the Casino agency in 2009, just before the Global Financial Crisis. Since then, we have dealt with the impacts of bushfires, drought, and COVID-19.
“We have battled through all of that and are still growing. We moved office earlier this year and now we have more than 300 rental properties on our books, about the double the size we were.”
