Monapart in Veredes Architecture Magazine
On 22 October, the architecture magazine See publishes an interview to José Luis Echeverría Manau, founding partner of Monapart. We leave you here a summary, but not without thanking you for your interest and space dedicated to us.
Monapart in Veredes, architecture magazine
In 2010, a few years after the beginning of a crisis that still lasts, the real estate agency Monapart opened its doors while other agencies in the sector were closing due to the prevailing economic situation and the problems that this entailed. So it has been more than 10 years since José Luis Echeverría (architect by ETSAB, MScAUD by Columbia University, MBA by ESADE Business School. Professor of Projects in Barcelona (UIC, ETSALS, IaaC) and Visiting Critic at Syracuse University School of Architecture. Professional and teaching activity between 2000 and 2013), Eduard Solé Agustench (journalist) and Olga Sala Villagrasa (lawyer) founded this real estate agency in which each of them brings his or her experience and together they developed in an unknown and welcome sector.
"There are few agents who were real estate agents as their first profession, I know very few. Most of us come from other professions: law, psychology, architecture, business".
How, when and why did Monapart Real Estate come into being?
In 2009, Eduard Solé, a fellow MBA student, called me to offer me to participate in the creation of a real estate agency specialising in charming homes of which I already had the name: Monapart. We started in an orthodox way by drawing up a business plan for a 100% digital agency (we were pioneers at the time). Olga Sala joined us after six months, bringing her content and digital communication strategy component to the project. Six months later (a year in total) we went to market.
"With a presence in several Spanish cities, Monapart is recognised as one of the most prestigious real estate brands for its innovative practices; it is taken as a reference for its digital strategy by competing companies, international consultancies and business schools. Year after year we are improving in economic results, brand awareness, recognition by industry experts and customer satisfaction".
What difficulties or problems did you encounter when setting it up? What are/were the most problematic?
There are people who read the manual and install the washing machine and people who install the washing machine and try and see what happens. We were of the second type, so the difficulties were all inherent to an operation based on trial and error. Having no referents made us lose a lot of time learning things on our own, but also discovering unexplored alternatives along the way. I'm not sure I would do it differently if I went back in time.
What has been your training and career path, and do you consider that studying architecture has been important for you to develop your current work?
Of the partners, only I am an architect. Olga is an editor and Eduard a journalist. Monapart was the only possible creature of this unlikely relationship: a real estate agency that sells and rents special and interesting properties, especially to the creative class. -architects, designers, publicists, etc. - and from the world of culture and with a novel and improbable communication in the real estate sector.
How does Monapart Real Estate work?
It is a non-hierarchical structure where each partner manages a different business unit: sales, rentals, franchises. We rely on the individual responsibility of the people in the team, who organise their timetable and presence in the office quite flexibly.
At Monapart we continually build bridges with the world of architecture and design, plastic arts, universities and the world of culture in general. The reason is twofold: we are genuinely interested and it coincides with our target customer.
How is the customer acquisition process at Monapart?
More than 55% of the contacts come to us via the Internet through organic search and 25% are repeat customers or referrals from satisfied customers. (make a good after-sales service plays an essential role in this). The rest comes through direct contacts - family, friends and acquaintances - of the partners or the company's employees.
Once we receive contact calls or emails from these people, we apply very standardised processes and scripts to convert as many "opportunities" as possible into "sales".
Do you establish synergies with other fields?
I don't know if we ever "synergise", but I can say for certain that We are continually building bridges with the world of architecture and design, the plastic arts, the university, the world of culture in general. For us the reason is twofold: we are genuinely interested in it and it matches our target customer.
How and why do you use the "new technologies" in Monapart? Has the "network" facilitated your work? How do you approach "dissemination and/or communication" in each of the media?
We are a company with a medium-high degree of digitalisation that regularly uses various digital tools - Google Suite for companies (the whole company is "in the cloud"), Trello, Inmovilla (a real estate CRM), Facile Things, Mailchimp, Calendy, Zoom... - in order to work more efficiently.
Communication is one of the pillars of our company and multichannel -web, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, YouTubenewsletters, radio collaborationsThe use of the "press releases" has been a matter of course since the very beginning of our activity.
"At Monapart we have been lucky enough to have no reference points and to invent things".
Click here to read the full interview.
