Hardworking and focussed, Ronald Hachache and his wife Natalie have taken over ownership of the business from longstanding Ray White member Glenn Wells.
Despite both growing up in West Auckland, Mr and Mrs Hachache followed very different paths to joining the Ray White family. Mrs Hachache grew up in the Ray White family, where her parents owned Ray White Te Atatu. Mrs Hachache has worked for Ray White since she finished school, taking up many different roles across admin, marketing, sales, and property management, before now becoming a business owner at Ray White NorthWest.
Mr Hachache’s path to Ray White had many more twists and turns. Arriving in New Zealand as a child from war-torn Lebanon, his parents opened a Lebanese restaurant as his father could no longer work as a pharmacist in New Zealand. Mr Hachache and his four siblings (a set of twins and triplets of which he is one) grew up in the restaurant where he developed a love of cooking, eventually becoming a qualified chef.
After his passion for cooking diminished, Mr Hachache moved on to sell weddings, before eventually following his dream of becoming a real estate agent.
He said business ownership was always a goal.
“Buying the Ray White NorthWest business from the previous owner Glenn Wells was a huge opportunity for us,” Mr Hachache said.
“It aligned with our goals of where we want to be in the next 12 to 24 months.
“So, we made Glenn an offer to purchase the business and he accepted.
“Now we are looking forward to working on the next chapter of our real estate careers.”
Mr Hachache said business ownership had already presented its challenges, but ones he and his wife were ready for.
“I have always had an ambitious attitude and neither of us really like to fail,” he said.
“Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward, and for us there have already been some challenges, however, we are up for a challenge.
“The team is made up currently of nine agents with several potential recruits we are in communication with to join. We want a big team with a family culture that is inclusive to all.
“We want it to be exciting and the office to be a safe space and a place where salespeople want to be.
“We had bought the property management side of the business from the previous owner almost four years ago, so we always owned that business.
“Naturally when we bought the sales side of the business we brought the property management business across to Ray White too.”
Over the next 12 months, Mr Hachache said their sole focus was recruitment.
“Our goal is not to be selling principals in the next 12 months, so we have started giving the team some of our business and the leads all go to them,” he said.
“We want to grow a team of strong agents and want to offer all the training and support to get them to achieve their true potential.
“We understand what it is to be an agent and what an agent wants and needs because we were agents not long ago.
“We want to be known as the office where salespeople love to come to work and have a home away from home – a second family.
“We have nothing to prove anymore on an individual level, but we do on an office level. The main goal is to be the number 1 office for the group for West Auckland within the first 24 months.”
Ray White New Zealand chief agency officer Treena Drinnan celebrated Mr and Mrs Hachache’s journey into business ownership.
“A high performing salesperson, Ronald is driven and successful and is a welcome addition to the next generation of Ray White leaders,” she said.
“Natalie’s background is real estate and her entire working career since school leaving has been with Ray White and business ownership is a natural transition.
“They both work extremely hard, have a good reputation and client base that follows them and are successful in their own right.
“I look forward to seeing everything they achieve as the new owners of Ray White NorthWest.”