A year before the Great Depression hit, the real estate businesses first agency opened in Maroubra, Sydney.

It was the beggining of LJ Hooker's national and international influence in property.

In 1928, at the age of 24, Leslie Joseph Hooker had a vision to develop the biggest real estate business in Australia.

Sir Leslie’s grandson, L Janusz Hooker, is now the chairman of the business, carrying on the family legacy.

“My grandfather was an innovator, a global citizen and visionary whose achievements progressed the development of property across the spectrum,” said Mr Hooker.

“He was the guiding voice in LJ Hooker becoming an icon of business and responsible for so many major turning points in Australasia."

LJ Hooker turning points include:

• Establishing the first Real Estate Investment Trust which is now a $100 billion industry (1954)
• Becoming Australia’s first national real estate network (1960)
• Developing the ‘big box’ retail mall concept (1966) going on to build Warringah Mall (Sydney), Pacific Fair (Gold Coast) and Garden City (Brisbane) shopping centres, amongst others
• Introducing franchising to Australia (1967)
• Developing one in five homes post-WWII (1985)
• Leading the digital revolution of real estate; developing the first proprietary CRM (1993), launching the first agency websites in Australasia (1994) and pioneering partnerships with digital juggernauts like Google and Facebook 

In keeping with its history of community, the LJ Hooker Foundation has made contributions of over $65,000 to its charity partners as part of the celebrations.

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LJ Hooker auction sign in 1970

Mr Hooker said innovation is part of the company’s DNA.

“We’re moving with - and at times ahead of - the expectations of the marketplace with world-first integrated social and digital media programs.

“We’re developing advanced platforms in our newly launched LJ Hooker Avnu concept store by introducing real-time digital insights into the sales process and building deeper, transparent relationships with our vendors.

Related reading: Real estate agency wins award for architectural vision

LJ Hooker told WILLIAMS MEDIA Avnu is a full service agency opened in Neutral Bay recently, that helps clients by giving them access to advanced digital tools and humanised data to give a transparent view of their journey through a transaction in real time.

It’s end-to-end platform centralises and streamlines tasks such as data sourcing, property marketing, compliance and contracts which, in the past, has been fragmented with heavy reliance on third party suppliers and products.

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Mr Hooker added “we’re empowering our network to meet consumer expectations through our online learning platform RealEdge, which is available to our real estate specialists anywhere, any time of the day”.

On RealEdge, specialists can stream scripts and dialogues on their mobile phone from leading industry trainers and different types of marketing strategies.

Related reading: John McManus recognised as LJ Hooker's top NSW/ACT salesperson

RealEdge also helps business owners with modules on identifying when and how to recruit, and how to induct that person into their agency for retention purposes.

To mark 90 years, LJ Hooker has unveiled a first for its residential network: two variations of its brand under a single banner, allowing offices across the breadth of Australia to choose the brand look which best resonates with the market.

“Our decision to offer subtle, alternate versions of our brand under a major refresh is a progressive move that will lead the company to our centennial celebrations in the next decade,” said Mr Hooker.

Click here to view LJ Hooker's 90 Years of Innovation video and eBook.

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