Clarence Valley agent Kylie Swift says her work-life balance has been transformed since launching her own independent agency, working an average of just four hours a day, and making more money to boot.

Mrs Swift started Virtue Property in October last year following a decades-long career in the industry, which included being a shareholder in the Elders office in Grafton.

In December, she opened a shopfront in a heritage building near the new Grafton bridge.

“I lost faith in the corporate real estate model and what I perceived to be a lack of quality customer care,” she said.

“When I decided to set up my own brand, I wanted something that reflected my values and that’s how I came up with Virtue Property.”

Mrs Swift began her career in the seaside village of Wooli in the Northern Rivers, working for a major franchise.

She later moved to Grafton, where she was born and raised, and joined Elders, buying a share of the business just a few years later.

“I had a vision to grow the business, so when I bought in, we had several staff and by the time I sold out, nine years later, we had around 25.”

Mrs Swift moved into real estate coaching for two years while serving out a non-compete clause related to the sale of her share of the business.

She then turned to @realty and its innovative OASIS platform when she decided it was time to launch her own agency.

OASIS - which stands for Online Agency Support and Integrated Systems -enables boutique real estate agencies and sole operators to operate under their own brand while accessing @realty’s back end support systems, including legal, settlements, marketing, website and graphic design, CRM software, administration support and more.

“I thought that now I am able to sell residential alongside rural, and back servicing Grafton and South Grafton, it was the perfect time to rebrand and that’s when I became an OASIS agent,” she said.

“I really value the support I get from @realty, which includes my database, IT support and CRM software.

“As a sales agent I list, sell and create connections and the OASIS model enables me to avoid time wasted in the back-end stuff.

“They do a lot of social media marketing for me, and just recently I took up an offer to have a lead generator through the social marketing team at @realty.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say I have had more than 70 appraisal requests in the past two weeks.”

Mrs Swift said OASIS has enabled her to achieve a healthy work-life balance for her family while reaching her financial goals.

“It suits me well as I can sell 25 per cent of what I previously did and retain a greater percentage of income because I’m not splitting it with administration, personal assistants, agency directors, franchise companies and all the other people you pay when part of the corporate model,” she said.

“That’s all while working no longer than four to five hours a day, which is so important to me because when I was a shareholder in a large corporate business…we were at the office from 8am to 5pm each day, working after hours as well as most Saturday mornings and everyone was burning out.”

@realty CEO James Taylor said Kylie Swift and Virtue Property was a great example of a local agent going out on her own and thriving in real estate.

“Kylie has such a great reputation in Grafton and the Clarence Valley selling across residential and rural, which is why OASIS is perfect for her because she can leverage off her personal brand while getting all the support she needs to list and sell without worrying about whether she will have the support she needs,” Mr Taylor said.

“More and more agents are realising now they can go independent with @realty’s support and lose nothing from not going with a major franchise or business model.”