Don Makatile
It is not just idle talk that property practitioner Dakalo Dzivhani plays in the big league.
As agent of the year for 2023 in his neck of the woods, he achieved over R100 million sales turnover in property value over 12 months.
This is quite a feat. He recalls in one exceptionally good round of selling houses, he signed the oft elusive offer to purchase every day from Monday to Friday!
He specialises in building packages, including new houses, in the high-end Midstream area, where he lives.
At 44, he has achieved what many would assume to be the height of success and rest on their laurels, but not him.
After moving his family from their initial R800 000 home, he purchased one for a few million rand. This was still not enough, according to the standards of this high achiever.
Their current address is worth several millions more!
This is all due to the fact that during Covid-19, husband and wife took stock of where they wanted to see their lives go.
Together, they took the plunge and still working from home, changed careers.
He had a well-paying job at the South African Revenue Service (SARS), where other people could easily have been happy to be ensconced in that comfort zone – not Dzivhani. He left after 16 years to join the property market, where earnings are commission-based.
At SARS, he had the security of a guaranteed monthly pay cheque.
“Many of my colleagues asked where I was going,” he says. He also doubted the soundness of his decision.
But in time, this would prove to be the best decision of his life.
“My first commission was three times my salary at SARS,” says Dzivhani, who holds a Master’s degree in Commerce and had never contemplated a career in real estate.
Perhaps the windfall was a message from the stars! From that point, it was upwards.
He was selling houses like they were going out of fashion, and his seniors took notice.
Soon the tone of his email correspondence changed: “We are busy with your bus stop ad. Please can you confirm your contact number on the advert. Is this correct?”
When internal memos are circulated regarding high performers, his name is almost always at the top. Please find attached the monthly rankings update for March 2024 in terms of the 2024/25 BetterBond incentive scheme, reads one email.
His name is at the helm of the RealNet National Top 20 Property Practitioners. Since the beginning of the year, he has headed the list almost every month, coming third only in February and April.
The August 2024 list has just been released and it has almost come to be expected that Dzivhani will be first – and he is!
These rankings are based on registered sales commission for the month.
The Annual Star Awards 2024 in June was awarded to him!
His face is emblazoned across every platform and pamphlet his employers – RealNet, used to advertise their stock for sale. He handles properties above R10m.
He is perched at position three of the top national property practitioners in the group, that employs over 500 agents in the country.
The catalogues of houses in his portfolio look like something out of Hollywood. Homes with five garages are prominent in the conversations he has with his potential clients.
Once he missed out on a multimillion-rand deal that fell through but this did not deter him: “I went back to the drawing board to look at where I had made mistakes.”
If he learns from each deal, clearly there is no way he can falter going ahead.
A devout Christian, Dzivhani says he wakes up each day hopeful that he will fulfil his purpose. His self-esteem is healthy, not of the arrogant kind of high earners of his calibre.
He puts family first, his wife and kids. Even when he speaks about them, his love for family is palpable. He wants to do well by them, “even when I’m not around anymore, they must be comfortable”.
Dzivhani remains humble and grounded, never straying from his Thohoyandou grassroots, where he went to Mphaphuli, “the same high school Cyril attended”.
This was in response to the question if he attended Mbilwi, the Eton of rural Venda.
Asked if he is living his dream, Dzivhani says he is a workhorse and always knew that it would pay dividends.
He considers his boss, CEO Gerhard Kotze, his role model.
It seems the taxman’s loss was real estate’s biggest win.
Dakalo Dzivhani, professional practitioner, real estate is exactly where he needs to be, for greater impact on the world.
The Star
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