Outman

Outman Mgharbi didn’t set out to become a real estate agent. But once he fell into this profession, he discovered a talent for working with people looking to buy, sell or rent properties. He founded EasyMakelaars in 2009, and the business has grown to become one of the largest real estate firms in the Leiden area. Outman, who is widely known as Otto, is 38 and lives in Leiden with his wife and three children.

“A lot of people call me Otto because Outman is [a name from] the Ottoman empire. (laughs) … I’m the founder of EasyMakelaars.”

Otto landed his first real estate job while he was still a student at Hogeschool Rotterdam. “I started in 2002 as a realtor for a big company called Direct Wonen … I was doing an academic program called logistics. I was in my final year, and I was young and I thought ‘let me make money.’ And then I saw a job [at Direct Wonen] and I applied for it.”

Otto studied logistics at the university because “I had a dream to follow my grandfather. He had a logistics company with trucks. He was a kind of example for me. I thought I would do the same kind of thing and explore his business here in Europe. When you’re young you have young dreams, but the reality is different.”

Otto’s grandfather was a role model. “My grandfather came to Holland a long time ago. He was one of the first immigrants … when he came he worked in the iron factories, melting iron, creating iron … as part of the guest worker program after World War Two … he had been a soldier. When the French still occupied Morocco, all the young men had to fight for the French army. So he fought against the Germans.”

Real estate “came out of the blue” for Otto. “I’m born and raised here in Leiden. I started to work in Amsterdam [with Direct Wonen] and then I was relocated back in Leiden. And I earned my stripes here and created my network and met a lot of people. And from there I changed to another company [called Living Today] and I made that company bigger … I worked almost six years at Living Today.”

“Living Today was the second real estate agency where I worked, based in Leiden also … They wanted to get big and for [employees] to grow within the company. I did that and finally I was operational manager of the company. We had several offices in the big cities. Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam … but then the crisis came and the real estate market collapsed, and I so had to fire all the people I gave a job … and finally I was thinking ‘OK, is this it?’”

Otto was inspired to start his own company by a former Direct Wonen colleague in Amsterdam who quit his job and started his own real estate agency. “He didn’t get a raise, and then he said ‘I’m going to do it myself.’ And he told me ‘why don’t you do the same?’ And he made me think, and finally after a year I decided to start for myself.” Otto started his business, which was originally called EasyRenters, in November 2009. “Right in the middle of the crisis.” (laughs) 

EasyRenters changed its name to EasyMakelaars in 2015. The agency specializes in rental units, but “I still do purchase properties … we try to specialize in everything in real estate … we try to help people who need a property for one day, for a week, a month, a year or a longer term. We try to help everybody … but also people who would like to buy a property … it’s difficult to do this nowadays. The market is sky high, it’s overheated. You need to be creative nowadays.”

“A majority of our clients are expats … we do a lot of business with companies who bring specialized people from abroad … and we try to help these companies [find housing for] their employees.”

“We do the bigger area of Leiden, and we do a little bit of The Hague and Alphen aan den Rijn. But that’s our main focus. We had some ambitions in the past to do a kind of franchise, but it’s too much of a headache. It’s OK for me.” (laughs)

What does Otto enjoy most about his work? “You meet a lot of people … it’s the joy you see in people’s eyes when you can help them … a lot of people see it as a big mountain when they need to relocate from their country to somewhere else. You need to help these people find their new home again, to feel secure … and to give them a roof above their head. Especially in the summer when the need is very high.”

The most dramatic stories happen in the summer, when incoming Leiden University students arrive and start looking for housing. “Sometimes people are crying because they’re afraid to sleep on the streets … it happens every year and especially with the international students … they need to arrange their own accommodation because there aren’t enough university housing facilities ... a lot of people come to Leiden [shortly before fall term begins] and by then almost everything is occupied.”

“They come from Greece, they come from Italy, they come from Spain, they come from everywhere. And they have a budget in their head because they come from a different country. And we are a northwestern European country, which means that our housing prices are a bit higher than the rest of Europe. And they come with a budget or 300 or 400 Euros [per month] and they need a place, which at that moment is an almost impossible thing … people start crying, sleeping on couches, sleep in the parks … we come [to the office] in the morning and we find a line in front of our door, people waiting for us.”

“Sometimes you need to be hard and say ‘I’m sorry but I’m not able to help.’ And of course it affects you because you want to help these people. It’s not about the money anymore. You just want to help them … we try to be creative. What we do is we hang a big piece of paper next to the door where everyone can write his name, his telephone number and the country he’s from. And we try to create groups which we can accommodate together. ‘Why don’t you rent an apartment together? Are you willing to share with other people?’ And then instead of 300 or 400 euro they have a combined budget of 1200 or 1600 euros. And then sometimes we are able to find them an apartment which they can share … so that helps, and people are thankful.”

“But not everyone is thankful … at the end, all the good properties are already rented. So you only have the ugly ones, the non-maintained properties. And then you tell them ‘this is what we still have.’ And people accept it because they don’t have anything else. And finally after a month or two they start to complain that you gave them a bad property. But we did what we could. So sometimes I feel like I helped them and look what I got back.”

“We’ve been the biggest rental agents here in the Leiden area for the past two or three years, in terms of transactions … two years ago we were almost the best real estate agents of the whole Netherlands … there is an award in which customers can vote for you as the best real estate agency. Three years ago we were second in the country, and two years ago we had the most votes and the highest score. But unfortunately we were disqualified because we changed names … we changed our name from EasyRenters to EasyMakelaars, and we forgot to change the name on the permit … Another agent who wanted to get this best realtor title called the award company and told them about our permit … and then we got disqualified one week before the award. So that was a pity.”

What is Otto’s secret for success? “The secret is effort. You need to put a lot of effort into everything … I always tell my colleagues and employees if you’re going to sit behind your desk and wait for the phone to ring it won’t ring by itself. You need to create business, you need to do something to make that phone ring … if you’re willing to run, then run and you’ll get somewhere. And sometimes you need to be patient.”

“You need to keep working on yourself … the moment you think ‘I’ve made it,’ the moment you think ‘I’m the top,’ I think that is the starting point of going backwards. So I never say we’re the best, I never say we’re the biggest … I’d rather have bigger agencies competing against me. To see what they do well, to learn from them. It keeps you focused. Sometimes I lose a client to another agent because he’s quicker than me. That keeps me focused, and that’s very important.”

“Our biggest customers are property owners who are willing to rent their property through us. Big investors. And it’s important for us to keep them, and you need to continually prove yourself to them, to show why they should keep you. I think that’s the key to success.”

Family and quality of life are important considerations for Otto. “It’s one of the reasons why I don’t have this big ambition…this year I had a daddy day. On Wednesdays I go home early and I don’t work and I do stuff with my children … there will come a moment when your eyes will close and you won’t wake up anymore. And then what will you take? Nothing. You can make a million Euros, but what will I do with it? Nothing … I don’t really have any big ambitions anymore. At the moment, it’s OK for me. I would like to have a good continuous story with the company and keep going on as were going.”

The EasyMakelaars office is located at Pelikaanstraat 19 in Leiden. Information is available at www.easymakelaars.nl