In an industry where agencies come and go with the tides of the market, longevity is rare.
Yet Adelaide-based TOOP+TOOP has remained a fixture for four decades – one of fewer than four agencies in South Australia to endure for that long, according to recent figures.
As the company celebrates its 40th anniversary, its leadership reflects on the values, evolution, and sharp focus that have carried it through the decades.
From a family dream to a multi-generational operation
The company was founded by Anthony and Sylvia Toop on 8 May 1985.
Their daughters, Suzannah and Genevieve Toop, now co-own and lead the business alongside Genevieve’s husband Bronte Manuel, who joined the company as co-owner/director and auctioneer in 2014 after six years working in regional real estate.
“Anthony and Sylvia started TOOP+TOOP in ’85, just a year before I was born,” Genevieve says.
“Some of my earliest memories are of putting up sold stickers as a three-year-old.”
Suzannah added: “It was never just a job for our parents. The business was part of our family life; letterbox drops with Mum and Gen, our Labrador in tow, or sitting in on auctions Dad called. That merging of life and work was just normal.”
The power of visionary thinking
TOOP+TOOP was founded with a clear mission: to do things differently. Innovation, particularly in marketing and technology, has always been a key differentiator.
“Our dad was the first in South Australia to use colour photography in ads, and to put photos, rather than sketches, on signboards,” Genevieve said.
“Before the internet, he even installed lights on boards so they were visible at night.”
But it didn’t stop there. In 2006, the agency launched a YouTube video, three weeks before Google officially acquired the platform.
“We believe it was one of the first real estate videos on YouTube globally,” she said.
For context, Google’s own debut on the platform didn’t arrive until February 2007.
That forward-thinking ethos has carried into the present. The company employs a full in-house software development team; something few agencies, even nationally, can claim.
“If someone in the team has an idea over the weekend, we can implement it into our systems by the next week,” Genevieve said. “That ability to move fast has been a game changer.”
A deliberate succession
In 2019, the final chapter of succession was completed, with the ownership of the business formally handed from Anthony and Sylvia to the next generation.
Bronte and Genevieve now lead sales, while Suzannah heads up property management.
Though no longer involved day-to-day, Anthony and Sylvia remain close to the business.
“They’re cheerleaders now,” Suzannah said.
“In the early days, they were fantastic mentors, but today they’ve stepped back to enjoy grandparent life.”
While the agency continues to lean into digital innovation, true to Anthony’s early vision, it’s charting its own course on client communication, choosing a more measured approach to automation
“We’re absolutely using AI. but mainly on the back end,” Bronte explained.
“We don’t want bots making phone calls that sound like Genevieve. That goes against everything we stand for.”
Bronte noted that many agents are chasing “the silver bullet” offered by AI – automated prospecting, mass updates, and scaling communication.
But, he argued, this risks losing what truly builds a business.
“I feel like in some corners of the industry, vendors and buyers are seen as an inconvenience to getting a commission,” he said.
“Our team understands they get paid because they nurture both. We use technology to create more space for real conversations, not to replace them.”
Suzannah agreed: “AI is not the typewriter in the email revolution – it’s more like email itself. You need it to stay in the game, but how you use it will set you apart. If you outsource your client relationships to AI, you’ve missed the point of real estate.”
Despite industry shifts in tech, marketing and service delivery, TOOP+TOOP’s fundamental approach remains unchanged.
“Gen found a piece of our early marketing from 30 years ago,” Bronte said. “It said: ‘We’d rather do no deal at all than the wrong one for our client.’ That still holds true. We’ve never wanted to be the biggest agency, just one of the best. Forty agents doing $1 million each. Small, elite, values-aligned.”
“Everything changes,” Bronte said. “But some things, like who we are and why we do what we do, never will.”
