It’s been a rapid rise to success for former architect Mark McGill who stumbled into real estate after losing his job due to the global financial crisis.
Within three years, Mr McGill had taken out two awards, including the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) Salesperson of the Year Award, which he won again two years later.
“In 2019 I received a perfect score from the judges to win the AREA’s award for best customer service in Australia,” Mr McGill said.
“My career has grown exponentially since those accolades.”
Twelve years after entering the industry, Mr McGill is taking the next step in his successful career by switching to online offer program, Market Buy.
“I heard about Market Buy through the REIQ and a few agents I knew working with it,” Mr McGill said.
“I had investigated online bidding programs prior and had great success with them.
“Previously I was in an agency that pushed the auction method, so when it was time to open my own agency, we wanted a point of difference.”
Enter Market Buy, which offered a white labeled solution enabling Mr McGill to establish a personally branded platform that looked like his own system.
“We opened our doors at the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, so having an online bidding platform was a massive advantage when other agents were still working out their method of sale during the lockdowns,” he said.
For Mr McGill, two main factors became clear.
“Buyers really like the process as it is much fairer and more transparent for them,” he said.
“In a hot market, the multiple offers is a terrible buying experience – I have been on the receiving end as a buyer, I know how bad it feels – and this method allows everyone to see exactly what they need to pay to secure the property.
“For the seller, they can see that every buyer has an equal chance to put their best offers in and give them confidence their price was the highest.”
In the first few months, Mr McGill used Market Buy to secure multiple sales with results between $25,000 and $50,000 above reserve.
“Now it’s not uncommon for us to exceed price expectations by $100,000,” he said.
“We have 15 case studies in the last three months where we exceeded prices by $150,000 to $600,000, and have set four suburb records as a result.”
According to Mr McGill, the biggest advantage is the time management of multiple offers, and allowing technology to make it easy for all parties to submit those offers.
“It also increases the communication with buyers and sellers, with real time alerts updating everyone as it happens,” he said.
“For sellers, it’s transparent. Buyers can see what the offers are and if they are prepared to pay more, they have the chance.
“There is no more excuse of the buyer saying, ‘I would have paid more if I knew it was going to sell for $X’.
“Sellers can be confident they got the best price from the buyers.”
For buyers, they appreciate knowing the exact price it will sell for, he said.
“And if they don’t secure the property, they don’t blame you as the agent.
“We have numerous testimonials from buyers who missed out saying it was still their best negotiation experience.”
Mr McGill said the key to making Market Buy a success was to tailor it to your own marketplace.
“Just call the guys, they will step you through it,” he said.
“Market Buy has so many features that you can facilitate selling it your way.”
