Ray White Double Bay director Elliott Placks is a big believer in being open and sharing data with his team.
The 36-year-old ambitious leader at the powerhouse Double Bay office said the benefits were monumental for everyone involved – for buyers, sellers and agents.
“Many people are fearful of change and not letting go but I believe the better elite performers don’t mind sharing. The reality is the more you let go and share, the better you are as a real estate performer,” he said.
“I am a big believer in sharing and helping everyone in my office. If you do it from the top down, it filters through. Our team subscribes to an open data theory for our buyers lists, and it’s a huge benefit for all.”
Mr Placks has been a director at Ray White Double Bay since January 1, 2011 after moving to the office in 2003 and winning sales awards ever since.
Mr Placks kickstarted his real estate career with an agency in Bondi Beach doing cold calls in 2001 after studying commerce at Macquarie University.
At the time he was also working a boutique restaurant at Rose Bay and in fact he was ‘working in real estate to save enough money to buy the restaurant”.
“I was getting 10 appraisals each week and I was only 20 and I enjoyed hitting my target. I was good at it,” Mr Placks reflected recently.
Faced with the decision between buying the restaurant, he shifted to real estate full-time.
“The great thing about the restaurant in Rose Bay was I talked to a lot of people about their property and I got a lot of leads,” he said.
“That’s the unique part of real estate, sometimes you can sit at a coffee shop and chat to people and get leads.”
Soon he became a sales assistant at McGrath Real Estate in Edgecliff. And after two years he had written a business plan and moved into sales at Ray White Double Bay with (former director) Trevor Leach, Craig Pontey and Mike Finger.
In his first year of selling real estate in 2003, Mr Placks was named the number 3 top selling agent for NSW and since then he’s consistently been a top 10 sales performer within the group.
Ray White Double Bay now has a staff of 70 staff and it’s looking to grow its property management business.
Mr Placks spends 20 percent of his time mentoring the team; 20 percent on the business and 60 percent of his time on listing and selling.
He has a junior sales agent and an EA and can comfortably manage 6-8 luxury listings at once.
Mr Placks strives to achieve work-life balance with his wife Lauren and son Remy, 3 and daughter Jade, 5.
“I try and be present for my children until bedtime but to be successful in this industry, there isn’t that much free time as such. There is flexibility but it is very hard to take if you want to be successful,” he said.
“You need to be totally engrossed and involved or you’ll miss opportunities but I have built up a lot of relationships over many years so my business is thriving. With technology rapidly coming into real estate, information is received so fast.
“Buyers and sellers want information quickly and I aim to deliver that.”
