OPINION
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Why your buyers are being slugged with higher rates: Nick Bendel
Interest rates are rising. In the past few weeks, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac have hiked their rates. So have ING, Suncorp Bank and Adelaide Bank. Your buyers might find this hard to accept, given that the last time the Reserve Bank increased the official cash rate was in November 2018 – almost eight years ago. If your buyers ask…
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Why you need off-field and on-field support to succeed in real estate: Kate Strickland
The real estate industry is fast-paced, there’s no doubt about that, which is why it’s important to manage the high expectations that we set for ourselves as agents. The top-performing agents are hard workers, but driving yourself into the ground is not sustainable. Believe me, I found out the hard way. I am committed to ongoing professional development, implementing processes…
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37 lessons to 10x business growth
Before its acquisition by US powerhouse Douglas Elliman, California’s prestigious Teles Properties experienced 10x growth in just five years. Realising success leaves clues, Sharran Srivatsaa summarises a decade of learning into 37 actionable takeaways.
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Is there a place for ego in real estate? Kate Strickland
Let’s talk about ‘ego’. The concept of ‘ego’ can translate to many different things. For the purpose of this article I am referring to the drive to think about yourself in a positive light, your level of self-promotion and a sense of your own importance. People often talk about ego as if it’s an evil beast; however, from where I’m…
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Smoothing the path to settlement through eConveyancing
From searching for the perfect property to bidding at auction and ultimately negotiating and settling, purchasing and selling their home is a stressful and complicated process for most buyers and sellers. And, despite a property’s booming sold sticker, the purchasing process often continues long after the auction hammer has slammed. Real estate agents are the public face of the property…
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How my pit crew has helped me get to where I am today: Kate Strickland
Growing up as a competitive athlete I have always worked to implement the most efficient tactics to reach peak performance. Operating at a high level is not about working harder and exhausting yourself – it’s about working smarter. But what does that even look like? In business, we should be working towards this same ideal. If you consider any elite…
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How to make outsourcing in the Philippines work for you
The idea of outsourcing often conjures up images of large factories or warehouses with bad working conditions, but the Beepo offices in the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in the Philippines look much the same as any you would find elsewhere in the world. Split across two levels, with offices upstairs and a reception, canteen and break rooms downstairs, the…
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Should your agency be targeting offshore buyers?
As a global company with offices in Australia, China, the US and the UK operating a leading marketplace for off the plan property, we’ve learned a thing or two about attracting and targeting buyers all over the world. If you’re an agent who currently only sells to local buyers whilst your competitors seem to get a bigger slice of the…
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Who is measuring customer experience? Leanne Howard
The customer experience will keep the industry relevant in the future. But to be truly successful in delivering someone needs to 'own it' says RER Network Head of Growth and Engagement Leanne Howard.
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Should anyone working in off the plan property be optimistic?
I’ve worked in the off the plan property industry for almost 15 years now, so have seen the industry shift gears more than a few times. But recently we have been confronted with an unprecedented storm of activity causing uncertainty, from scathing media headlines to banking Royal Commissions to cash-grabbing state governments. So I did what any CEO of a…
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As rates go up, open home traffic might go down
Don’t let the Reserve Bank’s inactivity fool you. Interest rates are actually rising. That might seem strange. After all, the Reserve Bank has left the official cash rate at a record-low 1.50 per cent since August 2016. The last increase came way back in November 2010 – and some economists believe the next one might not occur until 2019 or…
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Online, connected models of selling show the future for agents: Matthew McGrath
The Australian real estate market is at a major tipping point, and agents need to look beyond their own backyards to online and connected selling models to survive changing market conditions. Leading the charge on these shifting grounds for real estate agents is the decline of housing prices in major capital cities, following years of rapid and often unsustainable levels…
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EOFY – The time to move business forward: Joel Davoren
This years financial end preceded the decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s board to hold the cash rate at its current record low of 1.5 per cent, where is has been now for 21 successive announcements. The previous record was in 1995-1996, where it remained unchanged for 17 RBA meetings. The housing market, which we all recognise as something…
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The days of investors getting easy finance are gone: Nick Bendel
There’s been an important development in Australia’s mortgage market that real estate agents need to be across. APRA, the banking regulator, recently told lenders to be wary of letting investors borrow at “very high debt-to-income levels” – which it defined as any mortgage more than six times their income. Although APRA didn’t categorically ban loans above this six-times-income benchmark, banks…
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How agents can overcome ‘digital fatigue’: Justin Nickerson
The new wave of proptech disruption is seeing both residential and commercial agents introduced to a myriad of new technologies to streamline their sales process, showcase properties more favourably and reach new buyers (such as Gavl, Purplebricks, REALas, Next Address, StoreMatch, OpenAgent, Snaploader and Sellable). Auctioneer Justin Nickerson explains what agents should consider when choosing the latest quality tech to…
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We ain’t saying anyone is a gold digger…
When he’s not launching prefab affordable housing with YEEZY Home, Kanye West still #blessing us with some of the best gifs on the internet. Lucky for us, today (8 June) is his birthday, so we’re taking the chance to celebrate with some Yeezus reactions for your most frustrating agent situations (Shout out to our faithful band of readers who had…
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How to Stop Making Noise and Start Adding Value on Social Media
Let’s face it: real estate agents aren’t well beloved by the public. Which is a pity, really. As a nation who’ve built their wealth variously on the sheep’s back and on real estate speculation, you’d expect that homeowners would have more reverence for the role of the negotiator. Real talk is: the responsibility of improving our industry’s reputation lies with…
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Kylie Davis: Could Robots Rescue Real Estate Franchises?
The franchise model is being disrupted by technology that’s making it easier than ever for individual agents to run their own show more flexibly and efficiently. But could bots – backed by AI, automation and big data – come to the rescue and help the big real estate brands deliver new value to agents? To explore this idea, let’s look…
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How to transition suburbs as an established agent: Mark Earle
Many real estate agents would never consider transitioning suburbs. Those that are looking to move house in a neighboring suburb often stay as an agent in the same area. But it is possible to transition suburbs, even as far as to the opposite side of Melbourne, but when there is no synergy between suburbs, there is sure to be a…
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The results are in, the investor crackdown has hit hard: Nick Bendel
No, you’re not going crazy – investors really have been piling out of the market in a big way. The latest seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics prove the point, with investment lending in March 2018 falling to its lowest level since January 2016. The value of investment finance commitments dropped 9.0 per cent over the month…
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Knowing your numbers could help you make more sales: Sally Tindall
Over the past year it’s become harder to borrow money, especially for investors. Yet many buyers continue to limit their finance options. Even though there are more than 100 mortgage lenders in Australia, three-quarters of borrowers use the big four banks. So your buyers could be narrowing their options if they’re restricting themselves to just ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and…
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Nathan Jones: The Importance of Bringing Gen Y Into the Leadership Mix
It’s not often that you will see a leadership team in a company comprising of most members under 50, unless the company has been founded by people below this age. However, for older companies that have a long history of having a team of ‘senior’ leaders, it can be challenging for them to accept younger generations into leadership positions. This…
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John Cunningham: In service of others
It is well known that all great achievers, no matter the endeavour, have one common trait: they have a clear purpose. The same thing applies to real estate. But do we really understand what purpose is all about in a service industry, or are we just considering our own purpose? John Cunningham says putting the consumer’s interests first must be…
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No limits to real estate success in bush country: Troy Kearney
One of Century 21’s leading regional agents, Troy Kearney, believes that geography is no limitation for success in real estate. He shares his top tips for operating in the bush. Mr Kearney opened his office, Century 21 Bathurst Region, two years ago and during that short period achieved prestigious Double Centurion status, placing him amongst the top one per cent…
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How vulnerable is the $100+bn property portal industry worldwide?
In less than 25 years, a whole new industry has been created. Property Portals, these digital platforms that span the globe, aggregate property listings that serve as the primary advertising for the real estate industry. To the consumer, this industry provides the most convenient method for searching properties for sale or rent, whether residential, commercial or industrial. Hundreds of millions…
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Why it’s important to have an open door policy as a real estate CEO
Being a CEO comes with a busier schedule than most, but there’s nothing more important than being accessible to both your staff and clients – even if there are over 400 of them. Having staff and customers who view you as an approachable CEO is extremely pertinent. It can translate to staff being friendly to clients and the overall company…
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3 Ways To Leverage Your Database Contacts: Tiffany Wilson
Successful real estate agencies cultivate a loyal client base. The service you provide your clients is not merely a transaction, but the start of an ongoing relationship. Building a solid database requires a huge amount of time and effort. Once you’ve captured potential leads, it’s your job to take full advantage of these contacts. Using digital marketing to leverage your…
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How self-driving cars will affect property values: Sally Tindall
The robots are coming. And believe it or not, they might affect the price of the properties you sell. The robots I’m talking about in this instance are autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving cars. They already exist, and will one day become mainstream. Nobody can say for certain when that will happen, but some believe it could be within…
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Morgan Stanley report shows Airbnb growth has slowed overseas but Australian data tells a different story
According to a recent report from Morgan Stanley, as awareness of security issues rises, Airbnb’s growth slows. The third annual AlphaWise survey saw the researcher drop their prediction of Airbnb growth by over 50 per cent, from 29 per cent to 12 per cent, in the EU/US. However, the data in Australia tells a much more concerning story for property…
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How the Reserve Bank can help you reach out to clients: Sally Tindall
I’ve got an idea that will not only give you a credible reason to contact your database, but also boost your reputation as an informed market leader. Interest rates. The last time the Reserve Bank raised interest rates was back in November 2010. Since then, there have been 12 cuts. Sooner or later, there will have to be a hike…
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This is the slowest pace of change for the rest of your life: Greg Dickason
Wow – how much digital change happened in 2017? We saw the arrival of Amazon, the launch of the Google Cloud Platform in Australia, the rise of voice with Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa, Tesla’s model 3 was delivered, and Google’s Waymo self-driving car fleet passed the 4 million miles on public roads. We saw ransomware attacks demanding payments in…
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Elevation meets integration: The evolution of the property management industry
The property management industry experienced a significant shift in 2017. But that’s nothing compared to what’s to come in 2018, according to Rockend CEO Alister Maple-Brown and Antonia Mercorella, CEO at REIQ. Here they discuss the year that was and the year ahead in property management. With the dream of home ownership becoming more and more difficult for many, the…
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Josh Pyatt: What I would do if I was new
I was once a newbie in real estate, like we all were. I’ve been through stages where I was on fire, listing and selling week after week, month after month, and stages where I struggled to create opportunities for myself, win business and make sales; call it the real estate salesperson roller coaster. In my first six-to-12 months in real…
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How your people skills can improve your property retention rate: Danelle Hunter
The true value of a real estate business lies within its rent roll, and the number of properties managed can often mean the difference between a business running at profit or a loss. In order to really harness their true potential, it’s pivotal that property managers maintain a strong customer retention rate and leave a positive impression on their landlords.…
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Big data on track to drive big business in 2018: Lisa Claes
It’s in a fast-changing environment that data really gets the opportunity to shine, says CoreLogic CEO Lisa Claes, with the insights it generates having the potential to deliver true customer value. 2017 was a year of curveballs, contrasts and contradictions. The housing market has continued to deliver for sellers, with capital gains reaching their peak earlier in the first six…
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