The 2–4–6–8 Formula. How to Make Faster Sales in Tough Markets

Yes, rates have gone up. But here's the important part most agents are missing...

This is not bad news. This is your moment. 

Historically, some of the best years in real estate happen in tough markets. 

Because in a harder market, there's more stock, more motivated vendors, and less competition. 

When I had my own office, the biggest growth period was from 1990 to 1994.

This was widely considered one of the toughest markets Australia has seen. 

Rates were pushing 17–18%.

Yet, in our Marrickville office, my business partner George and I developed a simple framework: The 2-4-6-8 Strategy...

Transcript

hriving When The Market Turns

Tom Panos 0:00

So, team, I want to move on and tell you what I think right now you're going to need not just to survive, but to actually thrive, because I can say to you that the greatest time I ever had in real estate was 1990 to 1994, which was considered in Australia the darkest time. But what actually happened is when the market gets hard, there's more stock on the market because it becomes a buyer's market. And if you can shift from being an order taker to a deal maker, you can do a lot of volume. And the other thing I'll tell you is that the media does a lot of your vendor management. So the truth is your vendors are going to be all across what's happening at the moment. The rates are going up. They're going to go up again. They're hearing all this sort of stuff. So you don't have to be that aggressive in your conversation. All you've got to say is, are you tracking what the media's saying? Are you following what they're saying? They're going to say, yeah. And you're saying, how do you feel about what they're saying? And most of the times I'd say, oh, it sounds like it's, you know, a little bit shaky at the moment. And all you've got to do is agree with them. And they get the point. But I need you to know you have to tell the truth more than ever. Like you've always got to tell the truth. But now you've got to tell the truth faster. You've got to let them know that wrong pricing is going to burn the campaign. Pricing is critical. So to me, overpricing listings, you know what? You might have got away with it when the market's going up, but you're not going to get away with it when the market's going down. You're not a real estate agent if you go and overprice. You're an antique store owner. You're going to collect listings and aren't going to sell, right? The second thing is, I need you to know that vendor management in 2026 starts day one. It starts before the signboard goes up. You can't be sort of adjusting two, three weeks later, right? Particularly if you're running an auction type business. It starts before the go goes up. And I want to let you know, Robbie, when I was at Marrickville in 1990, the inner west of Sydney, and rates started going up. By the way, Robbie, what do you think they went up to in 1992, the rates?

he 2468 Vendor Plan

Speaker 2:23

Was it 17 to 20?

ast Feedback And Less Price Talk

rice Points That Still Move

Tom Panos 2:25

18%. 18%. So what is the rates today? They announced today, what's the rates? 4%, 5%, 6%, whatever it is, three times as much. And I have to say, it was stressful, but we came up, me and my business partner George came up with a strategy which was called 2468. So when we used to sit at the listing presentation with a vendor, we'd say, we want to let you know that our plan is 2468. If the property's not sold after week two, we need to have this kind of conversation. If the property hasn't sold after week four, we need to do this. If the property hasn't sold after week six, we do this. If the property hasn't sold after week eight, we do this. So what we were doing is at the listing presentation, at the set-to-sell meeting, at the listing presentation, we were already setting up our vendors to know that most likely in the market that we're in, that it was going to need a little bit of an adjustment to sell the property because we were moving into an environment where rates were going up all the time. So I've got to say to you, in this marketplace, you've got to respond to feedback straight away. It is time of the essence. The next thing is at your listing presentations, don't spend a lot of time talking about the price because it is a really sensitive subject, because you can't get the price now. It's changing, right? With all the chaos that's going on. And again, I know that I might be generalizing because I understand that there are markets within markets. And I understand that Brisbane, lower price point, might be better than Sydney, lower price point, and uh expensive prices in Brisbane might be different to that in Melbourne. I get all of that. But generally speaking, across Australia, we have the lower price market is strong, the higher price market is more challenging. Is that the same with you, Robbie? Yes. Totally. What is the magic price point in your area that things sell?

Speaker 4:40

What I see is anything under a million still moving. Anything above, it depends on the property.

ver-Communicate With Vendors

oin The Real Estate Gym

Tom Panos 4:46

So obviously, the 5% deposit scheme helps the whole market. Yes. God help us if that wasn't there, right? So um the next thing is I need you more than ever to over-communicate with vendors. And Robbie, for me, the properties that are over a million dollars, what you should be doing is talking to them every 48 hours, every two days. And the second thing is, I want to let you know, everyone, I think you're all gonna think I'm crazy, but what we did in 1991 is start doing Oh no, the video has just ended. But I got good news for you. If you resonated with this and you want to take the next step and move from just being a sayer to a doer, this is your sign to join the real estate gym where you can get enormous amounts of content, scripts, dialogues, techniques, processes to help you build an ELF business. Effortless, lucrative, and fun. Press the link right now.