How Tom Hector Built A Service Area Brand - Tom Hector

We bring you a standout interview with Tom Hector on how to become the trusted agent in a defined service area and turn consistent follow-up into lifelong client relationships. We also unpack the simple team structure and straight talking honesty that help him win better work while protecting time, health, and reputation.
• Tom’s path into real estate through early mentorship and auction craft 
• Defining a service area and becoming a household name through repetition 
• Mailbox drops, door knocking and cold calling as a relationship system 
• Stories that show what long-term trust looks like in practice 
• Phone language that sounds human and gets people talking 
• Building a scalable team with admin support and leverage agents 
• Walking away from overpriced listings to protect integrity 
• Preparation, price guidance and running strong auction campaigns 
• Systems for control, longevity and a better quality of business 
That link is in our show notes, and I urge you to click on that and listen to that very different experience.

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Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Support

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello and welcome back to the podcast We Are Selling. My name is Lee Woodward, your coach and host. This program is supported by Agency Portal, one platform with six powerful tools. This platform is now saving 7 to 12 hours of administration time per listing. It has two outstanding finance products allowing you to win business, even allowing commission on exchange. AML is completely inclusive of the platform, and the sign product acts as your doorway to activating the property. AI is driving the real estate experience, and the agency portal is delivering that platform. Let's cross to this week's podcast.

Why Reaching Out Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the podcast We Are Selling. Today I'm playing an interview from Reaching Out. Reaching Out is the brand new podcast that was done with the best of ARIC, 12 of our best speakers, and three from the UK, or for the charity from Hands Across the Water. That link is in our show notes, and I urge you to click on that and listen to that very different experience. Steve Carroll was the mastermind behind the entire production, and to get a lineup like that together is near impossible. Whatever you donate, it will send the program to you, and it's absolutely outstanding. To give you proof of that, I'm gonna actually cross to the Tom Hector interview that was done on Reaching Out. This is just one interview of the 15 that will blow your mind. Please welcome to the podcast, Mr. Tom Hector from Harris Real Estate in South Australia. Tom, welcome aboard.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Lee, it's great to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Now, Tom, just for our listeners in the UK who haven't had the opportunity to hear you speak before, you've done some incredible things in your career, but let's go back from the beginning before we

Tom’s Start In Real Estate

SPEAKER_01 2:08

hit our topic today. How did you get into real estate?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Um graduated school in 2008. Uh, grew up in the northeastern area of Adelaide and actually was not going to complete my year 12 tertiary education. I was going to finish in year 11, but my parents, under some big scrutiny, said you have to complete year 12, even if you don't get a TER, which is a tertiary education record. So I ended up getting a TER of just under 80. But interesting story, I was actually going to become a plumber. So I was doing a vet course in year 11, but then um a program called Auction Idol in 2008 was uh happening at my school at Rostrapper College, and I actually thought, you know what, why not give this a punt? And I was fortunate enough in 2008 to win that competition against 24 other people throughout South Australia. And then fortunately, I was um happened to meet Phil Harris at the Gala Dinner, and then an old uh sales manager at Tupin Toup at the time called Mandy Wirth, and they gave me a job within five minutes, and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

And when you came into that job to work with Phil, what was your position?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, so in 2009, I was uh just under, I was turning 18 in that February. So I started a job out of school at 17, and it was like a traineeship at Two Pent Toop Real Estate. And at that time, Tupin Toop was the pinnacle of real estate in South Australia. Anthony was obviously a really good marketer and a founding member of that company who's now unfortunately passed away. But in that nine months of being there or 10 months I've been there, I worked in the front reception, I worked in property management, I worked in sales. So I got a really good grasp of what real estate had to offer. But I just knew within myself that the art of selling was something I absolutely loved. And I was very, very fortunate enough to obviously get really good mentorship in those early days from Phil when he was actively listing and selling houses and calling a number of auctions. And then yeah, I was like a kid in a candy store, a literally absolutely lover through the chase. And here I am later selling probably over 3,000 houses and calling over 2,000 auctions and turning 35 just um two months ago. So it's been a big career in the last 17 years, Lee.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Absolutely amazing. And now you're one of the owners of Harris Real Estate, and Harris has become an enormous company. And again, just for our listener to give them an understanding of the size, how many salespeople are actively working at Harris?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

It's close to 120, and then we've obviously got assistants and and admin staff around that as well. So I think we sit at currently 320 staff across the organization. We've got, I think, eight or nine officers, had a huge 18-month of growth in outer offices. So we've uh we've changed our model here from independent to a corporate structure with outside equity partners in certain offices. But overall, yeah, we we are under the one banner as independent. But obviously, we have one central database. We sell anywhere from that three to three and a half thousand homes per annum. And we've got obviously the second biggest market share behind Ray White Network in South Australia.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Absolutely

Service Area And Claiming Doors

SPEAKER_01 5:14

amazing. Now, my topic for you today, I've got three key things I want to discuss. But the first one is one that most people miss in their real estate career, but you nailed it straight away. Tom, you mastered service area. What is service area and what did you do?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

It's just basically a patch of homes would become a household name. I just learned in the early days. Like I made my first ever hot topics, and I can still picture this to this daily. Like I literally can like it was at the parade nord, like I drive past the office every single day. I now live 200 meters from the office where I first started with Phil, which is so funny, right? And you've probably been into his office back there in the Toup and Toop organization there, and it's the old character building. And a laddie by the name of Giorgi Giorgio gave me a CD saying winning words by Phil Harris. And winning words was obviously the craft of listing and selling houses, and I never ever forget it. It was back in the days of no iPhones that was burnt on a CD, and I took that home, and I was 17 or 18 years of age, and I was like, this is just amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Hang on, did you have a bootleg copy of my CD? And you're telling me now a bootleg copy.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

There you go. And then and then um and then obviously from there, I listened to that a thousand times, but I I I studied who the best agents were. So Phil and James Tossovan and Matt Steinwade, and I was like, okay, well, they've all got one thing in common, which is they own a patch of homes. So why don't I go and work a patch where I grew up and know everyone? And that was obviously Ross Trevor. I came into a marketplace in 2009 where nobody knew who Harris Real Estate was because it was this pink signboards, it was this new sexy brand. I had people saying it was from you're from Victoria or Interstate, but we're like, no, we're an independent brand on the block. And we were selling most of our homes in the eastern suburbs, not the northeastern area. And then over time, it was just like relentless follow-up and follow-through of door knocking, cold calling, and it was just hard work, but it's all worth it because yeah, like it's funny. The last week I've had most memorable moments of my career in the last seven days in real estate. Like I could tell you a few stories, which I'm happy to share with the listeners. But like 92-year-old Bruce Standon, I sat in his nursing home two nights two nights ago and I met him door knocking in 2009. And the comments he made in front of his daughter was just like, it just reminded me so much of you, Lee, and just thinking about how rewarding this industry is, about the trust. And I've listed that property off market. I've got a buyer today that I'll hopefully sell that property for. Michael Boyle at 26 Highland Avenue. He's 85 years of age. His wife's gone into care. He goes, mate, you don't look a year older than when I saw you 15 years ago. Like it's just, it's, it's a crazy, it's crazy. But guess what, Lee? There's one or two percent of agents in this country that are prepared to actually work on relationships like that. But how rewarding is it? It's such an amazing business. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Tom, you are one of my favorite examples of claiming doors. And claiming doors is not just about getting the data and the record, but having real relationships, which is exactly what you've just said there. How many properties were in the patch?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Well, there was 3,000 at the time. And then I segregated them to zone zones. And then obviously, my first strategy was absolutely completely saturate the marketplace with mailbox drops and then follow up with door knocking and cold calling. That was my obviously fundamental because that was going to build me a presence. That the mailbox drops, and then the door knocking was going to build relationships, and the cold calling was building stronger relationships. And then over time, just the frequency builds trust. Relationships will always win. Systems equals leverage, leverage equals control. So it's just interesting, mate. I just love what I do. Like I don't, I think about the last week I sold a house yesterday and I sold it for $2,420,000 under the hammer. There were seven bidders on a Wednesday afternoon at 2.30. And I can talk more about my midweek auctions later. But that client, Mae and Leslie Fu, I met them in 2013. They rang me two months ago and I actually got referred to them by a past client who's now deceased. And we gave each other a big hug and a kiss yesterday, and they said, Tom, this is for this is for Edward. And it's like it's just an amazing feeling when you actually have real relationships, not false, fake relationships, if that makes

Phone Words That Build Trust

SPEAKER_00 9:22

sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Tom, what's your words on the phone when you're reaching out to connect with people? And this sounds so basic, and people think, I can't believe Lee Wood is asking Tom Hector, what do you say on the phone? But I'm always interested in phone tone, how people do it, like the very best, and you're in that best in the country. What do you say on the phone? What goes through your mind?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, so I made it very clear going back a number of years ago that there's absolutely no way use the the word touching base. You're not paying you're not touching someone's base. You're not checking in with people, you're catching up with people. Hi Lee, it's Tom Hector Collin from Harris Real Estate. I just wanted to catch up. It's been a number of months since I spoke to you last, and you mentioned last time that you were contemplating maybe getting something bigger as that land size of yours and that backyard was on the smaller side. I just wanted to see if you're still hunting for a home or you're still very entrenched in Maupus Street, Ross Trevor. Let them speak, let the conversation evolve. Lee, I know you may not be selling for a number of years, or you may not be wanting to make a move, but if you ever do anything real estate-wise, I'd be thrilled if you remembered me. So just winning words, you know, just real extinct words. Not try and I'm cutting to the chase quickly, right? But I'm not, I'm very, very, very succinct or synced in the way in which I speak. Not ums and uhs, and like it's a real professional manner, and that's what really frustrates me with regards to real estate agents. Hi Lee, I'm just touching base. It's been a few months since I spoke spoke to you last. It's just awkward.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

It's awkward. Brilliant. Tom, how many connects do you expect to get through a day at your level?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Not being arrogant now, I don't really need to chase people all that often. I ring my hot sellers list. I might make 10 to 20 connects depending on my day. Like today, though, I've got a crazy busy day, three market appraisals tomorrow. Oh, obviously, I work less on Fridays now. So it's such an attraction business. I've got a strategy at the moment. We've spoken about this previously. I want to do between 80 and 100 sales, but I want to obviously grow my average fee to that $25,000 to $30,000 mark. It's currently sitting at just under $18,200. So it's getting there. My analogy is now work with better people and fewer people for better reasons. So I'm very diligent on the way in which I give out leads. So I've got three junior agents or like side benches as you call them. I don't know what's the exact word you call them. Leverage agents. Leverage agents. So I've got three leverage agents and may I give away at least five to seven appraisals a week to that to my team. So if I was actually dialed in, I'd be doing a lot more, but then I'd be spreading myself in across Adelaide. So it's very selective, and I'm working, obviously, trying to get higher-end properties and I'm building a real presence. No one has ever mastered what I've done in Adelaide. No one's running price guides and doing auctions midweek north of $2 million because the gap between the buyer and the sellers can probably appreciate is very high in that vicinity. And no one wants to tell the truth. Everyone in this business lies. It's disgraceful. It's very, very, that's the only thing that I don't appreciate about this industry is the gains and the lies about being honest and upfront versus just doing the listing at all costs to win the business.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Tom, you're a great example of nothing real can be threatened. When you're doing it with the integrity that you are to not muck people around, and you and I have had a conversation about sales prevention officers before. Salespeople prevent people from buying or selling because it went on way too high that the buyer's not getting the right information. That is not real estate. Whereas what you're doing is perfect, which brings me to point two of this

Building A Team That Scales

SPEAKER_01 13:04

interview. Tom, how did you structure your team? You such a dedicated solo agent who reached capacity very early, but you came from a team-based environment working with Phil and Georgie. So this replication of the effective business unit SEAL team, as I call it, is what you've done really well. How's the Tom Hector team structured today, Team Hector?

SPEAKER_00 13:26

I think at the end of the day, if you're not prepared to make the phone calls and do the hard work, right? There is absolutely no point in growing a team. That's my analogy in life. Unless you want to go out there and list and sell lots of properties and get to capacity by doing that, you're never going to be able to grow your business. So first of all, you've got to get an admin assistant. That admin assistant's purely doing all the running around for regards to variations of contracts, settlement dates, handovers, all the stuff that's non-dollar productive. But then over time, you want obviously that third person, the leverage agent, that can do all your buyer work. So a lot of buyer work, a lot of buy-seller work, getting um more appraisals for yourself or building their business in your team. And then from there, when you get capacity again, you can get a second agent, leverage agent. And that person can be more of a co-agent where they could, when you go on holidays, you can actually go ahead and list and sell houses and have a business where you don't have to panic when obviously you're sick or you're unwell, or I'm just trying to build a business now that it's not so dependent on Tom Hector. That's what I'm trying to build. And it's working because I can go away for a couple of weeks, my phone might ring for appraisals. I've got Jaden, I've got Clinton, they can take them, they can list and sell that property. And then obviously when I come back, I can run that campaign. And then when you get to a capacity like we did with about 130, 140 sales, we then put a second called a team assistant. So that person reports into the team manager, and that person's working on service area, working on settlement checklists, working on the on the business, all the prospecting mundane activities that actually build a business for life. So every day I come to work Lee, I think about not today, I think about tomorrow. And that's where everyone goes wrong. Everyone's wanting a listing today. So to give an example, right? And this is the stuff that no one ever sees, and I'm happy to share it with you. My assistant Kylie, who has obviously been with me for four years, she's changed my life. She's helped me in such a big way. Kylie Evans has come from an education background. She's a very good teacher. She was a school teacher for a number of years, worked in Catholic education. But like I'm sending out between 10 and 20,000, on average, $10,000 to $15,000 of dinner vouchers per year. I'm sending out at least 10 grand's worth of flowers per year. So anyone has a baby, anyone gets married, anyone has a death in the family, flowers go out the same day, right? And then for an example, I bought out that guy that bought a house yesterday from me. I got it on really well with him. Lovely guy. He's got a house to sell. I may get it, I may not, but you know what? The relationship was so strong. I said, mate, congratulations on buying your most your forever home. Please enjoy dinner on Tom. Send him a nice restaurant down to today. You know, it's like things like that where you just play the long game and they're like, that Tom guy, he's just a good bloke. You know, he's a good bloke. I'll give him a call.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Tom, simple is difficult. The world is overcomplicating everything. And the way you're cutting through, not wasting people's time, but you're actually very deep in community. And one thing people miss sometimes is are you on the edge of your community or are you in your community? Uh the fact you and I are on this charity podcast today is for the real estate community. It's not for anything else. And you've just nailed it on a residential community connection. Point three that I want to go into is, and you sort of covered it, but I I want to ask it, Tom, you did the hard yards, you were beautifully nurtured and mentored right through to being a team leader, which is your leadership role today. It's quite strange for me because you've grown up in front of my eyes. I met you as a kid on reception, and then you know, you've done the complete salesperson course. I wouldn't know how many times, but you've done it so many times, but you've always, like the greats do, go back and let's get the simple sequence right. Let's get the simple sequence right. Everybody else is looking for something in AI to fix their world for them. You don't have to do that when nothing real can be threatened. You've got the sequence. Tom, what's the focus for the

Longevity Systems And Honest Pricing

SPEAKER_01 17:38

future? Because you've sort of achieved so much. What interests you now?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Probably most interesting thing is working with just fewer people and having really strong relationships with my clients in relation to, like, like I mentioned before, getting that middle to upper market consistently selling a number of nicer homes. Like it makes me excited to get properties presented in the way in which I do, and people gravitate towards that. So I've sold two homes above $2 million in the last two weeks at auction, and we spent six weeks getting them prepared. But the the the way in which I've dealt with the buyer and the seller has been so rewarding. I've got the most emotional buyer and I've got the most amazing sellers. So for me now, it's just really that's fulfillment for me. Fulfillment is the preparation, it's the journey to get the house ready, it's the journey to get it a great result. And again, just working with beautiful people. Like I'm very, very, very upfront. If people are not educated on the price and they're way over price, they're not motivated. I will just give that listing away, Lee. I'm more than happy to walk away now because I know my phone's going to ring three times the next day. So fulfillment for me now is more so working with fewer people, enjoying the journey. Sure, there's always going to be challenges. Absolutely. Nothing's easy. There's always going to be buyers wanting to obviously be difficult and vendors, but at the same time, if I can sell less properties and have more time and attention with those clients, that's obviously going to be fulfillment because I've done my journey of 200 plus sales. I don't enjoy that because I say this to my team. We need Monday market pulse in the company. And I spoke because I do it once a month, maybe for on behalf of Phil and Tim here at Harris Real Estate. And I spoke about two fundamental factors. In life, there's two factors you will never, ever, ever, ever get back. Number one is time, and number one is your health. The rest comes and goes. So how do you get more time and how do you get your health back? You've got to have better systems. Better systems means more control. Better control means obviously longevity. And that's the problem I'm facing is longevity, is everything. I want to be still enjoying real estate in 10 years' time. I feel I can if I obviously do the simple things now.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Very powerful. Tom, your price improvement programs, this six-week preparation example you've just mentioned, it's so good to see people doing this properly versus you're surrounded with agents with low fees who say you don't need all that, you don't need all that. And what they're saying is you don't need all that for them to get paid, but that's not going to generate the profit that you're creating for these sellers who you care about. It's not just a transaction for you, you've got the connection.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

That's exactly right, Lee. It's not about it's not about that. It's about like having like I actually say this to my clients all the time, Lee, I'd rather walk away from your listing today knowing that I can sleep at night, knowing I've told you the truth. Because Mr. Joe Bloggs is going to come in tomorrow and tell you, don't worry about putting the light fittings in. Don't worry about putting the new appliances in the kitchen. Just get it on the market and get it sold. But guess what? I've known you long enough and you've seen my track record to know that I'm in the business of telling you what you need to know opposed to what you want to hear. I said to a client two days ago, she nearly, she nearly, she didn't know what to say. The brutal honesty was like, this guy's like, why would he say that? Like he's actually too direct. But Connie, I I care. I care about you that much. Anyway, I sent her a text last night of the property I sold at auction, no response. I got my tradesman out there to quote her job yesterday. She's like, it's interesting now. You know how she knows about me. She goes, she put it in chat GPT. Who is the best agent to sell with in Ross Trevor? If you want a strong auctioneer and a good salesperson, run with Tom Hector. So I've got two listings of the last two months from Chat GPT. How good's that?

SPEAKER_01 21:24

That is so good. But you've got to be doing nothing real can be threatened. You've got to be doing a lot in the marketplace for that to happen. And Tom, I think you've done it so

ChatGPT Leads And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 21:33

well. I want to thank you for joining us on this podcast. It was a, and I knew it would be when I saw Tom Hector's in the lineup. This will be a pocket rocket little direct, great little words. And Tom, you're an absolute legend. Thank you for joining us and being part of this incredible podcast.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

My pleasure, Lee. It's been an absolute pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Tom Hector was sponsored by realestate.com.au