The Real Estate Forum Podcast

The Real Estate Forum Podcast Series 2 Episode 8

• Craig Holowell • Season 2 • Episode 8

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This episode is proudly brought to you by our amazing partners:

Adaptive Fire and Electrical
Eleven Financial
Style With Us, Australia’s Number 1 Home Stylist

Million dollar agents Gavin Staindl and Brent Day have teamed up to bring you something truly special "The Real Estate Forum Podcast".

We’re back for Episode 8 of the year, and what an episode it is!

We’ve got a very special guest on the show Paul Ringeri, Director of Ray White Cranbourne. Paul is consistently ranked among the top 10 agents across the Ray White Group Australia and is highly respected by his peers.

In this episode, Paul shares what’s kept him performing at such a high level for so long, and how staying focused on his own lane without getting distracted by industry noise has been key to his success.

Plus, our brand new segment “Tinfoil or Truth” kicks off with a laugh, as we dive into some wild conspiracies and break down what’s really going on behind them.

This episode is packed with:

🔥 Raw insights
🔥 Game-changing strategies
🔥 Real talk from people in the trenches

Real stories
Real strategies
Real quality guests
Real estate like you’ve never heard it before

So sit back, get comfortable, turn it up, and enjoy.

Tune in. Get inspired. Join the conversation.

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SPEAKER_03

The Real Estate Forum Podcast is back and we're here with Brennan Day. How are you going, Brennan?

SPEAKER_01

I'm going, good man. You look great in my jumper. A little bit of a wardrobe.

SPEAKER_03

Now you don't have a jumper.

SPEAKER_01

I I run hot, man. Like I always run me hot. I don't know. Like I my core temperature is hot. I get sweaty very very easily. And yeah, I like the cold.

SPEAKER_03

You have a whoop thing. Does that tell you what your skin temperature is at night?

SPEAKER_01

It tells me what my skin skin what skin temperature is now. I'll actually pull it up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, tell me. Are you healthy? If you're running hot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I've got 98% recovery today.

SPEAKER_03

You haven't pulled one of them?

SPEAKER_01

How'd you put nah? I haven't. 98% recovery. Nah, so I'm yeah, see, plus I I am plus 0.2, and I should be within minus 0.1 and plus 0.2. So I'm running hot.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you're yeah, it's on par. Yeah. We've got an interesting few, probably an hour or so of discussion. Jade's away, she's sick. Yep. She says she can't be here. We've got a really good guest that's come on, one of your fiercest competitors. I'm looking forward to. Well, I mean, you're basically in the same area. Yeah, no, he is. He's in a lot of respect. I wanna I want to talk about on market versus off market. Yep. There is a serious trend now towards selling properties off market. And I've I haven't seen this trend evolve as much as I have right now. What's your personal take on it?

SPEAKER_01

I I I in a rising market, right? I'm a little bit against it because you don't know. Like if you get some competition there in a really good market, you can, you know, make a lot more money when you're on the market for a $4,000 investment, whatever it is, depending on your area. Uh I'll just do a personal scenario. We had two off-market sales in the last three weeks. Um, one was off a little coming soon board that sold for 1.11. Um, you know, really, really the vendor was stoked with that price. So, like, Brent, yeah, I'm taking it. Let's go. Um, we had another one in, and I'll talk to Paul about this as well because it was um he would know the property in Botanic Ridge. Sold it to him for 1.6 last year. I called him off another sale. My owner said, Hey, if we just got 2.1 for this, would you consider a sale? They said yes. We had the right buyer through another one of our offices and sold that for $2,015,000, so a $415,000 increase uh within a 12-month period. So they're the stories where you think you'd be stupid not to sell off-market if you've got that one buyer in a marketplace that is paying a lot more than the market is actually saying it's worth. And yeah, the off-markets, I I I am I've got like bipolar with them, to be honest with you. So my answer's not gonna be straight.

SPEAKER_03

So as an agent, like remove the vendor, remove the buyer as an agent. Are you better off going to market because of the the branding that it helps with your personal brand and obviously the company that you work for?

SPEAKER_01

You mean so on markets? Yeah, sorry, go on market, yeah. Yeah, uh, I think, yeah, absolutely, man, 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_03

So as the agent, you should push everything to market.

SPEAKER_01

Uh uh, yeah, 110%, unless unless you get the right price. But how do you how can we dictate the right price?

SPEAKER_03

Do you pitch off market at listing presentations?

SPEAKER_01

Um, it depends. So if I go up in a listing, say against Paul and you, and everyone's pitching off market, I pitch on market, the point of difference. So I'm very uh kind of mirrored with my client. Like if everyone's on off-market, off-market, I'll give them examples as why off-market's actually not good and you're not going to get the best price with off-market. Um, if the vendor is really inclined to get a sale done and get a sale done quickly, and I have two to three buyers that I can take through, I'll say, let's take them through. They'll give us a gauge on price. If they offer us X amount, um, we'll consider it. But I always recommend with an off-market, if we don't get a wow price, we don't facilitate a sale.

SPEAKER_03

So you in your listing presentations go against the grain of what the other agents are saying. So if the other agents are saying go to market, are you saying go off market?

SPEAKER_01

Potentially, yeah, depending on the client. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Um realestate.com.au came out last week, uh, as expected, they're bumping up their fees as of July 1. Yeah, realestate.com.au, huge, almost like a monopoly on the market. Domain are pushing, but realestate.com, when people talk about selling houses, buying houses, that's a website that people go to, right? REA is what we call it in the biz. They every year, apart from a couple, will without fail increase their charges on July 1. Now, you know, I'm not so sure if you're aware, but depending on where you are geographically to the city, you either get charged more or charge less. So, for example, if you want the the top spot in realestate.com and you're in Turak, for example, it's over five thousand dollars to appear on the uh real estate website. If you're out in the country, say for example, you're selling out Lang Lang, I think it's about 1,500.

SPEAKER_01

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, but that's going, they're increasing their fees by 10%.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, 10%?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, 10%. It's going up July 1. So domain, I think, are holding off. I think they are only increasing by a small amount in what they call their tier one and tier two suburbs, which is like in deep in the city, um, so out like in the the broader regions, and this is going for Sydney and Brisbane too. Uh, they're not being not being touched. But REA across the board increasing by 10% as of July 1. So if you are an owner who is now gonna have to fork out an extra 10% to get an REA, why wouldn't you look at off-market? It's so expensive.

SPEAKER_01

I I was doing I can't remember what reporting I was doing. Maybe on that townhouse in officer we were speaking about, and then you come up with an off-market sale in there, what are you what what are you pitch against or for?

SPEAKER_03

Well, it is it is the value for money then, right? So if you were selling a multi-million dollar property, like what's an extra thousand bucks for realestate.com, right? Or what's an extra 500 bucks to go on that website? But if you're selling like a $500,000 property and you've got to spend out an extra thousand dollars, that's actually 0.5%. Like that's a bit of money, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and uh another scenario that popped into my head, we had one, we took a buyer through off market. I thought it was worth more than what that buyer was offering. Uh so I said to the vendor, let's roll the dice. We'll invest, I think it was two and a half grand on marketing. And the buyer who we took off market was the only buyer that was interested about 10 days later, and we still facilitated the sale to her at the same price. So ultimately the vendor probably probably lost that two grand, two and a half grand, but they did roll the dice. And I was and I said that to them, I said, guys, at the end of the day, you know, it's worth having a crack because it's a lot of money that we can maybe bring in, but we'll sell it to her, and we still facilitate the sale for them.

SPEAKER_03

The thing I like about off markets is in a hot market, you're right, like everyone can sell, right? Every an owner can probably sell their own house and get a good price. But in a cooler market, which we'll discuss shortly, in a cooler market, I think it really does it then it's it displays who what agents are good and what agents rely on internal or or or generic inquiry coming through. Because if you can pick up the phone and call someone or you can you're clever enough to match a person to a house, that's good. You should get rewarded for that. Uh but the people that sit back, lazy agents rely on inquiries coming in, organic uh traffic to you open for inspections, they get found out in these markets. So I think one thing an off-market does do is it separates the lazy agents from the ones that actually pick up the phone and make calls. Or as you found out in your one that you had where they bought for 1.6, sold for $2 million and $50,000. Like, hang on, this guy is in the same street, has a similar house. We've got a leftover buyer. I'm gonna call him. He hasn't indicated that he's selling. I'm gonna call him and say, hey, we've got this person who might be interested in your house, and sure enough, you get a sale. I think that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you this is actually so off topic, but you've you always have loved this story. So that owner has another house for sale in that area, and you probably know what it is, and it's with this certain agent. And I went out there and she wanted X amount for it, and I said, It's not worth it, rent it out for 12 months, and we'll reassess. So she ended up going with this other agent, but I still called her, even though she had the other agent for her house, and I said what I said before about the two million buck buyer, and then she's sold that and she's moving into the house that she can't sell with this other agent. And then I drove past there and there's a sold sticker on the board. And I'm like, I called my owner and it's under offer online. I called my owner and I'm like, hey, like, congratulations on the sale of the other property. Um, because I ate my own words, thought it wasn't worth it. She's like, What do you mean? I haven't even had one offer. And I was like, you know, there's a sold sticker on your board and it's under offer online. And she's like, uh, no, like I said, he could put a sold sticker on, so it doesn't make him look bad. And then so this agent is going around telling people you sold this house. My vendor said it to me yesterday. I'm like, dude, he hasn't he hasn't sold it. Like, he hasn't fucking sold it. Like, I promise you, that's my owner. That they were moving in there. He's like, no, they there was a moving truck there. I'm like, yeah, that's my owner moving into their investment property that they couldn't sell. And this guy's advertising it that it's sold. Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Can I put a sold sticker up?

SPEAKER_01

Bro, the sold sticker is still on there. I drove past yesterday to put a sold sticker on hers, and I just I was telling Carter, and Carter's like, What the hell? Like, I've never heard of that ever.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01

Dodgy shit, man.

SPEAKER_03

Well, let's let's talk about some of the tactics that agents uh are using. And like there is a clear example that went viral last weekend of a Ray White agent picking up boards from the opposition, like you know, the pointer boards, the A-frame ones, then throwing them in the back of the car and keeping them. And clearly this was a rampant activity because a dude was wise enough to put a tracker on the board and and then followed him and said, Hey mate, you've got my and that clip went viral. And the the head office at Ray White, they were pissed. They were pissed because there was one example. Um, an agent in in uh the Sunshine Coast, a Ray White agent, uh, had two listings stitched up, two two million dollar listings with the same owner, went to sign up on the Saturday. They saw the owners saw this video and said, We're not going with Ray White anymore.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, so it's affecting you guys.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah, well, yeah, impacting even in other states. Like it the power of social media is crazy. We talked about this, and the the the the shitty thing is like this uh guy that got busted is a sales associate, right? He's a junior. And he's probably come from the top that like uh he's he's to pick up the other agents' boards. Um, and I'm like, what are we doing? Like the some of the dirty tactics that's going on, agents like saying there's a three-bedroom and then marketing as a five-bedroom because there's two living spaces, so it's five bedrooms, no living areas. Like, it happens so often, it's so misleading. And like, luckily at our area, like it hasn't happened. I'd be keen to find out if other agents have experienced this where I haven't lost any of my pointer boards. I certainly haven't gone ahead and stolen any. In fact, I haven't even put mine out. That's probably the real problem here. But then misleading, sure, you have a study, maybe you put that as a fourth bedroom. You know, um, maybe you have a living area with built-in robes, you put it as a fourth bedroom. But some of the activities that is going on, and then you're telling me there's a salt sticker on a board that hasn't been sold. How misleading is that?

SPEAKER_01

It's crazy, man. And like the for even my other vendor who lives behind this certain house, I'm like, hey mate, your house is sold. Congratulations, unconditional. He's like, Yeah, did you hear what the house sold for behind me? I'm like, which one? And he told me, he's like, Yeah, it's got 1.4, and I'm like, dude, it hasn't sold. He's like, No, I seen a moving truck there. I'm like, fuck, man. Like, I've I it hasn't sold, dude.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, it hasn't sold. Yeah, yeah, that's great. But yeah, the more and more, like I'm actually really appreciative. So, again, for any new listeners, we're basically out in the southeast of uh of Melbourne. Really grateful, like the the agents that work out here are pretty good, pretty ethical. Um, but Jay, how tight is it in the north and the west where they're having to steal each other's pointer boards to get ahead? Like, is that how you get up the trees? Is that how you get up the hierarchy is by just knocking people down?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and uh it's and our guests will go over, we haven't even introduced a guest, but it's awesome. It's a bit of a uh a teaser. But um, you know, our guests today would be a testament to this too. Like you drive in air area like Cranburn, Clyde North, there's literally hundreds of boards that have been out there for ages, um, and they just sit there and I'm like, I I just want the council to literally say no more pointer boards. Yeah, I'd love to. So I don't have to do it because my owners will say, Well, where's my pointer board? Like, if I if I forget to do a board, they've they're bang on it. Like, oh well, everyone else is doing it. But it's actually breaking the law in in the council that that we're in. Um so I'd I'd love to see the council actually police it a little bit better and maybe find these guys who are consistent, you know, doing it, doing it, doing the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_03

I had a mate used to pick up um boards. He wasn't, he didn't care if it was Ray White or Harcourt's or O'Brien's or whatever. Um, but he'd use them for BB shooting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, true. It's the same.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the core flip boards, really good for BB shooting.

SPEAKER_01

It's the same, and you can get really good groupings. Yes. That's what the army used. They use the orange ones with the man on it, yeah, and the holes go straight through, and then you can see your grouping millimeters through. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's cool. All right, we um are gonna go through the sponsors because we've got some awesome sponsors. Brennan, you're gonna run us through what we've got.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we've got Sharon from Star with us. She actually done a quote for me in Cranburn East last week, which I'm very happy with. Awesome communication though. Like I texted her and she went out there that day, had the quote straight away. So, you know, awesome case study for her. She's she's absolutely great at her job. Uh, we have Douglas from Fire, Adaptive Fire and Electrical. I stuffed that up every time. And then we have obviously Jade, who is in she's on her way to Fiji. She was sick yesterday, but she's on her way to Fiji now. She's got work by the sounds of it. For a wedding. So um, yeah, I'm sure Jade's Jade's doing really well, and uh, yeah, great to have him on board.

SPEAKER_03

Around the corner, we've got a new guest that we're about to announce shortly, and then our brand new segment, which I'm excited for because I've really kick started this one. It's um the conspiracy segment, and we've got tin foil hats, and we've got a magic crystal ball. Um, unfortunately, Jade couldn't be here for it. I was I'm gutted, but I've got a conspiracy theory that I want to run past you, so stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01

Cheers. All right, today's guest, this is someone who's lived and breeds real estate for over 23 years. He's the first agent I actually remember ever. He actually sold my mum's house when I was a kid, and he just mentioned then that uh he sold my brother a house too. So maybe a reason why I got into real estate as well, but we'll go into that a little bit more later. Uh, we're talking more than 1,650 transactions. Every type of deal you can imagine, I'm sure he's uncovered with those deals he's done. And somehow Paul is still showing up stronger than ever. A 16-year elite agent placing him in the top 3% of Ray White agents across the country, and now a partner at Ray White Cranburn, which is an absolute powerhouse of a brand. This is elite level consistency. Paul is someone who has navigated most markets, understands people, and delivers when it matters most. Paul, welcome to the show, mate, and thanks so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks, boys. That's not a bad intro, is it?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it took me a bit. Nah.

SPEAKER_03

I'm yeah, I'm keen because he is your direct competitor, right? You you go up against each other in listing presentations. How did it feel right in that?

SPEAKER_01

Um, no, it was actually good. Like, I I like seeing people do well, and I know people say that, and I you you know they're not being truthful. Yeah, but yeah, like I I remember one of my first interactions with Paul from a competitive level. Uh, he was selling a house in Botanic Ridge, and one of our clients had just sold 20 acres in Devon Meadows, and I helped Paul with the negotiation with the buyer because they were very elderly. And Paul said, I'll buy you a box of beer. And I said, Yeah, no worries. And Paul's like, Where are you, mate? And delivered that box of beer to me. And I'm like, you know, this is a is amount of his word, and you know, he was very, very good to deal with. And we do go up against each other a fair bit. Um, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I reckon we'd have probably a 50-50 hit rate together. And yeah, so it's um it's good. And you know, Paul's if someone goes with Paul, I don't sit back and think, Oh, if they should have gone with me, I would have got more money. I think they're in safe hands with Paul, and I I truly, truly do mean that. So, and he's a he's a good person to compete with. He he doesn't really slag me, or not that I know of.

SPEAKER_03

Ring is you slag him?

SPEAKER_02

No, no, I try and be straight down the line. You you've got to be a little bit competitive sometimes, but I'm I'm a big believer of sort of what what goes around comes around. I think on a couple occasions that you push the boundary too much, you sort of got you get brought back to level pretty quick. So sort of played your strengths. Yeah, yeah. And look, you're not gonna get them all as long as you get some feedback and you can improve. Yeah, that's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_03

So 23 years and consistently you've been, if not in the top five and at least top ten agents at Ray White. How do you how do you hold that kind of consistency?

SPEAKER_02

I think um I'm I wouldn't be a competitive person externally. I'm quite competitive with myself. And I think it's just about obviously trying to do the best you possibly can each and every single day. I'm I'm definitely not a forward planner. I just try and take it day at a time and just try and get the best results I can on a daily basis, and it just sort of builds up over time. Um I think you get burnt out? I I've had a I've I think I've had two two pretty good stints of that.

SPEAKER_03

Can you tell me what it looks like and and how do you recover?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think um for me it's sort of I think it's being really tired.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, but the key for me is um uh being really um reduced patience with people and not having the time and energy to um go into detail, which is one of my strengths, and not avoiding negotiations, but avoiding particular clients that you know are energy sappers, which sounds really bad, but it's the truth. And when I get to that level, I sort of know that it's that it's I'm I'm sort of just about to tap out and just need a little bit of a mini break.

SPEAKER_03

So, what do you what do you do to recover?

SPEAKER_02

I think the problem is is I've I think my boss, I think Mark said to me once, um, when you need a holiday, it's too late for a holiday. So I think I've got to get better at taking a break before you need one, because when you need one, it's too late.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um so for me, it's just a couple of days off. Um, and just to sort of just because I'm happy with my own company, so just be just a nice couple of quiet days, and I'll I'm definitely okay to get back on board again. But it's happened a couple of times, I remember, yeah, remember well.

SPEAKER_01

And watching watching the cutters win, mate.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm definitely a catters fan, mate. I heard you go for Collingwood, is that right?

SPEAKER_01

I don't it's I do, I do.

SPEAKER_03

He's not footy, he doesn't care about footy.

SPEAKER_02

I listened to Matt's podcast this morning, so I picked up you. Yeah, yeah. Mets of pies, man.

SPEAKER_01

I used to be like mad pies, right? Like like literally mad pies, like obsessed with it, like spending thousands of bucks on tickets for grand finals and stuff. And you know, going back to 2023 when we won the flag, it was literally everything I ever wanted. Not in life. It's just that that moment losing in 2017, and then I was like, my cup's filled. Like, I won't go to I've been offered a hundred times to go this that day, and I like literally have to argue with people, like, I don't want to go.

SPEAKER_02

I've never gone to a grand final, I'm too scared. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I walked around the Concord for like uh that second and third quarter. You lacked it up, and um, yeah, I it was nerve-wracking more than enjoyable. So yeah, I'm not a Mad Pies supporter anymore.

SPEAKER_02

So I think as well, like when you've got continued success, it's you sort of expect it when when the D's won, like that must have been just awesome. That that whole build up. You're a D's man, is that right? That would have been I reckon that would have been fantastic experience when you won the first time.

SPEAKER_03

I knew I actually bought a house in Perth. So I I kid you not, I had the contracts. Really? And the only reason I didn't go ahead and buy it so I could become a you know resident of WAS COVID. Um was yeah, because it was COVID, sorry. Um, was because they needed then receipts to show that you're taking your pets with you and like you had the removalist booked. I'm like, oh, it's a bit too much. I'm kicking myself now because prices have gone like 120% since then. Um ring is I remember my first ever Ray White Awards night was um out at the Docklands, and yeah, there was probably 800 people there and seeing you up on stage, and I think you you reached the top three. And I was like, oh, this guy's also using from Cranberne. Like so many times you see like agents that are doing well, like they might be from the city or the like the nice areas, and you you think it's not attainable. Um, and I saw you, and I'm like, oh, that's really quite inspiring because Cranberne is very similar to my market in Packingham. And I'm like, oh, if he can do it, then then definitely I can. Uh, but then I saw you in like this three-piece tux, and you had the beard and the chops and like a very well-established facial hair. And I'm thinking to myself, this guy's got it made. Like, this guy's he's something I don't favor it. I've thought this guy's got it made. Um, and then I the first time I ever spoke to you was at a Ray White event, and I loved how humble you were, because you're like, oh Gav, you're doing so well. And I'm like, he knows my name. He knows my name. And I thought that was so special. Um, but that one of the things that I think has allowed you to be so successful, and I've kind of braced my own way of approaching real estate off yours, is that you're so humble and you're so authentic and it's so you. And even though you get these accolades with Ray White, you still remain very much the ringers, like we call them ringers, not Paul Ring Gary or Paul. Um, and I just want to say I commend you for that. Thanks, Matt. I think it's really cool you do it. Do you find that has helped with your success for so long?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think um, like for me, I'm I'm very mindful that you can't do it without a team. So I've had a team for a really long time. I don't profess to run the perfect team, but you can't sort of achieve the results you want without some help. So I'm very mindful that that they are part of the journey as well. So, one of the things that I always basically do, if we get an accolade. Or an award or an achievement, I'd basically let them go up on stage first and then just follow afterwards. So I've just I've been brought up like that. And I think it's the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_03

Do you mind sharing from like when you do recognize a team? Like even from a fiscal perspective, do you give them bonuses and how does it look from a reward?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think I mean everyone's got different structures around this. Um I mean you guys might do a little bit differently to me, but obviously we we basically pay a wage, which is normal, and then um some agents in the office do it differently, but I will reward if they make a sale and reward if they obtain a listing lead. And then if there's any other um avenues of income that can come in, I'll give them a chop out as well because they do most of the buyer work where those other avenues sort of can lead to more income and coming into the business. So if they're not pushing for it, I'm not gonna get it. So I'll give this, I'll give them some if I get some.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think that's a massive game changer when you run a team too. Like if you say to someone, I'll give you five or ten percent or two percent of everything, where's the drive there? Yeah. What if I said, Hey Paul, you get a listing, mate, I'll give you 10%, you're getting 90% of that, then office cuts and stuff. Yeah, but that that uh co-agent is pushing so hard and you're making more money, then it's just like a compounding thing. Like that listing brings in more listings and buyers, and then it really compounds, and the team is so important, man. Like, if even I think I was lucky enough, I think three months in to have a team member, yeah. And I don't know anything different. And you guys are probably the same. Like, have you guys always had teams since the start?

SPEAKER_02

Probably had um I've had bigger teams before when there was less admin being done by by the office, but I'm not really good on um on massive change in structure. So I think I'd rather remunerate a bit better in the hope that they stay a little bit longer. And I think also for their own good, we've got some really young agents coming up and they can see um the income stream of successful agents and they want to get out really, really quick, but I just don't think they understand how hard it is on your own, particularly in a market like that. So if I can um encourage them and reward them to stay a little bit longer, it's gonna benefit me, but it's probably gonna benefit them as well in the long term. And I reckon in the next sort of three or four years, um, the way that I structure my business will probably change, I might try and do a bit more like training and and management. So I might sort of try and split my days up between listing and selling and managing, and then there's gonna be opportunities for them to take on some extra business as well.

SPEAKER_01

So, do you think in the next say five years, um Pauline Gary's doing the numbers he's doing now? Or are you thinking like I want to do two million or two hundred sales?

SPEAKER_02

You're thinking we'll step back. I'm very um if if I break it down right now, the the way that you've got your tracks and your business, I would never be able to do it the way that you've done it. And the numbers that you write, I'll I would never be able to do it. Because um, I think sometimes your biggest strength is your biggest weakness. Like I spend a lot of time on customer service and attention to detail, and you get results out of that, but it's really, really time consuming. Hideous. So if I can sort of if I do between 100 and 110, that's pretty much me capped. Yeah, sales. Yeah. If I went to 150, 160, I think my head would explode, or I would be dropping off on all of the areas that have held me consistent for a long time. Because I've never been the absolute best, I've never been the worst, but I've just been able to be consistent the whole way through, like lower, lower peaks and lower troughs, just just sort of flat lines.

SPEAKER_03

Because you've got agents that go through these massive highs, break like burn out, break down, end up dropping away, then having to rebuild back again, they go through these huge waves, consistency. Oh man, that's that's what every agent strives for.

SPEAKER_02

I don't I think you know, I um listen to a couple of podcasts about Josh Tesla and you guys as well. Just as an example, you you see like how well respected and all the results he got and how quickly it can change just like that. So I'd rather just sit behind, stay in my lane. I really don't know too much about too many agents in Cramp. And if someone wants some help on its advice, I'll reach out. But I you know, I don't involve myself too much in that.

SPEAKER_03

I just do an agent called um I forgot his name. Brent Day. Yeah, he's all right.

SPEAKER_02

He's he's on Instagram, isn't he? I think he's on TikTok.

SPEAKER_01

He does the jumping that come come look through I don't do the voice class a few years ago. But no, I don't do that. Um you say about like doing these massive numbers, like I'm lucky enough to sit here next to Gavin every week, every second week. Yeah, he's so level-headed and he does 250 sales is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02

I think his personality is so chilled and so relaxed. I I legit don't know how you do it, mate. It blows my mind, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It has obvious you too. But one thing that I guess listen to you savoring is I am not that attentive to detail. Yeah, so and so where you have you you'd probably have the whole campaign down to an nth degree where you're like, this is inspection's gonna be at this time, and the photo's gonna have at this time. I'm winging it as I go day by day. I'm like, yeah, I reckon we could probably do an inspection. Like, even running the open for inspection run this weekend, it's Anzac Day. So we're starting at one o'clock, and I'm thinking, how the hell am I gonna fit all this kind of stuff in? But I feel like you would have already prepared for that. Like you'd know it.

SPEAKER_02

And and I've got to give a lot of credit to my wife, Nette. Like, she's done like this for me. Nett is actually the top three or four longest serving agents or part or team members for Ray White Cranberry. Like, she's been there the whole time with me. But the thing is, I'm very big on 1% things to avoid confrontation. I think it's I think negotiating is a really powerful thing. And if you get yourself into a position where a vendor says to you, like, what do you think we should do with the offer? I think that's complete trust. And I just try to avoid anything taking place that's gonna make a vendor not feel that way. Yep. So that's you know, and then when that when a market's challenging, people are watching. So if the open board's not out or the time's wrong, or it's not on the internet, um, there's just too many excuses for people to not make a tough decision, and I think that could be the worst thing that they could do for themselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I just try and do the small things just to keep the people. Because people will now look at that kind of stuff with a far greater eye of detail than what they've ever done in the past because of social media and because of access to you know video communication, audio communication. Like you can really work out are you doing your job properly? Are you putting the sign out? You know, uh, are you saying the right things at the open for inspections? They know that now, these owners. So I think being super careful around detail is gonna hold you in good stead.

SPEAKER_02

I I'd love to go list, flick, and sell, like I would love to do that. Um, but I just don't know if I'd be able to can control everything else that takes place.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and there's actually so I had a message the other day and they said well, what's your game plan for for this week? And um I thought there's actually not much that we do differently week by week, right? Yeah. We do opens, we do buyer work, we do vendor communication, and we take try to take a buy some other properties. And I I I just said back the week was already planned, had an open, had a second inspection, all that stuff. Nothing actually changes too much in a week by week basis, right? So as long as you nail your tasks, yeah, you know, it's pretty simple, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02

I think at the moment there's and um and we're really pedantic on all the change in legislation. So, like from when you started to now, like there's so much more admin required. And I feel like sometimes you're you're less of a sales person, like a genuine salesperson these days than what you would have been 10 to 15 years ago, because this is so many, so many people watching and so many boxes you need to tick. So you sort of do everything by the book that it is that's more time consuming as well. And if I had to do that on top, I I mean, yeah, everyone's different though.

SPEAKER_01

What um I I want you to answer this question, and I think it's a good question for you as well. Like, if you reckon if you started real estate again tomorrow and you had no experience whatsoever, what's the first thing that you do to kind of build momentum? Straight away.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, um, my worst trait is prospecting and database. Like I'm terrible at it. So if I had a known, if I hadn't known how crucial it is, I would have done it better from the start. And I think now I was thinking about it before. One of the different things in the market these days, because I've been around like longer than you and and definitely longer than yourself, is that um it's easier to get um it's easier to get productive and noticed and earning a good income quicker these days than what it was 10 to 15 years ago. So um so if I was coming in now and I did it the same way, like you would just you you get blown away straight away.

SPEAKER_01

Master, like just do the basic stuff right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I think and if if ever like you have a bad month or um things are going your way, it's a really good leveling aspect is just just to basically go absolute back to basics because you know when you get really busy, right? If you don't do the basics that month, it's gonna affect your business in three or four months' time, and then you know what you haven't done. It's it's a real um it's it's it's an easy job if you're structured and you've got good communication skills. But also it's a really unrewarding job if you don't 100%.

SPEAKER_03

Um, Ring is stick around um because we want to have you on the next segment. Sure. But I'm super excited for this one, guys. We're gonna start off, we're gonna start off low-key uh because I don't want to say something out of school, but our fearless producer, Craig, has brought us these tinfoil hats, and we also have the crystal ball. And the reason we've got the crystal ball ringers is because Jade, who unfortunately can't be on the podcast today, she's always like, I don't have a crystal ball, I don't know what's gonna happen. So we have a crystal ball.

SPEAKER_01

I mean I've got something major news as well. I've got an auction on Sunday. We'll we'll unpack it. On Sunday, we'll unpack it.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's great. So stay tuned for the crystal ball segment after this. All right, so this is the news segment. If it look like stupid, don't touch your hair.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I don't know if I actually would have come on if I had to know about this.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, bad luck is sucked in. The segment's called tin foil or truth. We do have the crystal ball. It's not so much looking into the future, this one, um, but it's about auction clearance rates because I think that auction clearance rates are the biggest load of crocker shit going around. And they they're not fabricated, but they don't tell a true story. Now, auction clearance rate forever and a day has been the true indicator whether the market is doing well or the market is not doing well. Generally speaking, if you have a clearance rate above 70%, it's a seller's market. If it's below 60%, it's a buyer's market, right? However, I think this is skewed. And the case that I'm making for in tinfoil or truth is that right now, especially right now, the auction clearance rate. Does anyone know from the weekend, by the way, what the national average was? 56? Nope.

SPEAKER_02

I got no clue.

SPEAKER_03

No idea. No. Well, some of the best real estate agents in the country. Yeah, no idea. So national clearance rates Australia wide were 50.7.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, close.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, jeez. The last time they were below 50, have a guess.

SPEAKER_01

No, I don't know. 10, 15 years ago, no clue. 2010.

SPEAKER_03

May 2020, which makes sense, right? It's when COVID was happening. Everyone's like shitting the bricks and thinking we're we're gonna go into something crazy pandemic, which we did. Um but outside of that, yeah, it's been years. It's been years before that. So we're at 50. We're flirting with dropping below 50%. Now I have reached out to 10 agents, 10 high-performing agents, to ask them, do they report all of their sales results? So you know how when you sell an auction or you don't sell an auction, you get a call from the REIV, you get a call from RP data, yeah, like internally we have got to report to Ray White. Does everyone do that? So, Ringers, do you report all your auction data? I do. You do? Yeah, do you report all your auction data?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, I do. I don't know, I don't know. I haven't done an auction for ages, but I'll just say I do.

SPEAKER_03

I don't think you do. I think you definitely don't. I, for one, definitely don't. Okay. If I sell the house, I want to report it.

SPEAKER_02

I normally ask for if it's passed in, I won't disclose the reserve. Yep. Um, but I do try and give them information.

SPEAKER_03

So of the 10 agents that I messaged, 10 high-performing agents, four of them said that they have this year not reported sales results if it got passed in. Why? So, well, we think about it, right? You've you've you're you've had a big Saturday, you've you've run out of gas, you're knackered, um, the auction didn't sell, you're feeling shit, and then you're getting calls coming through going, you know, oh, can I speak to you about the sales results? I'm not talking to you. I don't want to talk to you. And then you're getting message after message, you're like, piss off, and then it waits till Monday and Tuesday. You might not even do it. There have been times where I haven't reported. And I'd Ray Well hate that, but I haven't reported because I couldn't be stuffed. If we sold a house though, and I'm feeling good, cashing that commission check, I'm reporting that, telling everyone. You're calling them. The problem I have with this, and this is my conspiracy, is that the figures are not right. There is a podcast called Fear and Greed, and they say they allow between six to eight percent less than what is actually reported because agents are either A, too lazy, or B, just don't want to report the shit results. No one wants to report the poor results. So clearance rates at 50.7 nationally, I'm actually arguing, and this is either tinfoil or truth, that the clearance rates, because the market is becoming more and more suppressed, compounds a fact. I think it's probably 10% less that aren't being reported. So I actually think the clearance rates would be around 40%.

SPEAKER_01

So we're tinfoil on that.

SPEAKER_03

So would you say that auction clearance rates nationally could be around 40%?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, all right, that was easy.

SPEAKER_01

Um you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna send you my, I'm gonna report to you on Sunday.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so don't report to REIV, don't report to O'Brien, report to Gavin Steinel and let me know if you reported to those companies. I so my my tinfoil theory is that when the market's pumping, if the official clearance rate says 80%, I reckon it might be closer to 78 or 77 because people are happy to report the good news and there's less lazy agent or less people not wanting to report. As the market drops, or at least becomes less tenable to sell, and it falls below that 60%, flirting on 50%, then I think there's even less agents. So instead of being three or four, or is this fear and greed podcast report is six or eight, I think it's closer to 10, maybe even more percent. So I think that this market, looking at the official auction clearance rates, is a 50-50. I think it's in a much worse situation than what we're actually seeing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Any auctions coming up?

SPEAKER_03

I do, but we've been trying to sell them beforehand.

SPEAKER_01

Off-site? On site? No, what off-site?

SPEAKER_03

In rooms, on site, I don't care. But the selling beforehand because we just don't have a lot of bidders. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's interesting the one in Seaford that I've got for auction. Seaford? I thought it was going to fly, man. No. Uh two to three floating around.

SPEAKER_02

How many numbers at your opens?

SPEAKER_01

Uh we've had, I've done 12 opens, average of three people. So good. 30 to 40. Yeah, but yeah, two to three. What's that? 10% interest.

SPEAKER_02

Our old school theory is that however many biddies you've got, you cut it in half and cut it in half, you get it, and that's how many you got. So you need to get six to eight, need to get six to eight people.

SPEAKER_03

So you've got half a leg and half an arm. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we're standing on the tinfoil. Um, Craig, our feeler's producer. He uh has never actually appeared on the podcast, and he's going to make an appearance for the first time. And it just so happens that his first appearance is going to be about some form of tinfoil conspiracy. So, Craig, hit us with what you got, buddy.

SPEAKER_00

All right, so just be before we go forward, so um, what do we got there? Three tin foils? Yeah, we do. Three tinfoils for that. All right. Here's I've got one for you. I was just recently in Egypt to see the pyramids, and I was absolutely in awe having a look at them, and and and uh and just the the size of them is just incredible. Do you believe that we as humans made the pyramids or somebody else? I don't know, like aliens. Or something something different to us. What does the tour guide say? They say they don't know. Well they don't know. No. What do you say? They give you they actually give you um an explanation about how they think they were bought they were built, but at the end of everything that they say is, but we don't really know.

SPEAKER_01

So that's a conspiracy as well. Yeah, massive conspiracy within the guide.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So what do you what are your thoughts? Um after standing at the bottom of them and looking at the size of them at over two million blocks, some that are ten ten uh ton each, I believe that there is no way a human built them. That's my couldn't they just have a very sophisticated pulley system? Uh not with not with being less than two millimetres out from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. And the pyramid um doesn't have any mortar, which so none of the blocks are stuck together. Just sitting there. Just sitting there. So if a heavy wind came along, see a later pyramids. Well, not at not a ten tonne a block.

SPEAKER_01

No, very heavy winds. So two, so that's factual. Two millimeter, there's not more of a they're all aligned within two mil.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

I feel like though, if Cleopatra was stunning, she's a good looking chick. I feel like if I was working for Cleopatra, I'd make sure it's within two mil or two.

SPEAKER_01

I'd be pulling ten times. I'll push 20.

SPEAKER_00

Well, they didn't build it for Cleopatra, they build it for Khufu, but um But anyway, um, I just believe that there is no way a human or or we had a a race of humans that were a lot bigger and a lot smarter than what we are today. Because even if today, if we tried to build the pyramid, we don't have the technology to do it.

SPEAKER_01

Really?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01

So we can't duplicate it now.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03

Sure, it's been you build these skyscrapers that are five times the size.

SPEAKER_00

No, we do not have the technology.

SPEAKER_02

What do you think? I have never thought about it, to be honest, but I don't know how else it would be done if a human didn't do it. Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, good point. Cop that's a little bit more. And that's why, you know, when you're speaking to the Egyptologists at the end of everything they say to you, they say, but we don't really know. Because nobody knows.

SPEAKER_03

There was some pretty weird shit happening at that time. Like obviously Moses' part in the Red Sea, you know, all those like the frogs running down and the the smearing of the sheep's blood, and some pretty weird stuff going on. Well, Easter Island, they've got those huge heads, like the same thing, right? Who put them there? Was it Nobody Knows?

SPEAKER_02

I think the man on the moon's controversial as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well that could be another one. You'll have to come back. All right, so there we go. That's uh that's tinfoil of truth segment. Hope you liked it. Um stick around, we'll wrap this up pretty quickly, but uh, we want to get your thoughts, so comment below. Tinfoil of Truth. It's great to hear Craig's voice. He's got a very soft but manly timber about him. Uh Bring is thanks so much for joining us. Pleasure, boys. Thank you for the invite. Manly Timbers. Thank you very much. And uh, Brenner, leave us with one thing.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, because I've got two great agents across from me now. What is your advice at the moment to sellers in this market? So, someone, say someone that needs to sell, yeah, what would your advice be to them? Not wait 12 months, they need to sell.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I think I'll go first. I think the one thing that I always do is I always encourage them to aim for the best but plan for the worst. So basically, if they've got three specific price points, their their dream price, their happy price, their worst case, to basically try and work out what their worst case is before they go to market. They don't need to tell me that. I just there's a lot of deals that are close, but it's like a 10, 15 grand gap. And it's harder to sort of pull it together when everyone's sort of hit that their that their bottom line or top line, there's still a gap. And I think as well, um, really good to get vendors to talk to brokers to try and say, right, if you're buying and selling the same market, sell for a bit less, buy for a bit less, the gap's never as big as what it seems. That's what I would say to someone before you launch. So they're all ready to rock and roll.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Trying to take the emotion out of selling a home and turning it into a commercial decision of just selling a property.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, true. Good point. What about you? Um I think the one thing is that it's not all going to be sunshine and rainbows as much as I want it to be. Um, and I'll do everything to make it like that. But you know, have those conversations that if you did get an offer that was maybe a little bit less, uh, what would you do and if you can still facilitate that move as well? And the one thing like the back. Your agent, if you're choosing between one, two, three agents and you make that decision on that agent, trust that agent and back them in a hundred percent because that agent is going to work ten times harder for you if you pretty much give them the keys and say, Brent, we have full trust in you. But then as an agent for me, I'm like, I have to do everything perfect, and I really want to get these guys a good price because we're all human beings, right? So I think yeah, back your agent in 100%. Have those conversations as a family before the pressure is on when you have a offer in there, offer right in front of your face, that you've had those conversations about those prices.

SPEAKER_03

Cool, guys. Thank you so much, ringers. Really appreciate you coming down all the way from Credit. Thank you very much. We'll be on in two weeks' time following the RBA decision. Rates up, rates down. Uh, we'll be back with the crystal ball. Jade will be back on as well. And there is going to be some really good discussions about what direction this market's heading. So stay tuned for two weeks' time. Thank you very much for joining.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks so much.