Million Dollar Agent
Million Dollar Agent
John McGrath becomes a Buyer & How to End Your Year with a Bang
John McGrath shares his firsthand experience as a buyer, providing insight into what customers appreciate and expect.
Learn how concise advertising can capture attention more effectively than a 'hard sell'.
With the end of the year providing a prime opportunity for transactions, now is the time to stay active in the market and make the most of the holiday rush.
million dollar agent. The podcast on the home stretch with six weeks to go to christmas tom panos, john mcgrath, troy, malcolm, how are you?
John McGrath:gentlemen, g'day tommy. Very well, did you call that a broadcast.
Tom Panos:Yeah yeah, halfway through the sentence I thought to myself oh, I start again, because I sometimes do that with videos, with the videographers, but no, we don't do that here. This is live, authentic, and it's never really been anything but very average, hasn't it John?
John McGrath:That's right. We don't clean up our screw-ups. They're here for everyone to see. No, it's good, I love it, it's authentic and live. You know, guys, I know we're going to talk a bit. I know, tommy, you want to talk about how to be finished a year strong, which is a good time, because there's still plenty of time, days and weeks, to have a strong finish to the year. And if you have a strong finish to the year, troy, what's going to happen? Yeah, you have a great start to the ready to go for next year and you've just done 12 sales in the last 12 weeks.
John McGrath:But one thing before we start, guys, being an agent, you get to end up, no matter how consumer-centric you are, invariably you end up thinking like an agent until you go and buy or sell which, by the way, anyone's listening whatever you can do to buy and sell a property in the not-too-distant future, I've got to tell you it's a fabulous experience to actually realise how buyers and sellers really feel. Anyway, I've been looking for a little bit of an investment property. You know we're looking to build something, tommy. As you know, in the inner west we still can't find the right thing and we figured out by the time we find the right thing. It'll be 18 months to construct and get approved. So we thought let's find a nice investment property that we can probably hang out in for 12 months and then rent it out, you know, for the long term. So Kelly and I started looking and I'd love just to share with you some of the good and not so good or frustrating, but I've had some really good experience. Good or frustrating, but I've had some really good experience. But I thought it'd be interesting to share my insights because I've been in the game 40 years and I thought I think like buyers and sellers.
John McGrath:But being a buyer of late, here's some of the things, in no particular order, tommy. First thing is we bang on about prices on the website all the time price guides or prices and I've got to tell you there's so many properties I just wouldn't be bothered looking at because I didn't want to ring around, I didn't want to waste time, I didn't want to leave voicemail messages If it looked like it might be possible but the agent didn't have a price on it. I'm a statistic on REA, I think the last one. They said about 72% of people buy part and I can tell I'm a living 70. Part of that, 72%, it's just it's too hard when you can't find price, when you're busy and like you guys, I'm working six days a week and fairly long hours and you think, man, I'll just find one that's got a price guide. So price guide is really important, which is the part of it.
John McGrath:Troy, accessibility you know the agents that you could get hold of. Or if you couldn't get a hold of them, they rang back promptly. Um, you, you took a shine to them and you wanted to deal with them, because what you don't want is to ring someone at three o'clock this afternoon and then get a call back at midday tomorrow. By then you know you've moved on mentally. So I found agents that had price guides was hugely beneficial. Agents that would pick up their phone and answer it in a positive tone or call you back quickly, because I don't expect everyone to answer every time was really good. And this is another one which I dealt with Roger Wardy, tommy, I think you know.
Troy Malcolm:Roger he's a very good agent from Ray.
John McGrath:White. He focuses on Kensington and Kelly and I found it. We woke up, had breakfast on a Sunday morning. We found something. We thought, oh, that could be a good little long-term investment. It was open at 11 o'clock on a Sunday and I said look at this, how good is this? So we got in the car, popped across, met him. He had a great team of young fellows around there, made it very easy and I thought Sunday opens. I talk about it all the time to our team. And now, by the way, roger is one of the hardest workers I think there is in the industry.
John McGrath:But I'm not expecting everyone that hears this message to work Sundays, certainly not seven days a week. But you can find a good team. I mean, you know there's some good young fellows working with Roger. I'm sure they're probably full-timers, but you could find some part-timers that want to get some real estate experience, that are polished and well-presented and articulate, that would probably love to get 30 bucks an hour or whatever is the going rate and get some experience in real estate. So I mean just a point of difference. He was the only agent that I've come across yet in my searches and we're looking from sort of inner west, right around to sort of you know, kensington and that way inner east, and he was the so far he's the only agent that opens stuff on a Sunday and I've got to tell you that's very attractive, very, very attractive.
Tom Panos:So, troy, I don't know if you've ever done any auctions on a Sunday. I've done a few and I can tell you if you work, say, 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock on a Sunday, you know you could have three homes open. I still think you've still got've still got the rest of the day. I think people feel like in real estate or sometimes people think, oh, I'm going to work seven days. Ultimately, you've got to make a decision. Will you get a better day for your community on a Sunday than a day during the week? And I'm convinced that if you're at a listing presentation and you're sitting there and you're fighting for that listing against two other agents, I think that can be a defining thing to say listen, mr and Mrs Vendor, I will have your home open on Saturday and Sunday to make sure we're getting everyone the school, sport, parents, the local businesses, everyone. Well, tommy, that's 100%, tommy.
John McGrath:Imagine, troy, how many people now that have got two or three kids, maybe between the ages of 10 and 15, and they've got to take them to ballet and sport and AFL and soccer, and then they've got social events and some of them are working themselves six days. This is a point of difference and in real estate you have to come up with not gimmicks but tangible points of difference. When you're in the lounge room with a vendor and I reckon that is one I mean obviously floor plans, anyone that didn't have a floor plan, I couldn't be bothered that that becomes so important and I expect them. But if you're not using floor plans, just make sure every single marketing plan, every single listings, has a floor plan.
John McGrath:Videos I really liked videos and I got annoyed when agents spent a lot of time self-promotion. I mean a couple I looked at and the agent, I reckon, spent the first one minute of a two-minute video talking about themselves and the cameras not talking about themselves, to be frank, but the camera was on them, not on the property, and they're sitting there, you know, in a garden or something, talking about, talking about, talking about. And I'm thinking show me the property man. Like I'm not interested in that. Show me the property. So I think a quick little intro and a quick tale is fine, is good, is professional, but just show. The other thing is get rid of these crazy effects off videos like sped up video, and it goes zoom, zoom up and down, yeah, and then there's disco music in the back or, you know, like ACD Some of them just have got you know it's really disorientating. So that was it.
John McGrath:Next thing is, I found when we looked at stuff, sometimes you go hot and cold, tommy, on something. You look at it and you say this could really work, and then you go home and think about it. Or you look at the floor plan and you say, oh, I'm not sure this is right. But then the next day you wake up and you think, well, maybe I could fix it. A lot of agents, I think, they think you're either on it or you're off it. You really like it or you really don't like it, whereas my experience has definitely been. Sometimes you like something and then you go a bit warmer and you get a bit cooler. So stay in touch with the people you're dealing with. Ring them the next day, even if they said look, I don't think it's for me ring them next day. Did you have a chance, tom, to reflect on that property?
Tom Panos:How many homes, john? Did you inspect any properties?
John McGrath:or was it all online? We've looked at so far, looked at about 10.
Tom Panos:Can I ask when you went to the Opens, did you receive something after you left the Open, like an email or a text? Not once. At what point did you get a call?
John McGrath:Not once, not once, not once. I might have got a couple of calls on a Monday but I didn't have them in my phone so I may not have answered them, because I don't usually answer numbers that I don't know. But you know, if I connect with the agent I put their number in, yes, then there's a conversation and I've had a few of those. I'm having a few conversations, but I've got to say I was thinking exactly the same thing Saturday afternoon if someone had rung me back and said oh, you saw that property swarming, john, at 10 o'clock. Have you had a chance to have a think about it? I mean, what are your thoughts? I'd love feedback to take to my vendor and I'd love to know if it's something you might want to have a look at. By the way, we're going to be there tomorrow if you want to come back and bring your partner or whatever. So I think that sort of dialogue the other thing I was saying to Troy earlier, tom, was, I think asking really good questions is key, like to understand. So, john, tell me, are you going to live here or rent? I mean, what's important to you? You know, I've noticed or I've seen on social media, you've got a couple of dogs. You know, is that important and this and that? And you know something? Ask me some qualifying questions and most didn't, most just. You know what do you think? Are you interested? No, okay, well, have a good day and I'm thinking, my God, like I could have something to sell. I might want to buy this for investment or to live in you don't know because you haven't asked me yet or to live in? You don't know because you haven't asked me yet. So I think it's just, I think it's important that you really connect with the buyers and you're genuinely interested and you ask them genuine questions that unveil what are they and what's most important. So, jm, you're looking at property. You said you're an investor. What are the two or three most important things for you in the investment? Is it capital growth? Is it this? Is it low strata? Um, so, yeah, they were just.
John McGrath:You know, I was talking to Troy this morning and I spoke to our team a little bit in our little weekly webinar this morning about it, cause I thought you know it's if you can follow what the best people are doing, tom, and then you unpack it and you now make a list of things and then you create a system around that list. So when you're in the lounge room you say we get a video on everything, we get a floor plan done for everything I want to do. Saturday and Sunday opens both. I want to use a price guide, so let's discuss what that might sound like.
John McGrath:If you have a playbook that is best practice around all the key things that matter to buyers and also matter to sellers, you know you can absolutely dominate and you know we hear numbers thrown around, especially.
John McGrath:You know in the people that you and I work with Troy and Tom coaches. You know top people. Seven figures is not uncommon and multiple seven figures is getting more and more common as well. I mean, if you walk down tomorrow to St Vincent's Hospital and you checked in, what is the number one heart surgeon earned, it's probably $400,000. And that's a lot of money. But they're saving lives and they've had to study for 30 years to get there and in this industry, if you unpack best practice and if you have a good coach and be held accountable and you create a good sales playbook, you could be earning more than anyone on the planet. It's really quite extraordinary. So yeah, I just wanted to share that before we talked about how do you finish the year strong, because it is interesting to be an agent and a buyer at the same time, or a seller and see how that feels.
Tom Panos:I'm going to add a comment about Taney Jane. He's actually the McGrath Werribee in Melbourne there and, by the way, before I forget a big shout, he won the REIV Agent of the Year on the other night. So congratulations to him. And one of the reasons he won it is his whole team. On a Saturday afternoon they come back and they call every person that came through the property on Saturday. Arvo, they ring every person and the reason he does it? He says we don't have lunch. We buy Nando's chicken in the afternoon. We come back as a team and we call everyone because we are intercepting decisions. We're intercepting the Saturday, sunday. On a Monday morning. They might have lots of people calling them at the one time. Plus it's a Monday morning, hectic and things are fresh and they're recent in people's mind. And he says that he picks up a lot of listing presentations by calling people on a Saturday and saying you came through today, did well the good agents John and Troy.
Tom Panos:There's six or seven questions I'll ask at every open. You're buying a browsing. Did you travel far to get here today? That's a great question. How is the sale of your place coming along? Even if you just ask that, assume you'll be shocked at how many people say, oh, we haven't put it on the market yet, so you do qualifying there. Yeah, so, john, that's interesting, and I think everyone, whether you're a seller or a buyer as an agent, going through the experience is probably one of the most educational things that you can actually do, because it helps you understand what you're doing and how it impacts the buyers and sellers that you deal with Totally, Tommy, I'm just going to because I just took some notes.
John McGrath:On the weekend I had a couple of little things.
John McGrath:Number one is don't oversell the minute an agent starts to try and make it look like Palace of Versailles and it's perfect. And just be honest about it. You know like kind of would have been better, tom, if this, but it doesn't offer that. But these are three or four things that I personally really like about it that I've had great feedback from the market about. You know, what do you think? Just, you don't have to oversell, just present it in a good light. That was really important, I think.
John McGrath:Second, it's funny on ads. A lot of people spend a lot of time and probably money. Getting copyright is to write very long ads. I found that I hardly even read the ads. I looked at the images, I looked at the video and the floor plan and I generally sort of that was enough. I knew the address and hopefully there was a price attached, and then I look at a few bullet points. But yeah, I think that you know, keep text a little bit shorter. It's a bit more customer friendly.
John McGrath:The last thing, troy, maybe is I mentioned to you this morning there's something funny about you want to deal with a likable agent. I had no doubt that the agents that you came across that were pleasant and not sleazy and not overselling and not pushy, just nice people to deal with. You kind of almost hope that you find a property with them because they're just nice people. So I think there's a big likability factor that, and I think it was Cialdini in his book Influence that says you know, one of the six influencing factors is liking. People want to do business with people they like. So just make sure that your personality and your character are likable and you know you're not sort of angry with a chip on your shoulder or jealous or overselling or gushing. I think you've just got to find that sweet spot where you have a character that is, you know, a good personality, troy, anything else, because I know you looked fairly recent when you bought a great product.
Troy Malcolm:Yeah, I think it's a really interesting I mean concept to you know, so often we get caught in the trap of not actually going out and experiencing it from the customer's lens. And you know we talk about the agent jargon and using words that buyers and sellers don't really understand, but we use them internally and we think that they should understand them. I think it stems maybe from that. Because we do it so often, Sometimes we get complacent about being on the other side and understanding and you know even my experience recently about purchasing and selling I did both recently it really does give you an insight into what are the pressure points and what are the things that annoy people.
Troy Malcolm:And I think you know one of the obvious ones is not responding to emails or inquiries about price or inspections. Second one is not having a price displayed. And then you start to really dig deep on and I think you hit the nail on the head with the overselling of agents at the open for inspections. I don't know how many times you'd walk into an open for inspection and just want to get a sense of the property without someone following you and feeling like they're watching your every move. And if you looked in the cupboard they'd talk about the cupboard, and if you opened a door they'd talk about that room. You really want to get to that Give people space.
Troy Malcolm:Give people space, give them the opportunity to ask questions, but also, you know, ask the right questions back to them. Don't just go. Oh, it's a three bed, two bath and one parking. Is that to suit your requirements or I don't know? It doesn't have a good aspect and good light.
Troy Malcolm:That's probably a big impact, but I think you know we've covered off a lot, but I think being genuine and real is probably the biggest thing that I noticed on both sides being, you know, a buyer and a seller. You want to deal with people like you said that you like. You want to deal with people that seem to know the market and know what's happening and what type of property suits your requirements by asking those technical questions Product knowledge right.
John McGrath:No doubt product knowledge. You could tell there was a chasm between the best product knowledge and those that didn't really have a clue other than how many bedrooms it was. You're right. The other thing a pet hate of mine, tommy, is when people quote square metres for apartments and they talk about the overall size Like, oh, it's 250 square metres, I say, okay, that's a good size. You get there, it's actually 150 and there's 50 square metres of garaging and there's 50 square metres of terrace. I mean, you should be savvy enough nowadays to realise that when you're quoting square metre each for strata properties, people are looking for internal liveable space. Yeah, that's really, really critical.
John McGrath:And just things like who are the neighbours? You know, john, just might give you a sense of the flavour of the building or the street or whatever. You know, there's a lovely family who lives next door. They've been here for 50 years. The kids grew up here. Just these little bits of colour that you want to use and these things that people remember.
John McGrath:So, anyway, look, that was a bit of a summary, but I know we're going to try and you know, given a few minutes to go, we want to try and just give people a bit of a reminder on what are some of the things that you can be doing in the last six weeks, and I'll kick the ball off Troisy, I reckon. Remember six weeks, there's 42 days. There's plenty of selling time. Don't turn off too early.
John McGrath:I know a lot of people the minute it hits December they're off every day to a Christmas function and they're starting to leave work at four o'clock and you know like you can sell property right up until you know Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve or whatever you want to, before your planned holiday kicks in.
John McGrath:But I just think it's really important that if you're going to go on holidays, man, just go, leave the office. If you're going to leave on the 10th of December, go. But if you're going to stay in the office until the 20th, work until the 20th 6pm and you'll be amazed how many people want to buy a property right through until Christmas Eve. So I think you know, just be very careful, you don't buy into that. You know it's the end of the year, it's the silly season. No one wants to buy anymore, no one wants to sell anymore. I reckon there's time now to list a property, sell it and then the buyer that buys it sell theirs, and you might even get a third one off the back of it, troy. But there's certainly time to have two cycles list a home, sell it and then sell that buyer's property well before Christmas.
Troy Malcolm:I love this period of time, tom and John, because you get this really nice moment where there is a deadline on everyone that wants to make a decision before Christmas, both buyers and sellers. Equally, they want to be at the Christmas table with their friends and family over the festive season celebrating that they've sold their house and they've bought a new one and they're ready to go in 2025. I think there's a really nice moment. So there's a level of urgency for people making decisions. I also think it's a really nice one to actually re-engage with a lot of those buyers that you might have missed throughout the last couple of months, that maybe haven't found something. Their motivation will also increase over the next six weeks. So, john, you're right, there's a lot of opportunity out there to get two, three, four, five, six deals done before the end of the year.
Tom Panos:Yeah, Well said guys. I'm looking at the calendar here. When we're recording this, it's Wednesday, the 6th of November. I know that Susan will have this uploaded by tomorrow, so I'm having a look at this. You could still list properties on the 21st and you could still be auctioning it, so you've pretty much got still a few more weeks to list properties to be auctioned in December. Private treaty, of course you could do that. You could be listing them in December and selling them in December. But 100%. Just because the sun's out and Melbourne Cup's finished does not mean Christmas is in November.
John McGrath:I heard someone say that the other day, tommy and I'm not being critical of them, but that was their mindset they said from Melbourne Cup onwards you can't do business in Australia from, you know, the Melbourne Cup week through to Christmas, and I'm thinking, my God like I'll sell 12 properties typically in that period, if not more. So anyway, I think that's one of them. The other thing is just a reminder. There's a lot of distractions around at any point. You know, there's the American election, there's an upcoming Australian election we've just mentioned, there's Christmas. There's always going to be some distraction or some imperfection in the economy or the social calendar. The only thing that's stopping your property is not selling today is none of the above. It's got nothing to do with Donald Trump. Assuming he gets in, which it looks like is going to happen. We haven't heard the results yet, but he's way ahead. Whatever it is, it's about every single property you list. If it was priced at fair market value, you'd sell it tomorrow, literally, because fair market value is the price at which you will sell, by definition. So I just think you've got to remember don't blame anything, don't get distracted by external factors.
John McGrath:If your property's not selling, you need to have a conversation with the vendors regarding where the buyers are at and make a recommendation, because most vendors are waiting for you to make a recommendation. It's unlikely they're going to pick up the phone and say hey, tom, I've been thinking about our property. I reckon you should knock 10% off. That doesn't not the way it works. They're kind of hoping maybe it's more, but really starting to realise hang on, we've been on the market eight weeks. We've had 50 groups through it, haven't had an offer. My neighbours have sold theirs. So you've got to be looking to make recommendations on every listing you have.
John McGrath:And, by the way, this applies to the other side. Troy buyers you're dealing with, say, troy, I know you really love that place. Why don't we pop an offer in tomorrow to get the ball rolling? I know you're keen and you're figuring out the price, but I know there's a price at which you'd be very comfortable paying. Why don't we start the dialogue and let's get a response from our seller as to where they're at? So it's always about asking people questions that require them to give you a decision which progresses the sale, whether it's a buyer or seller.
John McGrath:So don't worry about Trump, don't worry about the election, don't worry about interest rates, don't worry about Albanese. None of that is going to. I know Matt Steinway. Years ago, tom and I know you've done a lot of coaching and got a deep friendship with Matt he said I want to get to a point, john, where nothing external in my life has any sway or impact on my results. And he's got there. He's a living example of someone that, because he's reached such a high vibration and excellence and master at what he does and he's so well-respected, things just happen despite any external events. He's just all about in the market.
Tom Panos:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's why he's the GOAT and one of the real standout real estate performers not in this year, but the last 40 years. Listen, we're going to stay with you right till Christmas time. We'll keep going. We're going to stay with you and we'll be talking to you next week where we'll start talking a little bit about some of the important activities you've got to be doing in these last six weeks Six weeks. It's a great time actually being real estate.
Tom Panos:I think real estate agents are happy at the moment and, by the way, I realise you've both transacted. I actually am telling every buyer I meet I actually think it's a great time to buy right at the moment. It is a really good time to buy. There's a lot to choose from. I think it's inevitable that when rates do go up, there's going to be more buyers there. I think vendors have been educated by the media and I think they're open to accept offers. I think it's a great time to buy. And everyone that feels bad about Melbourne I think Melbourne's a great place to buy at the moment. It just doesn't stack up that it's become cheaper than Brisbane and Adelaide. So yeah, I agree, I agree, all righty team, good to see you.
Tom Panos:And we will talk to you next week. See you, boys.
John McGrath:See you everybody. Thanks, tom.