Million Dollar Agent
Million Dollar Agent
The Ultimate Guide to End-of-Year Selling Strategies
In this episode, we dive into the flow of today’s real estate world — unpacking seasonal market trends, buyer misconceptions, and the strategic planning needed to win in a hot property climate.
We explore everything from international real estate standards to practical ways of engaging buyers more effectively. Together, we share real-world insights and proven strategies to help agents lift their performance and strengthen client relationships.
As the Australian real estate market continues to heat up, John highlights the importance of auctions and vendor-paid marketing — explaining how the current landscape creates powerful opportunities for agents and brokers to leverage. I also share a story about a young buyer’s confusion around the 5% deposit scheme, a reminder that clear communication and empathy are critical in our industry. Troy rounds out the conversation with powerful points on planning ahead, understanding market seasonality, and aligning with buyer behaviour.
It’s an episode full of lessons, inspiration, and strategies for agents who want to stay sharp, relevant, and successful in any market condition.
Tom Panos, John McGrath, Troy Malcolm, Million Dollar Agent, hot version today, 37 degrees in Sydney as we're filming this. Summer is on its way. We're well into spring. We've got a hot real estate market and we've got some hot topics to talk about today, gentlemen. How are we?
John McGrath:Very good. Welcome back, Tony, from your uh monastery. Thank you. Your monastery. Did you uh use that as a good time for self-reflection?
Tom Panos:Absolutely. I think you know, I got upset on the plane because they said there's no Wi-Fi. And so there's no Wi-Fi for 20 23 hours. It ends up being no Wi-Fi either way. But there's something good about you being able to not get contacted. Um and there's like there's zero chance of an interruption, right? Zero chance of interruption. So your brain starts to think about things. Whereas I think generally speaking, you might think about things, but you always get interrupted and you never get uh you know long linear way. And I had my remarkable, you know, pad down and I was writing things down, but it's very good. I did I did work in London and I caught up uh there. And I've got to tell you, I did work in Bulgaria. I have to say, I am absolutely convinced we all know this. Australia, I mean, I haven't spent time in the USA, but Australia, to me clearly, has the best real estate practice in the world when you listen to the stuff that goes on. And I know this because we have other people from other countries that go to all the conferences, NAR, and I actually sent them a message, John, while I was overseas to tell you we can't take too lightly what ARIC means, not just in Australia, but around the world. Because, you know, there's Sean Newman, who is he reminds me a bit like you, John. He was a bit of the John McGrath of the marketplace there. He's um um I've just had a mental blank fine fine fine country is the brand. Fine country's got the brand. And he basically said, you know, we see Aric as the pinnacle of education, right? Um uh we just see that the content is so relevant to us. Um, they have the same challenges that we have, fees, you know, um, overpricing. Um, their model is not, you know, like the US is very much about you know buyer and seller fees and what have you. But I suppose what I'm saying is we must uh we mustn't underestimate how good our industry is in Australia and New Zealand. It is a very strong, stable real estate industry.
John McGrath:Shout out to the Kiwis. Uh yep. I love I agree, and and I don't want either us or the Kiwis to sound parochial or big-headed because we're not, but I think you're right that there's definitely um a way of I mean, just take auction, for example, Tom. I know we're going to talk a bit about auctions, eh? I mean, auction is such an effective methodology of achieving the highest and best result in a short space of time. And look at that, and yet no other country in the world other than Australia and New Zealand has really embraced it properly. I mean, they do smatterings of auctions, but just as an example, I think the vendor paid marketing um concept here where we get relatively sizable budgets to do world-class marketing and vendors are happy to pay for it. I think that's a great concept. Yeah, I think uh open for inspections. I mean, we do great open for inspections here, 45 minutes. You go to the US and they're four hours, and they get six people through them. And I just think, man, like what are we missing? Or maybe what are they missing? But uh no, I I agree with everything, and uh, I suspect when the Wi-Fi went on the way back, there was a sign from above. I think you was that after you'd been to the monastery or before?
Tom Panos:Uh so John, I had no Wi-Fi, I had no Wi-Fi in both directions.
John McGrath:Okay, well, there was a sign from above true, I reckon. I reckon someone was saying, Tom, you need to get these. Um, a couple of things, you know, you're talking about well, not you were talking about, but batching stuff together, you know, where you give yourself space and time. I I've been listening a lot, as you guys know, to Alex Hormosy lately. And he I heard an interesting thing, he sort of said, look, if you're going to work till five in the afternoon, it's fine. But he said, I'd keep my diary clear. And he and if you've got a half-hour meeting, put it in at 4.30. Uh, if you've got two meetings, put one in at four and one in at 4.30. So it was counterintuitive. But I listened to it and I thought about it. It's interesting because I love things that challenge me. I'm the opposite. I'm sort of like, do them early, do them first while you're freshest. But he's saying you've got to give yourself space to come up with life-changing ideas and brilliant concepts and great big thinking. And he said the best time to do that's in the morning. And he said, most people clutter their diary, and the three of us are absolutely guilty of it. You open up our diary, there's an appointment at 7:30, and there's one at nine, and one at 10, and one at 11, and one at one, and through the day, and you're kind of not giving yourself. And I know as an agent, and that's our audience, and that's our customer as agents, but even as agents, you know, we heard Phil Harris say years ago brilliantly at ARIC, you know, sort of AM is for sowing seeds and planting seeds, and then then PM, AM energy when you're sharp and you're energetic, and then PM is, you know, uh or afternoon is fulfilling and reaping the rewards of your morning calls and so forth. So very good. Someone wrote something because I'm a perfectionist, and I suspect you guys have got a degree of that too. And it was the acronym Getmo. And it said, good enough to move forward on to move on. Good enough to good enough to move on. So I thought I'd just share it because when I heard it, I thought that's cool. And we often need a little jig jog reminder of okay, that's good enough to move on, because I am absolutely guilty of spending a lot of time trying to achieve the unachievable perfection. So uh remember that one team, get no, good enough, because I suspect most of our audience are perfectionists, good enough to move on.
Troy Malcolm:Similar to it's similar to that, John. You know, we always talk about progress over perfection. Um, and I think you know, Leonard Steinberg spoke at our a couple of years ago and spoke about 80% is greaty percent, meaning that if it's 80% of the way there, we can move forward. So really great philosophy.
John McGrath:The great man. The great man. So with that, Tommy, it's good enough to move on. Uh let's move on.
Tom Panos:Yeah. Well, let's we'll we're gonna have a few bullet point type uh podcasts. Let's call it a magazine style. We're gonna go through a couple of issues. Obviously, Troy and John, and Troy, you would have seen it, you know, in the marketplace out there, you know, obviously the lower price point is uh getting the benefit of the 5% uh deposit. And we always know that that marketplace is um if is always uh flows more. Um but I've got to say that John Hatz from VFX actually had a record week of sign boards. You told me, John, the day I actually got back.
John McGrath:In the history of his company. So he does our boards in Sydney. So this is a Sydney-centric commentary, but I suspect it's more widespread than that. And I caught up with him for a at a coffee on Friday, and he said he'd had the biggest week of of boards, putting up boards in the history of his company. So um I think I'm sure, you know, the reason is that a lot of people that are listening on the call today are out there doing great work. And but what it made me think of, Tom, which is you know, maybe we can unpack a little bit today, there's a lot of people who passed in property three and four weeks ago, and they're finding it a bit tough. And I, John, you know, like vendors are a little bit, you know, they use the word greedy, I don't, but vendors' expectations are a bit above the market, and or or maybe buyers are hesitant, whatever their story was. I don't buy into them, but whatever it was. And and I just thought, God, if you passed in three or four weeks ago, you better know what's coming up in the next two or three weeks, because I think there's going to be a little mini tsunami in many markets of new listings. And if a vendor couldn't get their price a month ago, the chance of them getting it going forward are getting slimmer and slimmer by the day. So just you know, shout out to everyone. Get in front of your of your clients, your vendors, have the discussion. If you are, you know, experiencing the same up upshift in listing numbers, let them know, update them where it where it is now, where it was a month ago, where it was last time. Because, you know, seriously, you want to be a you want to be in this market coming into Christmas and beyond where there's more to choose from, um, and perhaps a little bit less pressure on each and every listing. You kind of probably want to be a buyer if you're in the mode of selling rather than a seller. So um, yeah, just get onto it and have conversations with your sellers to to get them into the position they want to be, which is probably a buyer.
Tom Panos:Okay, that's good advice because you are right, and I'm John, and I know particularly like late December, I remember it every year. You've got fatigue levels of stock that are sitting there, you've got bendors that want to bring closure, you've got buyers that decide that they're going to hit Bondi Beach and Westfield shopping centre Christmas parties. So you end up having, you know, a small group of sellers that are motivated to do a deal. So I think what you're sort of saying, John, go sooner rather than later and be mindful, be mindful that you might have a lot more properties to compete against based on what VFX has been doing. And I'm sure he's not the only signboard company that would have seen um seen an upswing.
John McGrath:Um you know, you you at this time of year, the you know, the the listings are going one way or the other, and at the moment they seem to be going up with a surge. Um, and there will be some rate reductions, I suspect, next year. Maybe even November, who knows? There's a bit of talk as as unemployment has gone up a bit in the last uh round that it could come down. But the overall, the the trajectory of the interest rates down is good for us, good for the buyers, good for the market, good for the good for the sellers. Um, but right now I think you've got a little window of opportunity to get your property sold and be out there and and enjoy a uh a large number of listings to choose from. Um the other thing is this time of year, often the three of us get asked by people, you know, is there still time to to auction? In fact, one of my agents I was coaching last week asked me, I said, Are you serious? I said, I can not only list the new property now, I can put it through a great campaign, sell it for a great price, list the buyer's property and sell it through a great campaign as well. There is, well, we want everyone to have a sense of urgency because that creates you know good, sharp thinking and good practice. You know, you've also you you do have time to sell heaps of property between now and I'd say mid-December. I mean, some markets go right through Christmas, some holiday markets. But I was talking to Tina Vaughn today, uh Tommy, and and we're just talking about auction dates, and she was saying I'm going to auction up to the 20th of December. And I suggested she might want to pull it back to the 13th. Um, on the basis that kind of you don't want to give your clients any reason to think your advice was not the best possible advice. And right now, we do have time to get property well and truly presented, styled, looked after, on the market, and we will for several weeks to come and sold by the middle of December. So I'd be inclined to do that. And if you're unable to get them into that time frame, I'd be very tempted to go fresh in 26, maybe first week of February, auction, something like that. That'd be my take on it.
Tom Panos:Can I share with you today? Actually, you joined in, John. We were I was doing a coaching session with Ethan and you joined in on the tail end. I want to share with you what McGrath Clayton, Ethan He strategy is for the remainder of this year. They're going to list auctions till the middle of November. They're going to list auctions till the middle of November. Their last auction will be on the 13th of December. And then what they're going to do is they're going to try and launch 30 auctions on Boxing Day as soft launches, right? They want to dominate on the day that REA knows that they've got a lot of eyeballs during the Christmas New Year period. They've got a target to do have 30, they they want to come back in the new year, and they're coming back on the 5th of January, having their first opens the Saturday, the 10th, and they're going to aim to have 30 auctions booked. And he sort of said uh along the things that we speak about in December every year, and that is leave the office with your car parked on the top of the hill. So when you come back, you let the handbrake go. You've got a clear program of listings, you've got clear opens. So that's what they're doing. But he still worked out you can still be listing properties for auction for this year for at least another three, four weeks. And then after that, you then move on to phase two, which is list now, launch in the new year, stop launch on Boxing Day. And I've got to say, John and Troy, I think real estate agents have better holidays knowing that they're coming back to predictable work levels. Don't you reckon, Troy?
Troy Malcolm:Yeah, absolutely. Tom and the other thing is that it works on both sides. So it works not only for the agents to know they've got momentum to come back to, but for the vendors and also the buyers out there, it creates a lot of energy around those listings. There's so many activities that happen in that first couple of weeks of January when buyers have time. Uh, they've got really a lot of high disposable time that they can be searching properties, they can be doing private appointments. So I love the strategy. I think it absolutely works well in so many markets. And for those out there that say, oh, you know, we don't want to be doing it, consider this that, you know, Tom just mentioned that REA and Domain have the highest amount of viewership on Boxing Day because everyone's at home. They're probably a little bit full from eating so much food over Christmas. They're watching the cricket on TV or they're playing in the backyard uh with their kids, and they're thinking, okay, well, what is our approach for the next 12 months? Do we want to be where we are right now, or do we want to have the kids set up in school, ready to go back in a new home? And I just think it's such a good strategy to implement for those agents that do it well and do it right. Beautiful said.
John McGrath:Jokey tastes better when you've uh had uh eight sales in December for real. 100%. Exactly. Right. 100%. Uh yeah, two things I love about Ethan's little plan there. One is he's got a plan. And I think most agents rarely have a plan. They just keep auctioning, keep listing, keep launching. You know, he he thought about it. Um, Constathopoulos, one of our great franchisees, has has spoken about the success he's had with a uh Super Saturday. Ethan's embraced it. So here you got a guy that's going to do 230 sales this year himself, or his team is, which is extraordinary. Uh he's embraced it. The other thing is it takes advantage. I've always said, Tereen, you and I worked together for 20 odd years, I've always said that the best time of year, arguably, is the first four weeks of a new year. Let's take out the first week, you know, maybe third, fourth, fifth, but you know, from the 5th or 6th of January to sort of the first week of February, if you're going to do an auction then, I don't think there's a better four-week period than that. So many people are fresh, they're ready to go, they got their new year goals, they want to get started, they want to get set. So, yeah, I'm 100% in agreement there. That's a great idea.
Tom Panos:Last thing I want to just touch on. So, this is this story is about a buyer on Saturday. So a young guy missed out on a property he was bidding on, and he walked away really frustrated. He was a bit upset for a couple of reasons. Obviously, he was emotionally invested in this property. Second thing is it ended up going for a lot more. And he sort of, you know, um put his frustrations out there. And I sort of said to him, I said, listen, I want to let you know, getting upset, getting upset with me, because he did take it out on me. I said, getting upset with me is like getting upset with uh with an Uber driver if there's traffic, or getting upset with a with a weather man uh uh who's told you it's gonna rain, you know, it's like I was conducting an option. Um that he said, mate, it's not you. He goes, just he goes, when I rocked up, you know, and I'd said to them I was gonna use a 5%, you know, the agent was very dismissive. He sort of said, All right, mate, you should have done that during the week um with a lawyer. He was confused about it because he thought this 5% deposit new scheme meant that you could put a 5% deposit. It was just a misunderstanding. But John and Troy, I did hear the interaction that he had with the agent. And I thought the agent was a little bit like treating the buyer as if you didn't know that. We've got to understand a lot of the people, particularly buyers that are coming in for the first time, they aren't used to a lot of the things. You can't sort of speak to them in their jargon and lingo. And the second thing is, it made me realize that maybe maybe it's because he's only two years older than my daughters. And I think about my daughters now. This housing issue is a is a is a problem. It's not a problem for a lot of people, but it is a problem for a lot of young people. And I think we've just got to be understanding um in when when you're speaking to them, and you can see why the industry gets such a bad name, because we don't help it ourselves either. We've got to we've got to be mindful. Um, yeah.
John McGrath:And Tom, look, it's funny. I would say that uh every first home, no, almost every first home buyer who's heard about, read about, and is taking advantage of this would be thinking exactly the same as that young fella. Uh, oh great, I only need a 5% deposit now. So great, I've got a 5% deposit so I can go and buy something. Um, and reality is that's that is true, but the contract may require, unless it's been negotiated out, which I assume, by the way, I don't know the technical answer. I'm assuming that um, you know, if if that is your situation, you can go to the agent and and ask for a reduction. But unless you do, I mean, I guess you can't bid if you're if you're because they're not giving you the 5% deposit to bid at the auction, are they? They're giving you, they're topping up and giving you a nine uh the ability to borrow the 95%. So I think that's a great example of of the industry often thinking, I'm not criticizing your agent, don't know who it was, but um, I think a lot of agents are thinking like that. No, you you haven't, you didn't bother to get that, so that's your problem, you know. We need 10%. You do have to.
Tom Panos:That's what he that's what he john, John. Like, I actually heard the conversation. He goes, Oh, mate, what are you doing telling us at the last minute? This should have been this should have been done through the lawyers. And you've got this young kid there who's just, you know, he's like getting paralysis by over analysis, all this information going in there.
John McGrath:So I just think that at the same time, you know what they should have done. Here's here's best practice, and I hope the agent listens or or gets on to this, the agent got it wrong, as does everyone else. You know, hey Troy, just checking up you really need a bid for Saturday. Um, you've had a chance to download the contract. Did you have any questions? Now, obviously, there's a 10% deposit required on Saturday. Here's the method of transfer that most people take. Just wanted to check that's going to work for you to transfer the 10%. I mean, you should have these conversations. Good practice, good agency has these conversations two, three, four days before the auction, not 10 minutes after the auction. So this is this is a big deal in people's lives, and people who have got adrenaline or running and they're thinking emotionally, and you know, we are there to help and make it easy for them to purchase with confidence.
Tom Panos:So you know, I think a simple five-minute phone call on a Friday or Thursday before an auction to say, hey, listen, I thought I'd take the courtesy just to make sure we've got, you know, the checklist done right. If you're going to register on the day, bring a driver's license. You know you need 10%. But at the same time, John, I actually think that phone call can actually sort of give them a bit of final information as to how the whole campaign's gone because often what's happened is you've been talking about a specific number early on in the campaign. By the day of the auction, you've got more information. There have been more comparable sales, there have been more properties that have sold. And you can actually sit there and say, I want to let you know that this sold last week, it sold for 1.7. What do you think of that? It's going to help you get an understanding of where the buyer's at as well. And that's only a good thing for you as an agent.
John McGrath:And the other thing, Tommy, the other four most important calls at the end of the Saturday are to the underbidders or however you said, Hey, Tom, really sorry that today wasn't the day for you. Jesus, it was pretty hot auction. It did go, you know, which is whatever authentic commentary you can add to that. Um, but rest assured, I am in your corner, and from Monday morning onwards, I am going to be looking for alternatives. And then go and do them. Go and door knock, go and let a box drop, go and pick up the phone and say, Hey, Tom, you know, we had a great result around the corner. My only challenge is I have four bidders who are desperate to move into your community. They love it as much as obviously you guys do. Any chance that you or any of the neighbors are thinking of selling? I mean, you've got to get proactive, but the number of agents that high-five each other, and you know, they ring the vendor, they give a bottle of champagne to the vendor, they ring the buyer, well done. And these poor underbidders sitting at home, disappointed on a Saturday night, Sunday, and then sometimes they don't even contact them next week. It's kind of like crazy.
Tom Panos:Oliver Lavers said to me, the single one phone call that has got him the most business, and by the way, Oliver Lavers is no slouch, he's a $5 million GCI agent that works with Gavin. He said to me, the number one call that he uses to get business is as soon as an auction's finished, within hours, he rings up his database and says, I got four people who missed out at my auction today. I know your timing might not be right, but I actually think that they're really emotional because they've missed out. I think they'll consider your property. Could we fast track it with them? That's the call that he makes. And he does it fresh on the day of the as soon as a property's been sold, you know?
John McGrath:Totally, totally. There's there's lots of lessons out there, and I know we've got a few more podcasts. We've got quite a few before. Between now that you're back, I think we're going to be aiming to do one a week again uh till Christmas. And there's lots of lessons. And I think each week we plan to share our insights, uh, share any case studies, uh, best practice. Sometimes not so best practice. Often it's it's a little bit like the commentary you just made, Tom, and they're always anonymous. But you know, if we see agents that could have done things better, we we want to talk about that as well. Um really, really critical for everyone.
Tom Panos:And a big, big, we haven't had a chance to say anything about NRL, but I know it's a big shout out. John, I know you're close to him. Um, Michael McGuire, and I remember sitting with him with you at Bar Italy as he was heading off to Brisbane a year ago to take the job on. Um, many people know he he he he left the Tigers um and things weren't good there. But since then, he wins a state of origin. He goes in, wins a grand, wins the grand final in his first year, known as a guy that puts players through a lot of hard physical work, which everyone says it ended up paying off at the end of the season. And most importantly, he was a top bloke. He actually came to a fair few things that you had on last year too, John. He came to Ryan Holiday session that we had.
John McGrath:I'll finish off the session, Troy, and I think you're across this. We have a um a lady in the office, Mel Spencer, whose son is just a little uh protege of a league star. He plays for New South Wales, he will play for Australia, he's only 13, but just sensational. And um Mel introduced Mel to um Michael Maguire at actually at Ryan Holiday, and they had a chat and she sort of showed some little videos on her phone proudly, as moms do of her son and how well he was going. And she said he's just been picked in the New South Wales side to play the you know, under 13s, I think it was, or under-14s state of origin. She was so proud, you know, and he was really interested. He said he asked, and you know, if he needs any advice, you let me know. Anyway, two days later, a little video gets sent to Mel to be forwarded to her son Jack and his teammates, and it was Michael Maguire. This is yeah, one of my favorite sayings is it only it takes a moment to create a moment. Michael Maguire saying, Hey kids, I hear you're in the state of origin. This is a big game. I hope you enjoy it. You know, learn your experiences. And he he did a 60-second little rev-up talk. Now, this is from the you know, one of the best coaches in the country, and he's done a 60-second rev-up talk and he sent it to Mel with a little message said, You might want to pass this on to Jack to share with his teammates. And I just thought that is value add, good person, humility. I'm not too big for anyone. Um, and I love that about Michael Maguire. You know I love the fact that he's a world-class coach, and I love the fact he's a terrific fellow with us, but the fact that he was happy to off his own bat do a little video and just send it, yeah, giving the little boys around. I mean, you imagine you're a 12-year-old kid and you get a message from the state of origin coach saying, Go this weekend, kids. You know, this is and he gave a few good little messages and so forth. So uh yeah, I love that sort of thing. I love those sort of things. So we'll we'll keep bringing you guys those stories going forward. Um good guys come first.
Tom Panos:That's what he's proven. Good guys come first. Alrighty.
John McGrath:Thanks, everyone.
Tom Panos:John Troy, we'll speak to you as next week. Bye bye.