Million Dollar Agent
Million Dollar Agent
New Year. New Standards in 2026
Want to grow without grinding yourself into dust? We’re kicking off 2026 by focusing on the few standards that compound results: ambition that stretches you, a pit-crew-level team, real integrity, and the speed that wins listings before the weekend.
The market is already humming. Opens across Manly, Forestville and St Ives are pulling 30–40 groups. High demand rewards agents who move fast and think clearly: same-day proposals, immediate contracts, and buyers called back before they hit the car.
We unpack the multipliers: double your goals to shift behaviour, build black-belt support with clear roles, price with radical honesty backed by comps, and master product knowledge so buyers trust you instantly.
We finish with practical levers: lift average sale price, protect your fee, convert more appraisals, tighten campaigns, and run your EBU like a real team. Performance is human too. Health and hydration keep judgement sharp.
AREC 2026 is locked for 24–25 May. Block the dates.
Raise one standard this year. That’s how your next best year starts.
Tom Panos, John McGrath, Troy Malcolm, we are back again, 2026. This podcast. Troy, as our statistician, I think we started in 2013. Right. This makes this makes it a running for 13 years. This is officially the uh longest running real estate sales podcast in Australia that has the lowest revenue of any podcast in the world, right? We're consistent. We show up each year.
John McGrath:We do it out of our love for all of our listeners. Seriously, we do like sharing.
Troy Malcolm:What a way to start. 2026.
John McGrath:We don't get paid, but we do like sharing, and we love our listeners, and uh it's always good to share our insights. Tommy, how is Byron Bay? I've been seeing jealously, I've been watching you uh post from Byron.
Tom Panos:Yeah, so I'm actually I'm I'm in Byron now. I'm I'm actually at the house. Where I was, I was at an office, and the reception on the Wi-Fi wasn't bad. Let me tell you, today is a very strange day in Byron because on this Monday, 80% of Byron clears out every year. I've noticed it each year. They leave on the Sunday night, uh heading ready back, and Byron moves away from being this holiday destination to being a country town. And it's a really weird phenomenon to be able to get into a car and you just drive to a place in 30 seconds. They they have this all the time here. It's a it's a country village, but it's been beautiful. I've got I've I've been raiding about Byron for the last two weeks uh online, those that have been watching on social media, because when I look at Byron, I look at other places around the world, nice water, beautiful places to eat. You know, you hear these accents from all over the world. Yes, it's changed. There's a lot of money that's come into town over the last decade. But I have to say, we are so blessed in Australia to have places like Queensland or Byron Bay, Northern Rivers, beautiful place. You run you run some of your conferences here, don't you? Your last conference was in Byron, wasn't it?
John McGrath:Yeah, no, we've done a few up there. We love it. And it and it's pretty easy to get into, which I'm sure the locals they love so much. But it's not hard to get there from Sydney Melbourne, and of course it's an easy drive from Brisbane. Our mutual friend Condomura said the other day, he said, mate, something's happening. Panos must be selling his property in Byron. He said, Never, I've never heard you bang on about what a great place he is. He said, I reckon you watch, he said, he'll have it on the markets.
Tom Panos:Jody, it was so funny. I looked at uh one of the comments on Instagram after the third day, I did something in Byron. A guy's put down, he goes, uh uh, I've checked it out. He owns real estate there.
John McGrath:Hey uh on a slightly, well, not a slightly much more serious note. Obviously, we've just uh had some horrific uh weather conditions. Well, both in Queensland and in Victoria, but I wanted to particularly start with the Bushfires. Um we have an office at Mansfield, um Kate and Sam McDougal, two of our best franchisees, and and thank God they just survived. They actually evacuated, but then they had to move, then they were able to move back in a a day or so later. But um, you know, I've been speaking to Kate every day for the last four or five days in this period, and what a frightening period getting blow-by-blow descriptions on the the fire got within twenty kilometres of their place and is heading their way, and thank God there was a wind change at the last minute. And uh again, of course, there's the opposite. Up in Queensland, there's been flooding, and it's just I mean, you can't you can't get a more painful thing to look at. We've got floods and and uh and uh bushfires at the same time in in two of the great parts of the world, Queensland and uh New and Victoria. So we just hope we're uh everyone that they're safe, um, including the wildlife. That that upsets me greatly, you know, especially when there's bushfires present to think that wildlife could be also dying and harmed. So uh please keep safe, everyone, and uh look after the uh look after any friends and family that you can that might need a hand.
Tom Panos:100%, a hundred percent. And Johnny, uh actually that's another thing that happened today. Someone saw me walking down Lawson Street, he says, Oh, you haven't got your um your dogs with you. That video that you had went viral, Johnny. Everyone thinks, everyone thinks that sausage is my little doggy, right? They all think they saw it every everywhere. That video went viral. But Johnny, how did someone come over to the house and film it on a mobile?
John McGrath:How did how did you Yeah, yeah. No, we had a we had a little camera. We've got fantastic videographers, Jackson King and uh and Lucas, and they came across and we did it. Funny enough, we did it in about an hour and a half, but we just have these ideas beforehand, you know, what would happen when I leave. You know, they get up to all sorts of mischief, and one of them, you know, one of the guys suggested, what about they jump on and they they watch Tommy Panos's webinar or and they there was four or five little different scenes we had them doing. The one with Pickle staring at the camera looking at you and doing the webinar was fantastic.
Tom Panos:I had my neighbour reckons he watched at 50 to you kept watching the bit where where I've where I've said you gotta get your lawyer to speak to their lawyer, and there's the two doggies glued up on the screen.
John McGrath:So good. No, that was a good say. Thanks for participating in that. I know your uh collaboration was a great help. It helped us get a lot of people watch it. So no, that was good. But 2026, Troy, we're about to talk about the new that we've entered.
Tom Panos:Yeah, we're in a Troy. I I believe that you've you've you've entered the building at Manley there and you're uh the buys. Yeah, they're back for a week. What's the what's the heartbeat like out there? I mean, and I know that you shouldn't judge real estate in January because there's normally not a lot of stock around. There is people that are curious about real estate. You seem to get a lot of people that you know chuck bustle into open homes uh uh uh in Jan. But what's it been like since you've been back, Troy?
Troy Malcolm:Yeah, high numbers, Tom. I think uh we've been back for over a week. So last Monday, most of the team were back. We had 18 opens on the weekend and going around the grounds not only with the with the group that um I have in the three offices across Manley, Forestville, and St. Ives, but also Greater Sydney. Been speaking to a lot of the other principals and they're seeing similar numbers. You do get the interested onlookers, the neighbors that have a little bit more time and flexibility that they're coming through the properties, but there seems to be a genuine appetite for buyers to get straight back into it uh this year, especially with places like uh Forest and Surrounds. They um they are having high numbers go through their open for inspections. We had 30 and 40 attendees in two of our opens, uh, which was really, really uh great to see for the owners that they've um they've timed the market right.
John McGrath:Okay.
Tom Panos:Johnny, can I get this out of the way early? Because I have had a lot of people ask me about ARIC dates, and I think I think there's two types of ARIC uh students. There are those that plan six months a year ahead, book flights, and put it in their schedule, and there are those, which is a lot of the industry do it two weeks before the event closes. But I just want to confirm ARIC 2026 dates are the 24th and the 25th. I've had I've had four people reach out today asking me it's the 24th and the 25th of May. Can I confirm that? Troy, yep. Beautiful.
John McGrath:That's uh I think it is, Tommy. I'm sorry, I should know for sure. I'll just I knew it wasn't the last weekend of May, which it normally is was the weekend before, so I was just having a look.
Troy Malcolm:The last weekend is yeah, John, it's it's 24th and 25th. Yeah, so the last official weekend of of May, it's not the 31st and the first, it's the 24th and 25th.
Tom Panos:Okay, 24th and 25th, and I want to let you know, um you'll have information sent all you've got to do at this stage. I think the smart people, all they do is they block the dates off. They go on to Kwanus Jet Star Virgin and they book their flights, they book their accommodation because you the event happens every year. We know where it's happening, and I'm letting you know, John and the team and I and Troy are hard working out delivering the best, best, best speakers on the planet. Again, as usual, and I know John, there's a couple there, offers have gone out on a couple of people that are going to lay our orders away.
John McGrath:Yeah, they're all locked in. So we've got a a few international speakers already excited and locked in. We've got a few very high-profile Australian speakers, and as always, we've got twenty or so of the best agents, uh brightest, uh, you know, regional, rural, metropolitan, New Zealand, Perth, everywhere. We we always are looking in in all parts of Australia, New Zealand. We're not just focused on the eastern suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne. So uh yeah, that'll be good. So we'll be sending out stuff soon. But let's get on with the show, 2026 now.
Tom Panos:Yeah. So John, Troy, New Year, New You is what I was thinking to put the title on the podcast when it appears on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast consumption happening. But really, what it's about is what are the standards? And someone asked me today, and that's why I thought this would be a good topic. He goes, What one standard would I have to raise to the next level to help me have the best year? And I said, Well, to him, I said, I'm not quite sure what your standards are on the various things. But I said, you don't need to raise your standard on a hundred things. I reckon if you raise your standard on just a handful of things in real estate, it can have a compounding. I think it was Warren Buffett that has said compound is the eighth wonder of the world. A small change can make a profound impact, raising your standards. And I thought maybe that if we look at three to five things that as an agent, if you've looked at raising it to the next level, would have its biggest return of investment. What are you thinking, John? What's the one of the first ones that comes to your mind is? And I know that you've got some thoughts about multipliers and things that you can do to multiply your uh performance in 26.
John McGrath:Yeah, I've got six or seven here, Tommy, and I'll go through them pretty quickly because when we spoke about it on text a bit earlier, about you know what are the things I'd be concentrating if I was full on in sales and I wanted to double my business. So I sat there for a while and I thought about it. Number one is first thing's gonna sound obvious, increase your goals, and I've just got 10x your goals, but whatever you plan for 2026, and by the way, 50% of the audience may not have even planned anything. They might be saying, I want to do better than last year. You know, I would be saying whatever my plan was or whatever I did last year, plan to at least double it. You have to stretch yourself because otherwise you turn up doing the same thing as 2025, getting the same result, and it's time to march forward. So, number one is just increase your goals. Number two is you need the Formula One pit team type triple A team on your side, the greatest leverage point. And by the way, you don't generally have to pay triple A teams that much more than A teams. You know, as an associate, someone that that might be working for you in an admin role, you know, you might find that an okay person is 65 to 75 and a triple A person is, you know, 90 to 100. When you think about the leverage opportunity of having the absolute, you know, uh black belt of support team. So I would make sure that everyone in your team is aligned and being held to standards. And I I use the the F1 pit team scenario because I was looking at a YouTube thing, Troy, over the break, and it it just was it took took you through a day in the life of a Formula One pit team. And just to just Google that day in the life of Formula Pit team on YouTube, and I've got to tell you, it's inspiring that the alignment and the attention, the detail, each and every one of them went to to make sure that the way they executed their role perfectly was incredible. So that needs to be our model, having the team aligned. Third one was another thing I listened to over the break. It was Ryan Sirhan. It was uh a YouTube, I think, or it could have been a podcast. Tony, he talked about you know billion-dollar standards. You know, if you want to if you want a massive business, you've got to hold yourself accountable to billion-dollar standards, whatever your standards are for inspections, for inquiry, for marketing, whatever it is, you you need to hold yourself accountable to a higher set of standards in everything. I don't think there's one thing you can do in 2026 that's that's gonna take you to 2x, but I reckon there's 10, 20, 30 things you can do that little bit better as you spoke about. Um, radical integrity, I know I talk about all the time, but it still doesn't happen in the industry. I still, even in our own team, and I've got to keep knocking their heads together, you know. I still hear people, I can see in their mind, Tom, they're wondering what I can quote where I won't get in trouble or I won't be outside the law. Don't worry about just quote the reality of the situation. Whatever you had the conversation with the vendor, whatever the comparables are saying, that's all you need to quote. And you and I, Tom, spoke with the uh uh fairly recently appointed head of the OFT for in New South Wales. And anyone that swims outside the flags, they're gonna pay a price shortly. But more importantly than that, or just as importantly as that, you will stand out like a beacon if you're the agent in the market that honestly and doesn't duck and weave and you know tell riddles, they tell you what they're expecting. Third one, speed of light. I think that speed has become now a clear differentiator. Some people are responding to requests and information, some people are walking out of a listing, and you know, if there's a contract available, they're getting their team on the phone within seconds. Other people are waiting until the first table for inspection to start greeting buyers. And I think you now need to be moving at a faster pace. Uh, superior product knowledge. When I was looking to buy Troy recently, the one thing I noticed was a big differentiator is a couple of agents you speak to, they knew everything. Everything in the market, everything that sold, every orientation, everything you could possibly think of asking. And most of the others, 80% of the others, they just either didn't know it or they didn't demonstrate any knowledge of it. And as a buyer and seller, having an agent that is an expert in your community, not just with values, with everything to do, makes a massive difference. So Therek, not sure what you're going to add to that, but I just thought that's my sort of five or six takeaways that I'd be focused on to grow 2026 over the year.
Troy Malcolm:Yeah, a couple of other other points. Just be really mindful of where you want to grow in 2026. I think, you know, at the start of the year, it's easy to say I want to grow everywhere, but you've got to really break down where did you perform really well in 2025 and where's the opportunity for you to, as John said, have those incremental gains that are going to make a huge difference to 2026? So if it's the average selling price that you're selling, what does it look like to increase that? And what are the tactics to get into higher price homes? Your average fee, does that make a difference to the bottom line? The number of sales you're making, your listing presentation, your auction process and performance on the day, looking at generating leads, your agent marketing and social media, and then looking at the client experience and the team growth. So each one of those areas, and there's probably half a dozen to a dozen of them that I've just rattled off, break them down and work out where am I performing well and what do I want to continue doing, and what are some of the tactics that I can implement on some of those areas that aren't as strong to really get momentum in 2026.
Tom Panos:Beautifully said, Troy. Beautifully said. So I think Troy and John, this podcast is being listened really the week beginning the 12th of January. I think that we're gonna have 80% of the industry back by the 19th, and we should have a hundred percent back the week after. Um we've been speaking about raising raising your standards in 2026, and you know, we've spoken about a number of those things. The the reality is you've got to sit down, I think, as an agent, to turn around and say, in your heart, what do you feel bad about at the moment that's not right? Like, example, I had an agent late last year say, Tom, it buzz, you know, I go to these listing presentations, and then it takes me three to four days to get a proposal back and say, this is how we'd market your house, this is what I think it's worth, this is our fee, you know. So I said to him, maybe raising your standards at getting back to people same day. I mean, there's a lot, a lot of, there's an expectation now that's happened outside of our industry. Uber were the first people that did it, but now, you know, half the world does things at lightning speed, three to four-day proposals coming back, no good. The next one is um we've got to also accept that that these EBUs, like EBUs, I notice there are two types. There are those where it's a team that's run like what John has described, uh, that pit crew where it's efficient, people know their roles, people understand that when I do this, it impacts this. And then there are other, there are other EBUs I notice where it's basically a real estate agent with a bunch of receptionists that they they just you know, they they basically, you know what I think it is sometimes? I think an agent loses, is too scared to lose the identity of I'm the main person, right? So they don't they don't they don't let go of things, they don't delegate things, um, they micromanage people. So whatever it is, whatever standard you've got to raise, whether it's your how you run your EBU, whether it's your help, like I've got to tell you guys, you believe one of my standards I've I've got to really increase the amount of, and it was it was men's that made me aware of it the other day when he said that when your urine is not clear, you could be dehydrated. I've had this constant issue where I'm I'm I've never drunk enough water, right? Um, so I've just gone through all these things that I've got to raise. Water's one of those, but in real estate, your buyer management, your listing presentations, like if your list uh ratio to getting an appraisal to list ratio is like 50%, that's a problem. Or if you've got a list to sell ratio of less than 70%, so less than 70 of the percent of the properties that you list end up selling, it means that you've got you know some sort of issue in the buyer management or the vendor management. So whatever it is, raising your standards. Um, guys, it's going to be an absolute pleasure working with you. By the way, John, I'm gonna see you as well on February the 10th at the real estate gym Kickstarter 2026. You, Oliver Lavers. I've got Monique from the McGrath office there. Here's a what's his surname, Troy? Uh Layud. Monique Layudan. Yeah, she's she's a gun. I'm not amazing. I've got her and a and a bunch of other agents that are doing like a hundred deals a year or over a million and they're under thirty. I've also got Rosie. Like we've got to accept it. John, we heard from Angus Aberdee that day, like life is changing in 2026, whether we like it or not. So I've actually got Rosie, who's gonna who who's gonna give a full rundown on auction pricing, the whole work, not what's happening in the future, but right now, because I think we've got to accept it. Um you you you coined the term, John, when you said it to me ages ago. You've got to act and behave that there's a speed camera every 50 meters. After talking to Angus Abadie, I think it's after every 10 metres now.
John McGrath:I mean Is Rosie from the RFT?
Tom Panos:Rosie Rosie is from the Australian Policy of Professionals. She does she does your seat, she does all the CPD uh points and that, but she she she's heavily involved in presenting what you can and can't do in auctions. Yeah.
John McGrath:And just remind me, because I didn't see the link, how did your urine get into this uh podcast? What was the uh no?
Tom Panos:So what happened is men's the other day turned around and said it was the day that was I was in Sydney, but it was apparently a 45 degree day on the weekend there. And he said, make sure you're hydrated. And he said, and I have been informed by our medical professionals, the way you stay hydrated is that you check your urine and you make sure that it is clear. And if it is clear, you are not dehydrated if it's not clear.
John McGrath:So Joe is for me out. If the Premier is talking about his urine, I'm totally uh with him. I can't believe this podcast after 30 years through but you've got I too thought we'll get here a long time ago, which is quite a helpful fact uh uh about health and dehydration. Um and it helped me a lot. They said that if you are feeling thirsty, the damage is already done. Your organs is hanging out, so you have to hydrate yourself to a point where you never feel healthy. So get ahead, sorry, thirsty. Get ahead of the curve because for it to feel thirsty, your your um organs, critical organs, have to be dried out, dehydrated, and calling to the brain and saying, you know, we need more hydration. So don't let yourself get to that, certainly if it's you know 30, 40 degrees.
Tom Panos:I've I've had John, I've had and I've had a lot of chemotherapy sessions. I've had a chemo session that was cancelled that morning, and the reason why is they couldn't find a vein to get the catheter in, and then they just said, we've told you time and time again, you need to hydrate very heavily. It was all to do with uh hydration. Um, anyway, we're babbling on about it. Obviously, health is a very important thing. 2026, we're here. We will see you next week. Million Dollar Agent, the podcast is back.
John McGrath:Back. See you guys.
Tom Panos:See you guys.