Your 10-Point Plan in a Transition Market

A single headline can freeze a buyer, spook an agent, and quietly sabotage a sale. So we strip the noise away and get practical about what actually works when the market shifts from easy momentum to cautious decision-making across East Coast Australia and beyond.

We unpack what a transition market demands from a real estate agent: resetting vendor expectations early, giving direct feedback after every inspection, and pricing based on what has sold in the last 60 days not what sold six months ago. We also dig into the skill gap that shows up fast when enquiry levels drop: buyer management. If your buyer plan starts and ends with calling people after Saturday opens, you’re leaving deals on the table. Strong agents build a database, stay in touch, learn buyer motivation, and create private appointment urgency without relying on the portals to do the heavy lifting.

Then we get into deal-making: when to take a clean pre-auction offer, why “being a hero” can backfire, and how to negotiate with calm certainty instead of nervous pressure. We finish with one of the most useful owner-occupier frames in a changing property market: the changeover gap. If you’re buying and selling in the same market, the gap often matters more than the headline price, especially for upgraders chasing long-term value.

If this helped you think clearer about selling, buying, or leading clients through uncertainty, subscribe, share it with a mate in real estate, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Tigers Surprise Start And Energy

Tom Panos 0:00

Tom Panos, John McGrath, Troy Malcolm, West Tigers are leading the competition. I've never thought I would say that. This has taken, this has taken close to 13 years, Troy. This podcast's been going for 13 years. And this is the first time I can say Tigers are on the top of the comp. And the only thing I'm going to say is Penrests still do worry me, right? I know that sounds very confident, but A, how good is it to have a team that's been down the bottom for so long up there?

Troy Malcolm 0:29

So good. They played well. They played well.

Why The Market Feels Different

Reset Expectations With Constant Feedback

Tom Panos 0:34

Only. It's not fluke stuff. It's not fluke stuff. And today we want to talk, we're going to go straight into it because we've made up our mind. We're going to try and nail this in 15 minutes. There's no question about it. We are in a transition market, but there are certain marketplaces that, man, they're still selling in days if it's, you know, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, lower price points. But overall, you would generally say that the noise, the war, inflation, interest rates, all of that has meant the buyers are a lot more cautious. So I thought what we would do is go through a quick 10-point plan. What does a great agent do to not just survive but thrive, potentially win market share off another agent that might be a bit flat-footed and not see what's going on? What would they do? So maybe I'll just read out each point and then you guys chime in, right? So your 10-point plan, million-dollar agent listeners, is number one, reset vendor expectation early. You can't be going off a week before the auction saying, hey, I think we've we're up, we've missed the mark here, or you can't be adjusting price on a private treaty two months later when people are starting to say that thing's been on the market for a while. Gentlemen, over to you.

John McGrath 1:47

Yeah, I well, there's two questions, Tommy. One is if you've got an existing listing that sort of has been on for a few months, you definitely need a reset event. You definitely need to discuss with the vendor how you get this sold because the longer they stay on, the harder they get to sell. But I guess we're mainly talking about new listings. Um the days of having an auction meeting halfway through the campaign and giving them the feedback at that point are well and truly over, in my opinion. You need to be giving detailed feedback after every single buyer inspection, not every open house, every single buyer inspection. You need to be closer to buyers than you ever have been. Now, by the way, I actually don't think it's a terrible market. I should have said that before. I think the market's quite fine. I think one of the issues in the market is agent nervousness and negative energy and media sentiment. Um, but we'll probably talk about that a bit later. But um, you know, you need to be working with more buyers, you need to be having more buyer appointments, open homes, private appointments. You need to be giving more feedback to the vendor. It needs to be direct and unfiltered. It can't be sugarcoated and it can't be saved up for a later day. And I think if you do all that, I've got to tell you, I looked at our stats, Tommy. Our auction um clearance rate this time last year, sorry, days on market was 30 days. This year it's 31. So, and our private treaty was I think 42 and it's gone to 47. So, you know, from our uh uh perspective, and I think we're reasonable bellwether for at least for East Coast Australia, um, I don't think it's much different. If you're working smart and hard, uh I think you can still get as many, if not deals. Sidney Kennedy, I know she works the inner west near Utah, near the Bay Run that you frequent more than any other human being on planet Earth. And she's done 27 sales in the last two months. 27 sales in Balmain, Lilyfield, Roselle. I know it's a sample of one, but it's a sample that you would know well, and it's a person you know well. So um, yeah, I I I think don't panic.

Tom Panos 3:53

I had a vendor, John. I had a vendor today, surprisingly, on the bay run. I wouldn't say a vendor, someone that lives in that community that told me uh he in uh Roselle area, and he said to me about Cindy, he goes, I think what makes her so good is he goes, she's empathetic but direct. And I said, What do you mean by that? She goes, She'll listen to you, but she won't be fluff when she says something to you. She goes, so she is straight to the point. Did she do 20 deals last month?

John McGrath 4:22

27 deals in two months. 27 deals. So I'm I guess that well, all I'm saying there, True, you know, Cynthia, very well you do a lot of her auctions. Um, I'm saying the deals are there to be done. The market is not catastrophic by any stretch. The prices in most areas have changed, down by probably three to six percent, I think, anecdotally. Um, auction clearance rates are hovering now around either side of 50%, which is still not bad, meaning that 50% of the properties that go to auction in Australia are selling within 28 days. And if you then took it out another two weeks, you'd probably find 25%, you know, or half of the remaining sell within the next two or three weeks. So it's not dire. Um, don't panic. Be calm, be confident, be certain. Your mindset is going to be one of the biggest catalysts for more deals.

Tom Panos 5:14

But you've just covered, John, actually, to be honest with you, we're going to go through 10 points, but you've done very well to cover a lot of those. You've actually talked about resetting vendor expectations early. You've talked about over-communicating like a newsroom. I mean, no vendor is going to complain that I'm being overserviced by an agent in this market, right? No, no one's going to complain. Then you speak, spoken about, you know, the point number 10 that I had, which was strengthen your mindset. Um, tough markets need tough people, right? And uh what we're talking about is being able to understand that everything's you've probably got to do double servicing for vendors. You've probably got to up your buyer work. Let's go on. Troy, is there anything you want to add on that? Troy, do you want to add anything?

Pricing Off The Last 60 Days

Troy Malcolm 5:56

I was just gonna say, John and Tom, this market is this market is really set up for success of those clients that follow the process and know the market. Market knowledge right now is really the differentiator, knowing what's coming to market, what's selling on a daily basis is what the very best agents are communicating through to their owners every day. So when you're saying tell them what's happening like a newsroom, that's exactly it. Okay, we've covered four.

Tom Panos 6:20

I want to move on to um pricing, right? Pricing. Because I think in this marketplace, nothing is going to destroy a campaign for a vendor than actually wrong pricing. Um, and generally speaking, probably higher pricing, but you can't. And what I love about this market is that real estate agents that are highly skilled can have a really good conversation about price. But normally agents that try and win business not on process but win it on price, get punished in this market because you might not necessarily get the dream price that you get in a in a seller's market. Is there anything you want to talk about when you're pricing real estate now?

John McGrath 7:00

Well, I think, you know, obviously I'll state a few things that should be obvious by now. The most relevant sales are those that have happened in the last 60 days, not in the last six months. A lot of agents are used to going back six months to get comparable sales. That's now outdated. The market has likely shifted in most areas in the last two months. Um, you have to be totally up to date with what's been selling in in the last couple of months. Uh, I think that's that's really critical. Two is um, yeah, Pete Chauncey said it when GFC hit, and he Chauncey is most, you know, he's a prolific agent, sells 20 to 30 a month. Terrific fella. And he just said, you know, I found that my my deals weren't coming together as readily. So he said, I just decided I had to get feedback from buyers faster, and I had to give it to vendors faster. So instead of the old Monday callbacks and then Monday night calls, he was doing Saturday afternoon callbacks and then Saturday afternoon conversations with vendors in case he had to adjust the pricing. And he said, John, I decided that every I just made up my mind that every vendor deserves to hear the truth. And that's rung in my ears for the last, well, what is it, 15, 20 years or something since the GFC, every vendor deserves to hear the truth. And that's from one of the best agents in Australia. So, you know, you you just uh beautifully what that guy said today on the bay run, Tommy, you just mentioned with Cindy, you can be empathetic and direct. It doesn't mean you've got to become a harsh ogre and you've got to beat people with a mallet. It just means you listen, you understand, you recognize it. Tom, I totally understand how that's you'd how you'd feel. I know you put a lot into this home, I know it's been a great home for you, and I know the sort of figure you're looking like probably would have been available 12 months ago. So here's where the buyers are at, and here's what they're saying, and here's the alternatives they can buy to yours for the similar price. So it's a matter of listening, being empathetic, being understanding, and then being open, honest, and direct about feedback. And don't think they're mutually exclusive that if you're gonna be, you know, direct, you can't be empathetic, or if you're gonna be empathetic, you can't be direct. You can be both. Troy.

Troy Malcolm 9:07

Yeah, I agree. Uh the transparency and speed around pricing and that feedback, both to buyers and sellers, are definitely the very best to doing. Uh, and they're doing faster than ever before. Perfect.

Treat Every Buyer Like Gold

Tom Panos 9:21

Let's move on to number five. Treat every buyer like gold, is point number five. Treat every buyer like gold. And I had an agent say the other week, um, I really got to look at my buyer strategy. I said to him, What is your buyer strategy? He goes, Oh, I call back the buyers after the opens. And I said, Okay, I go, is there anything else? He goes, No. That's he goes, that's he goes, I'm literally telling you, that is the buyer work I do. They come to my opens, I ring them back, I give them the feedback, I send a vendor report, that's all I do with buyers. And I said, Are you happy with the amount of buyers that are coming via realestate.com and domain at the moment? He goes, No, numbers are low. And I said, Well, maybe we need to look at your your buyer plan. Like in this marketplace, you can't rely on the portals lining 30 people up at every open. What does good buyer management? And Troy, John, I want you to think about times when the market has been uh more buyer's market, where you've got to be doing all the chasing. What does good buyer work look like?

Take Strong Pre Auction Offers

John McGrath 10:22

Look, it's a pity, Tom, that we have to talk about good buyer servicing because the market's tightened up a bit. I mean, this is I've been banging on about this for like 40 years about buyer servicing is the key to success in this industry. Everyone talks about listing. Yes, listing's important, prospecting's important, but I reckon buyer servicing is the goal. So, what does that mean? That means that every single person you come in touch with on email or phone that opens face-to-face, that has a genuine desire and capability of buying a property, goes into your database and gets communicated to you on a regular basis, not just when you found them something, because that could be a while, but you stay in touch, you check if their buying requirements change, you ask them what else they've seen, you ask them, you know, if they've made offers or bid on anything, you're constantly upgrading your information and intel on every data and every buyer you're you're dealing with in your database. You know, it's funny, I I speak to people all the time, Thomas, you and Troy do, and yeah, how many buyers are you working with? Or a good 20. Okay, how many did you meet in the last month? Uh 200. So two so 180 are now basically being ignored by you, even though this is your full-time job, full-time career, you've met 180 buyers that you are not actively um frequently following up. That's a disgrace, in my opinion. So um, you just got to work with more buyers, you've got to have more buyer appointments. This thing of waiting till Saturday's open is crazy. If someone inquires on Monday and they're genuine and they'd like to see it sooner than later, I'm taking them through this afternoon. Um and uh yeah, I think you've got to assume you're gonna have to sell every property two to three times in a market where there's more nerves around than there has been for some time. You just have to know and manage expectations with fendors. When you get offering acceptance, the deal's not done. Um, you know, the deal's not done until it's exchanged.

Tom Panos 12:17

I had number six's, I had number sixes pre-auction offers, and it's a good segue into it. And I'll tell you, I'd love to get your view on this. I had an auction on Saturday. Uh the reserve was 1,250,000. The owner was prepared to take 1,250,000, he had an offer of 1,250,000 the day before, and the buyer wanted it. He turned around and said, No, let's try our luck at auction. Come on auction day. There's one bidder. That bidder looks around, sees that there's no one really bidding at over that level, and he turns around and he says, no, 1,230,000. Then the agent goes over to him and says, Yeah, but you know, we're talking about 1250 yesterday. And he goes, Yeah, but I I can see what's happening. No, 1,230,000. And the soul falling through. Now, that there's a classic example of maybe wrapping up that option prior would have been best practice.

John McGrath 13:07

Totally, Tom. And I don't want to say the agent, I don't want to be critical of them because I don't know.

Tom Panos 13:12

He's a l he's a listener, John.

John McGrath 13:14

Yeah, but I I don't know the context. Maybe they had five contracts that fell over on the morning off, but anyone that has an offer that the vendor will take on Saturday, and if they think they've genuinely only got one buyer, maybe two. I'd be doing all I could in a fragile market. I'd be doing all I could to get that deal closed. You know, this is not a market for sitting back and just turning up to the auction. You know, the the days of six, eight, ten, twelve buyers in many instances are gone. There's still happening a bit, but it's not happening as much. Um, and for most vendors that hit the market now, vendors are not going onto the market Troy today, thinking, you know, this is going to be like I can I can imagine I'm going to have 20 buyers at an auction. Most vendors are going onto the market now because they see the opportunity to upgrade and buy well, if they want to get sold. They might need to, they might have some financial issues and mortgage issues and cost of living issues, but they're pretty serious. You know, the the media is doing a pretty damn good job of sh telling everyone that times are tough. Um, so I think that, yeah, I I would definitely be closing deals if you can get them done at a solid price that the vendor was happy with. No need to be a hero in this market because if you if you pull the run lever and your judgments roll, because plenty of buyers can watch the Friday news at six o'clock, see a few bombs hitting you know Middle East and saying, Oh, it's a bit too nervy, I'll I'm not gonna bid tomorrow. So I'd take the bird in the hand, Troy.

Troy Malcolm 14:45

Know the buyers better than you ever have before is the golden rule. Um, don't just say the feedback that they're giving is this, understand why they've come to that price. It's so critical right now in this market to know your buyers and develop deep relationships with them to aid you and assist getting great deals across the line.

Negotiate Calmly And Build Certainty

Tom Panos 15:04

Yeah. We've got one or two left. Um uh upgrade your negotiation skills because the market needs deal makers now. Order takers are going to struggle. Um, John, Troy, best negotiation tip that comes to your head right now.

John McGrath 15:21

Well, I think especially in this market care, but not that much. If if you get addicted and nervous and pushy about a negotiation, it actually works against you. The harder you try in many instances, the less likely you are to seal a deal. So I think you've got to have straight-up conversations and they're real with the buyers. Look, I get where you're at. I know you don't want to come up anymore. Here's the opportunity. Uh, this property is worth a million uh three months ago. You can pick it up at 950 today. It's gonna be worth a million in another three, six, or nine months. Um, and you just talk them through where things are at. What's the again, you help them justify their desire to buy the anyone that's making an offer, let's get real, they want to buy the property, uh, especially if it's owner-occupier as opposed to um an investment property. So they really want to buy it, they've set their minds on living in it. They'll tell you otherwise. They'll tell you that it's you know that they're not that in love with it or they're nervous about the market. But if they're making an offer, they want to be the owner of that home. So you've got that in your favor. So I think you can talk direct, you can show people. I mean, there's plenty of stats, Tom, and and I'm sure you've shared with your gym members, there's plenty of stats to say that off the back of market breathers and corrections like they're going through, there's all almost always a surge in market. Now, is this this little breather going to go for three, six, or nine months? Probably one of the three. Probably won't go for 12 or 18 months, but it'll probably go maybe towards the end of this year. So buyers that have been you know flogged to death in the market that's been very much a bull run, now have a chance to get in when the market's taking a breather. Spot on. I actually did transparent open-on-mous conversation with buyers as well.

The Changeover Gap Matters Most

Tom Panos 17:05

I did some research this morning on a post I was going to do. The three biggest corrections we've had in Australia, early 90s, 2008, 17 to 19. And you know what? The biggest correction was around 15 to 20%, and it was made up within 18 months. So one thing is for sure, if you look at a track record, no matter what happens, yes, markets do change, but in Australia, they seem to come back really, really quickly. The last one is the changeover. I don't think enough conversation is held about the changeover because if you're a buyer and seller in the same market, right? In fact, if you're an upgrader, let's assume you wanted to go from uh Haberfield to Hunters Hill. This is your chance, right? Because the one in Hunters Hill is probably going to be better value now, and it's going to drop probably a touch more than the one in Haberfield, right? Um so, but regardless, it doesn't matter what area to what area. What we're talking about is that buying and selling in the same market is generally a revenue neutral thing, and it's the changeover figure that great agents talk about and not just one part of the transaction, whether you're buying or selling.

John McGrath 18:18

Yeah, totally, Tommy. I think that um the gap is what matters. And and if you lose 100 on yours, but you pick up 150 discount on the next one, or even a hundred, it's irrelevant. Um, you're never going to get a time where you time it so perfectly that you sell on the peak and you some will fluke that, by the way, but you can't plan it because none of us know when the peak is and when the trough is. So yeah, I think it's all all about all about the uh the gap. And that's the conversation you need to have with your client. Um most of us are dealing with people that might have heard their property was worth 1.2 million a few months ago, and reality is today it may be worth 1 million and 80 million. But if they're up to