When Matt Lahood launched The Agency nine years ago, he faced a daunting challenge: how to scale a real estate business without losing control, culture, or service quality. What started with a small, determined team has now grown into a national operation with hundreds of agents.
But for Matt, success isn’t just about numbers – it’s about planning, people, and systems working in unison.
Earlier this week, The Agency hosted Elevate 2026, the company’s annual conference, bringing together team members from across the country to share strategy, celebrate wins, and focus on growth.
“When we first started, our very first event in 2017 had 12 people,” Matt says.
“Now we have over 300 people at Elevate. Nine years later, it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come; but it’s also a reminder that growth only works if your systems and people keep pace with your ambition.”
Of course, growth doesn’t happen by accident.
“You’ve got to have a plan, and you’ve got to keep revising it. When we started, we set milestones, and then we reverse engineered everything from there. If we wanted 100 agents, we asked, where will they come from? Who will manage them? Can our back-end systems handle the volume?
“If settlements can’t cope with 50 listings in a week, or marketing can’t handle 100 photo shoots, you have a problem. Your video has to match your audio … what you say and what you do have to be the same.”
For Matt, the first principle of scaling is always having a clear blueprint. He recalls talking to other long-standing business owners who had run companies for decades without a concrete growth plan.
“A lot of people just wing it in this business,” he says.
“I very rarely see anyone hand over a real blueprint. But when you’re borrowing $25 million to launch a company, you can’t just hope for the best. You have to plan for one year, two years, three years ahead -and then adjust along the way.”
“Be seen, be heard”
Planning alone isn’t enough. Matt is adamant that the right people are central to sustainable growth and leadership visibility is critical.
“I tell all my leaders: when you get out of bed, put on your orange or green jacket,” he explains. “Be seen. Be heard. Support your team. You can’t be hidden away; people need to know they can reach you, that you’re present.”
That visibility extends to supporting every agent in the business. Matt believes growth comes from nurturing the people who are already there.
“Look after the existing people and help them grow. Agents watch agents. When they see someone succeed, they want to be part of that culture. That’s why people join us and stay.”
Systems, too, have to keep pace and from marketing to settlement support, Matt stresses that operational capacity must match the ambition.
“We’re always thinking like a start-up, even nine years in. Complacency is the enemy. You can’t rest on your laurels; the infrastructure has to grow with the revenue.”
Culture is another cornerstone. The Agency engaged independent consultants to assess employee satisfaction, identifying areas where improvements were needed.
Matt insists on transparency: feedback was shared openly with leaders, and actions were taken publicly to fix problems.
“We put the complaints up on the screen and showed everyone what we were doing to address them. You have to hold yourself accountable.”
Beyond the office, he is clear that personal life matters just as much as professional success.
“It’s not about work-life balance in the traditional sense. You can be successful in real estate and in your personal life too. Take your partner to events, spend time with your kids. If you don’t manage that, you can have money and success, but you end up lonely.”
Setting new targets
Looking ahead, The Agency is targeting 600 selling agents, 20,000 properties under management, and $200 million in revenue.
Matt envisions climbing into the top five real estate brands in Australia by market share, but he remains focused on what he can control: his people and his systems.
“We don’t worry about competitors. We care about our internal team and our customers … everyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter.”
The lesson from Matt’s journey, and from Elevate 2026, is this: scaling a real estate business isn’t just about chasing growth, it’s about aligning strategy, people, and systems, while staying visible, accountable, and connected to the very people who make that growth possible.
