Kylie Dulhunty
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Blood, Sweat and No Tears
Debt collection and resolving disputes in court are not usually at the top of employees’ most-loved work tasks. But Simone Firns is different. The Network Pacific Owners Corporation Manager loves the jobs others despise. “The legal component of my role is one of my favourites,” she enthuses with genuine passion. “I like doing debt collection…
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Business without borders: Inside eXp Realty
Since its inception in 2009, eXp Realty has broken new ground with its cloud-based real estate brokerage. Now that the USborn realtor has expanded to Australia, Kylie Dulhunty takes a look at what the virtual agency has to offer on our shores. The rapidly burgeoning cloud brokerage, eXp Realty, has hit Australian shores with its…
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Empathy and Understanding the key to service
In an increasingly technological world, David Holman knows people are more important than ever. The Direct Connect Chief Executive Officer says the moving services company’s employees and the vibrant culture within the organisation are what makes things tick. Of course, technology aids their workflow and makes things easier for customers, primarily renters who are moving…
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Tech startups making waves
Wouldn’t it be great if you could predict the price a home would sell for? Don’t you wish you could pay your selling agent a set fee based on the listing price of your home instead of the sale price? Do you yearn for a real estate assistant to help you wade through the millions…
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Don’t stop me now – real estate’s elder statesmen
Ken McCarthy doesn’t know the meaning of the words ‘slow down’. At the spritely age of 89, the Ray White Helensburgh Director is one of Australia’s oldest real estate agents. There must be something about the name Ken as down south, in Geelong, Elders Rural Real Estate Sales Manager Ken Drysdale, 69, is also one…
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Tony Heath: Your name is your reputation
It might be unlucky for most, but for Tony Heath the number 13 has proved nothing but fortuitous. His wife, Julie was born on the 13th, as was one of his sons. On July 13th he celebrated 28 years in the real estate industry and 28 years with McLachlan Partners on the Central Coast of…
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People Power
On the surface, the link between producing commercial quantities of soup and selling houses is extremely tenuous. Dig a little deeper and you may find the connection not so far fetched. Former Campbell’s Soup CEO Doug Conant was renowned for saying “to win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace”. It’s an…
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Martin Millard: From humble beginnings
Martin Millard has been through the wringer and come out the other side. He’s still a little crinkled, definitely more enlightened, and has a dry, but earnest, sense of humour. Unorthodox is the only way to describe the Harcourts Solutions Managing Director’s journey in real estate. It’s a career that started 19 years ago with…
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Show me now: Sophie Lyon’s winning inspection idea
An innovative idea for an app that gives tenants the chance to view more rentals – and property managers more time in their day – has taken out a top new real estate award.
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Using data to guarantee rent: LongView Real Estate
In Australia the traditional real estate model is changing with agencies employing in-house photographers, videographers, database experts, marketing and creative specialists. In November last year, LongView burst onto the scene in Melbourne, providing a data-driven agency focused on property investors. Co-founder Evan Thornley is a former co-founder, chair and CEO of LookSmart, a pioneer of…
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The changing roles of real estate
ONCE UPON A TIME, a real estate agency comprised a principal, sales agents and a handful of support staff. Now, with big data and technology coming to the fore, the traditional real estate roles are changing with the times. Ahead of the Business of Real Estate Conference, Kylie Dulhunty looks at US game changer Compass and the roles they see…
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What to do when sales volumes are low
Difficult real estate markets can still provide an opportunity for business growth, a leading real estate accountant says. Live Real Estate Accounts Managing Director Chris Mercer says agency leaders should not only see a changing market as a threat but as a great opportunity for growth. “Not all businesses are on a solid financial footing,”…
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“Like Afterpay for VPA”: How CampaignAgent is streamlining cashflow for vendors and agents
Sitting on a ski lift on the way up the slopes of a snowy Mt Buller in 2015 is where the idea for CampaignAgent took off. Founded by Seth Watts, a real estate printer, and Shaun Moriarty, a finance professional, CampaignAgent is a Melbourne-based financial technology company that is shaking up vendor paid advertising, reducing…
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Byron Kerr: A new brand of leader
Byron Kerr isn’t afraid of declining stock levels. In the 2018-2019 financial year, when the Melbourne market was on a downward slide, the O’Brien Real Estate Mentone director and his team sold more properties than the year before. “It was a market with decreased stock levels of about 25 per cent,” he said. “Yet we…
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Winning campaign gives power to the people
There aren’t too many people more equipped to sing the praises of Keperra than Glen Milliner. A former Queensland cabinet minister, Glenand his wife Kay raised their three children in the family-friendly suburb nine kilometres north-west of the Brisbane CBD. In a 68-second Why Buy Here video for Harcourts Solutions, the couple face the camera…
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The Wow Factor: How to market prestige property
Ballerinas dancing inside bubbles, weeping cherry trees, launch parties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and curated dinners are among big-ticket ways prestige homes are marketed across the country. Forget quick photo shoots, 2D floor plans and a snappy artist’s sketch; prestige property marketing has reached epic proportions as developers and real estate agents seek…
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How to set boundaries and manage conflict
The competitive nature of the real estate industry automatically puts agents at higher risk of experiencing conflict at work, according to a subject expert. Known as The Conflict Whisperer, Scott Dutton says industries built on competition could often struggle with negative rivalry and employee battles. Such disruption could lead to missed listings, and poor sales…
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To market, to market
Bread, milk, butter and a house. That may seem like a highly unusual, if not impossible, shopping list but modern technology has combined with the smarts of a Melbourne real estate innovator to make it possible to buy a home at the same time as picking up the groceries. Market Share Property’s David Stewart won…
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Always the bridesmaid, and that’s OK…
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. It’s a saying shrouded in negativity. It highlights that you’re forever in second place, the supporting actress and not the star. You’re the 2IC but never the boss. It’s a phrase that popped into my mind recently as I walked down the aisle, teetering on heels as high as…
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Climb Every Mountain: Sam Bevan, Rosanna Webb and Jacq Hackett take on Everest Basecamp
When Sam Bevan starts her trek to Mount Everest Base Camp later this month, she won’t just focus on the physical challenge but the mental hurdle. The Realmark Sales Associate and 2018 Elite Agent Transform winner says last year was a turning point in her life and she hopes the trek will inspire further clarity…
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Maintaining peak performance
What goes up must come down – unless your name is Tom Hector. The golden boy in South Australian real estate and one of the nation’s premier agents, Tom Hector’s rise to the top 11 years ago was nothing short of meteoric. Perhaps even more startling is that over the past decade the Harris Real…
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Champion of change : Kylie Walsh
Kylie Walsh puts a different spin on the old saying, ‘You can’t have it all’. A dedicated voice for women in the real estate industry, the DiJONES general manager was recognised as the Most Influential Woman in Property at the AREA Excellence Awards late last year. Like many female role models before her, including Oprah…
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To 2020 and beyond- REIQ summit 2019
With the evolution of technology, digital creations and products, virtual reality and artificial intelligence progressing at warp speed, you’d be forgiven for thinking we humans may be living on borrowed time. Steve himself is a champion of change and a leader in the futurist thinking world. He has developed a full-sized, air-powered Lego hot rod,…
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Focus on 2019: What the top agents are doing
Grant Smith Director, Century 21 Grant Smith Property What’s the market like in your area? The Sunshine Coast property market is a strong performing region with extensive growth and development. The region is experiencing growth in the health sector with the new hospital, as well as expansions to all major shopping centres. Being on the…
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Never Give Up: Branka Stankovic
Branka Stankovic’s motto in life is simple: never give up. It’s a phrase many a person touts but few truly live by, yet Branka has the evidence and life experience to back it up. The then 21-year-old didn’t give up when civil unrest broke out in her home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the…
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Exceeding Expectations: Ercan Ersan
Ercan Ersan’s recipe for real estate success is threefold: bricks and mortar, people and technology. A circular formula where one ingredient complements the next, it’s getting the quantities right that the Ray White Erskineville director says is the tricky part. “I don’t think you should ever lose the human element in real estate,” he says.…
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The real estate veteran flipping the script on tech: Jane Doogan
Jane Doogan is the first to admit she doesn’t look like a tech-fan. In fact, at 73 you’d be forgiven for expecting the LJ Hooker Nerang sales associate to be a technophobe. Instead, the industry veteran of 30 years is among the first agents in the country to trial RITA, a real estate digital employee…
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The robots are here, Is your business ready?
It only seems like yesterday that 3D tours, virtual reality and drone photography were the latest and greatest trends in real estate technology. Cutting edge no longer, these tools have been swiftly pushed aside for artificial intelligence including voice-activated real estate searches, Mandarin-speaking robots and a host of digital assistants. Predicting Values And wouldn’t you…
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Harcourts Walk A Mile In Their Shoes for charity
Stilettos and platform heels aren’t typical attire for your average male real estate agent, but on 31 August those very shoes were the most important piece of clothing for Harcourts agents. At six locations around the country more than 500 Harcourts real estate agents, of both genders, teetered down busy main streets as part of…
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Generation to Generation: Sean Hughes
As a teenager Sean Hughes was a “hustler”. Don’t worry, we’re not talking anything illegal. Just good, common-sense entrepreneurship – with a dash of cheekiness thrown in. After all, you’ve got to have a bit of pluck to save the $12,000 deposit needed to buy your first house when you’re just 16. “I was a little hustler back in the…
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The Future of Work: Special Report
Cloud-based virtual real estate brokerages, offshore labour, and designing and building emotionally and intellectually intelligent buildings will dramatically change the way agents work in the future, experts say. The days of real estate agents existing solely in a bricks-and-mortar office are already dissolving, with US cloud brokerage eXp Realty hitting more than 10,000 agents and uplisting on the Nasdaq Stock Market…
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Gift of a Lifetime: Laing+Simmons
What do a pizza, a walk in the park, a haircut, a cocktail and a cup of tea have in common? They’re the key elements in a $50,000 award-winning marketing campaign that successfully promoted the Laing+Simmons real estate brand last year. Entitled Memorable Moments, the campaign took out the Annual REA Excellence Award for Brand Campaign of the Year - Residential.…
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Augmented Reality: The Personal Touch by Diana Dugan
How long have you been in real estate? I’ve been in real estate for 10 years. I initially joined local franchise agencies in the Bayside area before starting my own company in 2011. It seems like only yesterday I branched out on my own, with a lot of nerves but also a lot of ideas…
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Style and Substance: CoreLogic revamps Signature Reports
Following the release of CoreLogic’s improved Signature Reports, the country’s largest property analytics and data provider now gives agents the power to add custom content to their Signature Comparable Market Analysis Report within their RP Data Professional account. CoreLogic product manager Mike Salway said that Signature Reports now give agents the opportunity to upload custom…
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Back to Basics Reaps Rewards: Barry Plant Manningham
Barry Plant Manningham’s recipe for success is straightforward: Keep things simple, go back to basics and put the customer first. You might expect real estate agencies to do this naturally, but it seems in recent years the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) hasn’t always been that easy. It’s something Barry Plant Manningham’s Managing Director…
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