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Elite Agent
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 increased market share by 12…
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Elite Agent
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 to explain the amazing sporting…
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Elite Agent
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 to engage the five senses…
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Elite Agent
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 results if issues aren’t resolved.…
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Elite Agent
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 the Game Changer of the…
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Elite Agent
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 Mt Everest, in support of…
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Elite Agent
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 and direction. Headed by real…
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Elite Agent
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 Estate salesman and auctioneer has…
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Elite Agent
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 Winfrey, Ita Buttrose and Madeleine…
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Elite Agent
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, launched a Lego space shuttle…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
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 coast, just an hour north…
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EPM
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 declaration of independence in 1992.…
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Elite Agent
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. “Selling houses really is about…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
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 that uses Artificial Intelligence to…
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TECH + SOCIAL
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 love to be able to…
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Sponsored Content
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 the annual Walk A Mile…
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Elite Agent
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 day,” the Realmark Coastal principal…
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TECH + SOCIAL
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 late last month. The agency…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
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. Laing+Simmons Managing Director Leanne Pilkington says…
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TECH + SOCIAL
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 and determination. How did you…
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TECH + SOCIAL
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 PDF files to their Signature…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
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 Spiro Drossos was keen to…
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EPM
Innovation Ahead: Hayley Mitchell
No longer viewed as the poor cousin of residential sales, property management is set to truly step into the limelight this year with Hayley Mitchell among those leading the charge. With virtual reality property tours, property management-focused companies and a push to foster greater support and career progression in the industry gaining significant traction, it’s a field that’s fast becoming a…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Holly hits a home run: Holly Komorowski
Holly Komorowski does things differently. Her signboards have ditched the words ‘For Sale’ in favour of ‘Buy Me’, and her ‘Sold’ stickers come in the form of eye-catching hearts with the words ‘#sold.byholly’ standing out boldly. Having won the AREA Residential Property Campaign of the Year award, she talks to Kylie Dulhunty about her unique approach to property marketing. Holly…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Tracey Fellows: What’s in your heart?
During Transform Masters 2017, Elite Agent Editor Samantha McLean spoke to one of our top industry leaders, CEO of REA Group Tracey Fellows. Here, Tracey shares some of her career and leadership journey, including why being a great leader does not need to be complicated. The Beatles sang All You Need Is Love and Tracey Fellows’ leadership philosophy doesn’t deviate…
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TECH + SOCIAL
Say hello to Diana, the real estate agent of the future
Bayside buyers and vendors can now meet face-to-face with Diana Dugan without leaving home, after the Beaumaris real estate director launched the country’s first augmented reality property website. When you log onto dianaduganproperty.com.au Diana, the company director, is smiling back at you from her North Concourse Beaumaris virtual office, ready to lead you through the website with voice recognition technology.…
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INDUSTRY NEWS
McGrath takes back the reins
Major change is occuring at McGrath Estate Agents with its chief executive officer Cameron Judson and almost its entire board resigning after another profit warning, with founder John McGrath to take back the reins of the company as interim executive chair when the company’s interim results are released next month. In an ASX announcement today McGrath Limited said the “half…
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Domain CEO Antony Catalano Resigns
Domain chief executive officer Antony Catalano has announced his resignation not three months after the company listed on the share market. Mr Catalano cited family reasons as being behind the departure. “When I re-joined Fairfax in November 2013, I made a commitment to my young family that I could be there for them and do the job,” he said in…
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Real Estate News
Off to a smart start: realestate.com.au announces artificial intelligence for Amazon Alexa
A decade ago we held the first touchscreen mobile phones tentatively in our hands and now artificial intelligence allows us to talk to computers and for them to answer us. REA Group has launched Australia’s first property news report for Amazon Alexa and Kylie Dulhunty spoke to chief inventor Nigel Dalton about just how AI can, and could, help real…
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Elite Agent
Taking the ‘I’ out of gift giving
What are the best gifts for clients? Avoid anything corporate and think outside the box, says Elite Agent Magazine Editor, Kylie Dulhunty. Hands up who loves receiving a gift? Now, keep your hand up if you love getting a pack of black business socks from Auntie Maude every birthday and Christmas. I didn’t think so. Sure, they’re practical. You can…
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