For most real estate agents, a successful sale might end with a bottle of wine, a thank-you card or a bunch of flowers.
But for Northern Beaches agent Michelle Galletti of Cunninghams, one client took gratitude to another level by writing an original song about her after she guided him through the sale of his home during one of the toughest markets in recent years.
The sale itself was emotionally charged from the outset. Michelle had previously sold for the same clients during Sydney’s post-pandemic property boom, when buyers lined the street outside their Freshwater home.
This time, the experience could not have been more different.
“The last place I sold for them was during that period where everything went ridiculous and the Northern Beaches grew about 40 per cent,” Michelle said.
“I had a line outside the door and up the street. Then when I was selling this house recently, it was the total opposite.”
The property was being sold during a divorce, adding another layer of pressure to an already declining market and expectations had to be adjusted repeatedly as conditions worsened.
“It was their house to live in for a long time, but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” she said.
“We just didn’t know the market was going to go the way it did this year. The price just had to keep being pulled down, unfortunately.”
Rather than avoid difficult conversations, Michelle focused on keeping communication open and consistent throughout the campaign. She created a shared WhatsApp group with both vendors so every conversation happened transparently.
“In divorces, I find that having two separate conversations is not ideal because things can be misconstrued,” she said.
“So I do audios on WhatsApp and say, ‘Hey guys, this is where we’re at,’ so everyone has the same information. If we need to make decisions, generally we do it on a three-way call. There’s no separate conversations.”
Even with that approach, the market decline was confronting. Michelle had sold a smaller property for significantly more only a year earlier.
“I’d sold something across the road a year and a half before for $5.7 million and it was less of a house,” she said.
“This one ended up selling for $4.5 million … it was really upsetting because you think about what people have put into it, and then they’ve got to split and fund separate lives.”
Despite the disappointing financial outcome, the clients’ appreciation for Michelle only grew stronger throughout the process. One of the vendors, Dave Mardon, a creative professional Michelle describes as “the most creative human you’ve ever met”, decided to express that gratitude by writing and recording a song about her.
The lyrics of the song titled Galetti captured both the stress of the campaign and the trust that developed along the way.
“You did not need to go that hard
But you did, and that’s why you’re a star
Kept the asking price, held the line
While every other clown said, ‘Cut it fine.’”
Another verse reflected the reassurance Michelle gave during moments when the situation felt overwhelming.
“You said, ‘Nah mate, let’s wait,’
And somehow that didn’t feel insane.
You had a buyer in your sights
And you steered him straight to mine.”
For Michelle, the gesture was completely unexpected, particularly given how emotionally draining the campaign had been for everyone involved.
“That’s why I was surprised,” she said.
“You manage it the best way you can, but they could have just gone the complete opposite direction and been angry about the whole thing. Instead, they were just incredibly grateful.”
After years in real estate, she said she had never received anything remotely similar.
“When I got it on my phone, I thought it was just a song that had my surname in it,” she said.
“Then I started listening and I was in shock. I sent it to everyone saying, ‘Can you believe someone would do this?’”
Michelle believes the songs resonated so deeply because they acknowledged the emotional side of the job that clients rarely see from the outside.
“People think you just open the door and get paid,” she said.
“But you’re counselling people, it emotionally takes its toll if you actually care. The outcome of that, getting something like that [song], means more to me than anything really.”
The experience also reinforced her belief that agents need to be direct during difficult markets, rather than avoiding uncomfortable conversations.
“Not having hard conversations as an agent is where a lot of people fall down,” she said. “You need to be really proactive and say, ‘This is the truth of what’s going on and we need to adapt to it.’”
For all the uncertainty of the market, Michelle said the songs ultimately reminded her why authenticity still matters most in real estate.
“It makes me feel like I’m doing the right thing,” she said. “If you can make some sort of difference in your own backyard, I think that’s what’s important.”