When you write something honest about your industry, the first thing you find out is who’s prepared to agree with you in public, and who’s prepared to go on the record.
The second thing — which takes a little longer — is to round up those who are still thinking.
So here’s an update:
- Two weeks ago I wrote “The Mirror Has Many Faces” – about the Tesolin ban, the system that built him, and what comes next.
- Peter Brewer wrote a piece of his own. Hundreds of you wrote in across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and email.
- Last week, I gathered that public conversation in The Mirror Talks Back.
This is the next one, but probably not the last one.
I emailed more than thirty industry leaders – peak body CEOs, franchise heads, coaches, communications directors. I told them I wasn’t looking for a polished PR statement. I wanted thought leadership on how we build an ecosystem the consumer can actually trust.
Reply by email or audio note, their call. Eight came back on the record. A handful declined politely. A few are still thinking — and some of those are conversations I’m still in.
The rest didn’t reply at all. I’ll come to all of that.
Leanne Pilkington is the CEO of Laing+Simmons and a past president of the REIA.
Her first reaction to the Tesolin ban was relief. “I had been aware of the Fair Trading investigation for a really long time, so my first response was relief that it had finally happened.”
She gave me the most operational answer of the eight.
Bigger franchises run what they call Exception Reports – systems that flag when an agent’s commission percentages are abnormally high.
“It would be pretty easy to spot an agent doing that consistently.”
Her team reviews agent reports monthly. Every consumer complaint gets followed up with the agent, the business owner, and the franchisor.
In thirty years at Laing+Simmons, she’s had to act three times.
“In each case, the action has been swift and decisive, with the person being removed from the business.”
On coaching: “From a training perspective, unless it is accredited training, overseen by ASQA, it is an unregulated industry, meaning pretty much anyone can hold a conference or be a trainer.”
On awards: “As someone who judges these awards, I definitely have some concerns about what we are seeing in the submissions.
“There is no doubt that now many of them have been written by ChatGPT, and the questions don’t always ask for justification of what is said within the submission.”
On franchisors: “Franchisors in general need to take more responsibility in relation to the training being provided to their network, and the way they deal with complaints.”
And on AI-driven transparency – the idea that a buyer’s AI could cross-reference price guides against actual sale results – she said: “The idea of AI helping to identify those issues is really attractive and would help force transparency across the industry. What a shame that we need that.”
Andrew McCann is the CEO of Jellis Craig.
He wasn’t surprised by the ban. “There is no place in our industry for misleading and deceptive conduct, and I viewed the outcome as a positive one for the industry.”
His answer on internal standards: Jellis Craig has full-time compliance officers who assist in regulating and educating his group.
“I would hope and expect we have all the necessary processes in place to ensure we wouldn’t have an agent in our group get to the point where they could be exposed to suspension, we would have intervened well in advance.”
On coaching, he pushed back on the idea that trainers are the root of the problem.
“I think for the majority, the sales trainers and coaches in our industry are all good people with great industry knowledge who support the ecosystem to drive good customer standards and help the industry get better, so I don’t think they are at the root of the problem.”
“The industry leads the messages they want from the trainers.”
On what needs to change, he gave me the analogy that should have been obvious all along: “I’m sure you don’t hear at legal conferences or professional services conferences in the introduction that ‘this lawyer took home $2 million dollars last year’ with no context to how long they’ve been in the industry and what their customers actually think about them.
“We need to set a higher bar than just money in the form of GCI and volume of sales made.”
“If they can be that, then they can have whatever success they hope for in life, whether they list and sell 10 homes a year or 150.”
Caroline Bolderstone has been training agents for years. She answered my first question in one sentence.
“I have long thought that the unregulated nature of the coaching and training space in real estate is dangerous and somewhat irresponsible.”
On pricing, she gave me the only concrete alternative to the conditioning playbook.
“I teach that three conversations need to be had with vendors.
“First, their dream price or what they hope to achieve. Second, an indicative price based on market conditions and recent sales data. Third, the pricing strategy options and which one to employ.”
Her bar for who should be allowed to coach: “If the coach or trainer is providing real estate-specific coaching or training, then I believe they need to be licensed, have had a minimum of five years selling with proven performance and skill, and should also be accredited with a real estate coaching or training body.”
On how success should be measured: “GCI is a false read on performance and always has been. It should only be measured on two things – transaction volume and market share, and a more thorough customer satisfaction measure with specific benchmarks to meet for a five-star rating.”
Ivan Brescic founded BresicWhitney before moving into coaching. He’s now based in Texas.
His first response to my article was that it hadn’t gone far enough.
“You could’ve gone a step further and named a few of his accomplices – especially given the article was around ‘values’, or lack of them.”
On coaching standards, he set a bar nobody else named: “There should be a minimum entry for coaching. No real estate ban. Not having been dismissed from a company for sexual harassment.
“There should be a minimum standard for sure, and it should be regulated.”
Sadhana Smiles is the CEO of REIP.
Her response centred on who the industry elevates. “The reason that high-profile agents can quickly shape behaviours across the industry, sometimes in ways that don’t reflect best practice, is a big issue, because visibility and influence don’t always align with integrity.”
“If we want to rebuild trust with the consumers, then it’s not about who shouts the loudest, but it’s about the fact that we need to elevate agents who are doing the job properly, who are doing the job with integrity.”
On coaching, she argued the stakes are higher than the industry acknowledges.
“How well we sell a house, how well we market, it has a direct impact on the financial outcomes for the consumers.”
She believes that puts real estate coaching closer to financial advice than the industry realises, and that someone like Tesolin “should absolutely not be allowed to step into a coaching role to train others in the industry.”
She also mentioned REIP is partnering with PropTech building AI tools that will bring transparency to the marketplace.
“This will start making impact well before 2030.”
Antonia Mercorella is the CEO of the REIQ.
Her response was short and principle-based.
“Agents are there to serve their clients’ best interests. The law is very black-and-white. If you follow this fundamental rule, you can’t go wrong.”
“He appeared to reverse the principle and acted to serve his own interests first.”
“It’s embarrassing and beyond disappointing for agents who do the right thing. From a peak body perspective, it makes the climb to professionalism and building trust amongst the community so much harder.”
Stewart Bunn is in communications and corporate affairs at First National Real Estate.
His was the response that challenged everything the original piece hoped for.
He didn’t answer my questions one by one. He sent a unified argument.
“Coaching, awards and recognition frameworks absolutely shape behaviour. What we celebrate becomes what people chase.
“But those systems didn’t emerge in isolation. They evolved in response to what the market consistently rewards.”
“Buyers and sellers don’t operate as passive participants in this system. They respond to urgency, competition, price signalling and perceived advantages.
“Over time, those responses have shaped the behaviours that agents adopt.”
“Many of the tactics now under scrutiny are not just agent-driven. They are reinforced by the very outcomes consumers seek: higher prices, faster sales and competitive tension.”
“Raising standards in training and recognition is necessary, but it won’t be sufficient on its own if the underlying incentives – on both sides of the transaction – remain unchanged.”
“And, while AI will illuminate poor conduct, to imagine that an AI model wouldn’t deploy tactical deceptions to achieve a customer’s goals would be to ignore evidence that is already abundantly available.”
“There are some uncomfortable truths here that I’m not seeing discussed more broadly in the industry’s commentary.”
Andy Reid is a real estate coach and auctioneer
On the Tesolin ban: “It’s a consequence of a bigger problem upstream.”
Andy’s argument is that the problem isn’t the profit motive, but the refusal to admit it. Until both sides are honest about what they want, their real intentions never align.
“Josh is a product of the current mentality that everyone’s too scared to admit.
“We hear leaders talk altruistically about ‘people first’, but the uncomfortable truth (and we’ve seen public examples of this) is that when it comes to taking actions, there will always be a priority placed on the bottom of the P&L.”
On price guides: “Our opinion on worth has no place in the conversation at all. The second we inject ‘I think’ into it is the very moment we put ourselves in competition with our potential clients. Our job is not to determine value. It is to make the most amount of money we can out of the property and surrounding circumstances.”
On coaching standards: “‘Time served’ doesn’t automatically mean good practice.” But he thinks entry hurdles would “deter a good chunk that do it because they’ve dropped out through uselessness.”
On how the industry measures success: “On what planet is any business success measured on gross profit? A $500k writer taking $250k home is more successful than a $1M writer taking $200k home.
“Focussing on net over gross would create fundamental shifts in focus, and then I think we can look further afield from the dollars.”
Is that it?
I said I’d come to the silence. There isn’t much to say about it – and what there is to say should be said gently.
Going on the record on this isn’t a small decision in a small industry. Some of the people I emailed are still thinking. Some are still talking to me. Some chose not to be in this round, and may yet be in the next.
Because there will be a next round. The mirror is everywhere we look.
If you’re reading this and have something to add – whether you got my email or not – my inbox is open. samantha@eliteagent.com.au.
More to come.