topstory
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LEADERSHIP
The truth about running a real estate business today … it’s not what you think
Forget the flashy sales numbers, leading a real estate business today is a pressure-cooker mix of strategy, structure and constant adaptation. Industry veteran Aaron Chuah reveals the hard truths behind running a high-performing agency in 2025 and beyond.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
What’s driving Australia’s property market in the second half of 2025
With rates on pause and sentiment shifting, Australia’s property market is entering a new phase. Domain’s Dr Nicola Powell says the rest of 2025 will be shaped by localised trends, buyer confidence, and a return to market fundamentals.
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LEADERSHIP
The real ‘Game Changer’ in real estate leadership
When Besser and Co. expanded from a team of eight to 24 overnight, director Dion Besser found himself rethinking everything he knew about leadership, culture, and performance. He shares what it really takes to grow a team that’s aligned and resilient.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Inside the business of growing million-dollar agents
She’s not your typical CEO, and her agents don’t run typical teams. Hayley Van de Ven doesn’t just grow numbers, she builds operators. From mindset to margin, she’s behind some of the most profitable, tightly run teams in the business. This is how.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
From intensive care to property management: Kate Hansen’s real estate rise
Kate Hansen has overcome extraordinary medical challenges to build a successful career in property management while embracing motherhood.
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OPINION
From sales to strategy: Why becoming a non-selling principal was the right move
Breaking industry norms, Ben Kingsberry learned that stepping away from active selling created a stronger business foundation. By choosing leadership over competition with his own team, he built a thriving 60-person agency where salespeople close up to 60 deals annually without competing against the boss for listings.
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BEST PRACTICE
How real estate agents can escape the ‘Spinach Tax’ and build true financial freedom
Most real estate agents are brilliant at generating income, but when it comes to keeping it, growing it, and turning it into long-term freedom, many fall short. Michael Choi breaks down why relying on GCI alone is a trap, how the so-called “spinach tax” eats away at your earnings, and the practical steps agents can take to shift from selling…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
From cold calls to selling a $55 million harbourfront mansion
In Sydney’s prestige property market, reputation is everything, says Adam Reichman — and it’s a lesson that runs deep. “It was something my late father impressed on me,” he says. “It takes many good deeds to build one and only one bad one to lose it.”
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Mindset and Personal Development
They don’t need a new friend — they need a better agent
Real estate isn’t group therapy. Sellers don’t invite you in to make friends — they want a confident expert who can get the job done. Yet too many agents are prioritising likeability over credibility. If you’re losing listings you should be winning, this might be why.
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SELLING + MARKETING PROPERTY
Barbara Corcoran rewrote the rulebook – and these agents are following her lead
Barbara Corcoran turned a $1000 loan into a $100 million real estate empire, not by playing it safe but by getting noticed. From fake market reports to dog tricks and outrageous stunts, she proved that visibility wins listings. Now a new wave of Aussie agents are following suit with bold, creative campaigns that break the mould and get results.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Resetting the rules: The real estate legal overhaul every agent needs to know
It’s not just a new financial year, it’s a hard reset for real estate rules across Australia. From sweeping rental reforms in New South Wales to new national wage and superannuation benchmarks, and structural tax changes already underway in Victoria, 1 July 2025 marks a line in the sand. For tenants, landlords, strata managers, agents and developers alike, the new…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Real estate 101: Why GCI isn’t the whole game
In real estate, big GCI numbers often steal the spotlight — but Scott Mackey says they rarely tell the full story. The REMAX Precision broker-owner is urging agents to focus less on turnover and more on profit, longevity and financial smarts, offering a no-nonsense approach to building a sustainable career.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
The real estate ‘Moneyball’: How Dion Besser turned metrics into momentum
As founder of Melbourne agency Besser & Co, Dion Besser has built a high-performing team by borrowing a strategy from a baseball movie: define the role, measure the output, and focus on the numbers that matter.
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LEADERSHIP
Real estate leadership is changing – and agents are calling the shots
The era of command-and-control leadership in real estate is fading fast. Today’s agents want more than KPIs and top-down directives — they’re looking for empathy, collaboration, and leaders who prioritise wellbeing as much as performance. According to Laing+Simmons CEO and REIA President Leanne Pilkington, leadership that truly connects with teams now looks very different to what it did a decade…
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Mindset and Personal Development
A wake-up call for property managers is needed
Kylie Walker believes that property managers need to change the way they do things, or risk making the same mistakes for the next decade.
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AI Tips and Tricks
The new #1 ranking: How to get recommended by ChatGPT and win more listings
We're witnessing "one of the wildest disruptions" in marketing history, and it's happening faster than anyone anticipated. Samantha McLean unpacks what it takes to become the agent ChatGPT recommends, covering the strategies, digital footprint, and data signals that can help you win more listings in an AI-driven world.
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LEADERSHIP
Why big-city agents should start thinking small(er)
When it comes to shaking up your real estate playbook, the instinct is often to look offshore—London, New York, Singapore. But according to Townsville local and Harcourts principal Ben Kingsberry, the most practical, high-impact lessons might be hiding in plain sight. Drawing from more than a decade in regional real estate, he makes a compelling case: regional agencies aren't just…
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
State of Origin, real estate, and the business of mentorship
As Origin fever builds, one initiative is helping Queensland’s top players win off the field. Backed by Former Origin Greats and the QRL, the 1980 Initiative pairs Maroons stars with business mentors — like REMAX Precision’s Scott Mackey — for real talk on money, mindset, and life after footy. From property plays to financial pitfalls, it’s all about building a…
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Mindset and Personal Development
The real reason your sales team isn’t performing (yet)
“Talent wins deals. But structure wins seasons.” Real estate veteran Aaron Chuah exposes what really powers top-performing sales teams, and it’s not superstar agents. From mindset to metrics, he reveals seven game-changing pillars every leader should know - but most overlook.
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OPINION
Why we need to stop over-complicating real estate
In a field cluttered with AI tools, scripts and training programs, the fundamental elements remain deceptively simple: building trust and solving problems. The parallel between running and real estate reveals how both reward consistency and human connection over technological distraction.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Real estate leaders recognised in King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List
Several respected figures from Australia’s real estate sector have been officially recognised in the King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List, celebrating their contributions to the industry and broader community.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Real estate’s straight shooter: Paul Neshausen on money, marketing, and saying what others won’t
After walking away from a high-paying corporate role with no backup plan, Paul Neshausen didn’t just change careers, he reinvented himself entirely. With no experience in real estate and no listings to his name, he backed his instincts, ignored industry cliches, and landed one of the most extraordinary first clients you’ll ever hear about. Now, he’s Barfoot & Thompson’s top-performing…
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Mindset and Personal Development
Can anyone sell real estate?
Some careers come with a clearly defined script. Real estate isn’t one of them. One day you’re a strategist, the next a sounding board. It’s part property, part people—and every agent knows the job is far bigger than listings and contracts. It’s complex, human, and deeply personal. And that’s exactly what makes it worth doing.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Four decades of doing things differently: inside TOOP+TOOP’s enduring success
Most real estate agencies don’t make it to 40 - but TOOP+TOOP isn’t most agencies. From late-night signboard experiments to in-house coders and a firm “no bots allowed” policy, this Adelaide outfit has spent four decades doing things its own way. Here's how a family business turned legacy player is still rewriting the rules.
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OPINION
When buyers go quiet: Why pausing beats pitching every time
When homebuyers go quiet after inspections, it's rarely disinterest, it's decision fatigue. Modern real estate requires agents to abandon scripts and create breathing room with thoughtful questions that help overwhelmed clients articulate their feelings about potential homes.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
“It’s about legacy, not just property”: Henry Wong on why Asian buyers are shaping Australia’s real estate future
Asian buyers have become a major force in the Australian property market—often purchasing without finance, competing at the top end, and thinking across generations. But tapping into this wealth requires more than just a good listing and a few translated flyers. REMAX agent Henry Wong shares what agents need to understand about family structures, cultural nuances, and the trust-based networks…
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BEST PRACTICE
Five hidden costs in property management (and how to eliminate them)
Property management agencies face five hidden costs draining profits: talent turnover, manual compliance processes, growth limitations, reactive operations, and diminishing returns on expansion. With Australia needing to manage more properties with fewer staff, agencies must transform operations or risk falling behind competitors who've already embraced automation and scalability.
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BEST PRACTICE
Why a lack of after-sale support is costing you millions
Andrew McCulloch says it’s time agents took a page from the car salesman’s playbook, because in real estate, the follow-up is everything.
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BEST PRACTICE
Creating a workplace that people want to be in
Despite remote work capabilities, Ben Kingsberry invested in a state-of-the-art office space, believing that culture thrives where people want to be. His open-plan headquarters has become more than a workplace; it's a social hub counterbalancing industry pressures and new attracting talent.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Top agents list more than 60% of properties. Here’s what they have in common
In an industry built on optimism and driven by results, real estate has long traded on the appeal of the fast start and meteoric rise. But new research from Jordan Tormey, Strategy Analyst at the Ray White Group, paints a more grounded and arguably more sustainable picture of what long-term success in real estate actually looks like.
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FEATURE INTERVIEWS
Why Suzanne Brown has flipped the script to treat tenants like VIP clients
Suzanne Brown, Director of Rentwest Solutions and President of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA), doesn’t believe tenants should be treated as an afterthought. In fact, she sees them as future buyers, landlords, and long-term clients, and treats them accordingly.
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Mindset and Personal Development
From A-League to auctions: Adam Pearce on the winning mindset that powers top performing agents
When it comes to the mindset of top performers, former A-League goalkeeper Adam Pearce doesn’t see a difference between elite sport and elite real estate.
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AREC 2025
Meet the billion-dollar real estate agent
Clayton Orrigo doesn’t fit the mould. No designer suits. No keynote reels. No cold calling. Yet his team is the #1 performer in Manhattan, moving over USD$1 billion in property each year. Speaking at AREC for the first time, the Hudson Advisory Group founder broke down the unconventional mindset behind his rise—and why being “annoyingly accessible” might just be the…
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AREC 2025
From terminal illness to top of the luxury market: Mauricio Umansky’s playbook for becoming the 1%
Mauricio Umansky was born blind in one eye with a rare blood disease and odds stacked fifty thousand to one against him. Today, he’s the founder of The Agency, a Netflix star, and the man behind some of America’s biggest property deals. Speaking at AREC, he delivered a clear message to agents: average won’t cut it.
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AREC 2025
Kamala Harris: The Vice-President who ate ‘No’ for breakfast tells real estate agents how to win
The 49th Vice President shared hard-won lessons from staring down Wall Street's biggest players, offering real estate professionals a blueprint for turning rejection into negotiation gold through preparation and genuine empathy.
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