FEATURE INTERVIEWS
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Why agents are knocking at NOKK’s door
Like many start-ups, the idea was born from personal experience. NOKK co-founder Ben Voltz, a digital entrepreneur who also counts transaction platform ROKT as one of his successes, was struggling to find a home in his desired suburb of Albert Park in Melbourne. “There were only about 15 properties on the market, which is a very small amount out of…
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The story behind realestate.com.au’s most-clicked listing of 2018
After languishing on the market for three years, a property in Victoria’s Narre Warren North sold this year with Kristen Turner of Peake Real Estate who took over the listing in April. Not only did Ms Turner secure a record price for the home, it also become the most-clicked on realestate.com.au for 2018 – finding its way in front of…
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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 coast, just an hour north…
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Born to Compete: Hayley Van de Ven
Entering the real estate industry straight out of high school, Hayley Van de Ven was a successful sales agent by the age of 18 – something she can barely believe now. “When I think about it now, I wonder who would have taken me seriously at 18,” laughs Hayley. She initially entered into a youth training program run by Ray…
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Feeling at home: Jason Boon
Richardson & Wrench’s office presence in Potts Point is a great reflection of their team. Although they’ve moved into a thoroughly modern office space on bustling Macleay Street, just a couple of blocks away they still have one of their old offices. It’s here that Jason Boon works. The office, which also acts as an auction space, matches his personality…
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The initiative helping agents end homelessness
“I’d noticed the homeless situation getting worse and worse – I think in the inner city over the last six years I’ve really been noticing it – but I’ve always thought it’s someone else’s responsibility. Someone else will deal with that. Then I realised I could actually do something about it, which is how the project started. “I thought, here…
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Playing to win: the female agent team who tackled The Block 2018
Channel Nine’s renovation juggernaut The Block wrapped on its 14th season this year, seeing Hayden and Sara from New South Wales take the (slightly controversial) win, represented by McGrath St Kilda principal Michael Townsend. But representing Kerrie and Spence from South Australia was The Block’s first all-female (and the only female agents this season) team, Emily Adams and Stephanie Evans…
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Brad Henderson: One Life, One Chance
Tell us about yourself and your role at OusProperty. Born and bred in the country town of Naracoorte, SA, I moved to Adelaide for sport as a teenager. I then lived in a variety of locations across the state and Australia before being enticed back to Adelaide because the city is so ‘livable’. Today, I’m a sales agent and auctioneer…
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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 that uses Artificial Intelligence to…
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Big on data: Edward Smyth
Edward Smyth hasn’t been in real estate that long, and entering the industry wasn’t initially on the cards. “When I was younger I wanted to be a professional footballer; my dad used to be one,” he laughs. “I’ve played for my country [Northern Ireland], but then my dad said that I wasn’t good enough – so he sent me to university!”…
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How to secure more business by becoming the easy choice
Let’s say you have been invited to a corporate event but the football game is on and you don’t really want to miss it. What do you do? You justify to yourself that missing one event is not going to jeopardise your work commitment and really, no-one will mind one absence. This is what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. Two thoughts…
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No plan B: How Matthew Farrugia conquered the Central Coast in 12 months
Real estate wasn’t always the goal for Matthew. He was working in a golf shop, trying to break into the golfing industry, when he first thought about making the switch. Through his work he had met several agents, and when he expressed an interest one of them offered him a job. “I walked in on my two-year anniversary at the…
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Lessons from 25 years in real estate: Richard Luton
A true embodiment of the term ‘attraction agent’, Richard’s larger-than-life personality has not only built a successful business for himself as an agent, but has helped him master the three ‘C’s of leadership: culture, continuous improvement and community outreach. After 25 years, what is your proudest moment in business? It was on 28 August 1999, [when] we opened up our…
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The importance of being nice: Candice Di Prinzio
What was your first job and what did it teach you? My first job was slave labour! My parents had a real estate office from when I was five years old and they used to let me do small tasks: filing, emptying bins and so on. I absolutely loved it – probably why I’m still in the industry today. It taught…
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Thriving through Boom and Bust: Rick Hockey
It was 2009 when Rick Hockey took the plunge to embrace a lifelong passion for property and enter the real estate game. At the time he had 28 years’ experience working in the Pilbara region as a BHP employee, was running his own successful cleaning business and had a deep connection with the Port Hedland community. The mining boom had afforded him the…
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How to build a team that will support success: Cathy Richards
In a five part series we caught up with some of the keynote speakers ahead of TBORE 2018 to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from and how they onboard new team members. Part five features Cathy Richards of Place Estate Agents.
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How staying curious can boost your business: Nick West
In a five part series we caught up with some of the keynote speakers ahead of TBORE 2018 to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from and how they onboard new team members. Part four features Nick West of Nelson Alexander.
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How to turn your passion into great leadership: Emily-Jane Megraw
In a five part series we caught up with some of the keynote speakers ahead of TBORE 2018 to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from and how they onboard new team members. Part three features Emily-Jane Megraw of LJ Hooker Nerang.
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Olympian Anna Meares inspires at Connect 2018
Eleven-times world cycling champion and Olympic Gold medallist Anna Meares offered an inspirational perspective into the mindset and physical stamina required of champions when she presented at Connect 2018 on Tuesday. “My career success has not been defined by being undefeated. It’s been defined by overcoming challenge and adversity along the way,” she said. A coal miner’s daughter, Ms Meares…
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Why empathy is the key to good leadership: Sam Rigopoulos
In a five part series we caught up with some of the keynote speakers ahead of TBORE 2018 to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from and how they onboard new team members. Part two features Sam Rigopoulos of Jellis Craig.
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The Hon John Howard OM AC on leadership at Connect 2018
When it comes to leadership mistakes, former Prime Minister John Howard yesterday joked to Cass Charlesworth, his biggest was a shoddy cricket bowl against the Pakistani army in Kashmir. The infamous 2005 footage of the then PM’s bowling attempt has haunted the cricket tragic ever since; but, according to Mr Howard, the true test of leadership is learning not to…
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Why focusing on team culture makes you a better leader: Stefanie Dobro
In a five part series we caught up with some of the keynote speakers ahead of TBORE 2018 to find out more about their businesses, where great ideas come from and how they onboard new team members. Part One features Stefanie Dobro of Caporn Young.
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The First Ladies of First National Byron Bay
When First National Byron Bay principal and director Chris Hanley speaks of his agency, he talks in terms of the “likeable people” who make up his team. “Basically, they’re just good people who happen to be real estate agents,” he reflects. “We have four women who have made a huge contribution to us being named the top sales office of the…
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The ex-banker turned Double Centurion: Jason Roach
A banker for 20 years, it was a connection with Charles Tarbey and a desire to stop travelling for work which drew Jason Roach to real estate. Now he’s the principal of C21 Northside – Lindfield and a holder of the network’s prestigious Double Centurion status. One of the striking things about Jason Roach’s career is that he hasn’t seen…
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Focused and Fearless: Kelly Tickle
What was your first ever job and what did it teach you? My first job was at Target Brookside when I was in Year 10. It taught me communication skills. You need to be able to deal with all different people from all different walks of life and understand that everyone has a story. After a brief stint on the…
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AREC 2018 Feature Interview: Evan Broadbent with Claudio Encina
TRANSCRIPT Claudio Encina: Here we are at AREC 2018, Elite Agent stand, and we’ve got a special guest today, Evan Broadbent. So Evan, tell us a little bit about yourself. You own Harcourts Warragul in Victoria, and you got another company called Quickrealestate. Give us a little bit of an insight on both the businesses. Evan Broadbent: 20th year in…
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AREC 2018 Feature Interview: Chris Hanley and Phil Harris with Samantha McLean
TRANSCRIPT Samantha: Hi everyone, Samantha McLean from Elite Agent Magazine at the AREC 2018 couch. This is one of my most exciting interviews with two of the best guys in real estate: Chris Hanley from Byron Bay First National. Welcome, Chris. And Phil Harris who’s just come offstage this morning from Harris Real Estate in South Australia. Now Byron…
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AREC 2018 Feature Interview: Sean Hughes with Samantha McLean
TRANSCRIPT Samantha: Welcome back to the AREC 2018 couch. And my guest here right now is Sean Hughes from Realmark Coastal. Welcome Sean. Sean: Thanks for having us. Samantha: Who was your favourite speaker? Sean: Gavin Rubenstein was really quite good. So, some of the people were yesterday Peter was exceptional as well. Lots of different messages, but it seems…
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Monika Tu: Property Entrepreneur
Monika Tu’s career has gone from strength to strength. Since getting her start in real estate in 2009, when she used personal experience to launch Black Diamondz Property Concierge, to being named a finalist at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2018, Monika’s success shows no sign of slowing. It’s easy to see why Monika Tu has made the…
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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. Laing+Simmons Managing Director Leanne Pilkington says…
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How to own your digital space with Colin Anstie
When it comes to standing out in the digital space, Raging Digital CEO Colin Anstie says it’s about three essential steps: creating a ‘killer’ profile, growing your audience and offering amazing content. He’ll be on hand at Digital Live 2018 to offer an in-depth insight into exactly how that’s done. Mr Anstie offers his expertise as an analyst and speaker…
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AREC2018 Feature Interview: Tom Ferry with Claudio Encina
TRANSCRIPT Claudio: Welcome to Elite Agent Magazine. Here we are at AREC 2018 and AREC wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have our man, Tom Ferry here. Tom, welcome. Tom: Appreciate it, guys. Claudio: Can I just ask you, Tom? Is this your fifth AREC? Tom: So, I figured out this is my fourth AREC. First one was 1991…
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Socially minded meets social media at Digital Live 2018
When 200 agents take part in Digital Live 2018 later this year, many will walk away with invaluable skills to improve their standing in a brave new digital age. But far beyond social media, websites and digital literacy, their participation in the program will also make an invaluable difference to real children’s lives. This year proceeds from Digital Live will…
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AREC 2018 Feature Interview: Taney Jain with Claudio Encina
TRANSCRIPT Claudio: Well, guess who stopped by the couch here at Elite Agent Magazine stand at AREC 2018? None other than Taney Jain. Taney, thank you for dropping in, my friend. Taney: Thank you so much. Claudio: You did your keynote this morning, and I’ve asked a few people, “Who is your favourite speaker?”. And you have come up every…
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How agents can make the digital shortlist with Valentina Borbone
Long before any consumer picks up the phone, they’re actively researching online, shortlisting the right person for the job. Valentina Borbone is an expert at ensuring businesses make that shortlist, and she’ll be applying this knowledge at Digital Live 2018 as she helps agents tap into best-practice recommendations in the online space. Looking at a host of areas ranging from…
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