S1, Episode 6: Behind the sold sign - The secrets great agents don’t tell you

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00:00 Selling and buying a house is a very stressful time. It's not the same as buying a pizza. In my generation, if you weren’t married and had children or mortgage, by the time you're 24, there was something wrong with you. 24 now a lot of young men are still getting out of nappies. I'm glad you laughed. Thank you. Great is not accepting mediocrity.

00:16 Welcome to These Four Walls, the podcast that talks real buyers and experts about the hardest, weirdest and most surprising parts of buying and owning a home in Australia. We'll help you figure out what's going on in the world of property and what to do next.

00:28 Hi, I'm Dim and you're listening to These Four Walls. When it comes to real estate agents, everybody's got an opinion. Some people swear by them, but others aren't as convinced. But one thing's for sure. The right agent in a market like ours can make all the difference. Today, our guest is Ray Ellis, CEO of Century 21, and he's here to talk to us about what makes a great agent, how they add real value, and how trust and connection between buyer and agent are the key to better outcomes.

00:56 And our listener letter comes from Priya in Melbourne who says after months of open homes and missed bids, I've met more than a dozen agents and honestly, I can't tell who's working for who anymore. Some have been amazing, but others have left me confused. How do you know which agents you can truly trust? Right. For most Australians, the first person they meet when they begin their property search is an agent.

01:18 What would you say is the biggest misconception about what agents actually do?

01:22 A very good question. I have some sympathy for the listener who wrote in to you about it, because searching for a home can be a frustrating experience. You get your hopes up, it gets dashed, and it's the biggest decision of their lives. Apart from getting married or having children. So the biggest misconception of agencies. We are good people.

01:43 Yeah, our job is to sell a house on behalf of the vendor, and that's probably the first misconception. Our job is to sell that house and represent the vendor. Of course, we want the buyer to be satisfied with the process. We want the buyer to be happy with the process. But our job is to sell the house. And in that process, we have to engage with the buyer and make sure it all works well.

02:05 So the first misconception is the agent whose job is to sell the house, but we want a happy buyer and happy vendor as I said. And so in relation to trust, trust is a very difficult world word. Who do you trust in life. So it's not necessarily trusting the agent. It's having the confidence in the agent's expertise. The confidence of the agent is not only representing the vendor, but has the buyer's interests at heart, because that's part of the transaction process.

02:32 An investigation into the history of the agent. What's their experience? What's the knowledge of the local market? Is where someone should begin.

02:41 What would you say is the place to start? Or some of those things that people maybe don't start with, or keep in mind at the very outset that you could advise some of our listeners when it comes to choosing the right agent. How do you appraise the person that's going to appraise your place?

02:57 My philosophy is when you choose an agent in general, you have a lot of knowledge about that area. You either live there or you want to move there. You have a lot of knowledge about financial constraints. You have knowledge about, the houses are for sale, the apartments for sale. So you bring that general information. So in choosing the agent, I say its a character reference.

03:17 You don’t have to fall in love with them. You don’t have to be their best friends for 100 years. But is this is this someone I feel confident in outlining my dreams, hopes, aspirations, fears and they'll represent me in searching for the right place. That's where I would start.

03:34 And when you find the right agent help us understand where are some areas of agents add value that maybe aren't totally perceptible to the buyer or to the seller?

03:43 The first place to start is the agent is the local expert. They know about the school zones. They know, know about the roadworks coming in. They know about the strata developments. They know about the restrictions on doing business in that area. The traffic flows. All that local knowledge is very, very important because that helps you make a better decision of this is where you want to live.

04:07 This way you want to invest this way, you want to raise your family. And that's not readily available on the myriad of online search tools are available. What I call that hard core nous about what makes that area tick, because everybody is at a different phase of their life. Down-sizers retirement, new family just got married, it's an investment.

04:30 I'm buying something with my friends. Everybody has a different ambition in that. And a good agent can help you with what that is if you give them the right information.

04:40 What's the vibe of the area?

04:41 Yeah, and the vibe there is what makes it. Because a house is a house is a house. An apartment is a, you know, unless you are fortunate enough to buy a $20 million house, you have a certain budget in what you want to do. So what's the maximum for that budget? The vibe for that area is public transport.

04:56 Important to. Is parking important to is parks important to you? So it's not so much just the apartment or the house. It's like as you said, the vibe of that area.

05:05 Yeah, Ray, You lead one of the most established and recognisable names in real estate in our country and indeed around the world. How would you describe the shifts that you've noticed in the property market over the last couple of years, and what excites you about the way that it's heading?

05:21 I could speak for hours on this topic. First off, thank you for recognising us. Century 21 and Better Homes and Gardens is the largest real estate group in the world, and we have a national presence throughout Australia and New Zealand, and we service most local areas. Not a lot of people don't know. We have over 7000 offices in China and our organisation is Australia here, about to open up in Dubai and India.

05:44 That's part that's part of our territory. And that's a great that's a great advantage for the migration and the dreams and hopes that migrants bring to this country. But the changes the world has changed and people's dreams, hopes and ambitions have changed. Myself, I was married young, had all my children young. Most people don't get married and out of their 30, 31 have their first children, 30 - 35.

06:09 So that's a big change in the demographics of what areas are you know, the court rate of block is virtually disappeared because we're time poor or we budget poor. So you have to allow for these things in what is the dream of homeownership in Australia and homeownership hasn't changed fundamentally. Everybody wants it. No one wants to be bogged down by a big mortgage.

06:31 Everybody wants their children to grow up in the right area, the right house, the right environment, close to family and friends. I think that's a keystone of our our industry. And it's unique. Apart from Australia, New Zealand and probably 50% of the UK, that dream of home ownership is unique to those countries. And it's the way most Australians and New Zealand is make their wealth.

06:53 You know, we're not a great at the average person or a great investor in the sharemarket or starting their own business, but the capital growth on their investment property or their home. And that's why we get taxation advantages for that is the way they can accumulate wealth. So there's no fundamental changes to that. Just what changes at what age do we get into it?

07:15 What's the cost of going into it? And people now if lifestyles are different, you know, in my generation, if you weren’t married and had children and a mortgage, by the time you're 24, there was something wrong with you all 24 now, a lot of young men is still getting out of nappies, but that's a, that's a that's another story.

07:32 Another story. I'm glad you laugh. Thank you for that. So, you know, we have different ambitions. And, if your ambition is to travel the world for 10 or 15 years, that delays your homeownership. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just your ambition. Is your ambition to own lots of properties, buy your time at 25. That's another one as well.

07:50 So I don't think fundamentally younger Australians are different to any other generation. They just have a different demands and expectations and more power to them.

08:00 Interesting. That's really fascinating. I want to change track slightly and talk through trust and transparency. There's no shortage of opinions about agents. I think you probably addressed that when we first kicked off. What do you think has shaped public perception primarily.

08:19 Selling and buying a house is a very stressful time. It's not the same as buying a pizza. Yeah. You know, if it's a bad pizza, you get over with it over in ten minutes. But the stress of selling a house, the stress of buying a house, can we afford that $680,000 mortgage? Are we making the right decision? So the couple, the individuals, the family, they’re in that state of anxiety.

08:44 And the person who's in the middle of that is the real estate agent. And our job is to get a transact a between the buyer and the seller. And, a lot of times the buyer wants a the seller wants a higher offer and the buyer wants a lesser offer. And our often say with a marriage counsellor that we bring the two parties together to make sure you have the they have the right deal.

09:06 No one actually. Oh yeah. That's a good price. I'll pay that price or the auction or whatever. So in that state of anxiety of the real estate agent being the marriage counsellor that time sometimes gives us, oh, they were a bit too tough for me or whatever. No. Busy end of the day, the buyer is happy and the vendor was happy.

09:21 And it's our job to make sure we're both happy.

09:24 And I think at times like this, with so much conversation out there about supply and affordability, that can become exacerbated what you just described. So I'm interested in hearing from you. How are agencies like Century 21 and how are you personally working to rebuild trust, particularly in a market that's becoming more cautious, more apprehensive?

09:46 It's a very serious situation, is housing affordability has gone out of the window for a lot of people. And but there's also this effect of a location, affordability. My children grew up in a very nice suburb in Melbourne, so when it was time for their first home, they wanted to live where that where they were bought up.

10:04 They can't afford to live there. So the location affordability is a big issue as housing affordability. And, I gave advice to a group of people recently, in Melbourne, they could continue to rent in Richmond or Paddington in in Sydney or Red Hill in, in Brisbane or Norwood in Adelaide and you know, the Claremont in, in Perth and many other capital cities.

10:28 So you can continue to rent there, but you can buy a property somewhere else in a country town or a far flung house out in the suburbs as good investments out there so you can get into the market. It's just how your financial situation allows you to do that. But don't give up on that dream. About 30% of Australians rent, 30% don't have a mortgage and 30% have a mortgage.

10:53 That may increase the slide rental you know, percentage over the coming years. But that's not so much. People don't want to get in the housing market. They're choosing their lifestyle, right. And their lifestyle is renting a beautiful apartment in those inner city areas to go to the coffee shops, the football and the cities and close to the beaches.

11:13 More power to you. But that's a choice you make.

11:16 You spoke briefly. I'd like to pick you up on, how rent-vesting is becoming more prevalent. What are some other thoughts you can share about that strategy? What’s your personal take on it?

11:26 It comes down to 99.9% of us have a budget. So you have to decide what is important for you to spend your money on. Is a piano lessons? Is it having a big mortgage? Is it going overseas every six months? Is it buying new dress or suits or clothes every weekend or whatever? None of those decisions are right or wrong, but they have to be your decision.

11:51 So you have to sit down and work out with our budget and our financial planning and our lifestyle and our retirement, even though you might only be 25, where does that fit into the mix of our priorities at the moment? And if the priority is we need to get ahead in the property market? Rent-vesting is a is a perfect way to do it.

12:11 You know, as I said, you can, I use a town of sale in Victoria to buy. You can buy a good solid house on sale for $280,000 still. So. And you can rent that out to more than cover the mortgage and rent in Richmond in Victoria. So sale is, you know, four hours from the Melbourne CBD, but it's an investment opportunity.

12:30 So just be aware of where does your budget go, what are your financial requirements at the moment? What are your dreams or aspirations. And then consider rent-vesting?

12:39 I think one thing's for sure, whether you're buying a home to live in or you're buying an investment, the vast, vast, vast majority of sales that happen in this country go through a real estate agent. In your view, what's a sign an agent's putting the client first?

12:54 I would say, without exception, 99.9% put the client first, which is the vendor. As I said earlier, we want we want a happy relationship. The sign is is the information they're providing you sounds credit worthy, sounds knowledgeable, and sounds on the mark. If you don't think it is, you might need to consider another agent. But generally that agent has exclusivity to that house.

13:19 And so that's a condition there. But just have the right the right questions. Yeah. Have a, have a series of 6 or 7 questions that are important to you. How close are the shops? How long this has been on the market? Why the vendors selling? Have they bought children up here? What's the neighbourhood like? You know what.

13:37 What are other houses selling for? And again, your own, your own information, the way those answers are given to you or made evaluate that they give you the right information,

13:48 Ray, you've been in the game for a long time. I'm really interested to understand from your perspective what separates good and great. And I'd love to hear one or multiple examples of you having seen that come to life and all your time in business.

14:04 Good is mediocrity. You accept it. My boyfriend didn't comb his hair, but I'll put up with it. They said that we're going to be ten minutes late. They're 11 minutes late. So we generally put up with those things along. Great is not accepting mediocrity in a previous life, I used to work in the States and we had a, a fleet of about a thousand cars, which you used to get washed every day.

14:32 Every day these cars were washed so we could hire them out for short rides from airports and whatever. And I went to the chairman of the company. I said, if we washed our cars every second day, we would save half $1 million. And he looked at me and said, but if I wash my cars every second day, every second day, my customers will be getting into a dirty car.

14:54 That is great to an Australian, a car that was washed yesterday that's not necessary. Dirty. It's okay to an American. Great is we wash our cars every day and people get in the best. And that's just not that example. There's many examples of it. Is close enough good enough? No it isn't. You know, are we dressing right for the occasion?

15:13 Have we done the necessary amount of homework? Have we done the research? Have we looked at things that get you to great? Accepting mediocrity is what is good.

15:23 What's the real estate agent version of a really clean washed car?

15:29 Well, we you know, if you watch all the big TV shows like Selling Sunset and Million Dollar Listing a really lush car is a brand new BMW every week. But a really good agent of great is they present themselves well, they look professional. They have the answers that out of you turn up into a flash car, but a tidy car that looks good and represents quality.

15:51 That's what it is. You know, we we have a uniform. I dress like a cow every day in a suit and tie a suit and tie is the most stupid thing ever invented. But it's a uniform of a CEO. So if that person is giving you the respect by the way they dress and the way they present themselves and the way they're early, you will gain their respect as well and they will get your respect.

16:13 You guys look stuck. Yeah. We're afraid to move. Let me guess. You found the perfect place before you sold. Aussie helps you buy first and sell when the time is right so you won't miss the right Home. Find out how an Aussie bridge loan could help you.

16:28 You touched on it earlier about how what an emotional transaction it is. Or an emotional not necessarily transaction, but moment on multiple moments in people's lives. It is when they buy a home. I'm interested from your perspective. Give me a story or a moment that stayed with you that reminds you why this industry matters and makes a difference.

16:48 The best one I can think of, is the joy of home ownership. There's the that great Australian movie The Castle. This may not be the best house, but it's mine and it's my castle. And the two stories I can give you is there. I was driving into South Australia once. Victoria. There's a town on the South Australian border called Border Town, and about 20 miles out of Border Town there was a house on a farm field right on the road with our officer's big sold sign on it.

17:20 And there was another town or anything near for 20 or 30 miles. And I got into town and I said, how do we sell that house? We said, we sold that house for $5,000. And they've always dreamt about being off the grid, have no neighbours and just being by themselves. And they are living their dream. So that's a great example of home ownership.

17:40 The other one, which happens virtually every week in a family, moves into their new home, and there's two brothers or two sisters, and they've been sharing a room till they're eight years of age. And the joy when they run in and they can go, this is my

17:54 room, my space.

17:55 This is my space. And they've got their own space. So they didn't care how much the house cost. They didn't care how good or bad the agent was. They're living their dream. And that's what makes our industry excited, because we get into those dreams and aspirations.

18:11 As someone that shared a bedroom with my sister for a number of years, I can absolutely relate.

18:16 She hated you

18:17 She well, yeah. Only, only later in life as we grew up a little bit didn't become good friends. We definitely gave it to each other growing up well you're a

18:25 boy and she was a girl. Correct. I know the situation.

18:29 I'd like to hear your perspective on all the different, for lack of a better word, stakeholders that that come together to buy a home for a customer. You've got the customer, but you've also got a mortgage broker, a real estate agent, conveyancer, a buyer's agent becoming more prevalent. What does it look like when these parties collaborate in a good way?

18:50 What does that look like?

18:51 Well, it comes down to the organisation of the buyer, the vendor, and the skills of the real estate agent. And this is what contributes to a lot of the stress. There's the building inspection. There's a pest inspection, there's a conveyancer. Who do I use? Where do I go to? And all of a sudden they are using phrases and they're putting paperwork in front of us that we have no idea what it's about.

19:14 Yeah, we have to sign off. What am I signing here? What's this $1,000 for? Am I going to get this back? Yeah. Who? Who's this? Might. Who were you? Whatever. So this act of anxiety. So a good agent will outline all the right people you should use. It's not our job to recommend a conveyancer. That's. That's not our condition.

19:32 But a good idea can give you. These are the five, six, eight, nine, ten steps to happy home ownership. And you forget that to take it off and do the research and meet those people and make again with time poor. But this is a big investment. If you put those ducks in a row and you meet the mortgage broker, or you get the finance organised and you speak to the conveyancer before, how long is this process going to take?

19:55 All this conveyancing on this property might take two, two weeks. Yeah. So get that information beforehand. So if you have all those ducks in a row, as I said, it'll be a less anxious process than normal.

20:08 I hope we can double click just for a second between real estate agents and mortgage brokers specifically, what does it look like to you when those great partnerships actually work really well?

20:20 From our point of view, our job is to sell the house to the right buyer. And as I said, we act on behalf of the vendor. But from the buyer's point of view, if they have pre-arranged finance and they have a good mortgage broker, or they've gone to the financial instituation direct that they know what they can commit to and they have that authority to buy.

20:41 But you get an auction where the auctions, you know, depending on the market, go just below reserve or above reserve or whatever, we have no control over that. That's capitalism at work. But if you have an X amount of money, then you want you can bid to you can bid with authority at auction with confidence. If you have X amount of money to put in a private treaty sale, you have that confidence to do there, as opposed to hoping and wishing. Again that reduces anxiety if you do that.

21:07 We touched earlier, relatively briefly on where to start to look for the right agent. What about the opposite? What are some red flags that might appear that should stay people away from the wrong agent?

21:21 I'm reluctant to say there's always the wrong agent, but there's an there's an agent you would get on better or worse with than someone else. As I said earlier, it's about a character reference of what that is. And, I'm a great person. My generation of respect and value, other people's time and common courtesy. And I think they are just as important as a trade transaction elements.

21:42 Do they call you back in time? Do they deliver what they promise if they said that email you by the end of the day? Have they done that by the end of the day? So the I would say common courtesy allows you to evaluate what a good agent is, because all agents have been well trained, all agents operating inside with the law, all agent do their

22:02 CPD points every year to make sure they're licensed. So that's an easy qualification to see their qualification. But if they're showing you the respect for your dreams and aspirations, that would be a better agent for you to deal with.

22:15 I guess I'm no different to evaluating a person or a friend, correct? In some sense.

22:19 Yeah, Have a friend. Be a friend.

22:21 Yeah. That's right. You also made a sort of passing reference earlier to the fact that while certain things have changed with regards to home seekers and home owners expectations, a lot of the fundamentals haven't changed. It's undeniable, though, that sort of five, seven years ago, people's expectations, what they get out of the different services that they engage are different.

22:43 How does Century 21 meet and exceed those expectations for their clients?

22:50 Our philosophy is very simple. People have a great desire for information. That's why the average person spends 4.5 hours on social media for hours, and 20 minutes is the stupid stuff, but the other ten minutes is sensible stuff. They just keep on going and going and going. So our philosophy is to make our agents and officers the best and most well informed of what's going on the industry, the best and most well informed, what's going on in that area, the best and most well informed, what's going on with mortgage rates, whatever.

23:21 So when our clients come to us, we can provide that information on to them. So it's that thirst for information to enable them to make a better buying or selling decision is what separates us from the others.

23:33 Yeah. Your point about information's crucial. I think it actually brings me beautifully onto my next question, which is if there were 1 or 2 things that you could magically embed into every Australian's head when it came to buying or selling, what would those things be?

23:47 First one is don't overcommit. There's always a better of a house that has. There's always a better car, there's always a better holiday. There's always a better girlfriend or boyfriend or husband and wife. But stick to your budget, stick to your plans, stick to your dreams and stay within that you know, because it's only an extra 10,000. It's only extra thousand Italian other five minutes or whatever.

24:12 It's always that. So if you are strong in what you want to do, we are going to spend no more than $1.2 million and you have to compromise. You might want a bit of house, but it's on a main road, so you haven't got the quite straight. But the better house. Is it advantage to you? You might want acquired a straight say you're going to get a smaller house, but the quiet streets street's important to you.

24:34 So the basic advice is work out what you're one, two, three, 4 or 5. Non-Negotiable are that have enough of this five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The negotiable and work within that. That'll save you a lot of time and it'll save you a lot of anxiety. Oh, we looked at six hours. We don't know one. Well, then you can just take it off.

24:54 Something tells me if we ever spun up a relationship podcast, we'd have to. We'd have to have you on to hear about all your experience and raising a family. And how to choose a good partner, because I think a lot of what you're talking about is applicable to life.

25:07 I do a lot of mentoring on that. I raised three daughters, and I thought the movie Meet the Parents was a documentary.

25:16 And in fact, that was the sequel. Yeah, that was the second of.

25:19 What Meet the Fockers. Yeah. That's right. Whatever it was. Correct.

25:22 Correct. That's the documentary that's very.

25:24 Good to set to work out who a real man is. You got to give him a tough time. Put him under pressure.

25:28 Very good, very good. I want to just pick you back up on your bit about which I think it's very insightful. And in some sense it's obvious. And that is we as humans love information. And there are those among us that will literally spend as much time as we can to ingest and digest as much information as possible.

25:46 Obviously, technology is changing the way agents build trust to deliver their service, but it's also reshaping everything from how buyers search for homes to how loans are approved. I'm interested to hear from you. What's something that you think from a technology perspective is here to stay? And what may be seems like it might be a passing fad.

26:10 Well, the internet was going to be a passing fad. I think that's still going, in the 1960s, a president of IBM said there's enough space in the world for four laptop computers. I think he got that slightly wrong. So or old technology just continues. It just evolves and evolves and evolves. The fax machine is now your face time.

26:31 So it the so technology is here to stay. The issue is what is the right technology in our organisation. We've introduced a lot of AI products. We don't believe I will replace an agent, but an agent will replace by another agent who's using AI. Again, this is a topic about a lot life in general, people under the age of 30 and not great conversationalists.

27:01 And it puts them under pressure. They feel like they’re being forced to make a decision by that conversation. So they want the information in a format that they can absorb it by a voice message or an AI generated message or information by email or through Instagram. It doesn't matter how. And then on their own time that will evaluate that information and then give a response.

27:27 My generation is like this. You can ask me any question and I'll answer it, but, information is the way people want to receive it now, not the way businesses like ourselves want to send it out. We have to be conscious of how people want to receive it. And if we provide a technological platform that allows them to get in the way they want to receive it, I my generation, it's a phone call.

27:51 I'll make phone calls every day before I send a text message or something. But I know the world is in a different place now. So my advice is get the information the way you want to receive it, and in a format that makes sense to you. Not a lot of abbreviations, not 20 pages of graphs and charts and everything bored out of my brain.

28:10 Simplicity is the key to it, and the technology delivers in a simple format is the one that will win.

28:15 And I think I've just heard you say you don't think I as a passing fad because you're investing in your companies investing. I'd love to hear it to the extent that you can share. Yeah, I'd love to hear a bit more about that and what you think it can bring your business, your employees, but then particularly how it's turning the dial for your customers.

28:37 My philosophy is technology puts you in front of a lot more people and gives you a lot more information. But in the crunch of buying in a house or investment, people still want to talk to somebody. Other industries, it's a different environment. But so how does our technology put us in a leading position. So the AI for example, so the one of our products, a you know, we might have been in your house and we've done an appraisal and we we think your house is worth $1.5 million.

29:10 And you know, there's a demand for that and there's not a lot of us. So we get a lot of information and you will tell us you're no hurry to sell. You got three months, but you got a new job. You're moving to Queensland. So we've given you information and you've given us information. So rather than get that back to you the next day from the office, we're able to put that information into a video of our agent.

29:33 And as they're leaving your house that night in their car, they're able to send you a video straight away, which is AI generated. Thank you for your time. We understand these are your demands and your conditions. This is what we can offer. So that's given to you in a video by Elijah, which is an AI generated video. But it looks like it.

29:52 And again, it comes back to what I said before so that I get a two minute video. Thanks for your time. We understand this. Whatever. I'll be right on to it. I'll come back to you by 10:00 tomorrow. So the appointment might have finished at 7:00, and they've got that information at 7:05. They can stay comfortable that the person understands them.

30:10 They see that. And I'm now going to hear him from 10:00 tomorrow. So that is done by just a, you know, the mechanics of pressing a button and a bit of voiceovers whatever. So and that becomes a professional way to communicate people in the way they want, they want to be received.

30:24 So it's fair to say then that the example you just gave is leveraging AI fundamentally to deliver on the principles you referred to earlier, do what you said you were going to do. Be responsible, yep. Show up.

30:36 Yeah.

30:37 Fantastic way of, of leveraging it.

30:39 That's what most people and we, we spend a lot life before people just want someone they can count on. You say you're going to be there at 10:00. We do at 10:00. Yeah. If you say, I'm gonna get this information and do it. And unfortunate, today's will be. Oh, wow. I didn't expect you to do that. Well, I said I'd do it, but most people don't.

30:58 This is a good segue into one of our final questions. I'm interested from your perspective, what skills, behaviours, characteristics are going to define the next generation of agents, and how do you see the role evolving over the next couple of years and indeed into the future?

31:16 The main skill of a real estate agent is empathy and then the ability to communicate that. Because as I as I said, number of times, it's a very anxious transaction of buying and selling. So if the agent doesn't get empathy for what's going on in those windows in windows world, then they won't succeed as an agent. And you can't fake empathy.

31:39 You can't fake sincerity. And, so if you have empathy and listening to what they want to say and then communicate clearly the steps of the process, those skills of an agent haven't changed. It won't change the way they get in position to portray those skills. Like I said before, by AI, whatever has changed. But fundamentally, sitting down like we are now in comfortable chairs having discussion about that biggest transaction.

32:07 If you demonstrate empathy and the ability to listen and communicate clearly when you leave that lounge room or leave that office, I'll go with the right person that really understand what I want to do and what of whatever. And they'll just go, I feel comfortable, and they have the skills of an agent to make someone feel comfortable, to ask the question before it.

32:28 The conveyancing, the mortgage, all this has going on in the background. And you know, well, some of us think we're sophisticated creatures. We're not. We just like you, a chicken in the pot and happiness and nice music. And to be loved and wanted and not lonely. And if you just have that comfort as an agent, they go, I feel comfortable with that person.

32:49 That's the main skill of an agent.

32:50 That’ll make all the difference, without a doubt, but thank you so much for joining this conversation has really helped us. Will remind us, really, that a great agent isn't just selling buying. It's fundamentally it's about helping people reach their goals, reach their dreams, get them into homes, set them up for the future. It's been a pleasure having you, mate.

33:09 Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate it.

33:11 Is this live or was this just a practice run?

33:13 Yeah. Whether you're buying, selling or just exploring options, it goes to show that surrounding yourself with trusted professionals makes all the difference. And if you've got a story to share, success, pain, frustration, big win, small win. DM us on Instagram. We'd love to hear from you!

33:30 These four walls is brought to you by Aussie like and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts for new episodes every week. For more information, see the show notes to this episode or visit Aussie.com.au The information provided during this podcast is for general informational purposes only. Aussie does not provide financial or investment advice. The information in this podcast does not take account of your objectives financial circumstances or needs.

[PODCAST ENDS]

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