7 figure Attraction Agent
Tom Panos interviews leading real estate attraction agents. These agents share their strategies for writing 7 figures year after year. Simple, powerful and effective - you can apply these tips to grow your real estate business today. For more FREE tools visit: www.tompanos.com.au
7 figure Attraction Agent
The fastest way to 3x your GCI in 6 months ft. Alex Jordan
If you’re ready to stop drowning in admin and start scaling, Alex Jordan, the #1 agent in QLD and one of the leading architects of building a Super Team, reveals the best way to 2x or even 3x your GCI within 6 months.
- 02:17 – The market in Brisbane according to Alex Jordan. Is it as optimistic as the forecasts predict?
- 05:20 – What Alex regrets most about the first 12 years of his career
- 07:05 – The biggest transformation in Alex’s career
- 10:30 – Where do agents find the best Remote Professions that are rest estate trained
- 15:31 – The biggest mistake agents make when running a team
- 22:51 – The operating rhythms of Alex Jordan’s EBU
- 25:22 – Is there a language barrier when outsourcing from Wingman in the Philippines?
- 26:50 – The fastest way to 2x or even 3x your GCI in 6 months
- 29:30 – How to Go-Pro in 2025
- 38:13 – What’s the best way to remunerate your sales PA?
Alex Jordan is QLD's #1 agent 2021, 2022 & 2023 (REB), #1 Top Residential Agent QLD, REA (realestate.com.au), brisbanehomeprices.com Agent of the Year for 5 consecutive years, and McGrath’s number 1 agent nationally.
This training content is sponsored by Wingman
So good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, guys and girls. I'm coming to you from Sydney. On the other side of my screen is the great Alex Jordan, who many are saying now is the number one real estate agent in Australia, in fact, one of your colleagues, your friends as well. Yesterday we had on the podcast Tony O'Doherty, which he had his first day with McGrath and he spoke about you at that interview, alex. So welcome, by the way.
Alex Jordan:Thanks, tom, great to be with you and the audience.
Tom Panos:And great to have your seatbelt on there a man that is making sure we get no social media violations.
Alex Jordan:I'm stationary, like you are when you do your videos. We're not moving, but it's on. It's on, alex, you're looking good man. Thanks bro, I think it's the lighting. I'm in the car and the sun's shining and makes me look better. A bit of a tan Always helps, lighting helps.
Tom Panos:You've got tan. You are I mean I know this has got nothing to do with super teams, but you have got olive skin.
Alex Jordan:Are you originally? Your heritage is Aussie or from no Middle Eastern? I was born in Iran, so I'm Persian Persian, yeah and moved here when I was six, so I've been here for almost 40 years. So I am more an Aussie than anything else, but, yeah, I've got a Middle Eastern background.
Tom Panos:Oh, that story of you discharging the mortgage of your parents is even more special. It's got that Persian connection to it and I've got to tell you I don't know what it's like with Persians, but I know I'm of Greek heritage. Know what it's like with Persians, but I know with I'm of Greek heritage it was always having the roof over your head and having the home paid off was always seen as a thing. You know, this is our house. You know what I mean. This is our house. A strong value, isn't it, alex? For a lot of people, not just certain cultures, the home, you know.
Alex Jordan:Oh, definitely. I mean, it's your abode, it's your nest, it's where the family is, where you're feeling safe and comfortable. So, as an agent, we're privileged to be acting as a middleman in that process.
Tom Panos:Now I posted something on Monday, or actually last night, on SQM. There they do their housing bus boom report once a year and the media was all over it. They're very bullish about Brisbane, like very bullish about Brisbane, in fact. Let me tell you, alex Was it between 9% and 14% next year.
Alex Jordan:That's the one.
Tom Panos:So let me see Brisbane Brisbane between 19% and 14%. If there's a rate cut of 25 basis points to 50% basis points and population growth continues at 500,000 plus and no new inflationary outbreak, that's what they're predicting. If there is no rate cut, they're still really bullish about Brisbane versus the rest of Australia. And that is plus five to plus nine if there is no rate cut, but nine to 14%. That's data. Anecdotally, how does it feel like someone that you know transacts so much real estate in Brisbane? What do you think?
Alex Jordan:I think that's a very bullish and maybe towards the optimistic prediction from what we're seeing on the front face. The market in Brisbane has shifted to soften in terms of buyer activity, in terms of sentiment, the confidence of buyers, in terms of the ratio of inspections to the number of offers that we receive. So all these metrics have shown, I would say, a softening in our market, not too dissimilar to other capital cities like Sydney, melbourne, but I think Brisbane's held up better due to migration, due to infrastructure investment like the Olympics, due to relative affordability and lifestyle benefits. Those things have helped. Will we see another 10%, 15% growth in terms of capital growth next year?
Alex Jordan:Look, I'm not going to rule anything out. I don't want to speculate around what's ahead, because speculation is going to get everyone's going to get it wrong. I don't see the evidence of that currently. If that's the case, then I'm missing it because I'm noticing deals are a little bit harder to put together. Supply is starting to increase as days on market expands, so agents are needing to be higher skilled with aligning price with the market, so making sure they educate their vendors, but also working with buyers more actively. We've had a market for two to three years of properties selling by themselves. More or less. Agents haven't had to do the legwork like they used to in a normal market and I think it's become habitual and there's a shift now that agents need to put more effort into buyer management. Buyer servicing, vendor education, quality marketing stand out a little bit because as supply increases and the buyers have more choice, it's going to be more difficult to put deals together, which I think will continue. I don't see a change in that trend immediately, but I guess time will tell.
Tom Panos:Okay. So, alex, today's topic for around 20 minutes. We've got you. We're blessed to have you. I can tell that you're in between appointments. Today's topic is about teams and you run the Rolls Royce of teams in real estate. An amazing model where real estate agents feel they want to be aligned to you because you add value to them in many ways. Training leads helping them do their deals. But for the majority of the people that are watching this here right now, they are way early on the path of teams. In fact, early on on the path of teams. In fact, I would say the majority would probably be a single agent about to embark on their first team member so quickly. What is the advantage of having a team right from the outset? Like what do you think the advantage is, an agent, of having a team?
Alex Jordan:Thanks, tommy. I don't think we're any sort of Rolls Royce standard. To be frank with you, we're probably a Commodore with some nice mag wheels on it at the moment and trying to get to European car status. But, team like, for me, I avoided putting on a team member for almost 12 years of my career. Why did I avoid it? Well, I wasn't successful enough. I felt like I didn't have enough business coming in to justify the investment. That was one part. Secondly, I wasn't sure what they would do. What's their role? What are they going to be? An admin role? Would I put them into sales? So there was a little bit of lack of clarity as to what the direction was and I couldn't afford it because I didn't have enough GCI. Having said that, in hindsight, now that I look back on reflection, if I lived my career again in this industry, I would have put a team member on in year two or three, even if it was financially difficult to do so, because, sure, there's an investment required You've got to pay these people, no doubt. But in my experience now I can see a very great return on that investment where you'll multiply your money, meaning that if you put someone on for 70 or 80K a year. They should be bringing in more opportunities than that per annum to cover their cost plus bring you a return. And I didn't get that concept up front because it just felt like an expense and I didn't see the vision of the growth that they would create. But since then I've put on a team member.
Alex Jordan:Probably the first team member I put on was 12 years into my career, when I started with McGrath and I saw that they set up a sort of a business unit. That was a bit different, the EBU style of unit which I wasn't accustomed to. I'd heard about it and I just took the deep dive and thought, well, hey, let's give this a shot. And it was game changing for me. Like within a few months I thought, wow, this is something I should have done much earlier.
Alex Jordan:And my first team member I'm not saying I got this right, but I put someone on that was both admin role and sales support. So they would do contracts, they would do agency agreements, marketing schedules, letterbox drop design you know all the marketing that we do in the back end. They would also accompany me at open houses, help with setting up properties for inspections. That was a huge lift in my business immediately. I noticed straight away when we put Josh on and it was Josh who is now with Domain, the real estate portal, who I still keep in touch with. He's in Sydney. Now he's moved to the Big Smoke. When I put him on there was an immediate uplift in my business that within, I would say, about four or five months I could tangibly cover his cost with the opportunities that came in Now. Those opportunities I wouldn't have done myself because he was doing another layer of marketing targeting, prospecting which I was just not putting in that sort of time and effort.
Tom Panos:I'll share a slide. Alex, I'll share a slide here. I don't know whether you can see it because you're working off a mobile phone, but here is an example of swim lanes, of rolls, and what you're saying is so red represents an admin-based assistant, Blue represents a more salesy-based assistant. So what you're saying is your first one was a hybrid of the both, a combination of them doing both things. Is that right?
Alex Jordan:It is. It was a combination of both until I noticed that I could put another admin person in and they became more sales support orientated. So, yes, it was a hybrid. Today it's different, tom. Today the team growth is just sales agents. We have the admin support. We've got Wingman, which we partner up with, that does all our backend stuff through the Philippines and there's no other company that I would outsource for that remote sort of professional because these guys are real estate orientated and trained. So we use Wingman for admin in the back end. And I've got an EA you could call it an executive assistant who's beside me every day and she does a lot of the stuff in terms of contracts and marketing and client servicing. All the other agents when I build my team are sales agents given geographic areas to target.
Tom Panos:So it's very geographically focused what I might do. Alex, again, I might just share this screen because I'm not sure whether you've still got the same remote professional from Wingman. Is it Benji?
Alex Jordan:We do. We've got Benji and very blessed to have him. You know, tom, I've had experience with remote professionals over the years and I have to say the standard is very low. They're not real estate trained and they mean well. They're really good people, genuine people, humble people, but in terms of effectiveness and return on investment for an agent, you've got to really find a company that is real estate focused, where the people have been trained in the different platforms, like the realestatecom, the domains, the agency agreements, the agent boxes or whatever CRM you use. They understand the model and the process and for that reason, that's why we've continued with these guys. So, benj, on the screen, there is our remote professional. He's a part of my team, he's in my WhatsApp group, he's in all the email trails. He does a lot of the back end that we didn't know we needed him as much until we got him and we thought, wow, okay, now that we've got him, we can't live without him.
Tom Panos:I can tell just from these bullet points there that are examples of the tasks that he does for the Alex Jordan team Straight away. I see that the biggest value he brings is time to you time to you and time to the team. And time allows you to then deploy that time to higher dollar productive return of investment activities. I don't know, but sometimes it might mean that you go visit your parents more often, and that's a good thing. It's whatever it is. It gives you time in your life for you to deploy. Whilst we're talking about that, because you know I can't help it Wingman is actually the partner to this webinar. I want to ask you what are some of the do's and don'ts you've learned in working with remote professionals effectively? Benji, you just said to me they're part of your team. Is it a WhatsApp type communication?
Alex Jordan:WhatsApp. I think you've got to bring them in like your own team or family structure. You can't view them as an external person that just does things behind the scenes. They're heavily involved in the wins. They share in the disappointments. They are directly connected to us.
Alex Jordan:I think one of the I guess things that I would be prepared for is when you put a remote professional on, there's a timeframe of transition for them to get used to your business structure and setup. No two businesses run the same. You could take Benj and put him in Sydney with a high-performing agent and they'll have a different CRM. They'll use different platforms, different marketing, different processes. Benj will learn that, but it might take him six weeks, eight weeks, to really get a good understanding of the process. I would say have some patience for the first one to two months. Allow some time for this person to get an understanding of how you operate. Make sure you give them tasks and they know exactly what their role is. Don't just leave it out in the ether and expect them to do things for you without direction. You need to give them clear direction. This is what we're doing today. Can you please do this tomorrow? Can you do this by the end of the week and with that system, they're always working behind the scenes.
Alex Jordan:These guys work endless hours. They're there immediately to respond to anything they can. They can connect with clients as well, if you wanted them to speak to clients or exchange emails. They've got enough professionalism to be able to manage that. But they need direction. I think that's one thing that I've noticed that others lack is they don't give them much direction. They expect the remote person to come up with their own initiative, and I don't think that's a realistic expectation. I think you need to give them clear path. This is what you would do. This is how you do it Show them the instructions, Give them a checklist and let them work to a vision, a direct vision.
Tom Panos:Now, alex, I'm bringing up one of my metaphors. I love using images to explain things and I love using models. They help, and in this instance, I'm using martial arts and explaining the various belts that you go up and I've got to come up with a belt for your business, because it actually is a lot bigger than what I've got here, because the majority of real estate agents are between 1.5 and 2 or 2 plus, but you'll notice, up here it's all about team development. It's really hard to write big numbers on your own, and yours, obviously, is a lot more than 2 million, significantly more. You know significantly more. I want to ask you do you think you're a better agent or a better leader?
Alex Jordan:Yeah, oh, that's a tough question to answer. I think I can improve on both. I'm probably not quite there on either agent or leader. There are things that I've done as a team leader that I look back and question. I've learned from those mistakes and I'll continue to evolve there.
Tom Panos:What's the biggest mistake people make in running a team?
Alex Jordan:I don't know if my mistakes would align with others, but I'm a highly analytical person. I'm probably lean on the more critical side. I don't celebrate the wins often enough. I'm always looking for improvement, how we can do things better, and that is a problem in a team structure when your leader needs to give you lots of morale, give you a confidence boost, make you feel good about what you've done. When I look back over the years, I've lacked that as a leader in many aspects. Where I've been more looking at this is what we could have done better, rather than hey, well done, what a great job you've done. Hats off to you, mate. I think I need to give them more positive feedback rather than look at how we can improve the business. So that's one thing that I could do better as a leader.
Alex Jordan:Another thing from a team leader point of view is you need to give the team members autonomy and ownership of their own success. It can't be directly linked to everything that you do, because to build this business with scale, these people need to be given tasks that they can do without your involvement. So the way that I structure that is geographically so every team member is given an area, a suburb which they have complete ownership of, and it's easy then for me to look at the backend metrics of how many appraisals, how many listing presentations, how many listings, how many sales. I can sort of see what their performance is just in that area, based on the opportunities they're bringing in. So I think giving them some autonomy, ownership, not micromanaging that's something that belittles people.
Alex Jordan:A micromanager brings down the confidence of the person that's being micromanaged. You've got to give them some free will, that you have trust and confidence in what they do. Ultimately, as a team leader, your job is to bring them in at a lower level and boost them up to be bigger and better than what they were, and if you can create that level of confidence in that person, I think they'll perform well, not just for you, for themselves, for the community. It's a better recipe. So there's probably a couple of things that I would do differently in hindsight.
Tom Panos:So, alex, you touched very nicely there about what you said is maybe one of the things I could have done better and I'm mindful of now, is catch people doing things right and not just sort of make it oh, that automatically happens. There's no need to actually say good work, susan. Right, I want to tell you. On the other hand, I sometimes meet real estate agents that have got the opposite problem. They hold it inside them, you know, some criticism like something is not done right, and the reason I know about it is I might be having a one-on-one with the agent and he'll say, oh, mate, pisses me off. Like you know, he's done it again. And then I'll say what did you say when you spoke to him? Oh, mate, yeah, I find it difficult to sort of. You know. The opposite is they don't catch people doing things wrong or giving interesting.
Alex Jordan:Different for everyone, tommy, that's interesting. So that's on the flip side In this industry. I think you've got to become skilled at having hard conversations and you've got to walk into these conversations, not walk away from them. Whether it's with a client, whether it's with a buyer, whether it's with a peer or team member, if someone's having issues that they're not addressing, then it just lingers on. I think there's a fear that that sort of relationship is compromised if you mention to them that they're not doing something right. But you you can deliver that with the right words, with the right tone, with the right amount of empathy and and consideration, that it doesn't get taken the wrong way. I think if, if you're aggressive about it and you say, hey, tom, you should do this better, or that's wrong or that's not, then there's a weird awkwardness about that conversation that people want to avoid. But if it's done with more heart and kindness and say, look, mate, look, I'd love to do this better. I just wanted to get your feedback. This is what I think would work really well.
Alex Jordan:What are your thoughts on that? Can I get your view on that? You've got to treat them with equal respect to what you would give yourself. I think, when there's a hierarchy system that you become the top dog and everyone else has to bow down, that dynamic will crumble. In my view, no one wants to be belittled or looked down on, so I think you've got to raise them up to say, hey, you've got equal say in this. This is what I think, what do you think? But let's have those hard conversations, because if we don't have the hard conversations today, we're going to have some difficult times tomorrow.
Tom Panos:Alex, meeting operating rhythms you have with your team, team members is there this regular and repeatable sort of catch up and what is discussed and, yeah, how often?
Alex Jordan:So I think we should do team meetings more often. I would recommend people to do them every second week as a very bare minimum. Fortunately, with the structure that I have, we all sit next to each other in the office, so we're there every day, you know, collaborating on things. We'll turn our chairs towards each other probably five times a day and say, hey, what about this? Check this out, you know. Have a look at the photo for this house. What should we do here?
Alex Jordan:So there's this constant collaboration in person, but there's also constant communication in WhatsApp. So we've got a WhatsApp group for the team. Everything is shown on there every salt sign, every listing, everything is there. So everyone can see what's going on. They're a part of the process. We do the WhatsApps for all our listings as well. So every home that we put on the market has a WhatsApp group with both the owners or whoever's involved husband, wife, myself, the co-agent, the admin person behind the scenes, the marketing person everyone's on that one platform. But it's important to have more regular communication.
Alex Jordan:Some team members, if they're working remotely, I would encourage them to meet face-to-face more frequently, because there's a disconnect when you're not all together. I don't find that as effective. This whole work from home setup that we sort of went through during COVID I don't think is very effective from a real estate point of view. It's the old saying the Broncos train together and they play together. You've got to train together. I would say the same thing applies to real estate. When you're all together, there's an energy that's contagious. You feed off each other. You can lift someone else who's down. You get input from others in a very quick timeframe. If they're remote, it's very difficult. I would have to call them up and say, hey, have you seen this photo? I'll screenshot the photo to you. Tell me what you think. It's just a bit clunky. So I think being together in one space is of benefit.
Tom Panos:What I might do is, for all our viewers here, I'm going to share with you and this is what Alex may have been talking about every fortnight a proper bigger meeting. Here's an example of a weekly meeting with bullet points of the stuff that you can talk about current stock, new listings, competitor analysis, what marketing, what settling. And then, alex, I notice a lot of people that just have one assistant have a catch up for a few minutes every morning, which is standing up, working progress, meeting, what happened today, review of yesterday, today's appointments. They might text or confirm all appointments, because there is people that sort of cancel appointments. And at least at the start of the day you can work out what your day is going to look like prospecting calls, buyer calls. So I'm visualizing you and your team, and then I'm also visualising you going to listing presentations, you having those conversations with your current vendors. Does your day is every day totally different, or is there a pattern to your days?
Alex Jordan:There is a pattern, but it's a pattern that has flexibility built into it. It's a pattern that is opportunity-based. You know, if you call me today, tom, and say I want to sell my house and I want to meet with you before this Saturday and I want to go to market before the end of the year and you've got a home that's saleable at a decent price level, then I'll have to change my schedule to meet with you, because if I miss you, you're going to list with someone else and I'm going to be doing something that's less dollar productive, which doesn't benefit me or the team. So there is a pattern in our structure of what we prioritize. But each morning I connect with the team members, those that I have appointments with or meetings with. I connect with them and say hey, we've got an appointment at 11 o'clock today, just wanted to get your feedback on it. Who's the vendor? What have they said to you? Have you quoted a price? Have they come back to you with any feedback? So I get a bit of clarity there. I don't involve all of them every day because everyone's doing their own thing. So I'll go individually and make those calls, but I think the meetings should be going through your stock.
Alex Jordan:What have you got listed? Where are the offers been? What's the feedback been? What's the seller's expectation? What can we do to improve it? Can we change the photo order on realestatecom and domain make it look fresh? Can we adjust the price a little bit and dangle the carrot to other buyers? Can we call through other open house lists for a similar price product and get them through here? So all of these conversations in a collaborative manner are best done physically, when you're all together and there's energy and ideas that pop up out of nowhere, which is really hard to do when you're disconnected. So I'd say, really important, try and try and bring it together, work from the one environment, if, if possible okay.
Tom Panos:So, susan, I might get you in the chat group just to put in the uh url for a wingman. Both alex and I and and many, including agents that we've had here, use remote professionals. I'm thinking particularly of well, tony O'Doherty is one, michael Coombs is another, and I want to let everyone know that I have been the subject and the scientist by actually being in Manila, makati, I actually met my remote professional. And what surprised me, alex, is that when you go to a lot of the countries overseas, you're used to people speaking in their own language. But what was interesting in Manila, you just go to the shop and you're just seeing two locals and they talk to each other in English. So the transition, like the communication, is a lot easier with Wingman because of the Manila locale, isn't it? Definitely.
Alex Jordan:Is Benji's English good. Benji's English is great and that makes it easy connecting with remote professionals there. If you go and outsource them to India or somewhere else, there's a language barrier. Also, the Philippine accent is a bit American. It's got that American-style accent which I think it's better for the consumer to listen to and connect with, and they're real estate-focused mate.
Alex Jordan:That's my big issue in past dealings is the remote professionals had no idea as to do anything and we had to educate them, coach them, which took months, but they didn't have the work ethic. There's a support structure behind these guys of training and coaching where they know exactly what to do. They're very appreciative. They're so grateful for the opportunity that we give them, because in Manila to get to work it takes two or three hours in the morning because the traffic is ridiculous and it takes them two or three hours to get home. So they spend four hours plus in travel where they can work from home, earn a better living with an income that for us is quite small.
Alex Jordan:I mean, you put a remote professional on, I think you would double triple your money within the first six months. I don't know of a better return on investment than to take the dollar productive stuff yourself and outsource the non-dollar productive stuff. But make sure that it's happening, because often what agents do is they go dollar productive but all the other marketing, prospecting stuff gets put to the side. And now there's this peaks and troughs of transactional real estate where they have a good month. Now they've got no stock and they've got to go list again. Let's go back to non-dollar productive and try and prospect and get the business in the door. When we get it in the door then we start selling it and we're more dollar productive. But you want to have both arms or both channels running at the same time and that's where the remote professional would kick in.
Tom Panos:Yeah, well, everyone that's watching, I'm letting you know. If you do have a profile of risk aversion, let me tell you it's probably suited to look at Wingman, for two reasons. Number one, as Alex said, they're trained on the CRM systems, the realtors, all that stuff. They understand the way agents think because they're trained before they actually start. And in addition to that, alex, they're about a third of the investment right.
Alex Jordan:Exactly, that's exactly what I was going to say, tom. It's a third of the investment for something that will probably do you better than a local. I find that work ethic behind the scenes of these professionals is better than a local that you're paying triple the income to.
Tom Panos:Yeah, and I know why because there's a scene in McCarty when I'm walking by and I was with Jonathan Bell, who we both love and adore, and he pointed out a big queue of the people waiting to get on the bus and then he said to me see that, how long do you think they're waiting there for? And I said, well, to me that's going to be an hour to get on the bus and he goes, so work this out. They're going to get on that squash bus and then that bus is going to go for around one and a half hours because the traffic there is like. I went to Bikram Yoga was 500 metres away and I learnt. I got into this taxi and it ended up taking me half an hour and then I walked. But you don't want to walk all the time there because of the heat.
Tom Panos:But what it is, alex, is that wingman, allow the star to actually work from where they are and they're so grateful. They don't want to lose that opportunity because they're able to feed their families without having to travel one to two hours either way. One hour to get on the bus, that's six hours and then, like realistically, if that's your travel time, you're not showing up as the best version of yourself for eight hours of work. So at home it seems to work, alex. So, by the way, anyone, if you're planning to go pro 2025, it starts now by you getting your resources together. Hit Wingman up. They're in the chat group. Finally, alex, what's your view? 2025 in real estate? Do you think it's going to be a continuation of where we've been, or do you see something dramatically happening in Brisbane?
Alex Jordan:I think it's going to be an exciting year because it's so unpredictable. Mate, you look at the 1970s. We could play a similar pattern to the 70s. In the 1970s we had a first wave of inflation and that first wave of inflation was then met with rate increases to try and curb inflation. They did that. Inflation came down and then it went to somewhat of a recession where the unemployment was high and it became a stagflation market. So they then reduced rates to bring the economy back to life. But the second wave of inflation kicked in and that was out of control. So the question is will the central banks next year bring rates down to try and save the economy? And by doing that, will that then create a second wave of inflation where the price of goods like fuel, food, power, all that stuff will go to a level that hasn't ever been historically, and then the consumer is hit hard from an affordability point of view. So that's one direction. The other direction is that they've managed inflation well. They have a few rate reductions to sort of incentivise spending and put money back into the system, and everything picks up in that 2% to 3% inflation rate. So it could go two different ways, but I feel there's a bit of risk ahead.
Alex Jordan:There's a change in government next year in the US and it's quite a big change politically worldwide. I mean Democrats, republicans we could have gone into two different, very different worlds depending on who won. So I'm curious to see how that plays out Economically. I don't think it's a bad thing. I think the markets like it, but I do believe there's a bit of turbulence next year.
Alex Jordan:The growth that we've had and coming in from a massive run up and then a softening, and coming in from a massive run up and then a softening, buyers' capacity to borrow has been compromised. I don't see a quarter basis point or half basis point reduction solving the problem. And if they have to reduce further, my worry is that inflation kicks in again and then it's really hard to control that second wave. So next year I'm not as bullish as the SQM predictions. I think we'll see a fairly flat market for Brisbane, maybe up or down a slight. But I see more softening in Melbourne because of the political decisions that the government made with investment properties and so on, and Sydney probably won't hold up as good as Brisbane because migration is in favour of Brisbane. So I think us agents need to sharpen up on our skills, because I don't think we're going to experience the same market as we have in the past few years. I think it's a more challenging market ahead.
Tom Panos:Yeah, well said. And I have to say, alex, you know, the weird thing is that, even though Sydney and Melbourne has been going through a difficult time in terms of price growth, I've noticed a lot of agents and I look at a lot of the gym members that I have and I go over their plans with them. They've had really good months the last few months, and that's contrary to what you hear. And the reason is, alex, think about it You've either got a market that's got the wind hitting you or the wind supporting you, so it's either good for a buyer or it's good for a seller. But if you're a good real estate agent, if you're an Alex Jordan, tony O'Doherty or any of the other let's call it 5,000 out of the 60,000 good agents, they're the ones that make the money. The market's always going to be good for you because, if you think about this concept, we're a volume-based business.
Tom Panos:Alex, we would rather have 10 properties with one buyer per property and make 10 sales, because we've got good skills to bring the buyer and seller together, than to have a booming market. And the reason it's booming is that there's less stock right. So you've got less volume and you've got 10 people on one property. So in that instance the vendor definitely wins out. They get a better price. The agent wins out very minorly.
Tom Panos:Yeah, like Alex, you get 2% of it. It's not much right. So realistically you probably want a balanced market, a volume-based market where there's stock out there and even if it's hard to put a deal, if you can just sharpen up your skills a bit more on pricing and winning the listing without having to lie and give people false hope, and then if you can sort of just develop a bit of a skill set to give people bad news in a positive way and, you know, put these deals together, you can make a good living in any marketplace. In fact I would go as far as saying, alex, that when you've got a booming marketplace that we've seen in Perth, they're all complaining Tom, there's no stock, we're only getting paid for the listings that we sell. What's the point of having 50,000 buyers for five listings? You know.
Alex Jordan:Spot on, mate. And if we are entering into a more normal market where volumes have stabilised listing volumes are up, the opportunity for me next year is for good agents to build their market share. You'll see less agents in the industry as it gets tougher. If it's harder to connect the sale and the buy-up and the seller together, you'll see less agents, less competition. That gives opportunity for those that are skilled to stand out and show their value to the consumer, and I think that's a better market to build market share than when things are flying out the door and there's very little supply. So if you look at it from that perspective, next year could be a good year to build your business if you're actively doing this.
Alex Jordan:Alex, what's the plans for the holiday for you and your family, your wife and your beautiful kids? Well, we like Byron. Like you like Byron, mate. We visit Byron every so often. It's just our place that we get to chill and wind back.
Alex Jordan:We're going to take a few nights in Sunshine Coast and then we'll go to Byron in January, but I'm not taking any major time off. I'll be five nights in December and three nights in Jan and in between I won't do open houses. Between 22nd of December and the 5th or 6th of Jan. But if someone wants to see a home, I'm there and I've got the keys and I'll take my son out and make a little adventure of it and we'll show the property, because I can't afford to miss opportunity when the seller is waiting for an outcome and the opportunity is there. Either me or one of my team members will have to see to that. So next year I want to take more breaks and have more family time that's the intention. I say that every year, but that's my intention for next year and focus on things outside of work health, family, the precious things that you cannot replace or replicate.
Tom Panos:Yeah, my formula last two years going to be again next year faith, family, friends, I'll tell you, and I'm not talking about necessarily any specific religious denomination, but just the simple acknowledgement that we're spiritual beings and we're on this planet and we got a lease and that lease is going to run out. Some people get an 80-year lease, Some people get a 40-year lease. And, Alex, I would love to catch up with you in January because I will be mainly in Brisbane and Byron. And the reason I say Brisbane is Maddie, my oldest daughter, has picked up a law role for Brisbane, oh wow. And then she'll be coming home on Fridays to Byron and I've been sitting there trying to analyze how does a 20-year-old girl do that when she doesn't have a car there? But I have found that you can actually take a train from. She's actually going to be living on.
Speaker 3:I think you're rambling in the. Keep this on track. This is about Wingman, oh yeah.
Tom Panos:I just can't help her. I feel like Alex makes me uncomfortable talking about it. It's not real estate.
Alex Jordan:Yeah.
Tom Panos:Not everyone makes. We're going to go real smooth, which is actually to be honest with you. If you've got the ability at a listing presentation to get talking about things apart from the marketing and the fee and the schedule and the price, I think it's only a good thing for both the agent and the owners, don't you think?
Alex Jordan:I agree. I agree, but we got in trouble, tommy, so we better behave ourselves. But I wish you well and everyone listening. Hope you have an awesome Christmas Time for a question.
Speaker 3:Yeah, please, Alex. What's the best way to pay a sales associate? I paid salary plus bonus without luck. I feel like they're here for a paycheck with no skin in the game. What would you?
Alex Jordan:recommend? Okay, it depends on the role. I'll separate them. So if it's an admin role, where the person's doing your contracts and agency agreements and the marketing, my suggestion is that you have a salary, obviously a base salary per annum, but on top of that, every transaction that they do, which is they're doing the DocuSign or whatever platform you use for your contracts, they get paid a bonus on every deal. It needs to be every deal, not every month, every quarter, every six months, every year. There's not enough incentive for that person when it's a Sunday afternoon or evening to get on their computer and do the work if they don't have a tangible return, so to attach a commission or a fixed fee.
Alex Jordan:I pay $600 per transaction to our support person and I think it's really vital to have a per transaction commission structure with them so they have the incentive and drive to go outside of work hours to get these things done. Otherwise it's not going to work. If it's a sales associate, well, I would want them to bring in opportunities number one. At the beginning, though, it's hard because they're green, they don't have the skills. So the way I structure it is I put them on listings with me so they'll come to the open houses. They'll do the inspections, they'll get the houses ready for sale and I give them a very small percentage of that. So they'll get a fraction of the commission, which would more than cover them for their debit credit. If you structure it that way, so they'll make maybe 60, 80, 100 grand just in those little fractional commissions.
Alex Jordan:Whilst they get their feet on the ground, learn the process, understand how this operates, and at the same time I'm designating them a geographic space and saying you own this suburb and your job is to create opportunities in this area. I want you to target the just listed door. Knock them, invite them to the open house that just sold, let the neighbours know what sold, where it sold, how much it sold for. If there's a withdrawn listing, contact the owner door, knock them. Let's get in the door, let's work that area and get us in the door, and then the commission split on that is much more generous. So at the beginning they piggyback with you, come to your inspections, you give them a small, small fee and then, once they've got some skill, you give them an area, they work on that area, they bring an opportunity and you have a more generous split in their favor.
Tom Panos:Beautiful, beautiful and apart from that, we've just got requests for alex to be um speaking at eric alex knows, when I asked him last time that if he wants to speak at ARIC he can speak at ARIC and we would be privileged to have him. He did an incredible job. I just remember when I called you last time you didn't do a straight-out talk, it was a Q&A.
Alex Jordan:Yeah, I think you had a spot that was last minute and you wanted me to jump in there and I said no originally, and then I called you back and said no, I'll do it, I just it's. I'm not. Yeah, I'm not as public as what you might think, but if I'm yeah, if anything I can do, mate, I'm there and willing.
Tom Panos:Well, all you've got to do. Alex, if you want to let me know, you can speak at Eric if you want. 100% no dramas.
Alex Jordan:That's very kind. Thank you guys, Appreciate it. And thanks for all the support from the audience as well. Very grateful.
Tom Panos:All righty. So, without further ado, susan, I might just get you thumbs up. Love hearts coming. Of course they are, he's great to listen to. That's for you, tommy. Great to listen to, yeah, well, no, I think they're for you. I'll take them, it's okay. It's Susan. The reason I don't have them for you is I never get Susan. I never get those when I'm on my own. Look at them. Look at them flying. Hey, listen, everyone do me a favour, smash that button.
Alex Jordan:That's a great idea. It's one person, Tommy. It's just one person.
Tom Panos:Smash them, I just up on. Insta, that's got a good look. That's like the poker machines where you're getting free spins. It's just good. I don't know what it means, but it's good.
Alex Jordan:Very kind Pleasure to be with you everyone. Thank you, tommy. Thanks Susan. Shout out to Wingman See you next time.