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
Gavin Rubinstein | Narrowing the Gap with Buyers & Sellers
Gavin Rubinstein is one of Australia’s top real estate agents, AREC speaker, and well-known for his unmatched record of achievements.
We cover:
- Why this market presents the best opportunity for good agents to become great
- Strategies for aligning buyers and vendors
- How eliminating excuses results in successful transactions
- How he creates clear swim lanes for his offshore team - Wingman
- How the Federal Election, is affecting stock volumes and buyer sentiment
This webinar is sponsored by Wingman
And the gates are open. Ladies and gentlemen, so pumped Monday afternoon it's 4 o'clock here in Sydney and I've got with me, of course, nick Georges, one of the senior people of Wingman. And I also have with me Gavin Rubenstein, who I've got to. You know. Someone said to me the other day, mate, what's Gavin really like? I said, listen, I'll tell you what he's really like. I looked up the stairs the day my brother was getting buried and he looked like he was the first person waiting. I said that's all I've got to say. That's all I've got to say. And, gav, you've just told me you and your firm have had the best six months of business since you've been opening up. But you said that not showing off. You actually were talking to me beforehand and you're telling me how hard it is narrowing the gap, getting vendors and buyers on the same page, but regardless, there's volume out there, isn't there.
Gavin Rubinstein:Gav. I think there's opportunity out there and I think that this is the sort of climate for the best to become great, which is an opportunity that I relish. It's an opportunity that everyone at the firm, at TRG, is excited by we know how to swim with the current but I also think it's a climate that's going to kill off a lot of people in the industry who have had it easy for a long period of time. Like we quiz a lot of the top performing agents in our Monday morning sales meetings, which don't drag on, they last for 10 or 15 minutes. Whoever's had a good week.
Gavin Rubinstein:I kind of put them on the spot and unpack every one of their sales and what they did, and so what we are noticing is like buy work is becoming really important in terms of getting deals done. We're noticing expired listings are a huge stream of revenue because you know agents have had these properties who actually don't know how to sell them. We're picking up, we're selling them, and then what ties in with that is probably the third other really important point is really open and honest communication with your vendor and with your client. Right, and that's the reason we're picking these up, because the agent initially did not have that sort of open, honest communication with their client and we do, and it seems to be making all of the difference. But doing that stuff ain't easy. If it was, everyone would do it, but yeah, it's hard to get it together out there. Nothing we can't do and do in spades, but definitely tougher for sure.
Tom Panos:I asked Gavin Nick before we came on out of everything that's happened in real estate. When he looks at one of the happiest times in award season, he said it would have been the year that both I got number one principal and Oliver Lavers got number one sales agent. And I can see why you said it, gavin, because this guy here it was like he was with you. Was it five years before he went out on his own?
Gavin Rubinstein:longer, longer. He was with me 10 years and he, um, he went out on his own now four years ago, five years ago. Um, oh no, so you're right. Yeah, so he was with me five odd years before he went out on his own. Yeah, yeah.
Tom Panos:Can I ask before we move on, because today we're going to talk about the team behind the team, and you know I'm just delighted, gav, that I'm going to have the opportunity to interview you at the great conference, profit, which is being held next Thursday, which, by the way, everyone this is officially now the largest number of people that have gone to a leadership conference in the history of real estate. At the moment it's tracking for 600 people, some of the people that are going to be speaking there, apart from Gavin, anthony Bell, john McGrath, phil Harris, of course, john Bell, nick, you're also being part of it, there assisting me throughout the day, and I'm pretty pumped and excited because on that day you're going to cover a lot more content. But today, gav, I want to ask you Wingman has a very important role in your business, but it hasn't taken the role of what you do. That's critical, and I'm just curious what are the things that you say, wingman? I'm not touching this is my baby. I do this day in, day out. What are those things?
Gavin Rubinstein:So it's kind of two part. I mean the first part is it's a huge help in our property management business and I know that may not apply to everybody who's in sales. I know maybe business owners and property management agents will relish it and see huge opportunity with it. I know Jerome couldn't live without it. In fact I actually did a podcast with the guys and talking to John and Nick about their growth and their personal journey and seeing the impressive things that they have done, I've actually got Jerome to fly out to Brisbane to chat to them in more depth so we can grow our business as much as we possibly can and learn from them. So that's the first part.
Gavin Rubinstein:The second part is they are and look, it depends what level you're at, tommy. Like if you're zero to 500, you may have different requirements than if you're 500 to a mil and if you're one to two, two to three and so on. But at my level right, it's the combination of when we've got such crazy volume and things are spinning at a very high level. Wingman plays the role of being the team behind my team as such, so it's not necessarily that I deal with them personally, but you've got Montana who runs my admin operations and pretty much wears 10 different other hats. Who has that resource available to her? And you know, I'm told it runs very smoothly, right, if it wasn't, I'm usually told when there's a problem. When there's no problem, I know things are running smoothly. So I call them the team behind my team and, of course, super valuable in the PM space as well.
Tom Panos:You know a lot of the people that are on this webinar I think about 140, and there's a lot more that are registered, and you know what webinars are like Some people show up, others don't show up, others watch it on repeat, some never watch it, but we're going to make the assumption there's going to be at least another 200 people that are going to watch it. So 340 people Out of the 340, I reckon you have that. There's probably 80% of those people probably here are either a principal or they're a sales agent, and even the principals are selling agents, most of them like yourself. You've got your. You're a director ZBU right. So I want to ask if you were an agent alone, how would you use Wingman? If you were an agent writing, say, 500, 600, 700, how would you use Wingman?
Gavin Rubinstein:I would use them for everything that wasn't dollar productive related, right? So and it's interesting because that everyone has a different interpretation of what that is so I think, as an agent or a practitioner, you've got to work out what's the stuff that really brings in the dollars for me. Is that meeting with top buyers? Is that building relationships? Is that listing presentations? Is that knocking on doors?
Gavin Rubinstein:Whatever the case may be, whatever that looks like, focus and dedicate your time, energy and attention just to those aspects and avenues of your business. And everything else and, as you know, in real estate, I mean I could sit here and list 200 tasks, right, that are almost admin based related, but still need to be done, still need to be done at a high level, particularly when they're connecting with the client. I would find that out to a wingman and essentially get someone from the company to train them how you like it being done, which I know Montana spent some time doing but collectively as a team, I think that can be very beneficial. On that basis, the dollar productive stuff use an agent, handle the non-dollar productive but necessary tasks. Farm that out.
Tom Panos:So I'm going to echo and extend on what you've just said, gavin. When I talk to all the clients that use Wingman in my real estate gym, I find that the ones that are doing more than 100 deals a year or are riding one and a half million and over they say this to me Tom Wingman does everything except look for my next listing, go to my next appraisal, sit with a buyer and put a deal together, or sit with my vendor and educate them on this is what's happening in the market. This is what I think you should be doing with your marketing and your price at the moment. Unless they're doing one of those four things, they feel that they're not being income producing and that they keep palming it off. So what you're saying sounds along the lines of them.
Tom Panos:But I know, gab, because I know I've dealt with you. I've worked with you for so many years it's decades, it's not years now and I know you've got this high standard. Like you would be obsessive even about the font or anything in a brand or how photos and videos look. So I'm just curious about the client experience that you've had. Has anything been coming up where people feel, oh it, it's dropped?
Gavin Rubinstein:I wouldn't think so nothing's perfect in this world, like, whether it's offshore, whether it's onshore, like the, the like.
Gavin Rubinstein:I've got people who've been working in my team for two, three years and um weekly, sometimes daily, you know talking to them about how we can refine what we do in order to be better, and that's the fastidious nature of, I guess, my style and approach, which some people can find annoying and, to be honest, even I find it annoying, but I can't help it because it's who I am. But, like I said, you know, monty and I have worked with our guys at Wingman to make sure that they do it in the way that we like, and that takes a bit of time. But whether it's offshore or onshore, it takes a bit of time. Anyway, you've got to make the investment Remember it's a third of the price, um, so it's worthwhile once you get them to do it in the style that you like and when and if there is an odd or rare occasion where there's a mistake, refine it. Let them know, um and and look, unless they've put the best guys onto us. We haven't had any major, you know, crashes or crazy issues with it.
Tom Panos:Nick, I'm gonna bring you into the conversation. I want to ask you you know how. There are various we've got markets. So Gavin works in a high value market and many would say it's a high value but lower turnover market than, say, blacktown, which has got a low value but a high turnover market. What's your experience with Wingman working in different markets, like Gav's? Median price, I mean? Off the top of my head, I reckon it'd probably be around 4, 5 mil. Is that what it is? Gav Up Six, seven, wow, okay. So the bottom line is if you're in Blacktown, you're going to have to sell 10 houses, right, gavin will sell one. That's the short summary of what it is right.
Nick Georges:They're all laughing. Luke's laughing. Luke's got on a seekcom. He's looking in the east and the north shore. So what's your experience, nick, with?
Nick Georges:Yeah, I think it doesn't really matter what marketplace you're working in. It's actually you have to bring it internally and it's what do you want to achieve. So, for example, you just mentioned, if you're in Blacktown, you need to sell 10 houses to Gavin's One. But an agent that's selling 10 to one homes might want a different client experience. So I know, working with Gavin, he's absolutely obsessed with not only the client experience but exceeding the client's experiences every time, which is one of the reasons why he's been one of the best agents in the country for such a long period of time and why the clients keep coming back to him.
Nick Georges:So actually tailoring a solution for TRG or for Gavin's way that he wants to do it is very, very different to an agent who's starting off. It doesn't matter what marketplace. So the task list that we have for Gavin's team is very, very different to, potentially, an agent that's working in a competitor's office next to Gavin. So that's one of the things that we do we like to get under the hood and understand what the agent wants to achieve and what the office wants to achieve, and we can tailor a solution to fit that.
Tom Panos:Nick, can I ask you on property management, what are you know? Because I often get I had management. What are you know? Because I often get I had another I had you know the other day, liam, from Byron Bay, which I put onto you. They often ask me, right, like, what are the main stuff that a wingman person in Manila can do in PM? Right, they often feel like the initial feeling is people say no, man, I need to be able to speak to them at the next table. Right, tell me, what's the main role. Description of a PM wingman person working in the Philippines.
Nick Georges:I can actually answer it the other way. So what should a property manager be doing in Australia? So a property manager in Australia, all they should be doing is building a relationship with the landlord and dealing with escalated issues. That's literally all they should be doing. Everything else should be stripped away and given to someone else, whether that be onshore or offshore, depending on the style of office, what they want to achieve. But if you're a new business, you should just be prospecting, listing, selling or prospecting and signing managements. Everything else should be stripped away. In property management, all you should be doing is building relationships with the landlords and dealing with escalated issues.
Gavin Rubinstein:Everything else.
Tom Panos:You're muted. You're muted, nick, just unmute. Sorry, you just muted that last few seconds. So basically, it's a little bit like sales and what you're saying is that essentially, what you're saying is divisions of labour. Make sure that you're not focused in non-dollar productive activity and do you find that offshore can achieve that?
Nick Georges:Yeah, absolutely one of the reasons why we actually have the academy, one of the reasons why we're training them in property management, why we're training them in sales operations, and that's why they're working so well in EBUs and property management businesses across Australia.
Tom Panos:Okay, Gavin, I want to ask you did you notice at all since rates have gone down, has there been any change whatsoever in the economic landscape from buyers or sellers? Too early or too early to call?
Gavin Rubinstein:I reckon it's been like, I think it's been seriously tumultuous since probably august last year. Like I'm not noticing a difference today versus august. I just like I feel like the market changes and correct me if you think well, you're hearing different. I think last week is different to this week. I just I can't quite decipher or identify any particular pattern or trend. You know, like it's, it's, it's definitely not that frothy, crazy where you've got 10 buyers going nuts who will pay anything and everything just to secure it. That it was a year and a half, two years ago, um, but I still think stock is relatively tight, particularly in my market.
Gavin Rubinstein:Like good choices, good options there's a bit of shit around, but like the good stuff is, is selling really well, um, and I think you've got to know how to duck, weave, like I say, communicate, eliminate all excuses vendors may have through the process and that is becoming as fine as, like you know, whether it's tasks, customer expectation, the marketing spelling. Photo order timing on doing what you say you're going to do like really, really basic stuff. Photo order timing on doing what you say you were going to do, like really, really basic stuff. If that's not done, it's going to be very hard to have that conversation with the vendor about, you know, getting realistic.
Tom Panos:So, gav, at ARIC four or five years ago you had a beautiful. There are two sentences I remember from you on stage. The first one is you've got to close the door of excuses. And this happened on Saturday because I got there, I met the vendor. There was already a relationship because there's a connection through social media.
Tom Panos:He opened up and he started complaining about the fact that the first week of the open what had happened is there were the ad. He was not happy with something in the advert. When the property didn't sell afterwards he just it was because of the advert. Yeah, he just patted me and goes it's not your fault. He goes what do you expect with that? And I'm thinking to myself exactly that Every vendor will look at every reason except for the price. So you've got to make sure that there is no other reason, because if there is, you can't win that battle. And then the second thing you've said, which I've plagiarized and I say it over and over again at some point in your life, if you're going to have an elf business effortless, lucrative and fun you've got to be the prospected one, not the one that prospects all the time. And I saw that with my own eyes in Sylvania waters that day.
Tom Panos:So, nick, listen to what happens. I'm sitting on in the living room about to start an auction. We were there 15, 20 minutes early. I don't do government auctions. This was a one-off in the St Georgia, in the Sylvania waters area, and there's a guy hovering around and it was, like you know, it was a bit like a guy hovering to get an autograph or something. And I just looked at this guy right and then I thought he comes on. Do you remember the moment, gavin, we're talking about? He comes on over Nick and he turns around and he goes listen, I've got this property. And I mean, I know that you're not in the area, but I think, if you see this, so he has start trying to convince Gavin, at least come out and give me an appraisal.
Tom Panos:It's like it's bizarre, like it's always the other way around, and I think when you talk about being the prospected one versus the prospector, it's all about brand marketing, a magnet profile already winning the interview before there is an interview, because they're just aware of it. Gav, does that happen a lot sometimes, or was that, like Tom, that's once a year? You were just there at the right time.
Gavin Rubinstein:No, no, no.
Gavin Rubinstein:It happens a lot.
Gavin Rubinstein:It happens a lot, but that's not to take anything away from um, like the crazy level of of of hustle that you need to have, particularly when you you get through the door, because it's not even if someone wants me to come over and give them my view on.
Gavin Rubinstein:You know how to sell, maximize the price and what I would do. Like nine out of ten times they're seeing three other agents, irrespective of how excited that they may be, and so that's like, and people forget how many facets of the process as a real estate agent you've actually got a hit on. That's just one of the many facets is getting through the door and being able to pitch. Then it's about how do I show this vendor you know that I'm 100% the best person for the job and that's not through cutting my fees and cutting my marketing plan, because that's essentially how you do a great job, or part of the tools that you use to do the great job. So that's the second part of the process. And then you've got to convince them once you've left an impression, because they're probably seeing two or three other people after right up to the sharp end of signing an agency agreement right, because no matter how good a salesperson, salesman, saleswoman you are, you can't make a sale.