7 figure Attraction Agent

Your End of Year Plan | Avi Khan, Stavros Ambatzidis & LocalAgentFinder

• Tom Panos - Real Estate Coach & Trainer

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  • 00:00 - Why the band has rolled back to LocalAgentFinder and how the platform continues to be the preferred partner for agents across Australia.
  • 07:39 - Melbourne and Brisbane Real Estate Market Trends and Insights
  • 13:26 - Nuturing Leads
  • 29:09 - Real stories, real numbers – hear how the top 1% of agents are consistently winning listings in this current market.
  • 31:13 - Your Oct-Dec End of Year Plan


Guests: 

  • Avi Khan (Group CEO & Principal at Ray White Marsden AKG)
  • Stavros Ambatzidis (Owner & Director at O'Brien Real Estate Chelsea & Seaford) 


*I am a LocalAgentFinder band ambassador

Tom Panos:

It is a small world we live in, ladies and gentlemen. It is a small world we live in. I'm in Athens and it is ten a.m. in the morning. You're in Australia, most likely, and it is six o'clock. Yet Stavros, show them your blender. Look at that. We're connected by blenders. The world's getting smaller, right? The ecosystem of the planet's getting smaller. Uh two human beings by coincidence end up holding the same blender. Now I've got to tell you, before we move on to this wonderful webinar, and I think uh we're gonna find out the reasons why local agent finder became rumor. Actually, I just thought about it. It was only a rumor, it never really happened. I just thought about that now. It was only a rumor, it never really happened. And then local agent finder has gone back to the great brand that we got accustomed to that we liked because it actually explained what they did. And that's gonna be a little bit about what we're gonna cover because this webinar today is brought to you by Local Agent Finder. Let me say it again three times local agent finder, local agent finder. The brand is local agent finder, and Warwick is gonna cover that. But I've also got with me two incredible thought leaders. I'll tell you why I like about these guys because they both got an understanding of the mechanics of real estate, but they both have a view and opinion on the helicopter view of real estate. So not just in the trenches, but because they can step out of the picture, they can sometimes see the picture very clear. Arvi Khan from Ray White in Queensland and Stav. And if there's a guy that should say this correctly, it should be me, particularly when you're in Athens right at this moment, right? You should be able to say that. But I'm gonna say Stavros Ambazides. Close enough. Say it. Ambazides Stavros Ambazitis. There you go. I nailed it second time with guidance. Rhymes with Mercedes. I like that. Warwick steel, the person that we've grown to live with local agent finder. That's what we know local agent finder is all about. Good to see you. So let's get so so Warwick. Um, just for everyone that's on here, because I think this is probably the first time it's being addressed, why the name has gone back. Tell me what's happened. Let's get that out of the way because we want to talk about what you've got to do the last 90 days to nail 2025.

Warwick Steele:

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think we want to talk about more important things, but I just do want to clear this up, right? So I think local agent finder rebranded to Ruma with good intentions. Uh, we were hoping to broaden our audience and to modernize the experience for both homeowners and our agents alike. What we really underestimated was the strength and the trust that LAF already had in the marketplace. And that was really evident early. Uh, and when we took the feedback and it was pretty instant from our agent network, and when homeowners sort of uh indicated that rumor wasn't really clear as to what we might be doing here in the business, uh, and registrations dropped off a tad as such. Uh, we made a really sort of brave decision to be able to roll it back. And I think the rollback is in the best interest of both our agents and our homeowners alike, as I said. But, you know, it's not rolling back to what it was previously. The experience will be the same for now, but we'll certainly look to enhance the product for both agents and homeowners alike. And uh we've seen already that homeowners do resonate with the LAF brand and the registrations have come straight back. So, to be honest, Tom, I am pumped to be back as LAF. I cannot wait to get back to work, I cannot wait to support our agent network and help them turn these leads that we can provide into listings, not only in the last quarter of this year, but into next year and beyond. We're really pumped.

Tom Panos:

Warwick, and I'm glad, and I'm glad that you're back because Warwick still is a person that the clients have been used to. I was a person that I've been dealing with you, but I want to give some fun facts before we kick it all off today. Number one, in 2024, the homeowners of approximately one in 16 market listings compared agents through LAF. I'm gonna say that one in 16. In 2024, approximately two-thirds of the people that came through LAF to compare agents went on to list their homes within 12 months. With the bulk of these, with the bulk of these happening within three months. So what we're saying is a high proportion of the listings are immediate sellers, right? Because they're coming on in three months. We're not talking about, you know, price updates that might originate in a year, two, three, four years. There's a high proportion of people that go on a local agent finder. Why? Because they mean business. And for me, one of the biggest issues, Warwick, has been real estate agents have not used the same nurturing process that they would have with other non-LAF leads, right? And then they think to themselves, hey, how come I didn't get, you know, more action out of that one, right? One of the things I'm gonna go on, Warwick.

Warwick Steele:

No, I was just gonna say that's correct, Tom. It's probably one of the most frustrating things that I see from my chair every day. And I've looked after the agent network here for 18 years, what we find is a large percentage of what comes through is genuine and goes to market. What I get a little bit frustrated at is that if the agents get a lead today and call within minutes, which is awesome, and the vendor doesn't answer because the vendor is at work or might be busy or something along those lines, it's then treated automatically as a crap lead. It doesn't get the nurturing it deserves, doesn't get the follow-up it deserves. But you can clearly see from top performers through the website the people who do do that, nurture it correctly, put it into the database, giving all the love and care that it deserves. There are many, many listings that they could and should be winning, Tom.

Tom Panos:

Okay. Warwick, we have now have close to 7,000 active agents using the service nationally with a lot of agents being market share leaders. Well, I know that's a fact because I'm, you know, we've we feature a lot of the real estate agents in there. Obviously, I came via the relationship that you had with Constathopolis from McGraw in Parramatta, and uh he's another one of the big clients. Local agent finder is a great place for rental leads, and I wasn't aware of how much you've been helping agents build the incredible big rent roll assets. So if you're not growing a rent roll through LAF, then you're probably not using an unfair advantage that some other clients might actually have. So you should be mindful of it. So, Warwick, these two gentlemen, these two gentlemen that we've got here are very strong uh uh thought leaders, but they're practitioners. Stab is in actually, let's get an introduction. Stab, who who are you, where are you, and what are the main things you do in the business? And Arvey, I'm gonna ask you the same question.

Stavros Ambatzidis:

Uh, Tom, I play several parts. So I'm I'm part of uh I'm one of the co-founders of O'Brien Real Estate here in Victoria, but I also own a few offices uh here in Victoria for O'Brien. Um I'm very strong in the RAOV, so I'm part of the auction chapter and chair of the RAOV auction committee. Uh, but just all in all, uh my capacity is chairman of the board at O'Brien and a lister and seller, auctioneer on weekends. So I play, yeah, I've got my finger on the pulse in many parts, and I I get to see what goes on by a huge cross-section of uh the Victorian market, uh doing probably auctions across 40 suburbs in Noland.

Tom Panos:

That is listen, that is a great helicopter view because both as a well franchiser, franchisee, auctioneer, um, and you've been a long-term practitioner. So uh that is uh that is the CV of CVs. Uh so Arve, same question. And I know you've got a different background.

Avi Kha:

Mate, I don't know if I can follow from that intro from Stavros, but I'll try my best. Um, so I own Fiverr Whites in Brisbane. Uh we sell nearly 900 homes a year and we manage about 3,000 properties, 3,000 landlords. They also run a law firm in Sydney as well. So uh a little bit of diverse background, not as strong as Stavros over there, but we do try our best.

Tom Panos:

And you've been working in markets that are different. You've been working, Stavros has been working in the Melbourne market where there's been a bit of an exodus of people leaving Melbourne and hopping on a Virgin or Jet Star or Quantas Plane and heading to Queensland. And that's been reflected in property prices. That's been reflected in clearance rates, that's been affected in, you know, the happiness level of, you know, people that are in that sector. Um so staff, can I ask you, what is Melbourne like at the moment?

Stavros Ambatzidis:

Look, there is a there is a strong buzz, and and I can feel we're probably going to go into a bit of a boom. Probably a lot, a lot of people say the last boom for this decade. But the reason for that is that at the moment, the medium house price in Australia, we're fourth. Yeah, we're behind Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, and and that can't happen. You know, we're the biggest city now in Australia. There's a lot of buyers.

Tom Panos:

I wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised if you're actually behind even Perth. Possibly, possibly so. I reckon you're behind, I reckon you're behind Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide, which is bizarre.

Stavros Ambatzidis:

That's bizarre. It's bizarre. And that's not going to be, you know, the state of play for a lot for you know forever. We're seeing a huge influx of, especially Sydney advocates coming in, uh, a lot of Sydney investors buying in, particularly in the Frankston areas, uh, Caram Downs, uh, Seaford. So we're seeing a huge influx of investors buying in because now's the time to buy. You know, the curveball is about to go up in in Melbourne. So if you're looking at buying, I honestly believe, and it's not just real estate speak that I say that. I I believe it's the truth. Look, I was one of the Exodus, you know, I've I spent a lot of time up in Byron and Northern Rivers of New South. Um, but I can see there's a big trend coming back into Melbourne.

Tom Panos:

Yeah, well, I think, Stav, what actually happens is when I get out of Tallamarine Airport and I see the thousands of travelers wearing suits and computers going to their corporate offices in Melbourne, when I see sporting events, and it's what we've seen in the last month or so, when you look at the buildings around Melbourne, you think to yourself, this is a serious hub. When you look at the amount of communities that are in there, you think to yourself, this is just a short-term temporary blip. There is no way in the world that Melbourne shouldn't be up there if not first, second. I mean, Sydney and Melbourne, Sydney was always just a touch higher than Melbourne, but now the gap has just got bigger, and you know what actually happens? Marketplaces eventually see value, right? And and I think that's what's going to happen. Arthur, what's it been like in Brisbane?

Avi Kha:

Look, we're saying that um, we've been saying this for the last 12 months, actually, but we're seeing a perfect storm of buyers coming into Brisbane. And I think what's happening in Melbourne is a great indication of how local governments, state governments, and federal governments have a play in the marketplace. If they stuff things up, investors will bail. And we've seen that across the board throughout Australia, where people are saying they're voting with their wallets, that Queensland, the play Queensland is the place to put your investment property in. And we're seeing a whole lot of investor buyers coming through. Over the last three, four years, there's been predominantly Sydney buyers. Now we're seeing the influx of Melbourne investors coming in as well. Coupled with the changes that the government has done in the first-home buyer schemes. We're seeing first-home owners getting in, we're seeing investors getting in, we're seeing mum and dads downsizing, investing in their home state as well. So it's been a great time to be in the Queensland property market, that's for sure.

Tom Panos:

Maybe, you know, maybe what we should do when Aric is on next year, maybe on the day after Aric, have a special conference where we uh bring the Victorian government that can spend one day for the Queensland government, like just do a bit of a roadshow and say, guys, here's our template. Just copy the template. This is exactly what I've got to tell you, there'd be some ideas in that template that they would turn around and say, Well, that sort of makes sense. Why aren't we doing it? Right. Um, but and and and can I ask you both over the years, what has your relationship with local agent fine meant to you? What does it mean to your business? And what in what role does it play in your business? Um, yeah, just share that. And then we'll move on to a bit of real estate strategy stuff for our audience.

Avi Kha:

Tom, I think when you look at the the way the agents work, like there's so much listings out there. There's so much um, so many sellers wanting to sell, but there so many agents are reluctant to do the work, right? They're reluctant to pick up the phone, reluctant to doorknock, they're reluctant to send text messages and all that. And then then we get agents sort of complaining, oh, you know, there's local agent finder, we're gonna have to pay referral fees and things. I think it just all comes down to laziness, right? There's someone's telling you that if we send you a lead, there's a 67% chance that this person is listing in the first four months. Why would you pick up the phone and call? So our listings have surged because we've used the service well. We know that there's ready sellers, there's serious sellers, as opposed to the other services out there where you're chasing people, you're calling them, they're not picking up. But what we find is two-thirds of the leads that we get, they actually go on to sell. So it's just about picking up the phone. Most of the times, it's qualified leads. Um, there's someone on the other end of the phone helping us convert those leads as well. Like we get follow-up texts from local agent finder now saying, hey, this person's back on the profile, they're viewing the listing, they're viewing the information again. Time for you to call them. So we've built up a market share by using the service. And now what we're trying to do is build up our rental pool as well by using the rental leads as well. So it's been very effective for us.

Stavros Ambatzidis:

Okay, beautiful. Stab, same question. Well, it's interesting. Every time I look at some new tech, and I've looked I go way back with uh with Warwick. So we we've known each other for you know a couple of decades. I always look at tech and think, what problem are they trying to solve? So if and I don't like using two systems when one will do, you know, try and remove a system, you know, when you're putting a system on. One thing that I could say Warwick and local agent finder have been for us is they're more of a business growth partner, okay? So performance-based marketing channel that connects, you know, directly with motivated sellers. The other thing that I like to look at is, you know, compelling reasons. Why would I use, you know, you know, local agent finder? So, you know, as an auctioneer, what are the compelling reasons to buy or bid or or so forth? So the big one for me, and you know, Warwick's gonna love me for saying this, is they're risk-free list generation. You're not you don't pay unless unless you get, you know, you get the lead and unless you sell it. So you don't have to pay. Um, and the great thing with local agent finder is, and there's several times where, you know, if I've already got the relationship, I've already done the appraisal there, the guys have been really good to work with. But the best one for me, uh, Warrick, is you know, some of the stats that we went through. Um, you know, we've got one guy that's received 97 leads in my business, and he's had a 35% strike rate for those that come on market. That's huge. I mean, there are agents that probably wouldn't do that much business in a whole year, and he's just done that from local agent finding. That's that's a person at O'Brien Real Estate. So there's there's many reasons why you know we'd like to use them. They're high intent qualified clients, I suppose that's another good one. Um, and credibility. Yeah, they've got visibility and credibility. We'll they're very credible to use.

Tom Panos:

Yeah, so well said to both of you. And I'm gonna just touch on this issue of improving your probability. So let's assume when you get a lead. So, in the time I've been working with Warwick, I can't help it, but I keep asking real estate agents that love local agent finder how they think about those leads and how they go about them. And the first thing I'll echo is that they say to me that um the skill is that it's not one and done. You don't have the view that, hey, I got a lead, I tried to ring it, it didn't come off, they ghosted me, I couldn't get through them, or the conversation was short, and then what they've done is they've let it go, yet they don't do that with other leads. So, number one, I would say be persistent and understand the importance of perseverance. The second thing is speed. I noticed that these people that have actually gone onto local agent finder and press, you know, the keyboard, they love a response to that keyboard quick, right? Because we live in a world, we live in a world now where speed is a very highly valued currency. Why has speed become a highly valued currency? I mean, I remember, Arvee, I mean, you probably weren't even in real estate back in 19, in 1991, I'm not joking, you'd go to a listing presentation and you'd say to the owner, let me put something together and I'll get it back to you and I'll try and have it back to you by the end of the week. So you'd do this on a Monday, right? And they'd say, Oh yeah, even if you did it, you know, next week, that's all good. That was 1991, right? In 2025, I'm sitting there on some street in London, Gloucester Road, it was, and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking to myself, shit, this Uber was supposed to be here like one minute ago. Like I'm freaking out over a minute. People expect things quickly now. Whether Uber has done it, whether the going from brick to click where everyone's buying things online, pressing a button, whether that's it, uh, whatever it is, but all we're saying is clients r love speed. So when you do get that lead, I don't know, guys, I'd like to ask you, the practitioners, the owners of these big businesses out there in the marketplace, like if you get a lead at 8:30 at night, should you just pick up the phone at 8.31 and chase it?

Avi Kha:

There's a saying in our business, and it goes to your speed um statement, make immediacy your currency. So that's how local agent finder should work. With any lead that you get, you should be on it straight away. And when we call the the sellers straight away, they're amazed. They're like, oh, oh, okay. I just literally got off my laptop and I closed it down. You guys call me within three minutes. It means so much to them because one of the things that working with Warrig, we realized that only the best agents use this product, right? So some of the leads, most of the leads are going to the best agents. So you want to be in the cauldron with the best. If you if you want to be an agent, you want to prove yourself, you want to go up against the best and beat them. So the first person on the call is most likely going to get a first appointment. The third person might not even get an appointment. But sellers are time poor these days, right? They only want to interview one or two people. So make immediacy your currency, it works a lot better if you do.

Tom Panos:

Beautiful. Stab, is anything you want to add to that?

Stavros Ambatzidis:

Yeah, look, success leaves clues, and and we all know that. Um, and and RV's spot on. We find that the guys that actually have the best uh strike rate with local agent finder are the ones that actually get onto them straight away. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, because you don't know the client. The client the client might be in a different time zone as you are today. So if they've sent something through local agent finder that moment, they're online. They might be scrolling in bed, they might be watching TV, you know, they might be watching the block or or doing anything, right? So if you don't want to ring them because it's too late, sms them, um, email them, but make contact immediately because I know when when I do that as a consumer, you know, my father always used to say, get go on the other side of the counter. What's it like on the other side of the counter? As agents, we never look at, you know, we always look at this side of the counter. On that side of the counter, when I'm when I'm a customer, whether it's an Uber driver or I'm looking for, you know, you you're watching, you know, it's a minute away. That person laying in bed or watching TV and they've reached out, you contact them straight away, mate, it's immediate, you've made an impression. RV, you're spot on. Um, and if you're third, you've forgotten about. Just get back to them as strict as soon as possible. Yeah, that's the that's the ish.

Tom Panos:

You know what I was thinking about real estate? Hey, like Olympic Games, the reason it's in my head, this morning, I'm gonna post it. I went for a run around the Olympic Games Stadium. Did you see it, Staff? I've gone. I went. No, I haven't seen it. Hey, it was just you pay 20 bucks or whatever, 20 euro, and you go into the stadium and you run around, and there's people there. Anyway, I was going through the stadium and I was thinking to myself, these guys run train for four years, right? And then I thought, and if you don't win, well, there is gold, silver, and bronze, but in real estate listing presentations, right? Like, there's no silver and bronze, right? It's like the person that gets it, there's only one prize, the person that signs up the listing, right? I'd love to ask you both about nurturing the ones, you know, that might not be coming on right straight away. Is there any tips on nurture that you can give? Like, how do you and and and nurturing in real estate's an interesting one because on the one hand, you want to stay in contact with people and say, I care, I'm here. But on the other token, I hate it as a consumer when I'm buying a product or service, and I've got a girl or guy that's chasing me up, and I keep seeing the call, and I sometimes ghost them, right? Because I often feel that that conversation is a little bit on the nudgy, too pushy side. And I sometimes feel like I'm gonna get into this conversation, and at some point in the conversation, they're gonna sort of ask me a question and I'm gonna feel uncomfortable about it. So actually, I might not just actually take the call. So it's this balance, you know. You know what I'm getting at, Arvy, because I saw you nod there. This this balance of adding value, but not stalking. This concept of I'm here, so don't forget me. But at the same time, I don't want you to picture me as having commission breath, right? Any any tips there, gentlemen? Maybe start with you, Arvey.

Avi Kha:

Look, I think uh one of the things, the concepts that we have in our business at the moment is apology prospecting, right? So, Tom, say I've done an open home at two o'clock, probably three streets down from you. You've told me you're about six, seven weeks away. We're trying to nurture you. So, hey, Tom, it's just Arvey here from Ray White AKG is just letting you know I've just done an open home, about three, four streets down from your house. We've had 16 groups through in the first 20 minutes. I think one of them will grab the house, but there's gonna be 15 people left over. I've just talked to them now, there's office coming in. Look, I'm so sorry to call you like this. I know you're six weeks away, Tom, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't let you know that I'm gonna have 15 buyers ready to go. I just want your permission to see if I can bring them through this Monday, which four o'clock suits you. Like, that's the way you nurture. That's the way you nurture. You give them things to talk about, you give them things value that you've got buyers that have missed out. Rather than one of the one of the pet peeves I have, Tom, is like, hey, Tom, it's just over here calling to touch base. Like, it's it does nothing for the client. So nurturing has to have a strategy, you have to have value proposition. It's the touch base thing that there's no value proposition. That's why we get annoyed with those things, right, Tom? When people call us, I want a touch base, Tom. How are you going? Are you ready? Hey, Tom, touching base. You've got to give them some value. So I've got 15 buyers, they've got a million to spend, they're all cashed up, they're gonna just gonna miss out on this property. I've just put on the market, four streets down from your home, exactly the same specs. Can I bring them through Monday?

Tom Panos:

Okay, let me show you on, and this is this is in another industry. Right? I'm just gonna read out um I'm gonna read out the message you sent me in car sales. Okay, here it is. Hi, Tom. So I made an inquiry about a car for my wife. This guy's got my number, spoke to him, and he sends me this message. Hi Tom, I hope you're well. Just letting you know someone else is also looking at that car. Just wondering if you've decided. Wouldn't want you to miss out on it. So I want to respond back. They can have it. Timing's not right. He responds back. Oh, good choice. What else I should be look uh looking at? The point, the point is that I automatically, for some reason, changed the way I felt about this guy when he sent me that message, right? So that was in cars. Hey, I've got basically saying is hey, I'm calling you, I've got another buyer uh on that, right? Well, if you got another buyer, like I work in the world of business, you probably would have just sold it, right? You would have sold that, and then you try and sold me something, something else, right? So uh, Stav, is there anything that you can extend on what Arve said about nurture?

Stavros Ambatzidis:

Yeah, look, we're all very different, and no one needs to be Stavrosson, no one needs to be Arvey, right? Um, everyone's got to work on their own strength. Um, there's 32 ways of prospecting. There's so many ways of prospecting. But I I grew up on a farm, Arvey, and um and a lot of real estate is farming. You know, we've all heard that you've got farming areas and um, you know, you plant the seed and and you nurture it and it grows. The way I like to do things is I like to be in the line of sight. The line of sight means that yes, I don't have commission breath. I want to I want people to remember how they feel after they've they've dealt with me or or met me. So when they think of real estate, then they'll come to me. So we're all very different the way we do things. And I remember my father saying, you know, you're very lucky, and we are lucky being in real estate. We've got a pen and a phone that we use. He uses a shovel on the phone, you know, he sweats, he works hard, he has droughts, he has he has floods. We're so lucky that we've got all these tools, like local agent finder, right? And and we've got to use those tools to do what we've got to do. So I like to walk up my up the street, uh, Tom. I like to meet my public every day. I like to be in the line of sight. You know, I walk up, hey Tom, how are we? Hey, Warwick, how are you going? And and that could take me an hour or two to do that, to walk up and walk back again. Um, but when they're thinking real estate, they think me. I'm not a door knocker, right? I I like to get on the phone, I like to, you know, to make a lot of calls. You know, on average, I do about 72 calls a day. But my way of doing nurturing is relationship-based. Others do, I don't know, geographical based. So work your strengths, uh, not your weaknesses. Don't try and be stronger at something. My daughter's a good singer, as you know, Tom. And I remember her teacher at school said she's bad at maths and she needs to get a tutor. And I said, mate, can you sing? And he goes, Nut. What if I got you a tutor? Could you sing? Nut. Yeah, what if we really worked hard? Could you sing? He goes, Nut. I go, how about we focus on her becoming a better singer, right? And not maths. Maths isn't her thing. And everyone needs to work on the same thing, you know, work on your strength and work harder on your strengths to make them better. We can't be all things to all people. So that's how I deal with things. And and very different to what Arvey just said. And and uh I've got a lot of people that work the way Arvey does in my business, but work your own strengths.

Tom Panos:

You know, on the last day before my HSC, sorry, it wasn't the HSC, it was, you know, where you the last day before you put your your selections for where you want to go, you know where you fill out the form, your preferences for university. I remember going to see a counselor at Kingsgrove North Hyde, and I said, I'm so confused. I don't know whether to do business. I'm interested in politics, maybe Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. But I want to do Bachelor of Business, right? Uh marketing, Oscon. And listen to what she said. Tom, I think you should just pick what you'd like to do and what you're sort of good at, because that's probably gonna mean you've got the best chance of winning in that area. And I said, Why is that? She goes, really simple. If you pick something that you like and you're okay at it, you'll do lots of it. Because you'll do lots of it, you'll beat people just through sheer work. But the second thing is you'll get a lot of practice. Because you're actually working harder than others, you'll be practicing more than others. Because work is practice. And then what will actually happen is because you're practicing, not only are you working longer, but you're actually even getting better. So at some point in the future, you'll be considered the best in your field. And when you're the best in your field, you charge what you want because one person always is on the shopping list in business, right? End of story. So um I think what you basically said is what was said to me in 1985: work your strengths, double down on them, outsource your weakness.

Avi Kha:

Are you going to give people their December, their October to December plan?

Tom Panos:

That's what I was about to do there. I was just sharing it here. And I was going to say, here is the short version. Santa is something that I want everyone to actually use. In the real estate gym, there's a thing called the Santa letter, which allows you, it's a bit of an ethical bribe that allows you to get very close with your marketplace, particularly if you're in a family marketplace, that allows the kids to participate in getting something from Santa and at the same time actually making an impact on them, but in addition to that, making an impact to your CRM system with new opt-ins. So I would look at that. The next thing I would say is SPR. As December comes, there's going to be a lot of fatigue stock. All I've got to say to you is if you want to sell that stock, SPR, significant price reductions. If a property's been on the market for months and months and it's not selling, there's only two reasons. It's either the price or the market, marketing. And if you've done the marketing, I would make sure that I am looking at the price if you've actually put it through the process. In addition to that, I want you to all leave at Christmas time or just before, you know, let's say you leave on the 15th of December or thereabouts. Leave with your car parked on the top of the hill. And what I mean by that, make sure that when you leave to go on vacation, that you've got listings that you've signed up, form sixes, agency agreements signed up, ready to launch. If they're auctions, that you've actually got auction day launches. And all I can tell you is that you'll have a much better break knowing that you've got stock launch. Of course, we're talking premature now. You've got enough business time now for you to not only list properties that you can for vendors, you can actually be listing the buyers that buy their properties off vendors. You've got plenty of times. In fact, I'm letting you know my sprint till Christmas actually begins today. So today, when I leave Athens and I go to work, I start working in Bulgaria. It is a clear run home till the 15th of December. So this is my final series. So, end of your summary calls. I want you to make sure that you ring up everyone in your database, including all your local agent finder leads, and that you say, hey, Tom Panels here from the real estate. This is the time of year I like to give all my vendors and people in my database a quick brief outlook on what happened in 2025 and also what I think will happen in 2026. These are called the end-of-year summary calls. And if you want a quick summary on what you should say, ChatGPT is your best friend. Go into ChatGPT and say, I want to call people in my database and give them an update on what was actually happening in the suburb of Kenmore for 2025. Give me four or five basic statistics. That's all you need to do. Then you can also put in there, what do you think the market will do in 2026? You can actually do that as well. So I would suggest that the reason you do these summary calls is you can re-qualify. You might also get an appointment. Say, how open-minded would you be for me to pop around and tell you how much money you're sitting on? Even if they say, Oh, but we're not thinking of selling, Tommy, just say, listen, it's not for people that are selling. It's for people that are staying, that just want to know how much value they're sitting on. And then there is the list now launch later strategy, which basically what you do there is you say, Mr. and Mrs. Vendor, I understand at the moment you're not ready to come onto the market yet. What I'd like to say to you is that you might want to take out insurance. And insurance is called the List Now Launch Later Strategy, where what I do is I just get some paperwork done that means that it's not illegal for me to talk about your property. I put it in my top pocket because as we've got these government grants going around the country at the moment, including the 5% guaranteed deposit bond, I might end up having lots of buyers that want your specific property. And if I've got it available, I can talk about it. And you might be fortunate enough and get someone that is emotional and pays top dollar for your home. But if we don't, we can launch later. So we're not going to have open homes as such. So if you're not ready to actually have a lot of action on your property, we can just use the list now launch later strategy. And for me, that is also called as a pocket listing. So, team, don't forget this is the time of year that you should also start preparing in November and December to at least take some sort of gift to your top 100 clients. Um, I find that this time of the year is a good opportunity for you to break bread with clients. And I want to remind you, the Boxing Day soft launch is something that you might want to consider. Why? Because realestate.com tells us that period after Christmas Day is a good eyeball period for them. In fact, I think they've said in the past Boxing Day is one of their biggest days of eyeballs. So I can picture why that happens. People are sitting home watching the Boxing Day test, and they've got their mobile phone, and they're thinking, is it time to upgrade our home? Is it time to buy an investment property in the RB Khan's office? I don't know what they're thinking. And the last thing I want to let you know, I don't talk about these much, but I've got to tell you, a lot of the photos and videos that I take while I've been on this trip have come from the meta glasses. Meta glasses to me are something that I'm surprised they haven't been embraced more by the real estate industry. $400 allows you to actually get incredible video content in the moment without people freezing and saying, oh, he's pulled out his phone, right? And you can actually get some incredible content and they act as incredible speakers. By the way, I don't know how they do it, but they have sound coming through those glasses, even though there's nothing in your earbuds. And I think they use vibration of your ear canals. So, team, meta glasses, buy yourselves a present at Christmas. Gentlemen, it is so good to have you here. Stev from O'Brien's and Arvey from Ray White, two amazing thought leaders. By the way, Arve, can I ask you? I'd love have have you put have we got that podcast put up yet or it's not up yet? Is it?

Avi Kha:

It's coming out next week, Tom.

Tom Panos:

I really enjoyed the podcast. So I never I hardly I hardly ever I always ask the questions, but I went there thinking I was gonna do a podcast, and then Arvey goes, oh no, no, I'm doing the questions. Um and I really I all I remember is I enjoy uh I enjoyed it. Staff, I'll see you in Byron Bay, I'm sure, at some point over the festive season. I'm sure I will see you there. Um Warwick, I want to let you know it is so good to have Local Agent Finder back. We're gonna have a number of other events over the next month as well, covering various real estate topics. So I want to thank all our audience. Thank you so much for signing off and see you soon.