Best Real Estate of Origin ever

A fast and furious Real Estate of Origin call-a-thon yesterday secured more than 11,000 new appraisals for the Ray White Group across Australasia.

Appraisals are the lifeblood of real estate and Ray White regularly holds its Real Estate of Origin days to create some friendly rivalry between the states and New Zealand.

The ninth Real Estate of Origin was exceptional and shows the breadth and scale of the group. No one other single group could drum up 11,012 plus appraisals in one afternoon.

Telco Telstra kindly donated more than $10,000 worth of Apple products as prizes to the winners including an iPadPro, Magic Keyboard and Apple Pen plus two iPhone 14 Pros Max 128GBs plus Airpods, Apple Watches and Apple HomePod Minis.

New Zealand won the bragging rights this time with 4079 appraisals, with Queensland pipped at the post with 3834 on the appraisal leaderboard. NSW managed to secure 1209 new appraisals.

Ray White Maguires One team - which includes Mission Bay, St Heliers, Kohimarama and Stonefields - have set a new record with a huge 914 new appraisals booked in, ahead of their Queensland office rivals in Narangba who managed to secure 538 new appraisals.

Individually Chris Baxter of Ray White Maguires One team secured a staggering 472 appraisals on his own - an unheard of number in all the years the group has been running this event.

Business owner Wayne Maguire said he couldn’t be more proud of his whole team who work in Auckland’s stunning bayside suburbs, not far from the CBD.

Maguires One team have 40 sales agents and 15 support team members working in unison.

“What an unbelievable result, we smashed our own goal! We threw everything into it, we had been rehearsing and role playing for weeks. And we called everyone. The call lists were huge - whole buildings were called - and I am so happy as it was a total team effort,” he said.

Mr Maguire spent the day running between his four offices - delivering champagne and chocolates to their hourly winners!

Star agent Chris Baxter with Wayne Maguire in Auckland

“You know what the secret was? We came back so pumped from Connect on the Gold Coast in August. We are so grateful to the group for all the support and training we have on offer. If everyone in the team works together, you achieve great things.”

And the man of the moment, sales agent Chris Baxter is one to watch.

“He is so humble and lovely, and fairly new to our industry and I couldn't be prouder of him.”

The call-a-thon was hosted by Special Programs National Director Bianca Denham and Chief Strategy Officer for Real Estate, Mark 'Macca McLeod in Sydney, with Tim Snell, from the group’s national performance team, in Brisbane.

The drive was powered by NurtureCloud which is Ray White’s innovative prop-tech tool which turbocharges an agent’s call list.

NurtureCloud finds the best calls to make, built around pipeline lead scores, last contact date and behaviour and it’s evolving all the time.

Ray White agents who used the smart call list within NurtureCloud were generating more appraisals from the same amount of calls.

Ms Denham (pictured above) said the event was the best one yet. “Registration numbers were through the roof and it was amazing seeing the New South Wales team really get around it with 200 agents come together under one roof is just phenomenal,” Ms Denham said.

“We've got offices that sit in similar markets sitting here side-by-side making appraisals and talking to their customers and the results in Queensland are just fantastic,” she said.

“Prospecting is really the engine of a real estate business. If we don't have appraisals, we don't get listings. If we don't have listings, we can't sell stock.

“It's interesting that the market is obsessed with the slowing days on market, it’s harder to shift stock and it can mean sometimes people take their eye off the ball at the front end of the process.

“So it's really important that we continue to keep that activity going, as I said to start the wheels of the business turning so we can continue to make sales in 30 to 60 days from now.”

Ray White Wilston Principal Alistair Macmillian (pictured) said the Real Estate of Origin event always offered great value to his team.

“It creates an environment where all people are doing the same tasks which makes it far more enjoyable, while creating a very competitive environment. There is no way that I would be able to achieve the same level of buy in if it were not as a collective group.

Ray White Alderley elite agent Janine McDonald (pictured) loved the event. “I was actually a bit reluctant to come but it’s been such a great experience and vibe with terrific camaraderie among our team and the wider group. How good is it to compress your calls into a four hour window with no distractions, it's a very powerful event. One not to miss.”

Sydney MC for the day, Ray White chief auctioneer Alex Pattaro (pictured onstage) said the calls agents made yesterday will help set them up for a strong start in the new year.

“Today is an important day to not only try and secure some last minute stock between now and Christmas but also start to collate some listings for a strong start to 2023,” Mr Pattaro said.

“There’s always a competitive element to any kind of prospecting day but I think most agents also understand the importance of it.”

Fiona Hellams pictured above right hit the phones with fellow agent Angela Saidi.

Ray White Inner West Group agent Fiona Hellams said the competition of Real Estate of Origin gives her a push to reach out and call people she normally wouldn’t.

“Being in real estate for over 30 years your approach can get a bit old and stale so you need a refresher,” Ms Hellams said.

“When you’re young, you’re very enthusiastic and have that confidence but as you move on in your career your energy can wane.

“I’ve got the people I talk to constantly and as far as database management goes, sometimes I steer away from going outside of those people. I think it’s that fear of rejection - you make 100 calls and nothing comes out of it, that can be disheartening.

“So I think you need a jump start and the competition that a day like this offers.”

Ray White Castle Hill managing director Philip Kelly leads his office on a prospecting day once a month but said it was good to be able to do it on a larger scale.

“If we’re not prospecting and we’re not talking to people then we’re not going to win their business,” Mr Kelly said.

“Real estate is about connection and getting in front of people and getting in front of them on a regular basis.”

Castle Hill agent Paul Conti said his standout call of the day was with a past homeowner he’d done an appraisal for who had just decided now it’s time to sell.

“Had I not pulled through Nurture Cloud, I wouldn’t have known that,” Mr Conti said.

‘I thought that they weren’t selling, they were just updating but now they are going out looking at properties coming on the market, they’re converting themselves into actual, real sellers.”

Astrid Joarder left, fellow agent Bianca Field right and their office hitting the phones.

Ray White Surry Hills agent Astrid Joarder said there’s nothing quite like Real Estate of Origin.

“You get to spend time with people in the industry and the energy in the room is electric. You just bounce ideas off each other,” Ms Joarder said.

“I think in our first session, we booked about 20 appraisals as an office. How often do you get that in just 45 minutes? It’s a great networking event and a great chance to see everyone as you’re working while you’re having fun.”

Ray White Woody Point sales agent Cathy Sica (pictured) loved her first Real Estate of Origin. “It’s been such a great initiative, as everyone’s so different in their approach but yet so competitive,” she said.

“I love to hear what other people say on their calls, it was such a very good day of sharing and learning within the group,” she said.

Ray White Bulimba sales associates James Taylor and Caitlin Uittenbosch together created some 25 new appraisals for their agents. “The event was great and I have picked up some great phrases that other associates have made. We get a lot of great training in our group but this was on another level,” Mr Taylor said.

Ms Uittenbosch was also pumped after her first Real Estate of Origin. “Every day is so fast paced with many tasks to complete so it was brilliant to be able to concrete on the core of prospecting, I loved it.”