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How does your usual day look?
There is no such thing as a normal day for me - I wear a lot of hats every day. Managing a business with 30 staff, 1,000+ rental properties and a high performing team that write 25% of all sales in the town means there is always something different to deal with and a never-ending to-do list.
Tuesdays, for instance, might see me hosting a sales team meeting at the start of the day, to coffee with a client, then helping move furniture at an abandoned home. From there I’m conducting a viewing on an office for lease, then off to council to help renegotiate the terms of a potential client's development approval. In the afternoon, I’m negotiating multiple offers on a multi-million dollar building and then preparing to call a handful of auctions at our monthly in-room auction event in the evening.
Seriously, that could all happen in one day!
How did you start your career in commercial real estate?
My father and uncle opened the very first independently owned Ray White franchise in May 1980, two years before I was born. I grew up around the family real estate agency. My first job, at the age of eight, was erecting for sale signs and mowing the footpaths on new land estates in Gladstone that my dad was selling.
I left high-school to pursue a career as an airline pilot, however, following the collapse of Ansett in the early 2000s and at 21, I was offered a job in the family business selling real estate.
It was a baptism of fire! “This is your desk and this is the phone. Good luck.” I was told.
Fortunately, having grown up in Gladstone and with a well respected family name to leverage off, I was able to jag a few listings and sales. In a small town, you sell anything. I listed caravans, boats, land, sheds, units, houses and farms.
My youth of mowing land estates and reviewing subdivision plans gave me a passion for development sites and although I would take any residential listings on offer, I gravitated toward listing inner-city townhouse sites and englobo land parcels. I learnt to talk the talk of property development, and like most developers, I learnt as I went.
My exposure to listing development sites for sale opened the door to industrial sheds, office spaces, retail leasing, etc. I developed a name as the “commercial guy” in Gladstone.
What do you enjoy most about being at Ray White Commercial? What makes Ray White Commercial different?
The Ray White Group is a family business made up of thousands of family businesses. This gives Ray White Commercial a small agency feel, combined with the strength of a large corporate operator.
The close ties to the residential property sector gives Ray White Commercial a point of difference to the large corporate agencies.
What are your go-to property marketing methods that you present to your clients?
I prefer to market without a price. Auction or expressions of interest are my “go-to” methods of sale. Auction when it’s an easy property to estimate value, EOI when there may be a wide perception of value or varied specialised uses.
I feel old when I say this, but I am a big PRINT guy. I’ve had the benefit of witnessing the rise of the real estate portals and increasingly see that the portals have become strip lists of property for sale or lease. The portals are very helpful for buyers/tenants scouring websites for the perfect property or best deal. But they don’t uncover the aspirational buyer, who was not necessarily looking for a property. You can’t filter the newspaper to only show you “office under 100m2”!
The newspaper attracts a different buyer. The buyer that was too busy to filter the hundreds of listings on the internet. The portals say, “this property is for sale.” The newspaper says, “this property is for sale TODAY.” Buyers innately know that a seller that has invested in print media is a highly motivated seller.
Do you auction?
Yes - I love running auction campaigns. I’m a licenced auctioneer and have called over 300 auctions. Auction is the oldest, purest and most transparent form of selling property. I think that if you are serious about a career in real estate sales, perfecting the craft of running an auction campaign is paramount to long term success.
What’s the one thing you know now, that you wish you knew when you first started out?
“Don’t let perfect get in the way of better.” If change is required, just start by making a single positive change.
What is your outlook for the Gladstone market over the next 12 months?
Residential vacancy rates are tightening, rents are rising and I can see house prices beginning their long-awaited recovery over the next six months. Although commercial vacancy rates sit at around 50% across Gladstone, the total quantum of vacancy can be quickly absorbed with a relatively low increase in demand. 2020 will be a memorable year for Gladstone.
What’s your point of difference?
I love sharing my knowledge of the marketplace. I’ll regularly put people in the car, and take the time to show them around town. I’m famous as the Gladstone real estate tour guide. I believe that if I educate buyers or sellers on the city of Gladstone, they are well placed to make better decisions.
Our agency is a one stop shop. In a small town, we need to be the real estate advisors to all. I’m not a specialist in any one thing, but a highly experienced real estate practitioner with a wide variety of knowledge. Some agents have a 20 year career which is just one year, 20 times over. I’ve certainly covered a lot of ground.
CONTACT
Email: andrew.allen@raywhite.com
Phone number: 0408 799 585
