Residential
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How does your usual day look?
Who has normal days anymore? Since working from home has become a reality for most of us, I enjoy keeping a lot of the disciplines learnt when the world was different (five weeks ago). I like the feeling of getting a head-start on my day by investing time in having the right frame of mind for the day. Our clients expect us to be astute and efficient and the only way I can achieve that is to invest time in research, stick by promises made and take the time to develop the right mindset at the beginning of the day.
How did you start your career in commercial real estate?
My family were developers so there are many things I learnt at the breakfast table as a kid, which are still useful. I had a detour for a while to residential real estate first and I find there are a lot of useful habits that residential agents have, which translate well to commercial property; people are people after all.
What do you enjoy most about being at Ray White Commercial? What makes Ray White Commercial different?
The two most important things to me about Ray White Commercial is firstly, the network of people who do share expertise, insights and choose to work together. Secondly, I appreciate that we are a research-focused company. I find the work Vanessa Rader does to be invaluable to my clients and yet, it is more that we have an expectation that each of us will research our local market places, to provide unique insights which add value. Facts help people to make better decisions.
What are your go-to property marketing methods that you present to your clients?
Comprehensive marketing is so important so that when we are in front of our seller with a contract, we can give them confidence that this is the very best the market has to offer. Any campaign that is comprehensive and has a timeline works.
Tell me about a unique success story?
When we took 774 Gympie Road to market late last year (which sold for around $5.6m), there was already one buyer in play and the easy thing to do would have been to sell it quickly off-market. Living up to the “no stone unturned” approach to marketing, we did all of the big things you would expect (such as the Financial Review), yet the little things matter too. As an example, the neighbouring property was owned by a large wealthy individual and we knew it would be challenging to ‘breakthrough’ the clutter of email and traditional marketing to get their engagement with the property. I decided that a highly personalised approach would work and along with the impressive IM and DD pack, I hand wrote and personally delivered the information into the hands of this buyer. Of the seven top (written) offers on the property, four came from us going out and “hunting” for our buyers rather than just “waiting” for the buyers to come to us.
Do you auction?
Auctions to me are a set of disciplines which lead to a successful result, so I think they are an excellent way to work and they energise buyers, sellers and agents!
What’s the one thing you know now, that you wish you knew when you first started out?
Treat everybody as if they are important because they are. When I started out a very long time ago, I imagined how great it would be for people to know I was important and I find that quite laughable now. My whole focus is on making everyone I deal with feel as if they are important and the rest just flows from there.
What is your outlook for the Sunshine Coast market over the next 12 months?
To say we are in uncertain times is an understatement, but I see that there will be winners and losers in the property market in the next 12 months. There has been a pivot by consumers towards two things that will be very important, one is they are shopping for needs rather than wants at this time, and secondly, they are making active choices to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 when shopping. This means that the property sector most likely to be a winner is convenience retail and specifically grocery-anchored convenience stores who have good visible parking close to the stores, will do very well.
CONTACT
Email: julie.ryan@raywhite.com
Phone number: 0447 445 453
