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Myf Porter is the author of Myf Porter's Guide to Selling Real Estate.
Several years ago I took two of my grandchildren to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat where they were fascinated by the apothecary (precursor to pharmacist) who was actually making pills using two boards. How could I tell them that when I did my pharmacy apprenticeship with my father, I, too, made pills and performed those tasks that they associated with “the olden days”? How things change. One of my greatest beliefs is if we are not in a continual state of change, we will be left behind. It is so true that “when you're green you grow and when you're ripe you rot”. Much of my life has been spent in a determination not to rot!
So I went from pharmacy to a wonderful marriage and four wonderful daughters. I then stayed home for some years and enjoyed the cooking, sewing and chauffeuring involved with four growing children. Then, for quite a few years, my husband Bruce and myself operated several large and very successful news agencies in major shopping centres. Because of my love of books we developed a huge book section, and it was here that I had my first taste of the satisfaction of fitting client with requirement. The thrill of finding a book to suit a customer was nothing compared to the thrill of mixing buyer and house in my later career. Then, after 20 years of marital happiness, my husband became ill and it became necessary to sell our business. We then had two very precious years, just fishing, gardening and being together. It was not financially possible for us to exist any longer without any income so, of necessity, I became the breadwinner. Everyone expected me to go back to pharmacy but I'd always been fascinated by real estate. It was time to learn new skills and turn this interest into income.
That was when I had my first taste of the lack of respect afforded the real estate profession. I used to call selling the “oldest profession in the world” and claimed that I was proud to be a member of that profession, until one of my daughters told me what was usually considered the oldest profession! I've stopped using that phrase now. So many of my friends said “real estate?” with disbelief. It took me some months before I realised that I would be judged on how I worked in the industry and as long as I never did anything of which I could not be 100% proud, there wouldn't be a problem. I like to think that maxim contributed to my success in selling.
And I did have success, topping Queensland for Ray White in each year of my selling and being a partner in a very successful Ray White office. Then, my beloved Bruce passed away which, although expected, was devastating for the whole family. Brian White and Paul White decided that I should have a change.
This was in the very early '80s when training and real estate were not always words that were linked in one breath. We did have some training – which was more than most companies – but with about 40 company-owned offices and the move to franchising, formalised training programmes became a necessity. What a challenge at a time when I so badly needed one. Anyone who has suffered the loss of a beloved partner will know that you need work that will totally consume your every waking thought. Writing training and management programmes, deciding on content and duration of those programmes, and then implementing them sure does take up every waking moment – and lots of moments when other people sleep! What a learning experience! I also found that I loved the communication and the gathering and dispersing of that knowledge.
After several years we had a training programme referred to by people outside the company as the “very best available” – due in large part to the willingness of all our wonderful top salespeople and top managers/owners to share “what worked”. My belief has always been that all our training must be skill-based. After several years, during which we had grown to more than 100 franchised offices in Queensland only, the decision was made to expand into New South Wales and Victoria. How fortunate I was to be given the opportunity to be in charge of this new Victorian operation and so began my love affair with Melbourne.
I remember being asked to speak at a Real Estate Institute of Victoria function on “Women in Real Estate” – women selling real estate were uncommon but a woman running a state company was unheard of! We started with nine offices in Victoria and in two years had a total of 33 offices. I learnt even more about selling, but this time, instead of selling “houses”, I was selling the benefits of our support, training, network and name.
After several years in Melbourne, the training “bug” re-surfaced. By this time Ray White had expanded to about 300 offices throughout Queensland, NSW and Victoria and it was obvious that the training needed to be standardised and updated. So I became National Training Director, an awesome title that enabled me to live out of a suitcase for the majority of the time. One of our favourite family stories of this time was from my pre-school grandson who said that he had two grandmothers, “one lived in Toowoomba and the other lived on an aeroplane” – out of the mouths of babes!
With the acquisition of offices throughout New Zealand, I became almost an honorary Kiwi and with our move to Western Australia I had to learn that “coming from the east” was a burden I had to overcome. South Australia was, of course, a favourite destination –just a couple of hours from the Barossa Valley made sure that Adelaide had plenty of visits! So I learnt about real estate practices throughout Australia and New Zealand and I also found that the differences were quite superficial and mostly technical.
Now, Ray White has more than 1000 offices throughout Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Singapore. It is a fourth-generation, family-owned private company and the phenomenal success of this company is attributed to this unique combination.
There are so many real estate agents everywhere who are as passionate as I am about professionalism in real estate. All these people have a total commitment to ethical practices and they choose to be in real estate because it is both exciting and rewarding.
When someone buys or sells a home, it is a totally emotional decision with almost no facts and figures to really assist with the decision. It is also one of the largest outlays a family makes. Someone once said buying and selling a house was the second most important decision that anyone made, with the first being who they should marry! With a decision as important as this, a decision usually based on emotion, there are bound to be some mistakes made. And someone must always be “blamed” for a mistake and there is just one group where the blame is placed – the real estate agent. It's like blaming the marriage celebrant if a marriage fails!
More than 20 years of practical hands-on experience in real estate, covering selling and managing, teaching and learning throughout Australia and New Zealand, have enabled me to crystalise what I believe really works and communicate that information to the sellers of personal real estate.
My wish is that by understanding the technicalities of the choices available to you, you will be able to positively participate in all the key decisions needed when selling.
