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August 23, 2025 17 mins

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00:05 – The 2 types of agents destroying vendor management: 😈“Larry The Liar” and 🧔 “People Pleasing Pete” 

04:31 – Why Australians are paying the lowest agent commission fees globally

07:50 – Where are the highest and lowest commissions in Australia?

11:04 – Is Cold Calling Dying? 🤖 And other ways the industry is being disrupted by AI

14:26 – Etiquette for attending other agents’ open homes 

My Clearance Rate: 7/10 SOLD 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If there was a state of origin competition on real
estate commissions, melbournewould come last.
It doesn't make sense.
One of the things I want totouch on today is the two real
estate agents.
I don't like the two realestate type of people.
I dislike One's good and one'sbad, but I don't like either,

(00:22):
because both of them lackcapability and both of them
cause problems to the realestate market and both of them
cause suffering to vendors.
Let me run through the twoagents.
The first one is the liar.
The liar is the one thatblatantly tells an owner their

(00:42):
house is worth more than what itis.
This person causes a lot ofdamage.
This person distorts the viewof what the owner's plans are
going to be like in the futurebecause they're thinking that
they're going to get an extratwo, three hundred thousand.
This person is bad.
Right, this person's bad.

(01:03):
Not only is this person badbecause they destroy an owner's
original campaign and you neverget a second chance at making
good first impression.
But I've got to tell you Larrythe liar, as they call him, has
the worst, worst reputation inthe marketplace and I've got to

(01:24):
tell you every area has got aLarry the liar.
The second agent that I don'tlike is the people pleaser.
He's not Larry the liar, right,let's call it Nice Nick.
I don't even know how I came upwith that acronym, nice Nick.

(01:46):
Nick wants everyone to be happy, everyone to be happy.
The owner says you know, weknow what our home's worth, we
know it's worth $3 million.
And you know what Nice Nicksays yeah, it is, it's beautiful
.
You want to know why?
Because Nice Nick is a peoplepleaser and I want to let you
know.
The consequences of a peoplepleaser is not too different to

(02:10):
that of Larry the Liar, and thereason why is that both agents
leave a vendor to believe.
Listen, I'm not going tocomment on that person, right,
but I've got to say to you thereare plenty of people pleasers
and there are plenty of Larrythe Liars.
Now, a people pleaser, let'scall him, yeah, camera.

(02:31):
Let's call him People PleasingPete, beautiful.
Let's call him People PleasingPete.
So what actually happens isPeople Pleasing Pete tells an
owner yeah, I think you can getyour price.
Yeah, and then after the firstcouple of weeks, they're getting
feedback coming in, they'regetting the market talking

(02:55):
People pleaser Pete.
He doesn't go and tell hisowner hey, this is what the
feedback is they don't like that.
They don't like what you'vedone here.
They don't like the fact thatthey're going to have to put in
a new kitchen and bathroom,right, because the pleaser wants
everyone to be happy.
There's only one issue Keepthem happy during the marketing

(03:18):
campaign and I've got to tellyou you devastate them when the
property gets sold or on auctionday, because what's actually
happened is you people pleasinghas meant that they believed it
was all going to come good.
The best real estate agents Iknow have got the ability to
tell people the truth, whetherthe owners want to hear it or

(03:41):
not.
The best real estate people Iknow are able to deliver bad
news in a positive way.
The best people I know in realestate make data-driven
decisions.
They will look at the intelthat's coming through on
comparable sales during themarketing.
They will also be looking atthe buyer inquiry that is

(04:02):
happening physically.
Then they will back that upwith stuff from Ignite, which
gives them the data set.
They'll even go into chat, gptand have that data analyzed.
That's what the good ones aredoing and I've got to tell you
if you're a people pleaser or ifyou're Larry the liar, I've got
to tell you, you've got toshape up.
If you're Larry the lawyer, getout.

(04:24):
If you're Pete, the people,pleaser go off and do a course
on learning how to communicate.
Next, I've got to tell you realestate commissions.
I want to touch on that subjectfor a moment.
Let me give you an interestingfact.
Australia and the UK are two ofthe leading countries in the

(04:44):
world that have got the lowestreal estate commissions.
That's right.
Australia and the UnitedKingdom lead the way in the
lowest commissions, and I haveto say to you there's a reason
why that actually happens.
Right, if you go to certainplaces in the world, we're
talking about 6%, we're talkingabout 7%.

(05:08):
Right, 6%, 7% commissions.
I've got to say to you it'sreally simple.
Here is why the commissions inAustralia are probably one of
the lowest in the entire world.
Number one it has a strongauction culture.

(05:30):
What that means is that days onmarket are condensed into being
shorter periods of time.
Hence, if you're working lesstime, you get paid less money.
The second reason is thatAustralia has a very unique
principle with marketing, andit's called vendor paid

(05:55):
advertising, and what that meansis that the vendor is actually
carrying the cost of theadvertising, whereas if you go
into other countries, ie the USA, you will find that the real
estate agents absorb theadvertising and marketing costs

(06:16):
and what they do is in turn,sort of integrate it into their
selling fee.
Let me give you another reasonwhy Australians are paying the
lowest fees in the world, andthat is our prices overall are
very high, particularly inSydney.

(06:38):
So if you look at ourpercentage say 1.5% on a $3
million property, that's quitedifferent to actually say 3% in
another country of a $500,000property.
So the cost of real estateaffects the commission you're
going to get if you're using apercentage fee.

(07:00):
The next reason why real estatecommissions are lower in
Australia than anywhere else isthat in many countries the
buyer's agent is also paid forby the vendor.
That's right.
There is two sides there's thebuyer's agent's commission and

(07:24):
there's the listing agent'scommission, right?
So all of a sudden you turnaround and you start saying to
yourself oh, there's validreasons why.
Look, in some countries it cantake a year to sell a property.
That's why the fees are higher.
But I want to go dig deep, lower, and what I've done is a bit of
an analysis of real estatecommissions in Australia and let

(07:46):
me run through some interestingdata.
The highest commissions as apercentage in Australia are in
Queensland.
The lowest commissions inAustralia as a percentage are in
Victoria and specificallyMelbourne.
In Melbourne it is quite normalto see real estate agents

(08:11):
charging fees of 1% to 1.5% andthen Sydney's only just ahead of
Melbourne in real estatecommissions.
But I've got to tell you thebig difference is that Sydney
prices are significantly higherthan Melbourne prices.
So even if you've got you know,so even if you've got you know,

(08:32):
1% in Melbourne is a lot morelucrative than 1%.
Sorry, 1% in Sydney is a lotmore lucrative than 1% in
Melbourne.
But I've got to say to you,I've got to say to you that as
far as I'm concerned, when youlook at Perth, adelaide, the
rest of the places aroundAustralia and Perth and Adelaide

(08:52):
have probably got higher feesand they're probably more like
1.5% to 2.5%.
That's Perth, south Australia.
In Queensland.
I can tell you there are realestate commissions up to 3%.
I actually know people evenmore.

(09:12):
But if there was a state oforigin competition on real
estate commissions, melbournewould come last.
It doesn't make sense.
How is it possible that you'vegot Sydney as the highest median
price, then you've got Brisbane, then you've got Perth, then
you've got Adelaide and then ontop of that, you've got the
lowest commissions in Melbourne.

(09:33):
So I'm trying to work out howdid we end up here like that in
Melbourne?
How did we end up here and Ican only make the assumption
that it is a very muchindustry-led result, that what's
happened is that real estateagents have actually cut, cut,

(09:56):
cut and it's been a race to thebottom.
Look, there's so many thingsthat need to get sorted.
I've been spending a lot oftime in Melbourne and I can't
understand how Melbourne that'sgot so many of the big
corporates, how Melbourne hasgot so many great institutions,
education facilities, howMelbourne has got incredible

(10:17):
migration.
Such a diverse city is now notonly under Sydney, under
Brisbane, under Perth, underAdelaide.
Man, between those taxes andbetween the exodus that happened
during COVID from Victoria toQueensland, I think that that's
been the biggest driver of thefact that median gone down.

(10:39):
But I think real estate agentshave pretty much just gone in
and not defending their fee andshowing value, so it doesn't
make sense.
However, I've said it and I'llsay it again Melbourne is
underpriced.
Melbourne is good value.

(11:04):
Let me move on, and I want tolet you know that there's major
changes happening as we speak,apart from the AI impact to real
estate agents, and that is thatbuyers and sellers are going to
chat GPT.
Yes, you're right, richie,taxes on top of taxes, hey Aaron
.
So yes, I've got to say to you,we've got chat GPT that is

(11:28):
driving buyers and giving themtransparency and working out
what a property is worth, andthat's outstanding considering
all the fuss we've had withauctions and price guides.
Yes, we have vendors that aregoing and selecting which agents
that they're going to call toan appraisal using AI.
Yes, we have so many things.
But in addition to that, there'sanother thing happening in the

(11:49):
background and that is Salescalls.
It's changing.
Every update we have with iOSand Android is bringing in
cleaner features to stop peoplegetting sales calls and having
canvassing done.

(12:10):
There is screen callinghappening now and that, to me,
is basically saying the oldmodel of just doing cold calls
to get appointments is dying.
I'm telling you, do I thinkthat phone calls and database is
over?
No, I think that a fat databasewith a very low connection with

(12:36):
the agent, that they're notacross their database.
They haven't gone deep.
If you've just gone very broadbut not deep you're going to
suffer.
I suppose what I'm saying iswe're about to see something
really interesting happen inreal estate.
Hello, peter, from Glyfada, I'mletting you know I will be back

(12:57):
in Greece at your office inOctober and I am letting you
know I'm heading to London formore conferences in October.
I'm heading to Bulgaria for amajor conference.
I think there's thousands thatare going to be there and I'm
really looking forward to that.
But I'm telling you now FAT isout, fit database is in.

(13:21):
Have not meant cold data is out, have meant warm data is in.
Get close to your database,because we're about to see the
weak disappear in real estate.
We are changing.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Tommy, are you going to theSydney FC Australian match
versus Auckland?

(13:42):
David, can you tell me whattime it is and where it is?
Malcolm Quinn, if the Tigerswin every game, they can sneak
into the eight.
I'm telling you.
I'm telling you now.
There's no artificial lightright there.
I've got to say to you, mel,tomorrow all roads lead to
Leichhardt Oval.

(14:02):
I'm leaving my home at 2o'clock, I'm putting on the
V-neck jersey with the Philipsand I'm heading straight to
Leichhardt.
I'm going to go there and I'mgoing to come back with two
points and a win.
I know that, ladies andgentlemen, that's what's
happening.

(14:23):
Last thing I want to touch on.
Last thing I want to touch on Ihad a real estate agent walk in
today just trying to find outwhat's going on in the market
competitive offers and I shot avideo on it.
It happens one, two, threetimes, two times last week.

(14:46):
It happens all the time.
Real estate agents walk in andthey look at an auction right
and what actually happens isthey go back to the office and
they tell their agent oh, thathouse in Excelsior Street sold
for two and a half right,product knowledge.
I get that, even though, havingsaid that, you can get the data
on realestatecom and online byMonday.
You can get the data.

(15:07):
So there's really notnecessarily that much need, but
I get it.
You want to go see what's goingon.
I want to see who's bidding.
Get your product knowledge.
Listen if.
Thank you, david.
7.30 pm, jubilee Stadium I'll bethere.
I'll be there.
I'll be going to the game.
I've got an option at 6.30 andI'm going to leave the option
and I'm going to go straight tothe game and I'm going to watch

(15:27):
Sydney FC.
But I've got to say to you ifyou are an agent that goes to
other agents' options to getinformation, that's fine, be
respectful, walk in.
Hi, I work for the office upthe road.
Do you mind if I have a quickskip in?
Quick, look, great, fantastic.
Do you mind if I just watch andsee how it goes?

(15:47):
Do that?
Stay away, no need to talk toanyone, like some agents do.
Oh, they grab the attention ofa buyer.
They start talking to them.
That owner has paid big moneyto have their auction.
They don't need another agentwho's not a listing agent, who
hasn't signed a contract torepresent that vendor.
They don't need that person tobe there.
And, quite frankly, I actuallyget really concerned when I see

(16:09):
an agent at an auction atanother property that shouldn't
be there, because I think thatsometimes they actually might be
talking the buyer out frombidding on that property to try
and sell them something else.
That's bad form, it stinks.
Last couple of things 23rd and24th, ladies and gentlemen,
invite only for my real estategym plus members and my

(16:31):
accountability group.
I'm letting you know we'regoing to Byron Bay, you're
coming to my hometown to spendtwo days to actually learn how
your brain works, to learn howeffective business unit teams
work.
We're going to do everything onAI, but I'm letting you know
this ain't a Netflix show.
This is going to be actualexperiential learning Small

(16:53):
group.
You can't hide.
I'm letting you know my realestate A-plus members are coming
in, obviously free of charge,so look out for it.
And I'm so pumped about ByronBay some amazing speakers.
We've got Rubenstein McGrath,lahood team, big names, names

(17:16):
more speakers to come.
Good to see you everybody.
And, on that note, it's time tohead off.
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