Real estate agent tips for navigating a slow market with Tom Panos

In this episode of the Property Collective Podcast, Stacey Fairclough talks with popular Australian real estate, coach and trainer, on how real estate agents can best navigate the current property market. 

Tom also talks us through his top strategies for coming out on top even when the market is slow.

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Transcript

Stacey: 0:55

Kia Ora Koutou and welcome to the property collective podcast brought to you by Relab. I'm your host, Stacy Fairclough content manager here at Relab. And today i'll be joined by my co-host Knight Hou CEO and co-founder of Relab. In today's episode, we talk with popular Australian real estate, coach and trainer, Tom Panos on how to best navigate the current shaky waters of the property market as an agent. Tom details his strategies for coming out on top, even when the market is slow. And, shares some of how Australia's best agents are finding the silver lining in amongst the chaos. Let's get started. Can you start with a bit of background on what you've been seeing in the Australian market over the last six to 12 months? Just for some context on what you're seeing and how it relates to New Zealand.

Tom: 1:47

Okay. Thank you so much, Stacy. I just wanna let you know everyone that as far as I'm concerned, we've just gone from nuts to normal and that's the position you've gotta take. We've gone from nuts to normal. We've been on a freeway doing potentially 250 kilometers an hour, and then all of a sudden we've slowed up and we're. You know, 130, 120 Ks an hour. And, and we're comparing to what it was like during the COVID period, which was a, a crazy period. But in fact, I have to say to you, we are moving to really what a normal real estate market is. And normal real estate is you got vendors here and you've got buyers here that is normal real estate. It's not normal to have the vendors coming on the market and selling their property in, in a day's time. And don't get me wrong. I realize we have headwinds that are hitting us, whereas we've come from having headwinds behind us supporting us. I understand that. But what I will say is this. There's a great saying when the tide goes out, that's when you're gonna work out, who's been swimming with their swimmers on and who's been swimming naked. And a lot of fake agents are being exposed in this market. Right? So what I'm seeing is this real estate agents that know how to list by not overpricing, but actually selling a good process. Are doing okay. Real estate agents have got the ability to tell vendors what they need to hear, not what they'd like to hear are doing. Okay. So you need to be able to have good, strong, crucial conversations, and you are gonna have to learn how to deliver bad news in a positive way. That is something you're gonna have to get really good at in addition to. Let me just say that what I am seeing is that real estate agents that are very vendor management oriented that are speaking to their current clients on a regular basis, probably a touchpoint every day. Yeah, Stacy, those agents they're doing fine because there is still buyer inquiry there. It might not be nowhere near what it used to be, but as they say, when you adjust the price on a property, a magical buyer always appears there is always a buyer at the right price. So what am I seeing in summary? Last six to 12 months in real estate. Stacy is this real estate agents that are highly skilled, capable, and have accepted that they're in for headwinds. They're doing fine. They might not be doing great, but they're doing okay. Real estate agents who are unskilled, who have been riding the wave of the market, and haven't actually been improving their own skillset. They're the ones that are struggling at the moment, Stacy.

Stacey: 4:42

And are you seeing any difference into what's happening with the high end product property market versus the average to lower end property market? Like we are seeing that a bit in New Zealand where there's quite a, a difference in the price drop in different markets.

Tom: 4:58

What are you saying? Is it, is it, is it stronger at the higher end?

Stacey: 5:01

Yeah. Yeah. There hasn't been much of a change in the higher market.

Tom: 5:04

Yeah, so it's exactly the same in Australia. It's exactly the same in Australia. And it appears that the prestige end of the market, there is an abundance of buyers still lining up. They're ready to go. They've got money to spend and because of inflation, where labor and materials have gone through the roof, and it's really expensive to renovate what you're also seeing is high end homes that are been brilliantly built that need no renovation at. They've been totally unaffected by this market, Stacy. And the reason why is the average buyer knows if I'm gonna go buy something that needs renovating, it's gonna mean that I'm gonna have to end up getting involved with the pressures of trying to find a builder, and then everything's gonna go over budget because everyone knows right now that the cost of building and materials is that it's all time highest. So a lot of buyers are turning around and they're just saying, you know, Stuff. It I'll just buy something that's ready, renovated. And that's why that end of the market is unaffected. In fact, what we're seeing is very clear and that is there is not one market. There is lots of submarkets that are operating at the one time. You've got certain segments of the market that are struggling example. You might find that units. Apartments flats, lower price end. They're struggling. Then you end up having blocks of land that are a very big block of land. They're still being sought after because people know you. They're not building land anymore. Unrenovated houses that are, that are in average conditions, they're being punished by this market. They're being punished unless they're priced, right. They're not selling essentially what I'm saying is bad stock is not selling good stock. Everyone's on the good stock. So all the buyers have shifted and they're all fighting over the good ones. That's what we're seeing in the market.

Stacey: 7:20

The market has changed from seller's market to the buyers market can you take us through your top tips for agents when it comes to navigating a slower market?

Tom: 7:29

So when you're navigating a slower market, so maybe if it's okay, Stacy, I'm gonna run through, I I've, I've got a client in Australia called Colossi. Now Colossi wrote 51 million in gross commission. Last financial year. So, so July to June 20, 22, they did 50 million in fees. This is one real estate office. And what I wanna do is just share with you, maybe what are their five or six things that are non-negotiable in their business to try and navigate through these. Windy bumpy roses that we are facing the first thing is they're running two auctions. They're not running away from auctions. Auction is becoming still the preferred method for them to sell business. And the reason why is without putting a deadline on a property, you often find it just sits on the market and nothing happens. Whereas with a property, that's got an option deadline. It's a call to action. It's sort of saying to the market, we need you to make a decision by this day because after that this property might not be available. So you've got all these eyeballs that are focused on one property for a four week period. The second reason why they're running to auctions and what the good agents are doing in Australia right now and using auction is. When a property gets sold at auction, there's no cooling off period. So one of the problems at the moment we're having Stacy is that the people make an offer. It gets accepted and then they start getting cold feet. They're getting buyers remorse because they're reading in the media, the market's dropping interest rates are going up. Property prices are collapsing and they get scared and they pull out of the sale. And this is called in Australia. We call it rescissions. So I have to say to you, if you wanna reduce rescissions, Use the auction system, because when the hammer drops that property's sold, right? The third reason why they're moving to auctions is that auctions allow you to create vendor management. In a very compressed period at a high level. So essentially if you've got an owner that was thinking their home was worth a million, but it's only worth 900, the option process will help them accept the reality of the market far quicker. It'll do it in four weeks and it won't do it in four months. So days on market is an important key performance indicator in our business. And we clearly know that auction properties. Even if they don't sell at auction, this is very important. Even if they don't sell at auction have still got a lower days on market than a for sale property. Right. So if you were to use two weeks after auction as the date that you are gonna use as the final whistle to see what's got a better success rate auctions, always beat for sales. So rule number one is this run to auctions. Don't run away from auctions in this market. Number two, you're gonna have to become comfortable, being uncomfortable, having uncomfortable conversations right now. I'm letting you know that your vendors need you to tell them the damn. Right. I use a sentence Stacy that helps me have all my hard conversations with clients. And that is this. I might hurt you with the truth, Mr. Client, but I'm never gonna comfort you with a lie. And I think that every agent watching this has to learn how to deliver bad news in a good way. Maybe I'll rephrase that. You're going to have to learn how to deliver. Bad news in a positive way. You're gonna have to deliver that in a positive way, because I have to say to you that most vendors are gonna want more for their home than what it's worth. And your job as an agent is helped to get that vendor except the reality of the marketplace. So you've gotta detach. Emotionally, and you've gotta stop trying to protect vendors and their price. There are some agents out there that think that they've got this superpower, that's going to allow them to sort of just click their fingers and actually control the market. Markets are markets. They've got a brain of their own, right. You can't control a market. And I have so many agents, Stacy, like I do auctions myself and I'll go to an auction and the agent will say to me, Tommy, Tommy, we gotta do the right thing by these people. They're very nice people. And I'll just stare at'em and I'll say. What are you trying to say that the next people that were gonna go option aren't as nice. So we don't have to do a proper job for them. What, what are you trying to say? We do our best for every client and our best is to put'em through the process and to tell vendors exactly what the market's saying in feedback. And then the vendors can make a decision on what they're gonna do based on the advice we are giving'em from the buyer Intel. So you've gotta work really, really. At. Having good, crucial conversations, but work hard on the problem and soft on the people don't ever forget that if you ever go see a doctor, a doctor's gonna go off and say, here, let's have a look at the x-ray. There you go. You've got a fracture there and we need to actually address that there. They don't sit there and say, oh wow, you got a broken leg. Right. They're actually using data and they're using a third point and they're using references and they're. You know, information that they've received. So really x-rays basically in real estate is basically a comparable market analysis of what the market's doing. And that's what you do as an agent. The third thing I'm gonna say, Stacy, that the best agents are doing in Australia right now is that they are giving their vendors B I w best in the world's service. No vendor is ever gonna complain that I was over serviced by my agent. They just over service me. They don't complain about over servicing. So what does that look like? Every listing on the market in New Zealand needs the following. Number one, you need that client to get a weekly written report by Monday afternoon, once a week, a written report on what happened in the last seven days. In reference to their property. Number two, they need every Tuesday to have a vendor meeting a vendor meeting where you actually pretty much are summarizing what was said in the letter, but you need to have that preferably eyeball to eyeball face to face belly to belly. There is nothing more powerful than once a week having a vendor meeting. Now, if you can't physically see them, you do a video call. If you can't do a video call, you do a phone call, but you need to be speaking to your client. The third thing is you need to make sure that you are getting offers. You've gotta get offers from buyers and be giving those to the vendors. And the reason why is there's a saying low offers. They blame the market, no offers. They blame the agent. I'm gonna repeat that low offers. They blame the market, no offers. They blame the agent. So you're gonna have to get offers. And the fastest way to get offers is to simply ask for'em ask buyers for offers, simple things like this. Mr. Bayer, can I ask you what price on a contract would represent? Good value for you on this one or Mr. Client based on what you've seen so far, what's the number that would excite you on this property? All I'm saying, Stacy is you need to try and extract offers even if they're low, because offers shape the expectation a vendors gonna have on their. And the last one, Stacy, I'm gonna focus on, on what the best agents are doing at the moment. They're doubling down on buyer management. They're making sure now that they're allocating time on working with what I. A hot 25 buyer list. I'm gonna give everyone five or six questions that you must ask every buyer because you've gotta qualify and make sure you're working with high probability buyers. Let's go through the questions. Question number one. How long have you been looking important question? Not many buyers will buy a home on the first day that they're looking. So what you are trying to do is to find out where are they in the cycle of purchasing? Are they simply beginning the search where they're collecting information or are they well advanced into the search and they're ready to make an offer? So how long have you been looking is your first question? Your second question is, have you bid on anything? Important question, because if they've bid on something, they're a high probability buyer, they were ready to sign a contract if they were successful. So if you find a buyer that has been an unsuccessful bidder, you stick to them like a stamp sticks on an envelope. You don't let them go in this market. Number three, you've gotta ask buyers. Have you made any offers so far? Any buyer that's made offers is a high probability buyer. And in this market, Stacy, we need to be working with buyers that are gonna be making decisions. And I know what many of the agents have done in the last one or two years. They stopped worrying about buyers because the market was putting the deals together. I know what it was like. Fear of missing out was doing all the sales for you. But guess what team that's gone fear of missing out has been replaced by fear of overpay. Buyers are scared that they're gonna pay a price today. And in three months time, the property's gonna be worth less. And that's why I'm saying, if you find a hot buyer that needs to buy you, stick with them. The next question is. What's the best time you've seen so far. I love that question because sometimes buyers can't articulate what they want, but when they tell you the home they've liked, you can work out as an agent. The things that they're into the next question is if you like that home so much, why didn't you buy it? Good question. What's stopping you. If you found a house you like from moving to the next. Then the last question and I'd like you all to brain enter to this question and to use your own tone, your own body language on asking it, Mr. Byer or Mrs. Byer or miss Byer. If we found a home that you absolutely adore today, is there any reason why you couldn't move. This question is cutting through the crap. If they turn around and say, oh yes, we couldn't buy it because we haven't put our home on the market yet. And we need to sell that. Well, that's useful to know. That's useful to know before you go off and spend three hours driving'em around showing'em property. And it actually a good question to ask. Because it might give you a, a listing opportunity. And many people don't ever forget it. One of the biggest source of your listings team is gonna be working buyers because many buyers already own real estate. In fact, I would go to your database system, your CRM, and I would create a category called buyers who own real. They're gold. Not only are they a potential sale, but they're also a likely listing if you service, these people will. So Stacy they're probably the things that the best agents at the moment are doing to cope with this market. They're highly intelligent in the way they're showing property, too. If they've got an appointment at a property at four o'clock, they'll make sure they've lined up another buyer to be at the property at four 15. Because you want to create social proof. You want to create competitive pressure and please don't forget team. What do we do in real estate? We're competition creators. That's what we do in our business. We create competition. We get paid for creating urgency, even when there's no urgency in the market. Ask yourself this question today. Are you an order taker or are you a deal maker? Cause I've gotta say to you, if you're an order, take. You're gonna get devastated by this market. It's very unforgiving, Stacey. That's probably the main things I've, you know, I've noticed, but I have to say, unfortunately, gang. You still gotta bring the listings in. And I know that it's getting easier to list property at the moment because we've moved from a high absorption market to a low absorption market. And we're about to hit spring and spring. We know we get an influx of listings and I've gotta say to you, my friends that in spring, we're gonna be in a situation where we're gonna have an oversupply of. They're gonna have a lot more competition, but Stacey, you've gotta keep prospecting. And the reason why is the list to sell ratio is changing. The list to sell ratio is changing. Not every probably that's listed gets sold. Now they expire. They get withdrawn. The owners decide to keep it. But Stacy, they're probably the main things. I suppose what I'm saying is go pro make the decision to go pro in this market. Yeah. Fantastic.

Stacey: 22:09

I like, I like how you talk often in your like Instagram, Facebook videos. A lot about what health and wellbeing where do you see health and wellbeing making a difference to an agent's overall success?

Tom: 22:22

Okay. So I wanna let you know that I can speak about this subject from a position of. Right. I've been working in real estate for 35 years. This is my 36 year out of the 36 years. Stacy I've also had cancer for 17 of those 36 years. So pretty much half, half my half the time, you know, I've had on ongoing battle with lymphatic cancer, but I'm pleased to let you know, as we speak right now, I'm in. Re total remission. And I've got what is called N E D no evidence of disease. So there are three times I've had cancer three times and I've had cancer treatment obviously for three times. And the cancer treatment involve chemotherapy, radiation stem, cell antibody. You name it. In fact, I've been one of the strugglers with the long COVID though. Thank God. That seems to have resolved itself in recent times because I was immune compromised, but essentially real estate. I'm telling you again, you're gonna go from the Heights of exhilaration to the depths of depression in 24 hours. you are the product in real estate. You've gotta work harder on yourself than the job you are. The job you are, the product it's too hard. It's too. To be listing and selling real estate and having chemotherapy, obviously it's too hard to be listing and selling real estate and having low levels of energy. It's too hard to be listing and selling real estate and making, you know an impact in your marketplace, but at the same time, suffering depression or. So, I suppose what I'm saying is you've gotta make health an absolute priority. You've basically got to make sure that you are sleeping well, that you are eating well and that you are moving well. I'm gonna repeat that again. The three non-negotiables you've gotta sleep well. You've gotta eat well and you've gotta exercise. Well, I find if you do those three things, you are allowing yourself to have a long, sustainable life in real estate, because whilst when not, not digging holes or collecting garbage or working as a chef hand, that can be really physically draining. I tell you what we are. We are on an emotional rollercoaster ride every day. Think about a team you wake up on the first day of every month, and there's a gum pointing to the back of your head saying, get listings or you won't eat. It takes a special person to be able to handle that. The ability that there's no certainty in your income. And that's why I say please make sure that you make health a bigger priority than your work because health is wealth. That's my view on it.

Knight: 25:24

Hey, I've got a question. If I'm a new real estate agent who joined the market last year, right? I've sold maybe one or two properties last year because FOMO helped this year. I've got no database, no profile, no listings. Tom, what is your advice for an agent such as me?

Tom: 25:42

Okay. So the first thing I'll say. Is, I would say number one, my first bit of advice is tell your family or the people closest to your life that you're gonna say goodbye to them for the next 12 months. You're gonna essentially not be around as much for the next 12 months. And the reason why is you are going to have to work really long and hard. Right. You're gonna have to work really long and hard. And I'm talking about getting in early, working harder and staying later. So number one, I would say sign in for hard work. Number two, I would say you've got to speak to more people in the market than any other competi. You've gotta make the phone, your best friend, right. It's basically gotta be sitting there like that. Just having it glue to your ear. So I would say aim night to be having 20 quality conversations per. With people who own real estate, that's a hundred a week. That's 400 a month that works out to being 5,000 a year. Number three, what you wanna do is do everything every day. To build your personal brand every day, do things that are helping your brand become attractive. You want to become an attraction agent. There's a saying, it's not who, you know, it's who knows you. right. So what you need to do is both with digital and traditional build your personal. there is no more blind dates in business. People are Google stalking you all the time. They're going onto social media and they're doing a social media interview. So you've gotta make sure that all your assets online are 10 outta 10. The next thing I would be doing to an agent that's only made two sales last year and has no database and really is at the start of their career. I. Go out and I would door knock and I know people hate it because you know, rejection is is a challenging thing for most people. But do you realize by door knocking, you're actually meeting eyeball to eyeball with people in your community, who is your audience? And all you wanna do is start building a relationship and I'm gonna give everyone a big. Stop looking at your marketplace as prospects and start looking at'em. As students, when you look at your marketplace, as students, you start educating them. You add more value to them. You are teaching them about what's happening in the market. When you are treating your audience as prospect. You're always selling to them. You use commission breath in all your communication, which is not a good thing. We don't like commission breath in real estate. And the last thing night I would say is make the decision to go pro. And become highly trained, learn every script or dialogue there is in the marketplace. Learn every strategy. Every process learn. Every, every technique that agents are using to win market share. And the reason I say it is if you are listening to this, please remember if you are good enough at rugby, you'd be playing for the all blacks that you're not you're here. If you are good enough. In the world of acting, you might have had your own Netflix special, but you wouldn't be here. The fact that you are here says to me, you're a real estate agent, make the decision to be the best agent in your marketplace. You've gotta go pro you've gotta make the decision on this. Are you interested in real estate or are you committed to real estate? They're the things I would a, I would say.

Knight: 29:54

That that is gold. That is absolutely gold. Tom, I, I remember watching one of your videos either on Instagram or LinkedIn, where you were really, really sick earlier this year, you're in hospital, but you are still given everyone just a message to say, look after yourself, your family, your health. So what drives you, Tom? Why do you do things that you do every day and are trying to strive for.

Tom: 30:19

so that's change night. So in the fir I'm, I look at life night as having the morning of life. And the afternoon of life, the morning of life is the first part of your working life. You're hungry. You are hustling, you are chasing you. You are a closer, right? You're always, you're always on the hustle. And then you get to a certain stage where. Whatever your driver was. And for me it was money. It was money because I don't come from money, but I wanted to have money. Cause I thought to myself, that money would actually make you happier. And that was the first half of life. The second half of life is you get the money and you realize I'm not gonna run out now. But what actually happens is you start actually realizing that. There's longing for something better. For something more that you are, that you are driven, not necessarily by upgrading to the latest Tesla or, you know, sitting at that next great restaurant, because all those things only give you short term happiness. They're good. When they're new, you're looking for something deeper. You're looking for something that is not short term happy, but long term joy. And for me, that has been about making an impact. So in the second half of my life, the afternoon of life, and I know it comes across a bit negative night, afternoon, meaning, oh shit. Does that mean we are coming to the end of life, but listen, basic mathematics. I'm 55 years of age. I'm already halfway through my life. I'm probably two thirds into my life with only a third to go. And I think what happens is when you reach the afternoon of life, you start looking for other things. And for me, it's. Can I reduce the suffering of another person? Can I actually create something that will make life better for another person? And the way life has fallen, whether it's been intentional or it's been an accident? All I've gotta say to you. It's real estate that I've ended up falling into real estate training. And that's why, when you said you saw that message out of hospital. When I was going in to get a bronchoscopy into my lungs, because I've struggled with with long a cop COVID two times in four weeks, and I had the, the Delta strain and the Amicon strain in a four week period. And that had an impact in my lungs. So when I was sitting there shooting that video, it was a constant reminder to everyone, including myself that, Hey, listen. Bad things do happen tough times do happen, but your current situation is not your final destination. Look after your health. Hold on. I think a lot of the messages that I was trying to sort of suggest by that post is that. The highest form of wealth is your health. So don't compromise that on your journey to becoming wealthy in real estate. You know I think that's the message, but that's what drives me. My drives me making an impact. I don't get me wrong. I still wanna make an income, but I can make an income while I make an impact. It's possible, you know? Stacey I'd love to leave everyone with, with probably one other thing. And that is you've gotta learn to build an irresistible unstoppable listing presentation. If you wanna survive in real. And the reason I say it is if you are winning listings now by overpricing them. You're gonna have a lot of problems because you are gonna become an antique store, not a real estate store. You're gonna end up collecting all these listings. They're gonna be sitting in your office and nothing is gonna be selling

Knight: 34:14

Tom, that's so true. And this is a real story. Me and my team were presented, you know, relapse and our data product to, to an agency recently. And when I was saying that our data actually helps you to tell the story of the market and you should present this as part of your appraisal. Someone laughed at me saying that clearly you're not a real estate salesperson because this is how you lose listings, not win listings.

Tom: 34:38

So Knight, here's my view. My view is the data driven agent is the agent that's gonna win in this. Right. And the reason I say it is consumers are highly intelligent. Now long is gone. The agent that's fast talking high pressure. Intimidating looks like they've got the gift of the gab, and I'll tell you who people are attracted to. An agent that has got a very calm approach that has got data that validates what they're saying. That is a problem solver that is not being pushy and soy, and is in fact a very good analyzer of information, providing that information to a client and saying what this suggests is that we should be doing this. Does that make sense? Make data, your best friend, make data, your best friend. And in fact, that's a big strength for everyone on here. Cause if you can't beat someone on experience, beat them on product knowledge, beat them on data that's and most importantly, beat them by out, caring out care, the competition out care, the competition,

Stacey: 35:55

Thank you, Tom, for all your advice and I'm sure everyone learned a lot. I did myself, so thank you so much.

Tom: 36:02

Thank you so much. I'm looking at my red battery. Thank you. Relapse much. Appreciate it. I'm looking at the red battery on my laptop and it's sort of saying to me it has like seconds to go.

Stacey: 36:13

That is all good. I'll wrap it up here. And that's a wrap. Thanks to my cohost Knight Hou and my incredible guest, Tom Panos for his insights on how to turn your real estate business around in a tough market. Thanks so much for tuning in. Mā te wā.