The Estate Agent - August 2015

THE JOURNAL OF THE REAL ESTATE INSTITUTE OF VICTORIA

REIV.COM.AU

RECORD HIGHS Median house price cracks $700,000 MEMBER NEWS Industry veterans reach milestones

THE ESTATE AGENT AUGUST 2015 VOLUME 79 NO.3

Agent vs principal: the choice is yours

Auctioneers under hammer

The decision to manage or work for an agency

Tom Roberts reigns supreme

Get organised and prioritise The importance of work-life balance

Jewels in the Crown Experts ready to share vast wealth of knowledge during Connect conference

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Contents

14 ‘This year’s conference features an impressive line-up of international and local keynote speakers’ Enzo Raimondo

Cover story EXPERTS SHARE VAST WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

Features

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Focus on apartment planning As Melbourne grows, so does the demand for quality, apartment-style living

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Roberts reigns supreme Tom Roberts emerges as REIV’s top auctioneer, besting one of the largest fields in years

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Agent vs principal: the choice is yours Whether to manage or work for an agency is a question that arises for many agents

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Get organised or pay the price Establishing the right work-life balance is an important skill for many agents

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Shedding light on a growing concern Drug manufacturing in rental properties is an increasing problem, putting property managers at risk

What to expect at this year’s REIV Connect Conference

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34 The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Contents

5

President’s Report

7

CEO Report

9

Bulletin

12 Market Update 20 Privacy Issues 30 Profile 33 Late Lunch 36 Events Calendar

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38 Member News 40 Training 41 Best Practice 42 Obituary

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38 36

EA

Publisher REIV 335 Camberwell Rd, Camberwell, Victoria 3124 Editor Paul Bird pbird@reiv.com.au

Advertising Rick Fiedler rfiedler@reiv.com.au 9205 6654

THE ESTATE AGENT

Estate Agent is published by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.

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The Estate Agent â?˜ August 2015

The views and opinions expressed in articles and columns of Estate Agent are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria

President’s Report Geoff White Acting President REIV

Market continues to grow, as does policy environment

H

igh auction numbers and strong clearance rates have continued across the state over the past three months.

In fact, in the first half of 2015 Victoria recorded the highest number of auction sales for any six-month period in the state’s history, with just over 13,000 homes selling at auction.

This figure was up from 12,400 for the same period in 2014 despite there being significantly less stock on market this year.

With an increase in buyer demand, Melbourne’s outer-ring suburbs – traditionally the domain of private sales – have been the main growth driver with auction sales increasing 20 per cent to 2263 auctions, up from 1879 for the first half of 2014.

The strong auction market has also been the subject of some media speculation of late, with commentators claiming Melbourne’s growing property market may be overheated.

While demand continues to outstrip supply, as it currently does, bolstered by low interest rates, the market is expected to remain solid for some time.

The strong market is not only positive for agents, but for government, which benefits from revenue flows from the market in the form of stamp duty payments. Within this environment we continue to work closely with the State Government on key policy areas that best reflect members’ interests and needs.

One of these areas is the current expansion in the number of apartments in Melbourne. Planning Minister Richard Wynne recently announced a Better Apartments review to consider a range of aspects in relation to positive apartment design. The review is particularly timely and will look at aspects such as light, ventilation and general liveability for apartment projects not only in Melbourne but statewide.

In demand: In the first half of 2015, Victoria recorded the highest number of auction sales for any six-month period in the state’s history.

I have been directly involved in Docklands apartment sales and know first-hand the importance good design plays in generating high property values and rental returns. Victoria’s

I have been directly involved in the Docklands apartment sales and know first-hand the importance good design plays in generating high property values and rental returns population is also on an upward trajectory with an estimated 7.7 million set to call the state home by 2051.

Interstate migration, currently at its highest in 40 years, will also contribute towards our growing population, placing pressure on existing housing and infrastructure.

Medium and high-density apartments will be an important part of the housing mix in accommodating an additional 100,000 people a year.

The REIV sought member feedback on apartment design and minimum standards before submitting a policy document to Government late last month. We were also pleased to recently hear from Minister Wynne at a planning forum held in the REIV’s Camberwell offices, attended by a large number of members with interests in the planning portfolio generally. Discussions ranged from apartments through to the local government and state government planning schemes.

Other policy work by the REIV includes a focus on the investment sector, with legislation covering residential rental properties currently being assessed.

Continued on page 6

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

5

President’s Report

Continued from page 5

The review of the Residential Tenancies Act will be ongoing through to mid-next year, and will involve consultation with a range of stakeholders including our property manager members.

One consideration involves the potential for longer-term tenancies – beyond five years – under the Act. The REIV believes this may have unintended consequences for agents, which will be highlighted in our response to the review. There is also industry concern that the RTA review will result in too much red tape, restricting choice for both landlords and tenants. The institute has participated in the first stage of the review with a submission to Government earlier this month. Stage two, the release of government Options Papers, is due to begin shortly.

State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is also due to present to members at a Southern Division lunch function at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club later this month. Minister Guy will use the event to outline the Opposition’s vision for Victoria and policy platform.

The past month has also been a busy period for the REIV with board elections underway. Three board positions are available – two in metropolitan Melbourne and one in regional Victoria. Members will have received ballot papers with successful candidates to be announced in the coming weeks.

It was also good to see an excellent industry turnout for the REIV Charitable Foundation’s Late Lunch for Prostate Cancer.

Held at the MCG in June, the event raised $65,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and was

attended by almost 400 real estate professionals including myself. Guests were treated to an enjoyable afternoon with entertainment provided by Sam Kekovich, David Parkin and Greg Champion. A reverse raffle and 15 hot auction items ensured members dug deep for the number one cancer among Victorian men.

Member agents and agencies continue to strongly support this and other charities, and I commend those who give their time and financial assistance to these important causes, in the interests of the broader community good.

In closing, REIV President Ian McDonald has been unwell over the past month and is taking a short period of leave. Along with the REIV board, staff and broader membership, I wish Ian well as he recovers and hope for a speedy recovery.

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

REIV 1

CEO Report Enzo Raimondo CEO REIV

Great minds ready to think alike at Connect conference

I

t’s been an exciting June quarter for agents with good growth in house prices recorded across the state, especially in metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres within commuting distance of the city. It has also been a busy few months for the REIV with a new website launched and planning well underway for both our annual conference and Awards for Excellence.

Taking place early next month, this year’s Connect conference features an impressive line-up of international and local keynote speakers including North America’s No.1 broker, Dolly Lenz.

Lenz has sold more than US$1 billion worth of property during her esteemed career and is repeatedly sought after to sell some of New York’s most exclusive real estate.

Lenz is a great addition to what is an exciting list of keynote speakers which includes futurist Chris Riddell, mediasavvy agent John McGrath, entrepreneur Tom Potter, sales performance consultant Rob Hartnett, real estate coach Tom Panos and motivational speaker Robin Daubeny.

Attendees will undoubtedly gain some useful insights during the twoday conference which also features additional breakout sessions.

It was encouraging to see so many members turn out for the final of the REIV’s 2015 Senior Auctioneer of the Year competition with more than 100 in attendance. The competition standard was exceptionally high with winner Tom Roberts and runner-up Harry Li now set to represent Victoria at the Australasian Auctioneering Championships. This year’s transTasman competition will be held in Victoria, coinciding with our annual conference at Crown Casino on 2-3 September. It’s a great opportunity to see the best in the business from both sides of the Tasman and I urge members to come along and support our local participants. It’s also a chance

Popular: It was encouraging to see so many members turn out for the final of the Senior Auctioneer of the Year.

for budding auctioneers to pick up some valuable tips.

Entries are also open for our Awards for Excellence – the highlight of the industry’s event calendar. We had a record number of nominations last year and expect to receive a similar response this year with 30 awards available across agency, individual and marketing

Attendees will undoubtedly gain some useful insights during the two-day conference categories. Winners will be announced at a gala function on 22 October, held once again in the Palladium at Crown Casino. The REIV Awards provide a perfect opportunity to celebrate your agency’s efforts over the past year, and to network with like-minded agents at the industry’s premier awards night.

In other news, the REIV has launched its new website, replacing our presence at www.reiv.com.au. Offering an array of added features, the new site is accessible on mobile devices and will streamline payment for training and events, membership renewals,

stationery orders and a range of other resources. The revamped website also contains a more comprehensive Member Benefits section, enabling members to take full advantage of the many benefits of an REIV membership.

Professional development remains a key component of REIV membership and ensures agents are across industry changes and new legislation. The institute has revisited the allocation of CPD points, with members now able to accrue up to eight points for short training courses and events. With an emphasis on adding value, we are also establishing new training courses such as our VCAT seminar with lawyer and former VCAT member Bill Holloway.

The seminar will address five common mistakes property managers make which land them in trouble with VCAT. We will also be holding four indepth courses on the subject.

Also of concern for property managers is the increasing number of rental properties being obtained by criminals for the purpose of drug cultivation.

Last month, the REIV, in conjunction Continued on page 8

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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CEO Report

Continued from page 7

with Victoria Police, ran a seminar on ways to detect and prevent illegal activity within rented properties with a rise in the number of these houses detected across Melbourne in the past 12 months.

Regular inspections and establishing the validity of supplied identity documents are central to preventing this situation from escalating.

I recently attended the FIABCI 66th World Congress in Kuala Lumpur and was honoured to present on the subject of ethics within the industry.

It was an exceptional conference which saw REIV member Kevin Sheehan awarded the FIABCI Medal of Honour for his ongoing contribution to the International Real Estate Federation.

Kevin has been involved with FIABCI for 44 years during which time he has chaired a number of committees

and served as President of FIABCI Australia.

It was also fellow REIV member Robyn Waters’ last address as FIABCI World President.

I commend Robyn’s efforts as FIABCI President, which has seen her represent not just Australia but our state and the REIV so well on the international stage over the past 12 months.

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

Bulletin

SHEEHAN HONOURED Kevin Sheehan was acknowledged for his meritorious service to the International Real Estate Federation during the 66th World Congress of FIABCI held in May in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Having irst attended the 1971 World Congress held in Montreal, Sheehan’s ongoing involvement includes being an Educational Exchangee, President of Group 35 (the Young Professionals), Chair of several committees, Congress Chair for the 1988 World Congress held in Melbourne and President of the FIABCI Australia Chapter.

Relecting on his 44-year involvement, Sheehan recognises that FIABCI has changed with the times.

“Today, the structure is modern and diversiied which accommodates participation of a wide range of practitioners from within the many property related professions,” he says.

“Creating international business opportunities is a key focus of building global contacts, gaining knowledge, sharing information and providing education. Such initiatives as the World Bank’s – Doing Business Collaboration, the United Nations Global Housing Compact, the International Property Measurement Standards and the International Ethics Coalition are challenging and meaningful involvements.”

PROPERTY CROWDFUNDING Crowdfunding investment in real estate is taking of in the US with a reported $100 million raised for hundreds of properties over the past year. While currently available to only accredited investors – a net worth of $1 million or annual income of $200,000 – the concept allows multiple investors to pool money and purchase equity in a property.

Several specialist irms in the US are catering to the increasing demand, ofering equity or debt real estate investment. Realty Mogul is one such irm, recently selling a 15 per cent stake in Hard Rock Hotel Palm Springs to 85 investors.

Similar crowdfunding models are already appearing in Japan, China and Canada.

Dedicated: Kevin Sheehan with FIABCI World President Robyn Waters.

Sheehan recalls the world came to Melbourne in 1988 for the Annual Congress and so often FIABCI members from far and wide still describe it as an outstanding Congress, noted for the auction ield day which reinforced Melbourne as the auction capital of the world. At that time, a South Australian development, West Lakes, was the inaugural winner of the Prix d’Excellence which is now the most prestigious annual property award in the world.

Sheehan recognises with pride the

EMERGENCY APP A new app will make it easier for emergency services to locate an individual in trouble. Developed by the National Triple Zero Awareness Working Group, Emergency+ will provide triple-

involvement of so many Australian practitioners in FIABCI since 1956, particularly the third Australian World President, Robyn Waters, who has just concluded her most dynamic year in oice.

Establishing lifelong friendships and business relationships are tangible beneits that have lowed from Sheehan’s FIABCI involvement, not only around the world but also throughout Australia.

Sheehan’s hope for the future is that more Australians will see FIABCI as their window to the property world.

zero operators with the latitude and longitude position, street, suburb and geographical location of the individual.

The app is free to download and is ideal for real estate professionals working alone.

NEW FIRE ALARM LAW New legislation relating to monitored automatic ire alarms has now been implemented by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Commercial agents and property managers who manage buildings with monitored automatic ire alarms need to be aware it is now an ofence to damage or interfere with a ire indicator panel or other apparatus that transmits the alarm signal to ire services without a reasonable excuse. This includes resetting the panel after a false alarm.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Bulletin

MORE PUBLIC HOLIDAYS The State Government has honoured its election commitment, introducing annual public holidays for Easter Sunday and AFL grand final Friday.

“The new holidays will deliver massive benefits across Victoria, boosting the state’s tourism and hospitality sectors,” says Gavin Jennings, Acting Minister for Small Business. Traditionally, grand final day has some of the lowest auction numbers of any Saturday, with 65 or fewer auctions held.

TRUST ACCOUNT AUDITING Consumer Affairs Victoria is reminding agents and conveyancers who manage trust accounts that audit reports for the 2014-15 financial year must be completed within three months after June 30 by an approved independent auditor. Auditors are required to use the audit form approved by CAV and agents are responsible for lodging a copy of the report within 10 business days of receiving it from the auditor. For further details, please visit www.consumer.vic.gov.au

NEW-LOOK REIV WEBSITE LAUNCHED The REIV has launched a new mobile adaptive website, offering a host of new features and greater user functionality.

The new site has replaced our previous digital presence at www.reiv.com.au and allows members

to complete a range of tasks online including registering and paying for events, accessing median data, checking acquired CPD points, renewing subscriptions and memberships and order stationery and other resources.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS MANY BENEFITS OF NEGATIVE GEARING A new report on the impact of negative gearing has revealed the tax benefit is helping to boost the supply of new homes, put downward pressure on prices and assist ordinary Australians in entering the property market.

Commissioned by the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) and the Property Council of Australia, the report – Australian housing investment: analysis of negative gearing and CGT discount for residential property – found a third of all new dwelling construction was financed by investors every year, 10

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

increasing supply of new housing. Two thirds of property investors who benefit from negative gearing earn a taxable income of less than $80,000 a year, with those earning less than $80,000 claiming the majority in 2012–13.

REIA CEO Amanda Lynch says the new report debunks myths surrounding negative gearing.

“This is middle Australia. 66.5 per cent of taxpayers who earn an annual income of up to $80,000 own 80 per cent of negatively geared properties,” says Lynch.

REIQ MAKES THE ONLINE MOVE TO REALESTATEVIEW Industry owned website realestateVIEW.com.au is now the preferred portal for REIQ members, after the acquisition of REIQ.com.

The new partnership provides REIQ members with national reach, hundreds of thousands of property seekers and more than 300,000 property and business listings. REIQ divested its online portal earlier this year in response to member feedback. “The existing REIQ.com portal did not achieve the outcomes we hoped and we also recognise that this is not our area of expertise.

The smart move now is to partner with a strong national portal, realestateVIEW.com.au, and get the best possible outcome for our members,” REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella says. realestateVIEW. com.au will transition all REIQ.com listings to its website over the coming months.

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Market Update

Melbourne prices soar to record highs Median house figure cracks $700,000 for the first time, led by booming growth in the city’s east and north-east

Full steam ahead: Melbourne’s housing market is showing no signs of slowing.

M

elbourne’s housing market remains strong, breaking several records in the three months to 30 June.

The city’s median house price surpassed the $700,000 price bracket for the first time in the June quarter, reaching $706,000 – a 5.2 per cent increase on the March quarter median price of $671,000.

Growth was widespread across the city, with the highest rise in inner Melbourne which recorded a 6.2 per cent increase to a record median house price of $1,239,500.

House prices in Melbourne’s middle ring were up 5.1 per cent to a June median of $827,500, while the city’s

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

outer suburbs rose 5 per cent to $525,500.

Much of the growth in middle Melbourne was in Melbourne’s east and north-east, with Templestowe and Glen Waverley recording the highest quarterly median price increase, up by 17.9 and 17.8 per cent respectively.

Balwyn North was close behind with its $2 million median house price up 17 per cent on March.

Mooroolbark in Melbourne’s outer north-east also saw significant quarterly growth of 15.5 per cent.

Ten Melbourne suburbs entered the million-dollar club for the first time in the June quarter, bringing the number of million-dollar suburbs to 78.

These included Heidelberg, Bulleen, Ashwood, Donvale, Doncaster East, Abbotsford, Vermont South, Hughesdale, Templestowe Lower and Blackburn North – all recording medians of $1 million or higher for the first time in the three months to 30 June.

An additional seven suburbs – Portsea, Eaglemont, Caulfield, Murrumbeena, Strathmore and Warrandyte – also returned to the million-dollar list in the latest quarter.

With the exception of Abbotsford, all first-time entrants are located in Melbourne’s middle ring, suggesting many of these new suburbs are benefitting from the ripple effect.

Market Update

High-density: Apartment prices increased across the city.

Buyers priced out of neighbouring areas, in particular inner Melbourne, are now looking farther out, which is pushing up prices in middle and outer suburbs.

Toorak retained its title of Melbourne’s most expensive suburb with a median house price of $3.4 million, up 3 per cent over March. House prices in Camberwell increased 12.7 per cent over the quarter to a median of $2,114,000 – the second highest in Melbourne.

Balwyn ($2,114,000), Balwyn North ($2,000,000), Brighton ($1,860,000), Kew ($1,860,000), Glen Iris ($1,842,500), Brighton East ($1,600,888), Malvern East ($1,599,000) and Mount Waverley ($1,331,500) round out the city’s 10 most expensive suburbs.

Apartment prices also increased across the city with the $520,000 median up 1.5 per cent on March and 4.1 per cent in the 12 months to 30 June. Suburbs showing strong apartment price growth across the quarter included West Melbourne with a 19.6 per cent increase, Clayton, up 18.7 per cent and Glen Huntley and Highett, up 17.9 per cent.

The first half of 2015 also recorded

Buyers priced out of neighbouring areas … are now looking farther out, which is pushing up prices in middle and outer suburbs

the highest auction sales of any sixmonth period in the state’s history with just over 13,000 homes sold at auction.

This was up from about 12,400 for the same period last year. Outer Melbourne was the big growth driver, with these suburbs seeing a 20 per cent year-onyear increase – to 2,263 auction sales this year from 1,879 for the same period in 2014.

Outer-Melbourne suburb Wantirna South saw a 100 per cent increase in the number of auctions held this year to 72, up from 36 for the same period in 2014. For the second successive year Reservoir was the state’s auction capital, while the most homes went to auction in Richmond – 230 with 186 selling.

The 10 most affordable suburbs for the quarter were predominately in Melbourne’s outer ring. Top of the list was Werribee, where house prices fell 1.7 per cent to a median of $309,500.

This was followed by Hoppers Crossing, Wyndham Vale, Cranbourne, Carrum Downs, Pakenham, Truganina, Deer Park, Cranbourne North and Craigieburn.

REGIONALS REPORT: LOW INTEREST RATES BOOST MARKET House prices in regional Victoria were up 6.3 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, buoyed by record low interest rates, new commitments to infrastructure and high interstate migration. Apartment prices also recorded a steady increase of 3 per cent over the year.

In the three months to 30 June, the regional market rebounded with the median house price of $346,000, up 1.5 per cent on March igures. However, apartment prices slowed during this period, falling 1.5 per cent to a median of $257,500. The Geelong suburb of Norlane saw the highest quarterly growth, increasing 7.4 per cent to $218,000.

The latest data shows varying levels of annual growth across the state, with Wangaratta in north-east Victoria performing the best. Despite a 4.3 per cent

fall in the June quarter, house prices in Wangaratta have increased 26.9 per cent over the year to a median of $330,000. This is followed by Geelong, up 21.5 per cent over the 12 months to 30 June to $580,000, and Canadian, up 19.5 per cent to $350,000.

Other towns recording signiicant annual growth include Yarrawonga, up 17.9 per cent, Epsom, 12.5 per cent, and Belmont, up 11.3 per cent.

While house prices in regional Victoria are considered afordable in comparison to Melbourne, several regional centres are rivalling their city counterparts.

Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula saw good growth of 7.3 per cent over the quarter, bringing its median house price to $811,000 – signiicantly higher than metro Melbourne’s median of $706,000.

This demand is also pushing up prices

in neighbouring Ocean Grove with house prices there increasing 4.7 per cent in the June quarter to $523,500. Other centres within commuting distance to Melbourne are also beneitting from the ripple efect including Newtown in Geelong ($625,000), Woodend ($605,000), Torquay ($602,000), New Gisborne ($575,000) and Gisborne ($552,500).

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Cover Story

Top experts share vast wealth of knowledge This year’s REIV Connect conference, at Crown Conference Centre on 2-3 September, features seven keynote speakers and a range of special-interest breakout sessions. It also coincides with this year’s Australasian Auctioneering Championships

T

he woman who has been described as New York’s broker to the super-rich will headline the REIV’s 2015 conference next month.

Dolly Lenz, the Bronx-born daughter of a Spanish immigrant, has been North America’s top-selling real estate broker eight times. She founded her own luxury real estate broking business in 2013 after 25 years as a senior real estate executive with Sotheby’s International Realty and Douglas Eliman.

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo says the institute was lucky to have signed Lenz as a keynote speaker, with Victorian

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

agents to benefit from her vast expertise and sales knowledge.

“Dolly Lenz has sold more than $US10 billion worth of properties in her career, including the recent sale of a $57 million triplex penthouse to Rupert Murdoch,” he says. “Having begun her career in the listings department of a small local agency, she is an inspiration to young agents and I urge all members to take advantage of this important opportunity to hear one of our industry’s success stories.”

Lenz is a charismatic speaker and a popular face on major US television

stations. She is a regular guest on CNBC’s Power Lunch, on Bloomberg TV, MSNBC and Fox News, and is a real estate commentator for leading publications such as The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. She also hosts CNBC’s Million Dollar Home challenge series.

Her consulting, sales and marketing firm has handled the sale of many of New York’s most notable properties, including the Ritz Carlton. While she is widely known for those sales and for her list of celebrity clients, about half her business is with foreign buyers,

Oc, opo Cover Story

John McGrath began his company as a lounge room start-up in 1988.

He is now regarded as one of the Australian property industry’s most influential figures

including heads of state and sovereign wealth funds.

Along with Lenz, keynote speakers include leading industry figures such as John McGrath, chief executive of McGrath Estate Agents, which sold more than $10 billion worth of residential property in the 2014 financial year, and News Corporation’s general manager of real estate sales Tom Panos.

Real estate coach and trainer Panos teaches agents how to attract business, not just chase it. His weekly video blog on how to be a million-dollar agent is distributed to 19,000 agents and Google ranks tompanos.com.au No.1 for real estate coaching.

He is also a leading auctioneer, a Sky News commentator and has a new, nine-week online training program aimed at catapulting those who undertake it into the top 1 per cent of agents in Australia and New Zealand.

The author of five bestselling books, including You Don’t Have To Be Born Brilliant, McGrath began his company as a lounge room start-up in 1988.

He is now regarded as one of the Australian property industry’s most influential figures, with offices throughout Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT. In 2008, the New South Wales Real Estate Institute presented him with a lifetime achievement award.

The conference’s five other speakers will cover a range of key areas such as sales performance, motivation and technology.

ROB HARTNETT Strategies to improve sales performance are Rob Hartnett’s specialty. The managing director of Selling Strategies International, he is an entertaining and inspirational speaker on sales, marketing and leadership. His bigname clients range from banks and state governments to fashion house

Ask the experts: Clockwise from top, John McGrath, chief executive of McGrath Estate Agents; digital futurist Chris Riddell; and sales performance specialist Rob Hartnett.

Calvin Klein, car manufacturer Nissan and leading legal firm Clayton Utz. Hartnett was in senior management at Apple and Hewlett-Packard before forming his international consultancy in 2005. Five years later, he was the No.1 sales consultant for leading international sales performance company, Miller Heiman – the first time a non-American has won this award.

Like many successful real estate agents, he has a background in elite sport and is a former world and state champion yachtsman. He draws on this experience in talking to clients about why winners win. His three books include Small Business, Big Opportunity, with 130,000 copies in print, and he is a sales performance expert on Channel Seven’s Kochie’s Business Builders.

ROBIN DAUBENY “It’s all in the mind” is an apt expression for this motivational speaker’s work. Another former elite sportsman, Daubeny has used his experience in the high-pressure sporting arena to help others create the positive mental attitudes needed for success.

Daubeny is a former Australian professional cycling champion and motivator to the Australian world professional cycling team. In 2007, he was appointed an Australian Institute of Sport consultant and worked with elite athletes, both on their performance and on helping them achieve success in life after sport.

Cycling Australia asked him to help Shane Perkins return to the sport and Daubeny is credited with the Continued on page 16

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

15

Cover Story

Great minds: From left, top-selling real estate broker Dolly Lenz will headline the REIV’s 2015 conference on 2-3 September; News Corporation’s general manager of real estate sales Tom Panos; Tom Potter, the founder of pizza chain Eagle Boys; and motivational speaker Robin Daubeny.

Continued from page 15

attitude turnaround that led to Perkins winning a 2011 world championship.

He managed VFL/AFL player Mark Jackson for 20 years – a pioneer in the player/manager business – and in 1997 he was called in to help AFL club St Kilda, which was on an 11-game losing streak, and played a role in a turnaround which took it to the grand final.

He came to this work from insurance: a 25-year career with National Mutual/ AXA during which he established sales and sales management records which have not been broken, taking three separate teams he started from scratch to the top in Australia and winning the company’s agency manager of the year award eight times.

His book, Sales Success, It’s All in the Mind, has been reprinted after selling out and over 25 years he has spoken all around the world.

Those who attend his motivating and entertaining presentations take away positive self-help ideas they can use to change their own behaviour and performance.

TOM POTTER Potter is another home-grown success story and an inspirational speaker with a down-to-earth style born of his beginnings as the founder of a successful pizza business, despite 16

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

leaving school at 15. He began an apprenticeship as a baker, but after finding himself unemployed at 23 he saw an opportunity in the pizza industry.

His Eagle Boys Dial-a-Pizza grew from his first shop, opened with his mother and business partner Barbara in Albury, to become a national franchising

of buyers and more apps to help us work smarter.

Digital futurist Chris Riddell, who has worked in senior positions for leading corporates – for example, he was the first chief digital officer for Mars in Australia and New Zealand – is an award-winning keynote speaker on digital.

‘Having begun her career in the listings department of a small local agency, [Dolly Lenz] is an inspiration to young agents and I urge all members to take advantage of this great opportunity’ – REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo

award-winning business, and Australia and New Zealand’s largest privately owned pizza company.

Radical change, innovation and sometimes unusual marketing and business tactics contributed to his retail and franchising success. The author of The Eagle Boys Pizza Story, he now helps others boost their results.

The country kid who left school with little education was chosen to give the valedictorian speech in his graduating class at Harvard Business School.

CHRIS RIDDELL The future of our industry is in transition, with technology increasingly influencing our lives and the way we work, a digitally literate new generation

He is also a trend-spotter and futurist – that means analysing the trends emerging from innovation and distilling them into clear messages for business, he says.

He gives immersive talks throughout the Asian region. These include storytelling, video and dialogue, and those who take part invariably leave energised. But Riddell is also out there advising a range of businesses from transportation to manufacturing, health care, finance and communications.

Riddell talks about developing and engaging digital strategy, keeping up with the pace of change and succeeding in a volatile world where people can connect wherever they are and whatever they are doing.

Oc, opo Cover Story

Review

Focus on apartment planning The growing Melbourne population has increased demand for the development of affordable, quality apartment-style living

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ith Melbourne’s population projected to reach 7.7 million by 2051, medium and high-density residential development will play a key role in accommodating an extra 100,000 people a year, Planning Minister Richard Wynne says.

He estimates an additional 480,000 apartments will be required in the next 36 years as the number of households in greater Melbourne almost doubles from the city’s 1.59 million in 2011.

Speaking at an REIV Valuations Chapter event last month, Wynne said the number of apartment developments had increased significantly in the past five years, with more Victorians opting for apartment-style living.

“The number of apartments being approved and built in Victoria makes up nearly one-third of all new dwellings approved across the state – more than at any time in our history,” he says.

This shift is reflected state-wide with large numbers of apartments built in middle and outer-ring suburbs as well as regional areas. Wynne says more than 14,000 apartments were approved last year, compared with about 4000 in 2007. The ongoing development of new apartments – an estimated 35,000 across Melbourne between 2015 and 2017 – has also raised the issue of quality and minimum standards. In May, the state government outlined proposed guidelines relating to apartment size, amenities and design.

“Good planning is the key to the vitality and liveability of the state, and while apartment design is crucial, affordability has to be at the heart of it,” he says. “There needs to be a balance between good design principles and achieving a financially viable project that meets our housing needs now and into the future.”

Of a sample of more than 10,000 apartments currently being marketed or constructed across the state, 52 per cent are two-bedroom, 43 per cent are

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

one-bedroom and only 5 per cent include three or more bedrooms. While Wynne is adamant the urban growth boundary won’t be moved to cater for a growing population, the government is looking for development opportunities within greater Melbourne. This includes roughly 650ha of land near Melbourne’s CBD incorporating Fishermans Bend, E-Gate, the Docklands and the ArdenMacaulay precinct in North Melbourne.

“There is demand for quality urban environments and there are opportunities for developments utilising clever design, a mix of product and a mix of affordability,” he says.

Wynne says Infrastructure Victoria, set to be operational later this year, as well as a significant commitment to public transport, will help ensure the state’s infrastructure can accommodate the growing population.

“The state is growing at a rapid pace and this will place restraints on existing infrastructure,” he says.

Infrastructure Victoria will operate as an independent statutory authority and be tasked with developing a 30-year

Growth area: Planning Minister Richard Wynne addresses REIV members.

plan which will be updated every three to five years. An investment in 24-hour public transport on weekends and the Melbourne metro are also designed to service the city’s long-term needs.

“It’s a $9 billion investment which will completely change the way the city works, double the capacity of the city loop and service the city’s growth areas,” Wynne says.

Review

The landscape has changed: Families and the elderly now make up a significant percentage of renters, with more tenants renting for longer.

Finding the right balance The rental landscape has changed dramatically, forcing the industry to re-evaluate the rights of both tenants and landlords

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he State Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, releasing a consultation paper in June.

The paper, Laying the Groundwork, aims to address the challenges of a changing rental market with almost a third of Australians now renting privately and more people renting for longer.

Traditionally the domain of younger people and students, in the past two decades there has been a significant shift in the demographic of renters with the fastest growing group of tenants now aged over 55.

As the number and proportion of households renting has grown, so too has the demand for property managers, driven by investors with a single rental property.

The review will focus on key issues affecting the rental sector and consider the viability of longer-term leases of five to 10 years and protections for people who are older, living with

disabilities and those who reside in caravan and residential parks.

Jane Garrett, Minister for Consumer Affairs, says the review will further strengthen laws which protect renters and guide landlords about their responsibilities.

“We’re making sure laws around renting strike a fair balance between the rights of people who live in a rental property and the people they rent those properties from,” Garrett said.

While families are the most common type of household renting privately – just under 39 per cent – the review revealed a 58 per cent increase in the number of private tenants renting in Melbourne between 1996 and 2011.

Female tenants continue to marginally outnumber males, making up just over

As the number and proportion of households renting has grown, so too has the demand for property managers

50 per cent of the private rental sector.

With more Victorians renting, the percentage of household income spent on rent has also increased. In 2011, about 38 per cent of all households renting privately paid more than 30 per cent of their income in rent, with the strongest growth in the proportion of households paying more than 50 per cent.

A final paper outlining the government’s proposed legislative and non-legislative reforms is due to be released next year.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Privacy

The danger of snap decisions People expect their homes to be a place of privacy – but there are more ways for an agent to expose a client than you’d think gents are privy to a lot of personal information but privacy requirements go well beyond data. Photographs used to market properties also have the potential for agents to fall foul of the rules. At issue is whether a person can be identified in a photograph, REIV corporate solicitor Peter Lowenstern says.

“That doesn’t just mean someone in the back yard hanging out the washing.

It applies to any element within a photograph that could identify a person,” he says.

Lowenstern says the Privacy Act applies to any small business with a turnover of $3 million or more in a financial year. “Most agents would fall within that category and would therefore need to comply,” he says.

“What that means is any information you collect that can identify a person must be handled according to the Australian Privacy Principles. You should ensure you have a copy of your privacy statement and collection notice ready for anyone who requests it.”

So, what’s covered under the law?

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Using drones The use of drones has made aerial photography a much more affordable option for agents to highlight the size and position of a property.

“While agents would generally use a professional photographer to capture aerial shots, they would retain the responsibility for complying with the law,” Lowenstern says. “If such an image shows a person who can be identified, or an item that could also lead to identification, it could infringe the privacy principles.

“Assets generally don’t fall into this category, so if there’s a nice car sitting in the driveway that, of itself, wouldn’t necessarily identify the occupants of the house. If the photograph shows the car’s number plate, however, that could be an entirely different thing.”

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

Time to focus: Agents need to be careful of identifying people when photographing inside and outside homes.

Lowenstern says the best option is to ensure all photographs are closely scrutinised. “If the image shows a person, it would be wise to blur that part. But, having said that, any photographs an agent obtains should be approved by the vendor before they’re used for a marketing campaign.”

Lowenstern urges agents to ask for items that could identify occupants to be removed.

“This is particularly important where there are framed photographs, or things like diplomas on the walls. It could also be something like a child’s school timetable on the fridge,” he says.

What about tenanted properties?

The rights of tenants and the privacy of their possessions for advertising was the subject of an inquiry this year by the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

The commission’s report upheld the principle that landlords and their agents should have the right to enter tenanted premises to take photographs for marketing campaigns but made several recommendations.

While tenants have expressed privacy concerns, the report recommended they put any objections in writing to stop particular items being photographed.

The report puts these in the broad categories of revealing the identity or sensitive information about the occupant, or placing an item of value at heightened risk of theft. The report also seeks for agents to give tenants at least seven days’ notice before entering premises to take photographs.

Lights, camera, auction Given huge public interest in property prices, it’s not uncommon for auctions to be attended by media. What should agents do if a TV crew or photographer turns up on auction day?

“If the auction is being conducted on private property then media have no right of entry,” Lowenstern says.

“Speak to the vendor and if they don’t wish for their home to be on the nightly news, you’re well within your rights to ask the journalists not to film.

“If, however, the auction is in the street, there’s effectively nothing the agent can do.

“Agents have also been known to video auctions for training purposes.

“They should obtain their vendor’s permission and make sure no one other than the auctioneer is filmed. If people attending the auction are in shot, ensure their faces are not visible.”

Auctioneering

Roberts reigns supreme as REIV’s top auctioneer A tricky contract caveat helped Tom Roberts emerge victorious from one of the largest fields in years elson Alexander’s Tom Roberts has won the REIV’s prestigious 2015 Senior Auctioneer of the Year competition, holding off 18 other competitors to take the title.

Held at the Manningham Function Centre in Bulleen last month, Roberts was one of five auctioneers competing in the final which included last year’s winner, Harry Li from McDonald Real Estate. Li was named runner-up in a tough final against fellow contestants Jason Allen (Barry Plant Sunshine), Gordon Hope (Nelson Alexander) and Michael Hingston (Jellis Craig).

The finalists successfully emerged from a field of 19 in the senior heats in June – one of the largest fields the competition has attracted in recent years.

On 22 July, Roberts and the other finalists were taken to inspect an impressive five-bedroom, fivebathroom home in a nearby suburb – the subject of the mock auction.

The scripted competition saw the contestants tested with multiple questions asked by attendees and three bidders competing for the property in front of experienced judges Adrian Butera, Adrian Jones, Jeremy Tyrrell and Tonya Davidson.

One of the questions related to the building of a timber Federation-style home on the property, with Roberts the auctioneer who correctly identified a caveat in the contract stipulating only brick or brick veneer homes could be built on the land.

Butera, the Auction Chapter chair and chief judge, says all five finalists were deserving of their place in the final.

“The Senior Auctioneer competition recognises the skills, work and effort that is required to be a successful auctioneer,” he told more than

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Best in the business: Top, the REIV’s 2015 Senior Auctioneer of the Year Tom Roberts; above from left, Michael Hingston, Gordon Hope, Tom Roberts, Harry Li and Jason Allen.

100 attendees. “Some of the finalists have conducted hundreds, perhaps thousands of auctions during their careers but this will be one of the hardest they will ever do.”

Roberts and Li will now represent Victoria at the Australasian Auctioneering Championships, to be held at Crown Conference Centre on 2-3 September.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Feature

Agent vs principal: the choice is yours Whether to manage or work for an agency is a question that arises for most agents at some stage of their career

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or most young real estate agents it’s the dream: their own agency, their name on the window, their hard work boosting their own bank balance, not their directors’. But some leading sales agents, including several former agency owners, say those young dreamers need to understand the downsides of being a principal.

“You are responsible for everything.

The marketing, all office overheads, everything from staff down to the stationery,” Darren Pearce says.

Pearce spent 10 years as sole director of Ray White Heidelberg before selling and merging his business with Nelson Alexander Ivanhoe. He is now a sales

consultant and auctioneer at Ray White Greensborough.

“I basically wore several hats and traded those in and now I only wear one,” he says. But he has no regrets.

Pearce says becoming an agency principal means ultimate responsibility for everything from the accounts, staff payments and taxation to cleaning and the rent roll. Holidays can be hard to come by.

But now there is a new breed of sales consultancy – working with a team under an agency umbrella – which can offer not only satisfaction, but more money. The days of the single director, street-corner agency appear numbered.

Sign of the times: The single director, street-corner agency has evolved over the past two decades with more agents working under an agency umbrella.

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Oc, opo Feature

Best of both worlds: James Redfern says having a successful career as a sales consultant is possible without a directorship, but with a strong team.

Peter Batrouney, auctioneer and senior sales consultant with Jellis Craig Hawthorn with more than 40 years in real estate, is one of them. Batrouney, who won the Australasian Real Estate Institute Senior Auctioneering Championships in 1995 and is a highly regarded auctioneer trainer, has focused on sales for his entire career.

His way of doing business is, he believes, the industry’s future: his own sales team working under the Jellis Craig umbrella. He has two partners and two assistants who run everything while “we are out there producing income”.

“You cannot operate as a single salesperson anymore without some assistance. We have not got one person here that operates on his own,” he says.

James Redfern, a director with Marshall White Armadale, combines the best of both worlds.

“I am lucky enough to have an interest in the business, but am also lucky enough to have minimal responsibilities as a director,” he says.

“I am responsible for the training, which I love doing, but I am also an estate agent.”

Redfern, who began in real estate in 1986, says back then “it was all about having your own agency”.

Now, though, having a successful career as a sales consultant is possible without a directorship, but with a strong team.

“The day of the individual is over,” he says. “The really good agents are businesses within a business and they form superteams.”

Redfern works with fellow director Madeline Kennedy and nine others hired and paid by him.

“This is now becoming the way to go,” he says. “It is still early days, I think, but it is becoming the trend – to specialise in your area and you gather people around you to support you so you are an owner of the business but you don’t need to own the brand.”

There are still “amazing opportunities” for those wanting their own business, but for the small, cornershop agency it’s difficult, he says.

Greg Hocking, a former Box Hill

‘The day of the individual is over. The really good agents are businesses within a business and they form superteams’ – James Redfern

bank teller who was enticed into the industry by the size of his real estate customers’ bank deposits, agrees.

“The numbers of fresh start-ups – for example, new brands in the marketplace, people putting their own name out there and hanging up the shingle and having a go – has dropped off enormously,” Hocking says.

“People are looking at what is required resources wise to get established, but I think it is more the idea that you find people gravitating to a brand because that opens the doors to opportunities from the get go.

“Some people starting fresh businesses think, ‘I have a skill set in this location and I will take it and start up in that location’. I have not seen a lot of success in that, you have to have an established client base.”

Redfern’s advice to young agents is: “You are your own business, you are your brand. Really successful agents associate themselves with really good, strong brands, and associate themselves with a good team around them.

“Nowadays you cannot be the listing agent, selling agent, copywriting

person, the person who writes the report and all the administration. You have to be a specialist, you don’t have to own the brand, you have to align yourself with the brand and you are your brand.”

But some agents, such as Karen Gornalle, are determined to have their own agency. For her, it was the dream since beginning as a receptionist.

“The minute I got the job I said, ‘I want to have my own business’. I was 18 and green but had big hopes and dreams,” she says.

“I wanted to do what the guys were doing. There were no women doing sales,” says Gornalle, now managing director of Karen Gornalle and Associates.

Continued on page 24

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Feature

Continued from page 23

“I wanted to be able to do the job myself in every facet of the business and learn from the bottom.”

After moving from reception to property management and studying for her full licence, seven years on Gornalle got her first sales role with a small company. Gornalle then moved to Baillieu, where she sold multimillion-dollar properties, on to Fletchers, then to Woodards where, in 1989, she was the company’s highest earner.

Gornalle moved with four directors to open Argyle Partners in 1990 but after three years decided it was time.

“They were older and I realised my dreams were totally different to theirs.”

So, in December, 1993, she opened her own business, making her first sale on 2 January, 1994. Gone were the Porsche, the family home, her husband’s liquor store – he joined her in the business after the first six months. She worked 100-hour weeks, her friends and family thought she was crazy.

“We did it on a shoestring,” she says.

“Even if you are at the top of the tree, you have to go to the bottom and start again.”

But it was worth it, Gornalle says. “You get the satisfaction of

achievement, financial reward if you are good and stick with it, you get goodwill, great satisfaction. I cannot tell you how satisfied and happy I am that I fulfilled my passion and dream. I have everything I wanted.”

‘I cannot tell you how satisfied and happy I am that I fulfilled my passion and dream. I have everything I wanted’ – Karen Gornalle

But she believes there are many who open their own offices without their eyes wide open, and with insufficient funds and credibility.

“It is important to be able to deal with staff and staffing issues, having the ability to pick the right staff that are going to suit the mould.”

Batrouney says young agents also must realise that sales success and management suitability are two different things.

“If you work hard and do well and become one of the leading salespeople in your company, eventually you are going to get tapped on the shoulder, but you have to remember that the best salespeople don’t necessarily make the best managers,” he says.

Right balance: Darren Pearce spent 10 years as a sole director of Ray White Heidelberg before selling and merging his business with Nelson Alexander Ivanhoe. He is now a sales consultant with Ray White Greensborough.

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Hocking says most salespeople going into management had great sales skills but poor management skills.

“They are very hard on themselves and expect that from their staff and quite often it is a very bumpy initiation into management,” he says.

He admits he ended up in management by default in 1985 after moving from property management at Biggin & Scott Prahran to Albert Park, as office manager and sole sales consultant.

After starting Hocking Stuart with Andrew Stuart, they expanded to 42 offices, selling out in 2007.

Hocking says he had no management experience, but luckily had good support – solicitor, accountants and an advertising agency.

“When we started to franchise, we had senior salespeople take on greenfields offices, but their administration and other work was done by head office for a fee,” he says.

Pearce agrees, saying: “Real estate has successful salespeople, these turn into directors but that does not mean they are the best type of managers.”

For example, he says, a salesperson’s skills are focused on selling, but directors need staff management and communication skills.

Owning an agency was not Pearce’s dream when he began in real estate collecting rents, but that desire grew as he developed self-confidence and saw a career path. After property management then sales, but wanting more of a challenge, Pearce looked towards business ownership.

“If I looked at both sides of the fence, being in sales as an individual salesperson like I am now, it is almost selfish because all you are worried about is yourself,” he says.

“As director of Ray White it was more encompassing, there were a lot of processes because you are worried about the whole team and all the other factors that go into it.”

Now with two young children and a house ready for renovations, Pearce has more free time, fewer responsibilities and better work-life balance.

“As a salesperson, you are running your own little business using everything that the other business [Nelson Alexander] has to offer.”

As a sales consultant he can earn

Oc, opo Feature

Hard yards: Clockwise from top, Karen Gornalle worked her way up from being a receptionist to managing director of her own agency; Peter Batrouney has focused on sales his entire career; and former bank teller Greg Hocking was enticed into the industry by the size of his real estate customers’ bank deposits.

an excellent income and focus on customer service. “I don’t have to look sideways at anything to do with the office, and I have no rent roll,” he says.

But while it suits him now, he knows it may not do so indefinitely.

“Now I have a chance to catch my breath. So far so good. But once that balance finds the right level I will look at increasing my workload and responsibility again.”

Hocking knows that feeling. He sold Hocking Stuart as he planned retirement, but says, “after 18 months it became very unattractive”. Approached by “some good people”, he opened his self-named office in Albert Park almost five years ago and now has nine.

He says successful and ambitious salespeople leave because they begrudge the percentage paid to principals.

“That is being countered lately in some business models – the percentage has been increased to such an eyewatering level, based on performance, people think, ‘Why would I leave and get my own business when I can get all this money staying put?’”

But Hocking sees limitations with

the team approach which only owning a business can overcome: “A human being, even with a team around them, can only do so much. You cannot have a 10-office network, you cannot have a 42-office network when you sell out.”

‘If you are not listing property and selling it you are not going to be doing any good, whether you are a director or not’ – Peter Batrouney The way he and Stuart achieved that was to leverage what they had already established, he says.

“You have a good brand in your location and that is as far as you are going to go, but if you can expand that out and have that brand attractive elsewhere …”

But Hocking does see potential for the key-brand/sub-brand structure he now operates, with ownership opportunities within the brand for the key person in each office.

Batrouney looks back on his own time with more responsibility with some

nostalgia: “It is a pride thing. I used to have a lot of pride in getting out socially and saying I was a partner in a real estate company. I enjoyed employing people, it gave me a bit of a kick.”

He had joined Woodards in 1969 and during his time there it grew from one office to seven, each headed by a partner. His directorship also offered security, business growth potential and a nest egg for the future, he says.

But the endless meetings – advertising, marketing, finance, staffing, bonuses – meant less time for selling, Batrouney says.

“I was either in a meeting, on my way to a meeting, on my way from a meeting or thinking about having a meeting and I think that is a dangerous practice to get into,” he says.

“This allows me to be a professional salesperson and probably earn as much as some of the partners. There is no limit to what you can earn.

“One thing young people have to keep in mind is that in real estate if you are not listing property and selling it you are not going to be doing any good, whether you are a director or not.”

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Lifestyle

Get organised and prioritise, or you’ll suffer for it It’s crucial for new agents to establish the right work-life balance or the scales can tip too far and impact negatively on health, wellbeing and family.

You time: Too many workers, particularly early in their career, let work dominate their life, which can lead to burnout and damage relationships with friends and family.

dam Joske is a busy and successful Gary Peer associate who came to national attention this year when he sold Aydan and Jess’s The Block Triple Threat apartment for more than $600,000 above the reserve.

Yet Joske believes that in his 20-plus years in the business he has not lost a sale or listing for refusing to drop everything when a client called.

“If you say to people you cannot go right then because, for example it’s your kid’s concert or sports, I think people respect you more. They understand that in this day and age – many of them are family people,” says Joske, who sells mainly in Caulfield, Elsternwick and St Kilda.

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He lives in a busy household – his wife, Audrey, works from home, they have three children and two dogs. And he is a sports enthusiast, with hobbies including trekking, climbing and martial arts training.

“I manage to do it because I am organised,” he says. “To me it is all about having systems in place.”

For some agents, particularly those new to the business, it’s a lesson not yet learned. The belief that when a client says jump the agent must say, “How high?” regardless of the day or what else is happening. This can lead to exhaustion, burnout and even relationship and family breakdown.

Psychologist and organisational

consultant Brian Walsh is increasingly seeing this among his clients.

“This is not only endemic for people in real estate, it is a problem we have right across the board and I’m seeing it a lot more now than I did 15 years ago – people without work-life balance,” Walsh says.

He says technology means society is “unbounded” rather than local.

“A few years ago the employer provided a boundary to the work – for example, set working hours. That world has gone. Putting a boundary is your responsibility. The employer might be happy to employ you 80 hours a week.”

Walsh sees distorted perceptions –

Lifestyle

‘A few years ago the employer provided a boundary to the work … That world has gone. Putting a boundary is your responsibility. The employer might be happy to employ you 80 hours a week’ – Brian Walsh those who are so involved in their work that they lose sight of how they define success. It becomes all about sales, keyperformance indicators, productivity and turnover.

“We do everything based upon an outcome,” he said. “We get so focused on that world that we tend to forget about our inner selves and start to lose contact not only with ourselves as human beings, but also with those around us because we’re working 80 hours a week.

“We think we’re doing the right thing – for example, providing for the family.”

Instead, highly effective people look for “the third alternative” – offering an appointment an hour later, or in the morning, instead of missing a child’s concert, for example, Walsh says.

Tamara Lloyd, principal of Ray White Croydon, knows all about organisation and finding shortcuts that work for

you. That comes with experience and new agents must expect their first couple of years will be “a little bit crazy” as they cope with repeated rejection and find their way from the theory of their agent’s representative course into the chaos of the real world.

“Once you get a handle on things you can become a bit more organised,” said Lloyd, whose six-year-old twins were 18 months old when she bought her business.

“You have to find out what you are really good at and what you are not good at. Once you know that, as your business progresses there are certain things you can get other people to help you with.

For example, at work you could get an administrative PA, or at home you could organise a cleaner,” she says.

“I have seen too many people burn out and I was probably one of those people when I was in sales. You have

Make the time: Tamara Lloyd says work shouldn't eliminate your social life.

to make sure you still see your friends.

You have to allow downtime and book it in, with your partner, girlfriends, mates.”

Lloyd recommends confining late appointments to two or three nights a Continued on page 28

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Lifestyle

Continued from page 27

week – though flexibility is needed if a client has a crisis. “You have to learn when to say no and when to be a bit flexible,” she says.

“The top performers in my office are probably most strict with their time and they would not have been like that in year one.”

While each agent is different, and some love to have systems, lists to tick off, others cannot cope with it, Lloyd says. “I have a few non-negotiables – Monday callbacks, vendor reports out

by Tuesday.”

But she warns: “It is not just people new to the industry who struggle with time management.” And for those who struggle, following up prospects is usually dropped first.

“You must keep that up or you end up with an erratic income.”

Joske, REIV residential salesperson of the year finalist for the past three years, sees young agents sacrificing everything for the job and says he was probably like that for his first 10 years when he didn't have children.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

'The top performers in my office are probably most strict with their time and they would not have been like that in year one' – Tamara Lloyd

His buyers’ PA has been with him for nine years, he takes his children to school every day and never makes an appointment before 9.30am. But he works some late nights, so his wife does the pick-ups.

“I don’t miss any kids’ concerts or anything, I go to all of them. These things are planned months in advance.

You can do it. You can be there for an hour, an hour and a half, it is not a huge time commitment,” he says, comparing it to spending those 90 minutes doing an appraisal for someone who is not selling.

“One thing I have learned is, nothing is so urgent it is not going to wait for a couple of hours.”

Lloyd agrees: “Usually people who want you to drop everything and run are time-wasters. Someone

Priorities: Adam Joske takes his kids to school every day and never makes appointments before 9.30am.

seriously considering selling and buying a property will be a bit flexible.

“You don’t expect to get into the doctor and dentist at the drop of a hat and it is the same with real estate agents.”

BRIAN WALSH’S TIPS FOR RESILIENCE AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE ❚ When you go home don’t just be in the

room but engage with those around you.

Be available, rather than concentrating on the laptop or tablet.

❚ Look for a third alternative – maybe the

options are not as black-and-white as they seem.

❚ Celebrate successes, rather than just

focusing on the next goal. Walsh was impressed when recently retired Carlton footballer Chris Judd said his one regret was, “I did not celebrate the small things”.

❚ Mindfulness: be more aware of how you

are as a person and what is important to you. Walsh says, “If you ask people what is important not many people say, the money, the car and the house. The things they mention are not things that they get from their employers.”

Source: psychologist Brian Walsh

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Lifestyle

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Profile

Pleased to meat you: Former butcher a cut above the rest After a quarter-century in real estate, Duncan McPherson is most proud of setting up the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation hen Duncan McPherson and his wife-to-be Amanda pulled up outside a house in West Parkville in his Volkswagen Beetle to view what could have become their marital home, their first experience of Melbourne real estate had a spin-off they could not have imagined.

They left without the house, but with McPherson convinced a real estate career was for him.

“This guy in a BMW and a suit rolled up and treated me like a complete dill and I thought, ‘If I can’t do better I will eat my hat’,” McPherson says. “That was my motivation.”

Describing it as a career change would be an understatement.

McPherson was a butcher from Mt Gambier who had moved to Melbourne to teach master butchers how to add value to their meat

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‘If you enjoy working with people and want to do the best you can for the people who employ you, you will do well’ – Duncan McPherson

products. He had grown up on a farm and learnt the industry in his father’s butcher shop.

Travelling in Europe, he was hired as a chef in an Austrian ski town on the basis of his ability to slice a rump steak – luckily his mum had taught him to cook – and in Germany learnt small 30

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

Persistent: Property consultant and auctioneer Duncan McPherson has worked hard to build his real estate career, at one point even offering to work for free.

goods making. But even with his new-found conviction that real estate was for him, the butcherturned-sales consultant got off to an inauspicious start.

An Australian Rules football player with the Diamond Valley League, breaking his nose and cheek prompted a decision to retire and have his nose fixed. “I went for my first real estate job with two steel pins sticking out of my nose,” he says. But even that did not hold him back.

More than 25 years on, it is fair to say he has achieved his goal of doing better than the man who didn’t sell him a house.

As a sales director with Nelson Alexander Brunswick, overseeing

its Brunswick and Coburg offices, the 54-year-old is a highly regarded property consultant and auctioneer who was the driving force behind the establishment of the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation in 2005. The foundation, run by the company’s staff, has given $1.75 million to worthy local causes since it started, with its annual foundation day contributing the professional fee from the sale of one property in every office to its coffers. The most recent one, in May, raised $218,500.

McPherson says the real joy is that because no tax deduction is claimed, it’s not restricted to registered charities.

So the staff can support locals in need – the talented students at Brunswick Secondary College who could not afford musical instruments; those who could not afford the VCE study camp; and the orphaned Sudanese boys and their struggling aunt who were found a flat and had their bond and rent paid.

“The thing I am most proud of is the charitable foundation,” says McPherson, who initiated it when he realised the small contributions each office was making would be much more effective if pooled together. “The staff get so much satisfaction out of it because they feel empowered to do something that is close to their heart.”

So while McPherson is proud Nelson Alexander won both the REIV and REIA residential agency of the year awards, he is doubly proud it took out both state and national community service awards.

Profile

‘The thing I am most proud of is the charitable foundation.

The staff get so much satisfaction out of it because they feel empowered to do something that is close to their heart’ – Duncan McPherson

It’s yours: Duncan McPherson helped establish the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation, which has given $1.75 million to local causes since 2005.

McPherson joined Nelson Alexander’s North Carlton office in June 1992 after a short stint with another agency in Fitzroy. But, true to form, getting that job was far from plain sailing.

Nagging the then-office manager Peter Barnes with a relentless barrage of messages and requests for an appointment was not working.

“So I went to the $2 shop and got a cassette recorder. I put a message on it, packaged it up and had it couriered to his office and went and sat outside his office. I saw the courier arrive. In the message I offered to work for nothing for three months.”

The tactic worked: “He gave me my start,” McPherson says.

The next year, Nelson Alexander bought an agency in Brunswick and McPherson moved there as a sales consultant, then manager, becoming a director and partner in the business in 1997. He has been based in Brunswick ever since, also opening the Pascoe Vale office in 2004, in which he retains an interest, and opening Coburg last year.

“Each office has its own

shareholders,” he says of Nelson Alexander’s 13 offices (with two more in the pipeline). Head office oversees all the administration and accounting – that’s all done centrally.

“Key people can have equity in the office and derive profits from that office,” he says.

“Traditionally in real estate, if you are a good salesperson quite often there is not an opportunity to get equity in that business and you go out and start your own office.”

The Nelson Alexander system means excellent sales people – who may not necessarily make excellent management – can have equity and the business retains their talents, McPherson says.

The offices don’t have boundaries, the agents don’t have territories – any agent can sell in any area. “The crosspollination between our offices works really well,” he says.

McPherson bought his first property as a 20-year-old in Mt Gambier, an old church on three acres on the town’s outskirts, paying $9000 for it and later selling for $17,000 – the deposit on his first home in

Melbourne. But he says his early start in property is not the only aspect of his youth across the border which has helped him.

Asked what is the key to his success, he says: “My background in the meat industry. I don’t see real estate any different to a lot of industries; it is just a people business.

“If you enjoy working with people and want to do the best you can for the people who employ you, you will do well. You have to take a long-term view, that is where the reward comes in. Eighty-five per cent of my business is repeat and referral business.”

Also central to the success of his agency is its rent roll.

“For our business it is critical,” says McPherson, whose two offices have about 1400 of Nelson Alexander’s 12,000 properties under management.

“Property management is the key to our business. People think Nelson Alexander is a sales business but we are a property management business who do sales.

“We really focus on growing the rent roll and building that. It’s the best investment you ever make as it delivers to so many other areas of your business and gives you economies of scale.”

McPherson loves his job and likes to joke he has never worked a day in his life. But he realises the risks: “This industry is one of those industries where you can become a little onedimensional. Health and relationships can suffer,” he says.

He emphasises the importance of work-life balance to his staff and ensures his own by escaping to his cattle farm at Tyaak with his wife and, Continued on page 32

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

31

Profile

Helping out: Duncan McPherson conducts an auction for the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation.

Continued from page 31

when possible, their two children, Cluny, 21, who is studying law and commerce in Queensland, and Angus, who is at college in Geelong.

“My wife thinks I am regressing back to my childhood,” McPherson says of his return to the meat business.

But he takes pride in what he has achieved at Nelson Alexander and says its directors see themselves as custodians of the business for future generations.

And there is another satisfaction.

In the years he has worked there, Nelson Alexander has bought out several other agencies. The man who inspired his entry into the real estate industry worked at one of them, unaware he was the one responsible for McPherson’s career path.

32

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

Late Lunch

Joining forces to fight cancer Backed by the REIV Charitable Foundation, the Late Lunch for Prostate Cancer raised $65,000 for much-needed nurses long lunch at the MCG has raised $65,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

Held in June, the Late Lunch for Prostate Cancer was backed by the REIV Charitable Foundation and attended by almost 400 real estate professionals. TV personality John Deeks hosted the event with guests treated to an afternoon of entertainment by singer-songwriter Greg Champion, AFL media personality Sam Kekovich and prostate cancer survivor and fourtime AFL premiership coach David Parkin. Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat also attended.

A reverse raffle and 15 auction items, including an Ultimate US Masters Experience and a realestateVIEW.com.au advertising package, raised funds for much-needed prostate cancer nurses.

Kekovich raised a further $8000 by auctioning off a barbecue for 10-15 people, with the lamb supplied and cooked by him.

The event was underpinned by major sponsors 212°F and TSA; gold

A

‘There are just 27 (prostate cancer) nurses at the moment, when 100 are needed nationally’ sponsors Lumo Energy, realestateview and the REIV; and silver sponsors Rockend, Direct Connect, iOM and Real Insurance.

John Strachan, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia’s state manager for Victoria, says prostate cancer is the No.1 cancer among Victorian men and affects one in every six Australian men.

Regular check-ups are vital, as

prostate cancer has a 93 per cent survival rate when detected early.

“Funds raised from the Late Lunch will contribute to research and the treatment of prostate cancer, as well as support the placement of community prostate cancer nurses. There are just 27 nurses at the moment, when 100 are needed nationally,” Strachan says.

The Late Lunch was modelled on the successful Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch concept, which was founded in regional Victoria in 2009 by Shepparton businessman Chris McPherson. Thirty-two events have been held across the state, attended by more than 12,000 men and raising more than $2 million for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo says the Late Lunch was an enjoyable afternoon with money raised for a good cause.

“The REIV Charitable Foundation was proud to be part of an exciting event that also raised awareness of a disease that affects one in six Australian men,” he says.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

33

Tenancies

Shedding light on a growing concern in rental properties Drug manufacturing has spread to inner-city neighbourhoods, with property managers often copping the blame for damages he cultivation of drugs in rental properties is an increasing concern for Victoria Police, landlords and property managers, Detective Senior Constable Scott Stevens says.

Speaking at an REIV property management seminar with Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Adrian Brilliant, Stevens says organised crime syndicates are acquiring up to 10 rental properties at a time using false identity documents. Properties are then modified for the cultivation of drugs – particularly cannabis – with criminals

T

34

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

able to set up a house for production in only three days.

Cannabis plants can be harvested within 12 weeks with each plant worth about $3000, making the three-month inspection for new tenants crucial.

While this issue has in the past

Cannabis plants can be harvested within 12 weeks with each plant worth about $3000, making the three-month inspection for new tenants crucial

mainly affected outer-Melbourne suburbs, it is now happening in more affluent inner-city neighbourhoods, particularly in the city’s inner-east.

“It’s happening in more suburbs and nice areas are not exempt from being targeted,” Stevens says.

“The properties are typically stand-alone houses in quiet residential streets.”

The damage to properties used for drug cultivation is usually in excess of $50,000 while loss of rental income and lack of insurance make it a costly lesson for landlords.

Tenancies

Property managers are often deemed responsible by landlords, severely damaging the agency’s reputation.

If agents are found to have been negligent in carrying out inspections, they may be held legally accountable for damage.

Stevens says despite the increasing number of online rental applications, property managers have to be vigilant and check original identity documents, with many offenders appearing perfect applicants.

“While there had been a lot of focus by agents on checking referees, there had not been much in the way of checking the validity of the identity documents,” he says.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Adrian Brilliant says cannabis crop houses are predominately in metropolitan Melbourne, with the Whittlesea Crime Investigation Unit detecting two a week.

“They are so prevalent, if we had the manpower we could do one a day with each property having a commercial quantity of roughly 100 plants,” Brilliant says, adding Vietnamese syndicates are behind many of the crop houses, with residential premises, factories and other non-descript properties being targeted.

“Properties used for drug cultivation have a high risk of fire and, if the setup has been operating for a while, then chemicals can seep into the walls and make the property uninhabitable.”

Signs of drug manufacture Property managers who see unusual activity at a rental property should contact police.

On the case: Victoria Police detectives Adrian Brilliant (left) and Scott Stevens (right) with Rose Koutoumas from the Property Management Chapter committee.

Pot spot: It only takes a couple of days for drug manufacturers to set up in a rental property and cannabis plants can then be harvested after just 12 weeks, making three-month inspections critical to preventing the practice.

Victoria Police advises against entering suspicious properties as in some cases offenders have connected electricity to door handles.

Suspicious signs to be on the lookout for include: Additional door locks Blinds down Fan-type noises Strong smell Additional electrical wiring Plastic or additional coverings on windows

If agents are found to have been negligent in carrying out inspections, they may be held legally accountable for damage Neighbours never sight tenants Overgrown garden Chemistry equipment Unusually sophisticated weight scales Large amounts of tin foil or baking soda How to deter criminal activity Being proactive may deter illegal drug activity. As part of your organisation’s screening process of potential applications, be aware of the following: An applicant’s willingness to pay rent months in advance, particularly in cash A tenant’s tendency to pay in cash combined with a lack of visible means of support Unusual fortification by a tenant of individual rooms A willingness to install expensive exterior fortifications Watch for telephone accounts in different names

Check for water, gas and electricity accounts in different names Check prospective tenant’s current address Check prospective tenant’s rental history Obtain any mobile phone numbers of prospective tenants Obtain car registration numbers if car park is private property and shared with other tenants Install sophisticated CCTV at real estate premises, making identifying criminals easier Preventative measures Victoria Police recommend property managers and agencies use the following crime prevention tips: Only accept certified identify documents Double-check the documents to make sure they match up – ie, same date of birth and address Google the applicant Have regular contact with the tenant Conduct regular inspections with the tenant – if anything seems suspicious, don’t attend inspections alone Keep the property visible to increase the likelihood of illegal activity being observed Encourage community involvement when neighbours complain about suspicious activity Exchange phone numbers with neighbours – landlords and property managers may not hear of dangerous or damaging activity on their property until neighbours have written to the council to complain or until police have served a search warrant Display dwelling numbers and/or building numbers clearly so police may find the correct address if called.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

35

Events

Awards showcase REIV talent The REIV’s Awards for Excellence are the highlight of the industry’s event calendar, recognising professionals and agencies setting new benchmarks in customer service and sales results. Nominations for these premier awards are underway with 30 awards available across agency, individual and marketing categories.

Finalists will be revealed on 5 October, with this year’s winners announced at a gala function at Crown Casino on 22 October. Last year’s awards attracted 1300 attendees with

tickets for the in-demand event available from the REIV from mid-August. “These annual awards showcase members who are raising the professional standard in their areas,” REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said.

Winners in several categories may be eligible to represent Victoria at the REIA National Awards, taking place next March.

For further information, please visit www.e-award.com.au/2015/reiv/newentry/about.php

AUGUST

OCTOBER

18th

Bendigo Division Meeting

6th

Buyers’ Agents Chapter Breakfast Seminar

18th

Property Management Knowledge Network – Bendigo

8th

Valuation Chapter Seminar

18th

Novice Auctioneers Competition – Heats

13th

Novice Auctioneers Competition – Final

19th

Commercial & Industrial Novice Auctioneers Competition – Heats

22nd

Awards for Excellence

25th

Southern Division Meeting

NOVEMBER SEPTEMBER

10th

Southern Division Lunch

2nd–3rd

Australasian Real Estate Institute’s Auctioneering Championships

12th

Property Management Knowledge Network

2nd–3rd

REIV Annual Conference

17th

Bendigo Division Meeting

17th

Commercial and Industrial Novice Auctioneers Competition Final and Commercial and Industrial Marketing Awards

19th

Commercial & Industrial Chapter Breakfast Seminar

20th

Business Brokers Christmas Lunch

25th

Business Brokers Lunch

26th

Young Agents Future Leaders Afternoon

29th

Novice Auctioneers Competition – Semi-Final

36

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

Commercial

Office space demand to surge Commercial property prices in Melbourne and Sydney provide good value for money amid optimistic outlook elbourne and Sydney are the only states worth investing in commercial property, says BIS Shrapnel forecaster Dr Frank Gelber. Speaking at the Commercial and Industrial Chapter’s economic forecast lunch late last month, Gelber said commercial property prices in other Australian states were widely overvalued with supply far outstripping demand.

“We’re in a two-year slow building phase and coming out of a patch where office employment fell. Office employment has already started to recover, instigating a rise in net absorption,” he says.

Gelber predicts this is the beginning of a long phase of stronger demand for office space, gradually falling vacancy rates and rising commercial rents and property values.

Held at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne, the lunch attracted more than 320 attendees with forecasts by Gelber as well as business and financial commentator Peter Switzer.

Both speakers were optimistic about the state of the economy, confident the current 2.5 per cent GDP growth is likely to continue despite the beginning of the mining downturn. The recent Federal Budget was praised, with Switzer labelling it the “Viagra” budget as it has stimulated economic growth, business confidence and business spending.

Switzer dismissed concerns the 30 per cent fall in the Chinese stock market would affect the Australian economy, attributing the drop to a period of moderation after remarkable annual growth of 150 per cent.

The falling Australian dollar ($1AU bought US73c in mid-May), low interest rates and population growth are other key factors contributing to Victoria’s economic growth.

“The marked fall in the Australian dollar will provide a significant boost to the state’s key trade-exposed

M

Looking ahead: Commercial and Industrial Chapter chair Richard Simpson, BIS Shrapnel forecaster Dr Frank Gelber and REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo.

industries, namely agriculture, manufacturing, finance and business services, international student education and tourism,” Gelber says.

“Growth will also be supported by a moderate increase in private nondwelling building combined with a recovery in public non-dwelling building, partly funded by the Port of Melbourne privatisation,” he says.

Dr Frank Gelber predicts this is the beginning of a long phase of stronger demand for office space, gradually falling vacancy rates and rising commercial rents and property values While the record low interest rate of 2.0 per cent is likely to increase in the future, Gelber says the impact will be offset by rising property incomes.

“In Melbourne, unlike some other markets, economic recovery will bring with it a resurgence in demand and rents, and hence prices, underwriting strong returns.”

Gelber acknowledged the upturn of the residential property market, which has been the mainstay of economic

growth, and rejected suggestions of a housing bubble. “There is nothing unusual about this cycle. The problem with affordability has always been there and in any case housing cycles will run their course,” he says.

Gelber says there has been a “huge deficiency of stock” in both the Melbourne and Sydney markets, which has boosted house prices in these areas.

However, he predicts an increase in housing supply will begin to slow dwelling construction in Melbourne before detracting from growth in the 2017 and 2018 financial years.

With the largest industrial stock in Australia, Melbourne’s industrial property investment market remains strong with investor demand only tempered by the amount of available stock. Industrial property building activity rose to $820 million in 2014 and Gelber estimates this will reach $900 million in the 2015 financial year.

In the 12 months to June 30, Gelber estimates prime yields in Melbourne’s benchmark south-east firmed by 50 basis points to an average 7.2 per cent, with secondary yields firming to a larger extent to sit at 8.4 per cent - in the process underpinning strong price gains.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

37

Member News

Nicholls brings up his 50

More than 130 REIV members have achieved membership milestones in the past four months, signalling their commitment to the real estate industry.

While 93 members attained the 10-year membership mark, 14 celebrated 20 years and 32 members marked 30 years with the REIV. Thomas Keck, has achieved 40 years as an REIV member while Harry Nicholls has celebrated his half-century milestone. Mike Michelson, featured opposite, also marked 50 years as an REIV member earlier this year.

Harry Nicholls

50 year

Keith Oldmeadow

30 year

Jeff McLean

Thomas Keck

40 year

Bob Westwood Snr

30 year

Ian Clark

30 year

Nick Tsavdaridis

Peter Morris

30 year

John Wysham

Lionel Theobald

30 year

Tim Donahoo

30 year

Ian Ridd

30 year

Angus Scott-Walker 30 year

Dennis Ginn

30 year

30 year

Joan Abel

30 year

Andrew Boyce

30 year

30 year

Harry Kontossis

30 year

Con Coroneos

30 year

Ray Mascaro

30 year

John Falcone

30 year

Brendan Nihill

30 year

30 year

Benny Fabretto

30 year

Blair Hodges

30 year

Noel Dyett

30 year

Sid Ferguson

30 year

Nicholas Cutinelli

30 year

Dan Carey

30 year

Ken Dowman

30 year

Peter Calwell

30 year

George Tandos

30 year

John Ross

30 year

Hugh McKenzieSmith

30 year

Tony Roccisano

30 year

Vic Care

30 year

Susan Butler

20 year

Jay McArthur

10 year

Leigh Hall-Sullivan

10 year

Joseph Sassine

10 year

Geoff Fox

20 year

Marci McArthur

10 year

Mark Zammit

10 year

Amelia Davatzis

10 year

Lorraine Tucker

20 year

Gary Wheeldon

10 year

Helen Matsoukas

10 year

Tim Derham

10 year

Lachlan Mitchell

20 year

Daniel Mirabito

10 year

Mimi Todorova

10 year

Lyndal McMath-Hall

10 year

Peter Krickic

20 year

Paul Dines

10 year

Alana Davis

10 year

Spiro Vallos

10 year

Russell Adams

20 year

Samantha Buxton

10 year

Pat Davy

10 year

Russell Muir

10 year

Adrian Butera

20 year

Vanessa De Sensi

10 year

Michael Fry

10 year

Vivienne Weston

10 year

Frank Bernardelle

20 year

Anthony Johnson

10 year

Paul English

10 year

Christopher Fitzgerald 10 year

John Nakic

20 year

Nicole Payne

10 year

Katherine Kyriakou

10 year

John Condon

10 year

Darren Hill

20 year

Sujono Goi

10 year

Mary Agnew

10 year

Ashley Hutson

10 year

Chris Hood

20 year

Jan McColl

10 year

Paul Ciprian

10 year

Annette Jones

10 year

Bob Minto

20 year

Brad Seller

10 year

Paulina Silluzio

10 year

Spiro Drossos

10 year

Ross Savas

20 year

Samantha Davison

10 year

Domenic Belfiore

10 year

Robert Joyes

10 year

Paul Magafas

10 year

Michelle Page

10 year

Dionne Wilson

10 year

Matt Childs

10 year

Dusk Wright

10 year

Bernard Ivone

10 year

Alan Surgey

10 year

Steve Dardamanis

10 year

Megan Wilson

10 year

Hannah Silvasich

10 year

Edward Thomas

10 year

Tom Ryan

10 year

Cindy Hartnett

10 year

Philippa Cheyne

10 year

Jane Cook

10 year

Sue White

10 year

Kaz Hughes

10 year

Sheryl Watt

10 year

Warren Smith

10 year

Vicki Lekanis

10 year

Peter McErvale

10 year

Jeremy Rosens

10 year

Paul Williamson

10 year

Fred Samoun

10 year

Wendy Gillies

10 year

Darren Krongold

10 year

Carolyn Barton

10 year

Sonia Chamings

10 year

Sam Carbone

10 year

Justin Costello

10 year

John Walker

10 year

Peter Egan

10 year

Barbara Wilkinson

10 year

Lindsay Hill

10 year

Lynn Hall

10 year

Christian Bartley

10 year

Chad Warden

10 year

Charles Barone

10 year

Mark Theodore

10 year

Mark Schroeder

10 year

Mark De Garis

10 year

Shane Goldfarb

10 year

Christopher Rykers

10 year

Robert Dolan

10 year

Francis Lyford-Pike

10 year

Tim Bennison

10 year

Andrew Gillespie

10 year

Toni Lorraine

10 year

Joshua Leech

10 year

Allison Summers

10 year

Kevin Forster

10 year

Robert Martin

10 year

Tom Roberts

10 year

Peter Hooymans

10 year

38

The Estate Agent â?˜ August 2015

Member News

Moving through generations Senior real estate guru Mike Michelson recently celebrated reaching 50 years as an REIV member

W

hen Mike Michelson recently looked back on his more than 50 years in real estate, he realised that in the area he serviced with his first office – Caulfield, Elsternwick and Carnegie – the majority of today’s senior estate agents started their careers with him.

“That is something I am very proud of,” he says.

Michelson, 76, who achieved the milestone of 50 years’ REIV membership in March, started in the industry straight from Caulfield Grammar School. There was no family connection, it simply appealed to him.

More than five decades on, it still does.

“It is a move I have never, ever regretted,” he says. “I am in love with the industry and always have been.

“It is a challenge in being able to converse and relate to different people of different age groups. I have been selling houses to the children of parents I sold houses to.

“My wife and I joke that when I start selling to their grandchildren I will know it is time to stop.”

His was the first agency in the area to hold Sunday auctions – being Jewish, he realised what an advantage this would be to the local Jewish community.

“I could not understand why nobody had done it beforehand,” he says.

“I remember that first auction, it was in Inkerman St, I got a fantastic turn-up.”

He admits having auctions on both days of the weekend had an unexpected bonus. A Richmond Football Club life member and former committee member, it gave him the option of holding auctions on one day of the weekend and none on the day the Tigers were playing.

Michelson began his real estate career as a junior with Dawson & Trevina in North Balwyn and within two years was headhunted by St Kilda Rd property development company US Realty, where he worked as assistant to the managing director.

Decades of experience: Mike Michelson has been an REIV member for 50 years and counting.

The grounding he received there was, he decided, sufficient foundation to run his own office and at 26 he set up Michelson Real Estate in Elsternwick.

Soon after, he was joined by his brother-in-law and it became Michelson and Gelfand, expanding to a second office in Caulfield and building to be, for a time, one of the largest agencies in the area.

‘It is a move I have never, ever regretted. I am in love with the industry and always have been’ – Mike Michelson

“We were one of the first to employ a female saleswoman,” he says.

Michelson, who semi-retired five years ago and enjoys his Sunday morning ritual of reading the auction results, still works occasionally as an industry adviser to Matthew Iaco, of Matthew Iaco and Associates. The agency’s office was across the road from his in Glenhuntly Rd, and when Michelson sold his rent roll to Beller in anticipation of retirement, Iaco approached him.

“I would like to think I would still be useful until my time is up,” he says.

That desire to serve is reflected in his record as an active member of REIV. A former Southern Branch president, he was a member of the disputes and arbitration committee of REIV’s predecessor, RESI. Dummy bidding was a particular bugbear which he is glad to see is no longer allowed.

He has also served as a judge of local auctioneering championships.

He is a strong supporter of the institute in “the way they conducted things, the courses that were available and the written literature that was available”.

Although the industry has changed greatly, Michelson believes it still offers a worthwhile career.

“I still think it is a good career, but you need to be far more on the ball because there is far more competition now,” he says.

“There is always a good opening for a likeable person you can trust.

“I love talking to young people who are contemplating a real estate industry career. To me it is the best industry to be in regardless of everything.”

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

39

Training

Change to CPD points REIV members are now able to accrue two, four or eight continuous professional development points for training and seminars The change, effective July 1, will see members earn two CPD points for up to two hours of workshop, seminar or online learning while three to four hours of face-to-face or online learning will entitle members to four CPD points.

Undertaking eight hours of traditional face-to-face or online REIV training courses, such as business broking or trust accounting, will earn members eight CPD points.

Representative and licensed members are required to

accrue 48 points over a three-year period. The REIV will soon be offering new training courses including Top 5 Mistakes of Property Managers (As seen at VCAT) run by former VCAT member Bill Holloway.

CPD ensures members build the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the competitive business environment and assists in achieving development and career goals.

AUGUST

OCTOBER

Auction

Auction

26th

9am–5pm

Advanced Auctioneering

Commercial

30th

9am–5pm

Advanced Auctioneering

Business Broking

6th

9am–5pm

Intermediate Commercial Property Sales

7th–9th

9am–5pm

Job Ready Business Broking

14th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Management Fundamentals

Commercial

28th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Mgment Pt 2 – Lease Admin

1st

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Management Fundamentals

22nd

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Management Part 2 – Lease Admin

Owners Corporation 17th

9am–5pm

Intermediate Owners Corporation

27th

9am–5pm

Advanced Owners Corporation

Property Management

Owners Corporation 15th

9am–5pm

Introduction to Owners Corporation

9am–5pm

Intermediate Owners Corporation

5th

9am–12.30pm

Residential Property Management Refresher

26th

21st

9am–5pm

Preparing for and Presenting at VCAT

Property Management

10th–13th

9am–5pm

Job Ready Residential Property Management

12th

9am–5pm

Intermediate Residential Property Management

21st

9am–5pm

Advanced Residential Property Management

Property Sales 5th

1.30pm–5pm

Residential Sales Refresher

NOVEMBER SEPTEMBER

Commercial

Auction

13th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Management Fundamentals

19th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Sales Fundamentals

24th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property Management Part 2 – Lease Admin

27th

9am–5pm

Intermediate Commercial Property Sales

3rd

9am–5pm

Introduction to Auctioneering

Commercial 11th

9am–5pm

Commercial Property – Listing for Lease

24th

9am–5pm

Leasing Commercial Property

10th

8.30am–5pm

• Being Tech Savvy in the Real Estate Sector • How to Save Time & Be More Mobile in Business

22nd

9am–12.30pm

Managing Risk in Estate Agency Practice

Owners Corporation

General

16th

9am–5pm

Advanced Owners Corporation

26th

9am–5pm

Introduction to Owners Corporation

Property Management Property Management 9th–12th

9am–5pm

Job Ready Residential Property Management

Intermediate Residential Property Management

13th

9am–5pm

Preparing for and presenting at VCAT

Advanced Residential Property Management

19th

9am–12.30pm

Residential Property Management Refresher

17th

9am–5pm

Preparing for and presenting at VCAT

25th

9am–5pm

30th

9am–5pm

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

6th

1.30pm-5pm

Residential Sales Refresher

Best Practice

Commission accomplished The legal battle between a property developer and her agent has served as a lesson in taking care when wording sales authorities.

By REIV Corporate Solicitor Peter Lowenstern When does an exclusive authority period start?

This was the issue before the Victorian Supreme Court in what has come to be known as Voyler’s Case.1 What is Voyler’s Case about?

Volyer was a corporate estate agency.2 It is about a property developer’s attempt to avoid paying commission.

On 19 January, 2009, property developer Amaliya Rodin signed seven exclusive sale authorities with her agent, Voyler Pty Ltd, to sell seven apartments off the plan. The exclusive period was described in the authorities as “60 days from the date of the Certificate of Occupancy granted”.

Voyler was only entitled to commission on sales it made during its exclusive authority period. On the authorities being signed, it set about its business and, before the certificates of occupancy for the apartments were issued on 1 March the next year, it had sold all seven apartments.

The commission was $93,049.

Ms Rodin refused to pay, saying as the sales happened outside the exclusive authority period, no commission was payable. This raised the issue of whether the words “60 days from the date of the Certificate of Occupancy granted” meant the exclusive period started 60 days after the grant of the certificates, or when the authorities were signed and continued to a day 60 days after the certificates were issued.

Voyler sues When Voyler sued Ms Rodin, the magistrate ruled the exclusive period started when the authorities were signed. He ordered Ms Rodin to pay the commission, plus interests and costs.

Ms Rodin appeals A disgruntled Ms Rodin lodged an appeal in the Victorian Supreme Court.

She said the magistrate made an error in

law by finding the exclusive authority started in January 2009 rather than on the date the certificates of occupancy were granted in March 2010.

When the appeal was heard, the judge agreed with the magistrate and threw out her appeal.

The judge said she needed to consider what a reasonable person … would have understood the authority to mean At the hearing, Ms Rodin’s barrister argued the authority could not be more clear and that the exclusive authority period meant exactly what it said.

It plainly referred to a 60-day exclusive period from the date, or dates, on which the certificates of occupancy were granted and there should be no departure from the wording Ms Rodin and Voyler had used, unless it was ambiguous – which it was not.

To the contrary, Voyler’s barrister submitted the wording of the exclusive period was indeed ambiguous or unclear. In these circumstances it was incumbent on the judge to be proactive by adopting an interpretation preserving Voyler’s entitlement to be paid.

The judge said she needed to

consider what a reasonable person, in the position of Ms Rodin and Voyler’s personnel, would have understood the authority to mean, bearing in mind its wording, the surrounding circumstances known to them at the time the authority was signed and the object of their business dealings.

In interpreting the words describing the 60-day exclusive authority period, she said the law required her to consider them in a commonsense, non-technical way and give them a commercially sensible meaning.

She carefully reviewed the business dealings between Ms Rodin and Voyler and said the words were not to be taken at face value. They were ambiguous and the meaning Ms Rodin argued for did not make commercial sense.

Furthermore, the surrounding circumstances indicated the business arrangement was to sell the apartments quickly. The exclusive authority period was to be read to start on the day the authority was signed and to continue until “60 days from the date of the Certificate of Occupancy granted”.

In summing up, the judge said: “To reach such a conclusion … is to give words a meaning which accords with business common sense and is consistent with the surrounding circumstances … the alternative … more literal, meaning would result … in an arrangement that flouts business common sense.”

What does Voyler’s Case tell you?

If the circumstances of being paid a commission are tied to specific or out-of-the ordinary circumstances, ensure the wording in your authority accurately records what you have agreed. And always consider taking advice on your situation before putting pen to paper.

1 2

Rodin v Voyler Pty Ltd [2011] VSC 414, Emerton J. The company no longer holds an estate agents licence.

The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

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Obituary

‘The Colonel’ always willing to share secrets with others Graeme Sanders remembered as a highly respected gentleman of the industry with altruistic nature and a wicked sense of humour ormer REIV Geelong Division President, Graeme ‘The Colonel’ Sanders passed away in June after a long battle with cancer. The well-known industry figure was a lifetime member of the REIV and dedicated much of his life to real estate.

After completing his schooling at Geelong Grammar, Graeme worked in the mining industry in Western Australia before returning to his hometown and opening the Format Kitchen Shop with wife Georgie.

Graeme ran the business for about nine years before moving into real estate, getting his start at Wilsons Real Estate in Geelong.

He also held positions at Hayden Real Estate Geelong and Allpoints Real Estate Leopold before becoming a director at Clive Murray Real Estate in Highton.

When Clive Murray was acquired

by Elders, Graeme decided to go it alone, buying the rent roll and trading as Elders Property Management Services. An office shift to High St, Belmont was accompanied by a name change to First National Real Estate, with the business eventually trading as Sanders Real Estate. Graeme retired in 2014, selling the business to Rod van der Chys.

John Mole knew Sanders on a professional basis for more than 30 years, working for him at Sanders Real Estate for two years. John remembers him as a gentleman with a very dry, wicked sense of humour.

“He was a man who was always very well-presented,” he says.

“And he had excellent people skills, even though he was a very private man. Staff that worked for him

F

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The Estate Agent ❘ August 2015

GRAEME SANDERS March 4, 1949 – June 15, 2015 thought he was fantastic and it was a great environment to work in.”

John says Graeme was a staunch supporter of the REIV and would frequently send staff on training courses.

“Graeme was more actively involved on a local level rather than the state scene but he valued the support of the REIV,” he says.

The REIV’s Geelong Division paid tribute to Graeme in the Geelong Advertiser after his death, remembering him as a “highly respected gentleman of the industry”.

John says Graeme was also renowned for his shortbread biscuits

‘[Graeme Sanders] was a man who was always very well-presented and he had excellent people skills, even though he was a very private man’ – John Mole – a recipe passed on from an elderly customer during his days at the Format Kitchen Shop. His other great passion outside of real estate was fishing.

“He was a keen trout fisherman and would frequently take trips up to Lake Eucumbene in the Snowy Mountains,” he says.

He was also an avid collector of Abu Garcia fishing reels. “The last time we looked there was about 200 reels stashed away.”

Graeme is survived by his wife Georgie, children Amy and Nicholas and grandchildren Henry, Angus and Hugo.

The Estate Agent â?˜ August 2015

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