Ray White Queensland is ready to go in 2024

SOME 400 Ray White Queensland members descended on Howard Smith Wharves to hear from some of the best in the business to inspire them all to be ‘best in market’ across the state.

Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew opened the day, welcoming the audience to the state’s first Ready Set Go for 2024.

“Years ago, we came up with a strategy, we came up with a target and an objective and that was to sell one in every four homes in the state.

“We couldn't get to selling one in every four homes without our key pillars - recruitment, auctions and performance. To succeed in this, every single person in this room, your daily work matters, every interaction matters.

“When we talk about being capable of more in 2024, the gap between our best and worst cannot be large.

“We strive for ‘best in market’, and my question to all of you is, are our interactions every day ‘best in market’?

“We thank every one of our members who have bought into this strategy. It’s so easy to look at our competitors and run towards what may not be our strength, but we should double down on what we do well.

“We know who we are, we know what we stand for as Ray White Queensland.”

Ray White Chairman Brian White AO (pictured above) told the members how proud he was of them all. “We are the vendor's agents and that’s how it’s always been and speaking on behalf of my family, we intend to keep improving, our market share keeps creeping up, we keep improving as so many of our competitors have slipped away.

“Our competitors see their brand as their asset but we know our performance is our greatest asset.

“We are the market leader across Australia and New Zealand and the reason we are leaders is because of our performance. I truly love this company and it will always be this away.

“We are a family business and we intend to stay a family business, and you are all invited to share our collective values as our collective environment means so much.”

Mr White spoke about The Shed, where his grandfather opened his first office in 1902 in a tiny rural town in Queensland called Crows Nest.

“I still get goosebumps every time I walk into the shed. What humble beginnings we had in such a tiny town and some 100 years ago Ray moved to Brisbane and then the expansion happened.

“My grandfather had the word auctioneer written under his name at The Shed. Maybe we don't express this enough, but across Australia we do 25 per cent of all auctions - some one in four properties. Our nearest competition is not even double figures and Ray was a believer in the auction process.”

Two of the biggest hitters inside the real estate industry Josh Tesolin of Ray White Quakers Hill in western Sydney and Matt Lancashire of Ray White Collective wowed the audience with their real time practical advice.

Josh Tesolin started in real estate in 2013, after he finished school in 2012.

“I got knocked back by 15 offices when I was getting started and my mum kept applying for me and I ended up in leasing and then became a sales agent. This is my fourth year with the Ray White group,” said the 29 year old Josh Tesolin.

“I grew up in the Sutherland Shire, and ended up in Quakers Hill where I did 634 sales last year and I am now the highest volume agent in the country,” he said.

“My job is to list, sell, vendor management and prospect plus lead the team.

“Treat a vendor like a professional relationship. You need to communicate seven days a week with your sellers. One mistake is agents don’t speak to both sellers. We have open homes every single day. I text, email or call my sellers every single day. It’s like a religious thing for me, I am in touch every single day. We are here to sell homes. I will always extract an offer every single week from buyers. I fight for every listing. There’s no finish line.”

“I had never done an auction until 2.5 years ago, and last year I did 342 auctions. The only thing that will fix rescinded offers is to go to auction. Hammer goes down, it’s sold. It's auction-only for me now. I auction every Sunday. I do 10 or 15 every Sunday. You get an unconditional sale at the fall of the hammer. I have to have five registered bidders per property. It’s easier when you’ve got runs on the board. Reputation in real estate is everything.”

High performers from across every industry always have one thing in common - their focus on mindset. Haesley Cush, principal of top Queensland business Ray White Collective, sat down with Craig Tyzzer (pictured above), former coach of Australian tennis legend, Ash Barty to talk about mindset.

Mr Tyzzer said the key to Ash Barty’s success was preparation, and the two most important things for a tennis player are effort and attitude.

“For every roadblock she faced, it was a phase that she was willing to take on. It was emotional and confronting but it was something she worked on daily, she was willing to take that step,” Mr Tyzzer said.

“In tennis, we talk about controllables, lots of things are out of your control, so my main goal with Ash was I did a heap of preparation before matches.

“I would watch two to three matches of her next opponent, because I never wanted her to walk out on court and be surprised. We would have Plan A, which was the way Ash wanted to win, then we would have B, C and D.

“Some players never change but the good ones will see something and change things. She was ready for everything, preparation is the key.”

Human Connection Scientist Dr Ali Walker (pictured above) shared her insight about the power of human connection and its direct correlation with our mental and physical health. She explained how human connections and interactions directly impact your wellbeing.

“Your level of human connection is the single biggest predictor of mental and physical health. It’s been found that being chronically lonely is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. If you want to live longer it’s all about healthy social connection,” she said. .

“In my research, I’ve reframed this in terms of two elements of human connection - frequency and intensity. If you meet someone and feel comfortable then you have a match in frequency or intensity. They determine all personal and professional relationships.

“We are always mirroring each other because we are wired for connection.

“The golden rule has always been to treat others the way you would like to be treated. But you need to advance to the platinum rule which is to treat others the way they wish they were treated.”

Ray White Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee (pictured above) said it had been an incredibly fast start to the year. “Our open for inspection data has never been so high in two years. Queensland is experiencing very high open home visits plus strong price growth,” she said,

Queensland reached 18.6 visitors per property in January, the highest number in two years.

“Is this fast start leading more people to sell their properties? Ray White listing authorities give us some insight as to what the pipeline of properties is looking like. Listing authorities track the point at which a Ray White agent is signed to sell a property but is yet to be advertised. The year has started a lot stronger than both 2022 and 2023, suggesting that an uplift in buyer demand is leading to more sellers coming to market.

“Last year, house prices increased by just under 10 per cent, despite increasing interest rates. In the first five weeks of the year, Australian house prices have increased by one per cent. If this rate of growth continues, house price growth in 2024 will exceed 2023 levels to hit 10.5 per cent."

Last year there were 560,000 people who moved from overseas to Australia. "In Queensland we needed 55,000 new homes but there were only 32,000 new homes built so it's good news for existing house prices and demand but it remains tough for renters,” she said.