Ray White Queensland turns up the volume

ALMOST 1000 members gathered at The Star in Brisbane for the Ray White Queensland’s biggest ever training event called Ready Set Go, designed to arm the leading network with knowledge, skills and invaluable insights.

Vibes were very high and there was a jam-packed line up of keynote speakers, thought leaders and peer-to-peer learning.

Keynote speaker Glenn McGrath AO, one of the greatest cricketers of all time, spoke about high performance.

Glenn McGrath achieved many milestones throughout his professional sports career and through his role as Chairman of the McGrath Foundation, supporting cancer care.

His tips for success are: self belief, be prepared to work hard, never be satisfied and have fun.

“You have to enjoy every minute. You have to love and have passion for what you do.

The harder you work, the luckier you get, and you can always get better. Pressure is important too, it’s how you react under pressure that counts.”

The theme for 2025 and Ready Set Go delivered on the opportunities faced by everyone in the real estate industry.

Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew (pictured above) reminded the packed conference room to concentrate on a volume based business structure.

“Always be true to who we are and be proud of who we are. Let's return more to how we grew our company with a key focus on volume,” the CEO said.

Jason Andrew challenged each and every Ray White member to contribute to the greater good of the leading group.

“We are the original springboard. You all know the story, you stand on the end of the springboard and you go nowhere but if you jump on it your ambitions soar. Use all the infrastructure and support you have behind you,” Mr Andrew said.

“We have very clear expectations. Be proud of who we are. We are an incredibly noisy industry but many blend and blur and just look like everyone else. The more you attempt to differ from each other, we look more and more like the masses. Each and every person here needs to increase the volume through every business.

“Volume based goals are more important than GCI.”

Ray White Group Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) reflecting on the group's 123-year journey, emphasising that the leading group’s best days were still ahead.

“Our history is a story of resilience, growth, and contribution from countless individuals. From humble beginnings in regional Queensland to becoming the market leader across Australia and New Zealand, our story is unique, shaped by four generations of family leadership,” Mr White stressed the importance of auctions which sit at the heart of the group, with auction share now grown to 25 per cent nationally. “We've never lost faith in the auction process. It creates transparency for buyers and competition for sellers, forming the backbone of our most successful offices,” he said.

Ray White Group Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee said there was nothing to suggest property prices would fall in Queensland in the near future.

“There is nothing on the horizon which will affect prices negatively in Queensland. The fact is we are not building enough here. There are still big issues in the construction industry and population growth is strong."

Ms Conisbee said the 20 year price trend in Brisbane has shown dramatic strength.

“The market soared during the pandemic and prices stayed strong despite the tightening of monetary policy, with interest rate hikes. Both houses and units have increased at a very rapid rate in Brisbane. Townsville is the strongest market outside of south east Queensland, beating the Gold Coast over the last 12 months.

“South east Queensland is one of the strongest markets in Australia, it is benefiting from the nice beaches, jobs creation and the Olympics. The Sunshine Coast hinterland is expected to hit a $1M median this year. Even Nambour will get there in the next 18 months to 2 years.”

Ray White Group Head of Marketing Todd Alexander spoke about the group’s cutting edge prop tech tool NurtureCloud, the group’s AFL partnerships across Australia and its luxury positioning.

Ray White sells 2.5 times more luxury property over $5 million than any other group in Australia.

“This April we are introducing NurtureCloud to the world with a consumer facing campaign. Get ready, because we are so proud of this tool that nobody else has. So we are doing things differently this year,” he said.

Ray White Group Head of Strategy, Mark McLeod reminded the agents how to win Saturdays. “Momentum creates free kicks. The data doesn’t lie, the agents who do more than 50 sales a year, win Saturdays. These high volume agents do more open homes. Forget GCI, focus on volume. They deliver transactional communications to their marketplace. High volume agents simply hold more open every single Saturday. They do double opens, they meet more people. It’s an easy formula, more appraisals equals more sales,” Mr McLeod said.

“The most powerful 10 minutes of your year is about to happen, today. It’s the 10 minute walk you will make to your car when you leave here. You choose what you are going to implement from what you learned today.”

Ray White Group Head of Performance and Recognition, Bianca Denham pumped up the agents to get ready for 2025.

“We are well poised to have our best year ever in 2025. We believe passionately that we have an unfair advantage at Ray White. We have some incredible differentiators and our unique advantages are what makes you all different and special.” Ms Denham interviewed top agents Rochelle Adgo of Ray White Mitchelton and Riley Neaton of Ray White Rockhampton about their elite level processes and structures.

Ms Denham later spoke with Jason Atkinson from Ray White Coomera and Ray White Wilston’s Alistair Macmillan (pictured above) on their award winning auction processes. Jason found focusing on auctions provides a point of difference for him in his north Gold Coast market.

“An auction agent is a far more advanced agent than a private treaty agent. To run a good auction, you have to learn the process and it requires you to be that much more professional,” Mr Atkinson said.

Ninety per cent of Mr Macmillan’s business is through the auction method. He noted that the vast majority of the top agents in Brisbane are generally auction agents and attributed his market share growth to auctions.

‘I have not yet seen a property that doesn’t lend itself to auction and I have not yet seen a market that doesn’t lend itself to the auction method,” he said.

More than 300 Queensland property managers from the Ray White Group gathered for property management break out sessions that included advice on client retention, how to tell their story, and building resilience.

Ray White Townsville head of property management Amanda Carr (pictured above) has done every single job in real estate from reception to owning an office, training and consulting in her four decades in the industry.

Ms Carr now leads a team of 18 as the office’s property management department leader. Her goal is to have the best educated and smoothest running team in town, which starts with resilience.

“Every day you get to choose who you are and what you’re going to do. You have to choose your attitude and you can’t make it other people’s problem.

“Embrace change and be a problem solver - you need to look at life like that too. A challenge or a problem is an opportunity to look at what you’re doing, how you can do it better and how you can change?

“Try to be present, stop and be in the minute. And have empathy. You should go through life like that.”

Ray White Queensland head of property management Brittany Krebs (pictured above) hosted a session focused on exploring the landlord journey and the significance of the client experience, as the customer journey is key to growth for any property management business.

“Retaining clients is actually cheaper than acquiring new clients. It actually costs five times more than retaining someone,” Ms Krebs said.

“Retaining clients also provides a consistent revenue stream, portfolio stability, increased efficiency and positive referrals.

“Communication is 40 per cent of the reason why clients leave and it comes down to picking up the phone or communicating directly and in a timely manner with your clients.

“Unresolved issues, fees and lack of connection are also reasons they leave.”