The real estate industry is constantly riding highs and lows. The past 60 days have been no different.

Open inspections and auctions got rocked. Local economies shut down. Experiencing the same pressures as our clients, BresicWhitney agents managed to turn upheaval into advantage.

We worked our selling model harder than ever to keep results coming for our vendors.

As a result, some of our agents are now back to growing their sales volumes, personal incomes, and databases.

Across the group, off-market transactions actually went up, in a way we usually see in boom times, when deal flow comes more seamlessly. In the past 60 days, BresicWhitney agents put together 34 off-market sales for vendors, within a total of 120 transactions.

A group of our agents have essentially doubled their income from the previous year, despite COVID pressures. Nicholas McEvoy in Hunters Hill has increased his average sale price by almost $1 million. Marrickville specialist William Pereira has seen a 30% increase on his sales prices. The same goes for Chris Nunn in Annandale and surrounds.

Meanwhile, the average commission rate for all BresicWhitney agents is trending upwards. While it is important to acknowledge success, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing in the past 60 days.

Director Shannan Whitney says these patterns are part of a wider BresicWhitney uniquenesses that has all agents working from one database, with the visibility and tools that allow that to happen. Then comes the idea of free Strata Reports and free Building and Pest Reports across the board, and the administrative backup to support it all.

“BresicWhitney is resilient because of all these unseen elements”, Shannan says. “The makeup of this industry means that while some agencies will struggle with listings in these times, others won’t. Why?

“If you look at all the components, I think it comes down to our focus on leadership, our selection of people, our sequence of progression, and our culture. That gives us the framework for being able to support, and keep producing, some of the best agents in Sydney.”

BresicWhitney director Maclay Longhurst says he leaned on an existing practice of working with buyers, which continued to deliver for sellers in recent tough times. 

“It’s not the complete answer, but buyer work is our ethos,” Maclay says.

“We identify who the buyers are in the market, we categorise those buyers, and then we do private appointments,” Maclay says. “We did that before COVID-19 started. A lot of people found the new conditions to be challenging the whole time, but I think the transition period was a little bit easier for us,” he says.

Sales agent Renee Dickey agrees: “I’ve almost worked backwards. Focus on the buyer as a piece of the puzzle, and then find the puzzle that they fit into.”

A second layer to the buyer work ethos, is the internal ‘networking’ between agents that enables the group to deliver consistently despite fluctuating conditions. As one group working from multiple offices, agents quickly ping information between different teams in separate locations, facilitating the sales of their peers. It’s the opposite to a franchise.

One of the most pronounced results of the month was an Adrian Oddi listing, with the underbidder introduced by Luke Grosvenor, and the successful buyer coming via Brandon Nguyen.

The initial off-market guide for the property was $2.5 million, but revised down to $2.2 million in the COVID dynamic.

“Those introductions of buyer/underbidder influenced the price by more than $300,000,” director Adrian Oddi says. “It was probably the most valuable series of introductions in my 8 years at BresicWhitney.” It sold for $2.525 million.

During that period where public opens and auctions were banned, Andrew Liddell had vendors sell in Balmain. He referred them to one of Nicholas McEvoy’s listings in Hunters Hill which they bought immediately for more than $2 million.

At 2 Chapman Street, Surry Hills, William Phillips knew a vendor who was preparing to sell via another channel. He offered a 40% commission split to anyone who could sell it in a few days. Paddington agent Emily Davidson knew a buyer ready to act.

Since open homes and public auctions have returned, BresicWhitney buyers have resurged to more than 1160 viewings in one week, and 12 people per open.

At BresicWhitney, 8 auctions were scheduled for Saturday, with 2 snapped up prior, 4 selling under the hammer, for a 75% clearance rate. It was our first burgeoning weekend following 4 consecutive weeks where a handful of auctions kept 100% clearance.

Now that the government has recognised the country is in a recession, our model might just be ready to deliver for vendors when they need it again. It got them through COVID, and we’ll continue to push boundaries for them, to outperform the real estate norm.

From new agents to our most established names, it’s inspiring to see that effectiveness drive their results too.

Are you inspired where you work? Talk to us.

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