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In an industry beset by change, taking on new mindsets and technologies can better help businesses to thrive.
In an episode of Secrets of the Top 100 Agents, Ray White AKG group CEO and principal Avi Khan grappled with how the real estate sector is supposed to keep up with emerging industry trends and technologies, discussing his philosophies regarding this brave new world of real estate.
Reflecting on his decision to restructure the workforce within Ray White AKG at the back end of 2023, Khan noted a number of advantages that came alongside such a shift, including efficiency and greater customer service.
Khan summed up this new mantra as “allow agents to be agents”, thereby developing additional roles that eliminated the tasks “counterproductive to them being an agent”.
“We’ve announced very specialised roles in our team. Instead of having four or five sales managers and all the other stuff that the way real estate was done before, we’ve got very specialised roles,” said Khan, with the consideration being that if better care is taken of buyers and sellers, more income can be created for agents.
Further to the restructure, Khan acknowledged that sometimes, it’s OK to break the rules.
“When you start, you shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel, but you get to a stage that you’ve got so much chaos and so much growth that you have to reinvent the wheel.”
Reflecting on the recent changes, Khan realised that to achieve his vision for Ray White AKG, he had to concede that defaulting to entrenched practices was hindering innovation from taking place.
“The way you used to do real estate is kind of defunct,” explained Khan, who noted that there is no tried-and-tested formula to achieving exponential growth.
“If you’ve got 55 people joining in one year, no one really does that. Not many agencies do that. So you can’t stick to the tried-and-true methods of implementing that into your business.”
It’s why Khan advocates the opportunities that emerging technologies present, citing Ray White AKG’s investment into CRM technologies and AI that have significantly enhanced the business’s operations.
“Technology is not there just to replace you. Our game changer is that we don’t use technology as a disabler for relationships. It’s there to add a service to the agent so they can get face to face with sellers.”
“We can be that business just acquiring data. But if you’re not creating relationships, if you don’t have a plan to maintain it, create a pipeline,” said Khan.
Through the implementation of technologies and other roles that eliminate the drudgery agents have to take care of, Khan stated that time can instead be spent fostering the growth of your agency as a collective entity.
“You have to realise that if your people are not growing, you’re not going to grow and vice versa. So it’s not just about the office, it’s about the agents and the PM and the office altogether, as a collective,” Khan said.
“As a result, the office will grow as well. Our number of sales will grow, our commission levels will grow as it’s all intertwined.”
Expanding on this mentality, Khan regaled with an unorthodox business venture he recently undertook, acquiring a tattoo shop in hopes of spurring his own personal growth.
“The tattoo shop has taught me so many things about people, because we deal with all walks of life in real estate,” Khan mused.
“The best real estate agents are the ones that actually go in and can actually relate to normal human beings. So I think acquiring and doing different businesses actually makes you a better leader in certain respects and in real estate as well.”
Khan’s new approach is emblematic of the benefits that can be obtained when new technologies and mindsets are embraced rather than shunned, with his bold new strategies aiming to “change the way real estate is done in our own little way”.
Listen to the full conversation with Avi Khan and Grace Ormsby here.
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