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Sean Hughes – the number three agent in Western Australia – has streamlined tasks so each team member handles a specific area like buyer inquiry. He told REB that looking after buyers has served him well.
Mr Hughes – CEO of Realmark Coastal in North Beach, a northern coastal suburb of Perth – has placed third in this year’s REB Top 50 Agents WA. He sold 95 properties valued at $169.4 million in the 2022 calendar year.
He also climbed three places to 54th in the REB Top 100 Agents 2023 ranking.
Running a team like a well-oiled machine
Mr Hughes was quick to recognise his team’s contribution to his results, explaining that he streamlined each of their tasks in 2022 to enable them to become specialists in their field.
“Everyone is doing a specific task now, compared to before when they ended up becoming a jack of all trades, and doing lots of little tasks instead of handling one aspect of the business,” Mr Hughes told REB.
“For example, we’ve got people on my team who specifically handle buyer inquiry and after-sales service. When they focus on one area, they become very good at that.
“Through regular team meetings and keeping people accountable for their tasks, we’ve worked out the strengths and weaknesses of our team members. They gravitate towards and specialise in certain areas of the business.”
Today’s buyers are tomorrow’s sellers
Indeed, Mr Hughes takes pride in focusing on buyers as much as the vendors because he has recognised that buyers could become vendors in the future.
As such, he insisted that agents should support buyers during their decision-making process.
Noting the mounting challenges posed by a stock shortage in Western Australia, Mr Hughes said buyers are in abundance but are serviced by busy agents, particularly when a new property launches on the market.
“Agents might get 50-100 inquiries on that. Buyers can be made to feel like they’re not special in any capacity and are another number,” Mr Hughes said.
“This could make a buyer feel like a second-rate citizen in a sea of other buyers. We need to make them feel like their needs are being heard. Treating them one dimensionally will not build a long-standing referral business model.”
Word of mouth can propel a business
Building a referral or attraction business by growing deep roots with long-standing clients over a 25-year career has been integral to Realmark Coastal’s success, according to Mr Hughes.
“If you provide great service to clients, they will remember and be loyal, and refer you to others,” he said.
“That’s a much easier world for an agent to live in than a highly competitive world where there are no relationships or referrals. If an agent’s business is based on telling clients the highest price and offering the cheapest fee, that is a pretty harsh world for them to live in.”
This model has proven useful for Mr Hughes, especially as the building climate has been difficult in Western Australia.
Prices to build in the state have spiked by 40 per cent in the last three years since COVID-19, according to Mr Hughes.
Coupled with the time it takes to build a home due to lack of traders (which could stretch to three years), buyers have been gravitating towards buying relatively modern or renovated homes.
“Blocks certainly took longer to sell last year because people were shying away from building their own homes. But we saw huge demand for finished homes at the top end that were less than five years young,” Mr Hughes said, adding that the agency’s average sale price listed from $1.55 million to $1.9 million.
Play the long game
As for guidance for other agents who want to replicate his success, Mr Hughes advised them to build relationships by “over servicing” clients without being forceful.
He concluded: “Build a real attraction-based business rather than adopting the short and fast model, which focuses on business now rather than for later. Remember that the bright flame burns quickly and dies out.”
Click here to view the REB Top 50 Agents 2023 rankings for Western Australia and the Top 100 Agents 2023.
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