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Suzanne Hibberd has carved her place as the leading female agent and the fifth agent overall in Australia in the 2024 REB rankings.
In another hat-trick year, the Sydney-based director of Abode Property Agents climbed from fifth to first spot in the REB Top 50 Women in Real Estate 2024 ranking; jumped 13 places to fifth in the Top 100 Agents 2024 ranking; and was sixth in the Top 50 Agents NSW/ACT 2024 ranking.
Hibberd sold 140 properties for $377.6 million during the 2023 calendar year (the highest total value of residential properties sold among the top 50 women in real estate and the fifth highest among the top 50 agents in NSW/ACT.
In addition, she secured 388 residential property listings in 2023, the second highest among the top 100 agents in Australia.
Hibberd – who operates in the Sutherland Shire and St George areas – said she owed her success to tapping into her 30 years of sales and marketing experience in residential property, development site acquisition, and completed development.
“A significant portion of my business is in project marketing. I’m one of the few female agents in Australia who specialises in the amalgamation of development sites,” she told REB.
Hibberd said she uses her knowledge of council zoning and local environmental planning issues to guide developers on matters such as location, the state of the market, pricing off the plan, viable architectural design, and completed projects.
“I help developers with the project and the type of apartments they should build on a site, including the size, mix and orientation,” she said.
“I assist them with the finishes and then I sell the properties off the plan.”
These types of projects represent 40 per cent of Hibberd’s business, while residential properties form the remaining 60 per cent.
Selling projects requires specialised marketing, Hibberd explained, because the agent has to sell multiple properties simultaneously.
“The key to project marketing is understanding that you’re marketing the whole project rather than an individual property,” she said.
“This could be made up of two- or three-bedroom apartments, or even penthouses. We treat it as a whole project but then deal with the individual listings that sit below that.”
Hibberd underscored that she acts as an extension of the developer when selling projects, and as such, promotes the developer rather than herself.
“The brand of the project has to come first. We act as an extension, like we’re on the developer’s team,” she said.
The duration of each project depends on the size and the price point. For example, Hibberd said it took 18 months to sell 11 luxury apartments in the Oasis building in Cronulla, which were priced between $6 million and $13 million.
“These listings are not easy to sell because they’re huge prices. But you know they will sell because buyers at that price point won’t be affected by interest rate rises,” Hibberd said.
Besides the projects, Hibberd saw demand for residential properties priced below $2 million in the St George and Sutherland Shire areas. She sold properties ranging from $500,000 to around $15 million last year.
“I operate in a diverse market,” Hibberd said.
“Our policy is to give everyone the same attention and put the same amount of effort into the marketing strategies regardless of the price of the vendor’s property.”
Another reason for success in 2023 was Hibberd’s decision to move her office from Caringbah to Cronulla about 12 months ago.
“I was the number one agent in Cronulla on realestate.com.au even though my office was in Caringbah,” she said.
“Moving to Cronulla has given us more gumption and boosted our brand awareness because we’ve got prominent branding near the station.”
One of Hibberd’s strategies to sell properties is to ensure that she focuses on securing listings that she knows she can sell, particularly in challenging markets.
“I think it's important to work with clients who are motivated to sell rather than those whose properties are completely overpriced,” Hibberd insisted.
“Otherwise, you burn up all your time and energy. I think when the market gets a bit tougher, you've got to make those hard decisions. Taking on listings that you can’t sell is a recipe for disaster.”
Hibberd concluded by advising new agents to be confident, consistent and tenacious to flourish in real estate.
“You must be good at what I call the catch and kill. You’ve got to be able to chase business. The thrill of the deal is why I do what I do,” she said.
Click below to see the full REB rankings and reports:
REB Top 100 Agents 2024
REB Top 50 Agents NSW 2024
REB Top 50 Women in Real Estate 2024
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