Hailing from Harcourts Currambine, in Perth’s northern suburbs, Creagh Ferdinands commands an impressive forty five percent market share. Creagh is one of Western Australia’s real estate success stories. Of course, it hasn’t all been plain sailing, Creagh says, “I’ve made some massive mistakes but I think I’ve got my life together in real estate in the last six to seven years. I had to learn to either become a professional, or get out. I decided to go pro.”
Up until that light bulb moment, Creagh believes that his business was driven by his personality; there was never a structure in place. He recalls, “I had my database and Outlook, and a card system for buyers, pretty basic and very reactive to the market. What made the difference was, learning to use a database.” Combining the power of his likeable and persuasive personality and his database has lead to great results.
He says, “With Outlook you don’t have a service area. And that’s massive. Once I realised that, it was just a gamechanger for me. If you contact someone and someone says, 'Creagh, I really don’t want to be contacted,' you flag them or tag them, whatever you’d like to do. But once that house moves on, you can un-tag them and start working it. So the house stays there.”
Harnessing the database
It was a long drawn out process though developing the database. He says, “That was a huge business. In fact, I’m so possessive of it now - no one touches it! It’s taken me, I would say, two years to get the database right.” It wasn’t enjoyable. For over a year, he got up at 5am every morning and worked on it for two hours and then made time two to three times a week in the evenings. Creagh recalls, “It was boring; there was no one else there. You get this information; sometimes you can’t find this owner, you try to search for him wherever he is; he’s moved to Melbourne. You just get frustrated; you’ve spent half an hour, sometimes an hour, trying to find this guy’s details and they are not there.” But he is now reaping the rewards from all his hard work.
Creagh says, 'I’ve had people say, “Oh, Creagh, you’ve taken over the market, how do you do it?'. And I say, 'Guys, you’re not willing to pay the price to do all the work on the database'. Not many people are willing to do that - it’s as simple as that.”
When the database combines with his powers of persuasion, it yields results. Creagh explains, “I have 700 people in my database that I have appraised. It allows me to communicate with them. If I sell a property, every single appraisal that I have done gets a text message sent from the database that says, 'Guys, just to let you know, I’ve sold this property. Owner’s absolutely ecstatic with the price. Great, happy owners'. I will not put a price. And you’ll be surprised; some of the owners come and say, 'Creagh, that’s fantastic. What did it sell for?'. It gives me the opportunity to have another conversation.
The three things letter
In addition to perfecting his database, Creagh is a savvy marketer and has a canny ability to give his clients what they want. He says, “I realised I was one of those agents who call up and say, 'Hi, how’s things going? Just touching base'. I realised that I had to offer something, so now I offer massive amounts of stuff.
I’ve got trails where we’ve got 101 ways of selling your home and brochures on how to change your house without spending more than $20.” One of his most effective marketing campaigns has been the three things letter.
Creagh says, “The three things are music, change the lights, and do some painting. I’ve found that music adds a nice atmosphere to a home open; as does updating the lights, and painting and sometimes - I say - mulch - mulching can make a huge difference.” The enquires that have been generated from that approach have been staggering. Creagh says, “I found a lot of people are putting out things like 100 ways, 200 ways to improve your home for sale and sometimes people are just desperate to sell a home - they just want two!”
Using the power of social proof
Creagh has also learned to let others sell his message. He says, “I actually call some of my clients and say, 'I’ve done a great job for you, haven’t I?'. And they say, 'Yeah. I’ve been on the market before with another company; I’ve been absolutely stuffed around, pillar to post. You’ve taken it, you’ve made it fantastic'. and I say, 'People want to hear this message. I’m not going to bore you, but can I give your phone number, if I need it, to get someone across the line? Because I don’t want a bottle of wine or champagne or you to take me out for a barbecue, anything like that. This is my business. If you can help me, I can help more people. I’ll only do it four or five times; I’m not going to mess you around. Will you be prepared, in the next six months, to get four or five calls?' and they say, 'Creagh, not a problem'.”
I had to learn to either become a professional, or get out, I decided to go pro.
Creagh then goes to a prospective client and says, “Guys, this is a recent vendor. He was a guy who sold down the street from you, or two streets back. Here’s his number. He went through the pain of picking the wrong agent. He’s happy to accept this call, when you call him.” And they do, and he wins the business and continues to maintain his impressive market share.
Sometimes people are just desperate to sell a home - they just want two ideas to improve their home.
Creagh Ferdinands is innovative and inventive - the hallmarks of a successful realtor.