Blog / Winning Business
David Lack, Hitting the Million-Dollar Mark
Think about what it takes to get to an average sale price of $1.1 million. Beacon Cove Real Estate director David Lack is there after finding his niche selling Victorian cottages and two-storey townhouses in Port Melbourne.
Mr Lack has spent the past 18 years in real estate and invested heavily in his personal development to ensure he is at the forefront of the industry. He works with a sales team of two, a buyer’s agent and a client manager who help him average 75 sales each year. There are also three property management staff at the agency.
Find your niche
While other agents in the region are fighting over commission rates, Mr Lack has increased his fees and improved his market dominance. So how does he do it? “I found that it was a lot easier to work with the same type of vendors and the same type of buyers rather than reinvent the wheel week in and week out,” Mr Lack said.
“We find in our area that we work with people for as many as three years so it’s very hard to build that relationship if you’re trying to be everything to everyone,” he added.
Most of Mr Lack’s vendors are empty nesters and, although he knows the area and their needs well, he still has set questions he asks potential clients over the phone before their first meeting. They are:
Where are they thinking of moving to? Do they have friends there? Would they like some information on that area? Have they seen a property recently that has attracted them?
This way he can determine their motivations and work out whether they just want a market appraisal or to actually sell the property.
Team Effort
Showing more than one person will be involved in the sale has been one of Mr Lack’s key success points – and this has enabled him to offer advice in areas where finishing touches make all the difference, such as presentation and styling. “My job is to achieve the best price, to assist with the negotiations and carry out the auction if the property goes to auction, but to have other people who are probably better skilled than myself who could help them through the process, I think that’s a big part of our listing presentation,” he explained. Once an owner makes the decision to sell they tend to want to get everything
moving at high speed, but Mr Lack said he finds more success in pushing the brake pedal and ensuring the property looks its best before introducing it to the market.
“I’d like to think people, when they see the property advertised on the internet or in the newspapers, see that it is another David Lack property. We’ve taken the time to present the property as best we can, the garden looks immaculate, the furniture is just right and the photos have been taken at night,” he said.
Starting strong
When it comes to arriving for the first meeting, Mr Lack draws on his area specialist knowledge and puts together 9-10 comparable sales, which include photos, floor plans and advertisements, so prospects can see what has sold and how those properties compare to their own, as well as how he would market theirs. And all this is presented in a scrapbook, not in a glossy presentation folder or on an iPad.
“I’m taking in a bound book with all the authorities of properties that I’ve sold that are similar to theirs, and making sure that some of those people are probably known to the prospective client, and so the social proof is there,” Mr Lack explained.
Talking price
Unlike many agents, Mr Lack deals with the issue of price up front, instead of leaving it hanging until the end of the meeting. “I’m hitting it right on the head and making sure that I’m not wasting my time. I mean, I’m a busy salesperson; I’m a principal as well; I can’t be in someone’s lounge room for an hour, hour and a half if they are not on the same page as myself.”
“Most agents dance around the issue in terms of the price. They’ll leave it to the very end and just want to talk about advertising and why they’re the best and why they’ve got the biggest market share. I think to hit it right on the head is again a point of difference,” he said.
But what if the vendor’s idea of price is vastly different to his? Mr Lack said that is when he assesses their motivation for selling. “It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to take it on, but I might suggest a ‘coming soon’ campaign,” he explained, and said this would be used to determine what the market thought the price should be before committing to any marketing.
To conclude his meeting, Mr Lack runs through what they have discussed, including advertising, presentation and property maintenance. He finishes by asking, ‘do you feel comfortable with what we’ve run through and is there anything that you would like clarified? If not, let’s get going’. Mr Lack doesn’t push for the business, so if the vendors are hesitant to commit, he leaves a written quote and follows up the next day.
Once a vendor agrees to work with Mr Lack and his team he continues at the same high level, speaking with them after every inspection and giving them a written report outlining the amount of interest in the property, internet hits and a suggested reserve price if they were to sell their property that week. He also sends quarterly CMA reports with median prices and turnover comparisons from year to year. It’s these touches that get the vendors walking through the door to reach those impressive figures.
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