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Jason Boon, Relationships are key to success


Jason Boon

Lee Woodward interviews Jason Boon for Hot Topics and reveals what it takes to become one of Australia’s best agents.

A back-to-basics approach netted real estate agent Jason Boon one of the best months of his career with 12 sales in the range of $800,000 to $13 million, despite reports of a sluggish property market.

After putting in a lot of legwork and making the time to really listen and read buyers, the Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay/ Potts Point agent started seeing dividends for his efforts. He said he knew he had the stock in hand and was more conscious of making time to talk with and see buyers. “I’d developed being a specialist in the area and I had the stock,” Mr Boon explained.

“I felt the market change a little bit prior to that month. I felt there was more enquiries coming in and decided to be more mindful and focus on the call coming in and then identifying what the buyer wanted, asking some key questions in relation to what they were after and then making times to see them face-to-face.”

The system honed by Mr Boon started first thing on Monday morning when he arrived at the office and made calls to all the vendors on his list. On Monday afternoon he called all his buyer contacts and, if appropriate, made appointments to spend one or one-and-a-half hours with them on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoons. “I’d pick the buyers by filtering on the Monday and Tuesday morning and then I’d spend my remaining week building relationships with buyers who were going to buy in my area of Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay in the next month,” he explained.

Reading the buyer

With total career sales of more than $100 million, it is clear Mr Boon knows what he is talking about when it comes to buyer management. He said he reads the buyer by listening for a certain pattern of behaviour through the telephone, or watches for cues when face-to-face, but mostly it came down to asking questions. “People say things along the way that give you key questions. They say we’re ready to buy now, we’ve just sold, we’re looking for a certain type of property, there’s a particular type of property I saw which I missed out on,” he said. When faced with these cues, Mr Boon’s response is to ask questions like these:

  • You don’t have to tell me what you want to pay, but is there a certain range that you want to buy in?
  • Is there some sort of building that you’ve seen around the area that you like?
  • Have you been in an apartment with a friend that you liked, or had dinner at?

Asking questions about property type, style, character, size, number of bedrooms and even the ceiling height a buyer is looking for helps to narrow down the selection. “I know pretty much every building in the area, so it allows me to get a visual or an image as to what they’re thinking or seeing and to direct them towards what they may fit in to,” he said.

Asking the right questions at the beginning saves time in the long run and shows a buyer that the agent knows their market well.

Working in an area with higher-end properties for sale, Mr Boon said he had to approach buyers differently and take the relationship further than just sending them to the open day the following Saturday when they called his office. He also works with a lot of referral-based business, which demands a more personalised approach. “That first phone call that you receive from someone who is buying in that range needs to be taken seriously, and you need to ascertain what they want from you and whether they want to go out and look at real estate or whether they want to meet with you,” he said.

“For me every call I take is about building some sort of relationship with that person; not so much selling them something. Some of the best relationships and referrals I have got in that area are from some people who never bought through me.”

Real estate agents facilitate people buying and selling property, he explained, which may even include telling buyers about a property not listed with your agency. “The reality is helping people in your area, building relationships and doing what a person needs to do each day to show real estate.” Backing up this point, Mr Boon talks about his client “Brian” who he has invested a lot of time with, but has never bought from him. There is a flip side to this coin, though. “This guy tells everyone to use me. I’m a part of the community.”

Listing Presentation The Jason Boon Experience

When thinking about the number of living rooms he has sat in and discussed real estate during his career, Mr Boon said he has different ways of communicating with the person/people in the room. The ways he deals with people depends upon a number of factors, including whether he has an existing relationship with them or not or whether someone has referred him. He goes by the feeling in the room while there. Common questions he will ask at this initial meeting are:

  • Where are you hoping to end up?
  • What are you hoping to do?
  • What is your journey?
  • What do you want to achieve?
  • Where are you going to?
  • Have you liked living here?
  • Do you like the area?
  • What area are you thinking of going to?
  • Are children the reason you are thinking of moving?
  • What are your reasons behind selling?
  • What do you need from me?
  • Do you have an image in mind about your next home?

“Whatever the questions let’s get involved in their life, find out what are they thinking, what do they want. Do they have some ideas they don’t want to give me, are they being upfront, are they being withdrawn, are they not telling me things – these are the things that you get through watching and asking questions,” Mr Boon explained.

From one extreme to the other

The area Mr Boon works in is home to many of Sydney’s rich and famous residents, including some who have bought and sold through him. One such vendor was a successful, but “controlling and straightforward” businessman who owned a penthouse worth $10 million. The conversation Mr Boon had with this man was less about him listing the property and more about the man’s thoughts on the building, the area, Mr Boon and what he envisaged would happen. “Another time, another place, he probably would have expressed and done the same things with another guy. It wasn’t personal, but it was interesting to watch,” he added. As he left the penthouse he received a phone call from a contact he had made through several open days – a gardener who had just been married and lived in the same building as the businessman. He met with the newlyweds immediately after to discuss selling their property. “The apartment upstairs was $10 million and the one downstairs was $700,000 and to get the experience of the two different people, or rooms, on totally different spheres and characters was a great experience.”

This dichotomy between the penthouse and ground floor apartment provided Mr Boon with a great deal to ponder. “I wasn’t so focused on whether I would get either of the listings, but the experience of being able to do that and to talk to people about their lives, their money, their creed, their wealth, what they want and who they know,” was something that has stayed with him. This experience allowed Mr Boon to compare different behaviours and patterns in vendors and learn from the experience. Buyer management is the key to a great agent because it shows their caring side. Vendors want to work with someone who has built good relationships with them and potential buyers, as well as someone who is part of the community and is willing to help others. Mr Boon said it made sense that people who were attracted to an agent to buy property, would also be attracted to them when selling property. “I get up every morning and go to work in my area and I’d like to think people are attracted to using me to sell and also to buy. If I put it out there, it comes my way, but I’ve also got to back it up,” he said.

Seeing it happen

Taking this idea a step further, Mr Boon explains he provides a platform for people to buy and sell and believes if he visualises what he wants he will make it happen. “I visualise doing well on a daily basis,” Mr Boon said. Starting small, he visualised selling five properties and he sold five, and then another five, so he started visualising selling seven, eight and nine properties. “If you start to think about it, you’ll probably start to feel it, and then start to do it,” he said. This visualisation technique also works with vendors – spending time with them explaining how he sees the sale progressing helps them visualise Mr Boon selling their property. This is a powerful tool to use to seal the listing.

Visualisation is an equally powerful tool in personal success. Mr Boon said he does not “see boundaries on my visualising,” so the sky is the limit! “I did the work that needed to be done to provide a platform for these properties to sell and these people to buy, regardless of what market I sat in, and I was going to sell those properties because I did the legwork.”

Doing this work included a number of factors coming together such as having the stock to sell, spending time with the buyers, building relationships, showing buyers what they wanted to see, building trust and negotiation, but it paid off. Being community-minded is also another technique in Mr Boon’s toolbox. “I did a lot of promotion in the beginning and I still do a lot of promoting, but promoting can be smiling, saying hello and having a chat to anyone generally.” His good nature goes further than the old smile and hello, though. Recently a young man overdosed outside the Richardson & Wrench office and Mr Boon found him when he arrived at 7.30am. Luckily the electricity meter reader was close by and helped to move the young man inside the office while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Two weeks later the meter reader came back to the office and explained his father had died and he needed to sell his property. He asked Mr Boon to look at the property because he was the only agent he wanted to use. “It’s just one example, and I’m not saying it’s too spiritual, but it’s just part of the whole situation, and that comes back ten-fold, I believe,” he said.

In taking the steps to becoming a more successful real estate agent, Mr Boon advises going back to the techniques learnt right at the beginning and start forming relationships with buyers and sellers. “Have a desire to do what you want to do, or be where you want to go, visualise it being done. You don’t have to be feverish or greedy about it, but be a person who can provide that service, turn up every day and do what a person needs to do to get to that visual you want,” he said.

 


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Jason Boon