Blog / Time Management
Michael Kettle, Positive Mental Power
Like all careers, real estate has its ups and downs, with everyone feeling they might be in the wrong business at some point. But it is what you do after hitting this point that is the true test of mental fitness.
Leading real estate agent Michael Kettle from RE/MAX Caloundra, Queensland, has worked his way to the top throughout his 20 years in the industry and now enjoys a lifestyle worthy of the hard work he has put into his career.
Desire for success Starting in real estate as a 22-year-old with an early-morning milk run, a passion for rugby and lots of spare time, Mr Kettle said he had, “no other commitments other than to work and a real driving desire to make it happen”.
“I got bored during the day so I got into real estate, but having the milk run gave me the comfort zone of not having to make a commission cheque in that first week, first month or second month. I had that cash flow already coming in so the real estate was a bonus,” he explained. “It was just the pressure to achieve, rather than make money, and as things turned out I started to make money fairly quickly.”
Unlike others who start in real estate and need to make money to support themselves and, possibly, families, Mr Kettle found himself with the luxury of the time he needed to develop his sales skills – and those skills still stand him in good stead today. “I still have that confidence now when I’m making sales to say if I don’t get this one, I’ll get the next one, but I’m not going to let this one rattle me because I’ll miss the next one. It keeps you calmer inside and you can manage your emotions better.”
After selling 23 properties in the last quarter and pocketing $156,000 in fees between him and his buyer’s manager Jacob Wareham, it is easy to see Mr Kettle has all the right ingredients for success in business.
Going it alone
Branching out on his own as a virtual agent under the RE/MAX brand three years ago, Mr Kettle said he hasn’t looked back. Instead of leasing office space in town or working from home, he backed himself and bought a home in a convenient location for himself and his clients, which he renovated to create his own office.
“When I was in the main office I had about 10 or 12sqm that we were working out of. It was quite cramped and you had the distractions of the others in the office. Now we’ve got 100sqm instead of 10 so it’s a lot more comfortable,” he said, explaining the home was unbranded, but it was definitely a real estate office on the inside. “We’ve got awards up on the wall so as soon as they’re inside the door they can tell it’s real estate,” he laughed. There is even a TV room for kids so their parents can talk and negotiate freely.
“I decided to be a virtual agent for the lifestyle choice. I thought of opening an office. I didn’t want the headache to try and grow from 2 or 3 to 10 or 12. I just figure that I can make a decent income, live where I want to live and have the time out that I want to have from that environment.”
Both men make appointments to get them out of the office, and frequent the local coffee shop or wander through the nearby park when they need a break but, equally, enjoy the quiet a private office gives them.
“We’re two blokes that just get on the phones so it makes us work. It’s harder when one of us is away for a period of time – we call that solitary confinement – and that’s tougher, but you can sit down and do 4-5 hours straight without any distractions and just plod away,” Mr Kettle said.
What about the bad times?
Like many, 2009 was a tough year for Mr Kettle when the property market tightened, and he did take his eye off the ball during this time – but not for long. “It’s like a tree – if you don’t water it, it slows down,” he explained, and said this drop in sales and fall in his marketing activity led him to re-evaluate where he was and the structure he operated in.
“I cut back on my PA, got back into the Super Coach, changed my listing presentation, rehashed all my marketing and now we’re seeing the fruits of that and it’s starting to come through again,” he said, showing that even when things weren’t as rosy, there was still the opportunity to bounce back. He also bought the property next door to his office during this time, in case he wanted to expand in the future.
If it's to be, It's up to me
Part of his re-evaluation included making himself more responsible, and so he introduced an Accountability Whiteboard that has become the driver behind the business. Looking at figures from the past five years, Mr Kettle and Mr Wareham started tracking the best months and made these figures their new targets for 2010.
“We monitor appraisals, number of listings, number of auctions, VPA (Vendor Paid Advertising), buyer appointments, open for inspection appointments, number of offers we get, number of sales we make, amount of commission,” Mr Kettle said. “You can almost write a formula based on the amount of VPA relating to the number of sales and the average commission. When the VPA is not high, the average commission is low.”
His mental fitness enabled Mr Kettle to use the down time in his business to formulate a strategy for success. Now he has pinpointed what drives his business to even greater heights, he knows what to target and can work more effectively.
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