Blog / Prospecting
The Generations Game with Matt Carpenter
Starr Partners Merrylands in Sydney’s west is one of Australia’s powerhouse agencies. A beloved part of the Merrylands community, Starr Partners Merrylands draws on the power of community, culture and innovation. A local icon since 1972, the Merrylands office is the mothership. Staff are trained there and deployed to two other satellite offices in the neighbouring suburbs of Pemulwuy and Wentworthville, once they understand the winning culture of the Merrylands office. A key player in Starr Partners Merrylands success is Matt Carpenter. Locally born and bred, Matt has spent his whole life working the area. He started working at the local chemist in Merrylands when he was 11 years of age. He says, “I lied about my age, and delivered prescriptions on a bike to the local community that couldn't get down to the shop. I met a lot of the locals, and was there until I left in 1997 and walked into Starr Partners Merrylands.” All these years later, Matt is now a shareholder in Starr Partners Merrylands and one of Australia’s most successful agents. He helms the Pemulwuy office and runs a slick and clean operation. Matt is insanely disciplined, draws on data and technology to drive his business and is committed to building community. He says, “If you can build the client's trust through connection, through results, through showing case studies of how you got more money for that vendor, I think that's how we approach securing business. It is a massive thing for me to make sure that the client understands that we're there for them, and not just to make money.”
THE LONG GAME
He says, "Real estate is a long game, not a short game. It’s also a generations game." The elderly ladies he was dropping off subscriptions to when he was 11 are now his clients - and their children are his clients too. He adds, “Your database is community, and that's what gives you a career in real estate.”
DRIVING WITH A DATABASE
To help build community, Matt also draws on the power of technology. He loves his database and says, "It's the long-term goal of dealing with the entire family and making sure that they're looked after. My advice to someone starting today would be to build a database. It doesn't matter what that database is, but build a database and connect people. Service to people, it's business for the future, not business for today."
EMAIL MARKETING
Matt has also found that email marketing has been very effective. He explains, "Trevor Bragg from iRealty came last year and we implemented the weekly email. We're lucky enough to have an in-house staff member who builds this each week for us. Each week, we have the iRealty newsletter go out to about 16,000 clients. Being able to receive the alerts once it's sent out of who opens them, allows you to work with warm buys, not cold buys. It allows you to work with warm vendors, not cold vendors, so I think when you get in the groove of speaking to people who are in the market at that time, it allows you to flow better."
CHECKLISTS
Matt is also incredibly thorough and systemised. He says, “Everything that I do is done through a checklist. If I list the property for sale, when I come back to the office, I've got a 22-point plan of what I need to do in order to get that property on the market, and I tick off every single part of that plan before it's handed on to the admin team.” Matt is outstanding proof of the success you can achieve in harnessing the power of technology and coupling that with outstanding personal customer service and emotional intelligence.
MATT’S IDEAL WEEK
Monday 9am-12pm - Vendor calls. Matt carries between 17-20 vendors at a time who go to auction. 12pm - Open house calls. Matt touches base with the buyers. He’s looking for a market appraisal. He tries for 15 appraisals a week. Afternoon - Appointments. Matt allows an hour and a half for each market appraisal, including travel time. Most appointments will be from 6:00pm.
Tuesday Group training and inspection day and business development. The whole 16 person sales team will board a bus and inspect all properties coming onto the market across the three offices and have lunch. A script writer writes all the dialogues for the internet and the paper - it’s done in a very systemised and structured way.
Wednesday Business meeting. Appointments with buyers and sellers. Matt works with the purchasers that he has developed relationships with over his career, or their children who have been referred to him.
Thursday Day off. Catch-up day. Matt will do appointments if the client is listing or if the buyer is buying. He makes sure that everything's ready for a Friday. He says, “I wear this uniform on my day off on a Thursday because at the end of the day, I think you're always in the business. People are seeing you, they know you in your dress, they know you by how you dress.”
Friday Friday is the lister's meeting in the morning. Matt says, “We get together with the listing team. We talk about what auctions are going to be on that weekend and what sales are going to be made. We go over our advertising platform. We look at what's been in the paper this week.”
Saturday Auctions.
Within a sphere of about 2 kilometres, Starr Partners Merrylands cover every area of the market. In the Merrylands office, there are units that range between $350,000 and $450,000. In Pemulwuy, entry level at $600,000 and the top end is $1.6 million.
MERRYLANDS OFFICE
This is the face of the organisation and a stalwart of the community. It has lots of foot traffic and handles rental enquiries, strata management and servers. Sales are structured around teams, not individuals. Presenters are listers. There are buyer’s agents and an administration team. Cadets come through and work with one person for six months. They work with buyers and co-list with the main senior listing agents. By the time they're standing in front of a vendor sitting in their living room, they are the top-notch agents.
PEMULWUY OFFICE
This office produces on average $100 to $130,000 per month in commissionable income on 15 or 16 sales per month. It is growing to $200,000 in commissions a month.
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