Questions from an 11-year-old (and a big thank you!)

We have had a couple of short weeks,  it’s the school holidays and the last couple of posts have been pretty long and pretty heavy (read last week’s post), so it’s a short one!

I am also slightly behind this week. I am dictating this post onto my phone this morning as I drive around doing various errands.

I was driving back from a little school holiday surf mission yesterday afternoon with my son, Phoenix, and he asked me about a local real estate business. His question was ‘Dad, this other company has been around longer than yours, how come your business is bigger?’ By bigger he meant more staff. Fair question and a reasonable assumption.

I had a go at answering, and here is what I said, more or less.

Firstly, that business is probably a great business. His agents may well be on a much lower commission share than my team and my guess is the business is a pretty good one. A big difference though, is that in that business, the founder and owner are selling houses. If you are selling houses, it is that much harder to run a business as well.

I know that if I had a house or two to sell, that process would sort of take over my life. If someone wanted to view a property or there was an open home organised, everything else I was doing would be dropped. This business would suffer. I also doubted I could balance family and other interests if I was selling houses and working in and on this business.

And the second reason is Kim. When I started Independent Agent, it was just an idea, but I knew that there was no way that I could execute my ideas without someone who has a range of skills that would not only organise my thoughts, but also work with me to create an implementation plan for these ideas.

I had then, and still have, no shortage of ideas. It’s getting them done that is the challenge. I needed someone who would be strict on me when required, and someone who wouldn’t be afraid to pull me up. I also needed someone who would not be hurt if I pushed back on being pulled up. Kim and I had worked together before and I had been looking for an opportunity to work with her again. Here it was.

I knew that she was able to order chaos and that she had a bunch of philosophies and attitudes to life that fit with me. I also knew that with my busy life, my family and my interests, the business would not survive if it was relying on me to administer it.

So, before the company was registered, before I had a company license fully sorted, before I had a bank account or had organised a trust account, I had engaged with Kim.

It was scary at first – knowing that not only had I decided to put all other forms of creating income on hold while I worked on Independent Agent, but I would also need to make sure Kim would be paid too.

Big thanks to Kim!

Among (many) other things, Kim handles on-boarding of new agents. I am hoping to keep her REALLY busy this year.

Phoenix appreciated the answers – at 11 years old he knows me well enough to understand that both ideas were on point. That I would be distracted if I was selling, and how much I need someone organised to help get things done.

Good question Son!

Have a great week, and I would love to hear from you if you would like to know more about how we do things at Independent Agent.

Many people have been asking how we are going at the moment.

We have had a record month. From our team of 30 sales people and we produced 29 sale and purchase agreements.  27 agreements went unconditional last month. I’m very privileged to work with such a great team of salespeople and amazing administrators.

Matt.