What started all those years ago as an opportunity to spend more time with my best mate Haesley Cush, has skyrocketed into a working partnership overseeing more than 160 people across seven real estate businesses, otherwise known as The Collective.
Haes and I have known each other for 35 years now, both hailing from Brisbane’s southside suburb of Moorooka, and working together at Ray White New Farm since 2006 as confident 20-something-year-old roosters wanting to have a crack at creating a high performance culture. What makes a good partnership? Our strengths complement each other and we know to swim in our own lanes. We also acknowledge there’s immense power in numbers, hence the creation of The Collective which includes Ray White New Farm, Ray White Bulimba, Ray White Toowong, Ray White Clayfield, Ray White East Brisbane, Ray White Spring Hill and Living Here Cush Partners.
The Collective goes far beyond the pair of us and our partners gaining more capital and intellectual property, this is about giving our clients a superior advantage in a very competitive market by being more collaborative. We have access to an extensive database of buyers and have the most number of agents working across the inner-city. We have 85 sales people across The Collective, with one in three sales across our group, the buyer was introduced by another agent in our team.
We’re always searching for value-adding gold nuggets without slugging extra costs on top of the usual hits associated with cleaning, landscaping, styling, photography plus commission fees. So the question arose, how can we sell best without additional outlay? Enter The Collective. We can often sell a property off-market simply by sharing it across our network of offices. We can also ramp up the power of an auction by delivering a premium, multi-property event with hundreds of pre-qualified motivated buyers in one room.
Our March figures support our belief that altogether is a better way to deliver more for our clients. In March 2023, The Collective listed 30 auctions, with a clearance rate of 80.56%, wrote 103 contracts, hosted 632 open homes welcoming 2,638 attendees, and recorded 71,058 website visits. Not too shabby considering it all started with two keen lads wanting to make something of themselves.
Wishing you and your family a safe and happy Easter.
Matt Lancashire