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GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋 Good morning, and welcome to The Brief for Wednesday 7 October 2026. |
TRUE OR FALSE? Barcelona's most famous church – Gaudí's Sagrada Família, the one that's been a building site since 1882 – went 137 years without a building permit. (Scroll to the bottom for the answer!) |
In today's edition of The Brief - Ben Collier never pitched for his $23.5 million Paddington listing. He'd been having cups of tea with the owner for 32 years.
- Listing gone quiet? Chad Buckley re-shot his, changed the story and sold it for $1.525 million.
- Vendors mentioning cash flow? More owner-occupiers are going interest-only – and it isn't the distress signal it sounds like.
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TODAY'S FEATURE  How 32 years of cups of tea led to an uncontested $23.5m listingBen Collier didn't win the listing for 127 Paddington St, Paddington. He never had to pitch for it at all. Thirty plus years of cups of tea with one Paddington homeowner led to an uncontested appointment and a $23.5 million result – and the Agency co-founder says the real lesson isn't about one sale, it's about what most agents stopped doing the moment the portals made listings easy. |
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What you'll learn in the full article: - The 32-year database: why Ben kept calling one homeowner for three decades without ever asking for the listing.
- The invisible buyer: how a genuine seller's brief can vanish from a portal search filter completely, and what that costs agents who never picked up the phone.
- The two-question test: the standard Ben says every vendor's friends and family will eventually use to judge an agent's work.
Read the full article → |
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TOGETHER WITH RENTCOVER  The landlord claim questions your property managers field mostEvery property manager knows the moment: an owner rings mid-crisis, usually after a storm or a nasty tenant exit, asking "am I covered?" before anyone's even looked at the damage. EBM RentCover has handled thousands of these claims, and they've noticed the same handful of questions come up every time – whether to wait and see, why the insurer wants so much paperwork, whether a claim will touch future premiums. Having the answers ready before an owner asks them is the kind of thing that turns a stressful call into a manageable one. Have a look at the seven questions EBM RentCover says property managers field most, and what to tell your owners before they even ask. Learn more → |
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DEPT OF LENDING  Owner-occupier interest-only lending up 13% in a yearWorth knowing if vendors mention cash flow: owner-occupied interest-only lending has jumped from $45.8 billion to $51.5 billion in a year, the highest level since 2021. Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee says it's adjustment, not distress – arrears sit at just 1.01%, and forced selling isn't showing up yet. |
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DEPT OF LEGISLATION  Knockdown rebuilds fall 32% as duplexes take overKPMG's Terry Rawnsley has spotted a real shift: new home investment is up 20% over four years while knockdown rebuilds have dropped 32%, as planning reforms make duplexes and multi-dwelling builds viable on blocks that once meant a straight rebuild. Renovation spending hasn't backed off either, sitting near record highs at $56.2 billion nationally. |
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DEPT OF TAXATION  Land tax hits outer suburbs and regional Victoria hardestMore than 250,000 Victorians pay land tax on property valued at $50,000 to $300,000 – and 90% own just a single taxable property. Casey, Wyndham, Greater Geelong, Whittlesea and Hume all rank in the top ten council areas for payers, with Treasurer Colin Brooks noting thousands are in their 40s or younger and still paying off mortgages. Useful detail if clients in these corridors start asking why their bill arrived. |
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HOW IT SOLD  168 days, one repositioning, and a $1.525m saleBolwarra Heights, above Maitland, hadn't seen a non-acreage sale above $1.5 million in nine months. Chad Buckley re-photographed the property, reframing it from a "house on a nice plot" to a lifestyle escape with a pool and reserve backdrop, then sold it to an interstate family for $1.525 million. Find out the story behind how it sold → Is your name invisible to AI? Start getting published. getailsa.com → |
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MOVERS & SHAKERS  Dan White tells members Ray White has "more of the best"Eight events and more than 5,500 members later, Ray White's awards season is a wrap across Australia and Auckland. Managing Director Dan White has told members it capped what he calls a record year, with the group reporting 14.1% market share across both countries and, by its own count, 24 of Australia's top 100 residential agents selling a combined $5.3 billion.  Raj Bhandari brings established Kellyville agency to First NationalRaj Bhandari has run his Hills District sales and property management business from North Kellyville since 2019, building a client base across Kellyville, North Kellyville, Box Hill, The Gables and surrounding suburbs. He started in property finance in 2000 before moving into real estate in 2011. His agency now trades as First National Kellyville, keeping the same team and office while adding the network's corporate support, training and property management resources. |
 Mark Murray joins LJ Hooker ahead of Margaret River expansionMargaret River is getting its own LJ Hooker presence, and Mark Murray is the one building it. He joins LJ Hooker Property South West more than a decade into a real estate career that followed 15-plus years farming broadacre properties and running his own business, and he'll work remotely from the Cape to Cape region covering residential, land, rural and commercial sales until new premises open next year. |
 Marcus Washington: Building freedom and flexibility in PakenhamSixteen years in real estate, the last five running his own show, and Marcus Washington has just bought a factory outright to house it. His Area Specialist Solutions business covers Pakenham and the Southeast Melbourne region, and has grown from a solo operation to two sales consultants and a property manager, with the rent roll jumping from 30 properties to 110 in eight months. Marcus is now eyeing 600 properties under management and four sales consultants within five years, built on what he calls the freedom and flexibility of the Area Specialist model. |
 Alessandra Knez joins Harcourts as property operations managerVictoria and South Australia's property management offices have a new corporate support contact – Alessandra Knez has been appointed property operations manager for Harcourts Victoria and Harcourts SA. She's a certified life and mindset coach and Master NLP Practitioner as well as a property management specialist, twice recognised as Property Management of the Year, in 2025 and 2026. |
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AGENTS ON SOCIAL Well… when you put it like THAT. 🤷♀️🔑 |
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TRUE OR FALSE: Barcelona's most famous church – Gaudí's Sagrada Família, the one that's been a building site since 1882 – went 137 years without a building permit. And the answer is … True. The first stone was laid in 1882 and the city only issued a permit in 2019, for a fee of €4.6 million. Nobody seems sure how it got missed. via BBC News. |
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