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GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋 Good morning, and welcome to The Brief for Monday 17 August 2026. |
TRUE OR FALSE? The word 'Skyscraper' was in use for almost a century before it referred to the height of a building. (Scroll to the bottom for the answer!) |
In today's edition of The Brief - What to ask any head office, franchise or cooperative, before you sign anything.
- Vale Dr Fred Grosse – the coach behind John McGrath and Tom Panos, who saw the skills-over-information shift coming back in 2014. Today we have some of his most valuable lessons.
- When clients ask where a 5% deposit actually stretches, the answer isn't Sydney – Darwin just claimed eight of the top 10 suburbs.
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TODAY'S FEATURE  The 70-30 rule behind network controlModern agency success relies on collective support without losing local identity. First National Real Estate CEO David Edwards unpacks how their co-operative model uses a 70/30 split between local decision-making and national compliance guidance, and why that balance is critical in today's market. |
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What you'll learn in the full article: - The 70-30 test: the exact split Mr Edwards uses to separate national brand protection from your own local call on running the business.
- The cross-brand poaching trap: why chasing agents with higher commissions from the office down the road might be shrinking the talent pool, not growing it.
- The six-question checklist: what to ask any head office, franchise or cooperative, before you sign anything, from AI policy to succession support.
Read the full article → |
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TOGETHER WITH BUYERSAGENTS.COM.AU  buyersagents.com.au launches the 2026 Australian Buyers Agent Index surveyIf you're a buyers agent, here's your chance to help write the numbers everyone else quotes. buyersagents.com.au has opened the 2026 Australian Buyers Agent Index, a 15-minute survey covering deal volumes, fees, client acquisition and the challenges you're actually dealing with day to day. With buyers agent adoption up 40 per cent year-on-year, it's about time the profession had a proper benchmark instead of guesswork. Leon Hayes, the company's CEO, put it simply: "There has never been a rigorous, independent benchmark of how agents actually operate, where they are headed, and what challenges they face." The survey closes 31 August 2026, with results shared back with every participant. Take 15 minutes and add your voice at buyersagents.com.au/australian-buyers-agent-index-survey. Learn more → |
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RETROSPECTIVE  What Dr Fred Grosse told me in 2014 that I wasn't ready to hearHey team, Sam here. As tributes continue to flow across the industry for Dr Fred Grosse, I dug out an interview I recorded with him back in 2014. The truth? I wasn't quite ready to absorb everything he was trying to teach me back then. Listening back to the original transcript over the weekend - his foresight is staggering. Years before anyone else saw it coming, he predicted the exact shift from 'information' to 'skill' and laid out the blueprint for modern real estate success. Here is the story I probably should have written the first time. |
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DEPT OF LENDING  NT dominates 5% deposit scheme suburb rankingsEight of the top 10 suburbs for the federal 5% Deposit Scheme just came out of Darwin, not Sydney or Melbourne. Zuccoli topped the list with a $715,000 median, 34.9 per cent growth, and homes gone in 14 days. Worth knowing when clients ask where the scheme actually stretches furthest. |
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DEPT OF DATA  Nearly half of young renters still renting at 50Three in five Australian renters now expect they'll never own a home, and almost half of younger households are projected to still be renting privately past 50 by 2040. A new Luxo Living index ranks Australia 15th globally for "forever renting", with house prices outpacing wages by almost 22 per cent since 2015. |
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HOW IT SOLD  Nine weeks stalled, then three offers in one weekendA Hilton character home sat unsold for weeks until Emma Orchard rolled up her sleeves – buying doona covers, pillows and a rug herself, and repainting a dark pink bedroom white. The staging overhaul brought three competitive offers in a single weekend, selling for $1.2 million to a young family who valued settlement terms over price. Find out the story behind how it sold → Agents across Australia and New Zealand are turning sales into stories. getailsa.com → |
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AGENTS ON SOCIAL I love being my own boss! I can work whichever 80 hours a week. ☕🙃 |
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TRUE OR FALSE: The word 'Skyscraper' was in use for almost a century before it referred to the height of a building. And the answer is … True. Before it meant a building, 'skyscraper' was a tall sail, a high-standing horse, a very tall man and a ball whacked high into the air. The word only attached itself to architecture in 1880s Chicago, once steel frames and safe lifts produced buildings that needed a name of their own – and then it swallowed every other meaning whole. Nobody's called a horse a skyscraper since. The right name eventually finds the right property. via Online Etymology Dictionary. |
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