📈 Turning a rival's dirty rumor into a 27% sales jump

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

A rival's dirty trick backfired into a record year

Competitors told her clients she was finished. Mum-to-be Symone Gatt heard about it from a conveyancer and turned the rumour into fuel for her biggest year yet. Two weeks off on maternity leave, one new hire, and a 27 per cent jump in sales later, she's sitting in the top ten of her network.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The two-week return: why Symone timed her comeback around Easter and hasn't missed a Saturday open since.
• The assistant trade-off: the exact tasks she handed over so she could stay the only face clients see at listings and opens.
• The boardroom baby rule: how her office turned a newborn into a fixture of morning sales meetings, and what that says about the culture she works in.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH ID4ME

When the pie gets smaller, you need a bigger slice

Tom Panos told a room of agents something most webinars skip straight past: the phone call to a vendor who appraised at 1.1 and is now looking at 950 isn't the hard part because of the number.

It's hard because agents start carrying it like they caused it.

His fix is simple and stuck with everyone who heard it.

"You're not the bad news when you're talking to your vendor. You're the messenger of the bad news, but you're not the bad news itself."

From there, he walks through the arithmetic rarely run – why standing still in a shrinking market actually means going backwards, and why 30 sales now might need double the listings it used to. The full recording, his presentation, and the vendor and buyer scripts he shared are available to watch.

Learn more →

DEPT OF LEGAL STUFF

Vic's new reserve price rule has a loophole question

From October, Victorian agents must publish a vendor's reserve seven days out – but the law doesn't say what happens if that reserve changes.

Toby Balazs from the REIV flags a real scenario: reject a pre-auction offer above the reserve, and you may have just set a new one, triggering another seven-day wait.

REIV is chasing guidelines from Consumer Affairs Victoria now.

DEPT OF AUCTIONS

Spring stock rises with clearance rates still under 50%

Cotality's combined capitals clearance rate came in at 49.5% last week, a touch up on the week before but well short of the 69.3% this time last year. Volumes are the other half of the story: listings are building week on week and Cotality expects that to continue through September. Brisbane was the softest of the capitals, and Adelaide is the only city listing more homes than a year ago.

DEPT OF DATA

Kellyville tops Sydney's moving data as CBD empties out

One removalist's job data is showing where Sydney's growth is really heading. A1 Removalists Sydney tracked 2,930 moves and found Kellyville and Box Hill leading net inbound activity, while Sydney CBD and Leichhardt each posted the city's steepest net outflows. Of 556 interstate jobs, 301 left NSW, mostly for Queensland and Victoria.

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Connectnow helps property managers simplify the move-in process by taking care of utility connections, including electricity, gas and internet, reducing administration, follow-ups and the risk of missed connections.

With more than 25 years’ experience, connectnow integrates utility connections into existing leasing workflows, helping teams deliver a more consistent experience while giving agencies a trackable revenue stream through referral activity. Dedicated account management and partner support are also provided.

At PM/ONE, attendees can meet the connectnow team, see how utility connections can be embedded into their existing processes, and learn how to track time savings and referral performance across their portfolio.

See connectnow at PM/ONE
PM/ONE brings Australia’s property management community together in Sydney on 13–14 September 2026. Explore the event and get your tickets at PM1.com.au.

HOW IT SOLD

Two buyers, one softer market, $3.35m result

Mark Josem sold 154 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East for $3.351 million in just 12 days – above the home's $3.2 million offer from 2022, despite a softer market. His social-first video campaign generated six times the views of portals alone, surfacing a second genuine buyer who pushed the price.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

How's your findability on AI? The agents who turn up have more content out there. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harcourts Batemans Bay owners open second office in Narooma

Southern Eurobodalla now has its own Harcourts base. Omania Terry and Dene Lewthwaite, who've built Harcourts Batemans Bay across residential sales, property management and holiday rentals since Dene took on the franchise in 2019, have opened Harcourts Narooma. Sales team member Jenna Turnbull and property manager Melissa Dell, already working in the area, helped lay the groundwork for the new office.

Valentina Parra named Ray White Victoria and Tasmania COO From reception at 18 to the C-suite: Valentina Parra has been named Chief Operating Officer of Ray White Victoria and Tasmania, a newly created role for the network. Her run through the business spans finance, marketing, events and IT, sales at Alan White Premier level, and auctioneering, before this appointment to oversee the corporate team's day-to-day running and free CEO Domenic Belfiore to focus on growth.

Harcourts Property Specialists opens two new WA offices Sixteen months into its Harcourts membership, Harcourts Property Specialists is opening in Subiaco and Hopetoun, lifting its Western Australian footprint to four offices and bringing on seven established salespeople. It's the business's third rent roll acquisition since joining the network in April 2025, building on more than 30 years managing property across Perth. Director and licensee Victor Paz said Subiaco strengthens an already established patch, while Hopetoun extends the business into regional WA, backed by its Perth team.

Beau Miller takes over as principal of Whitsundays agency Taylors Beau Miller's path runs from property management at 17 through agency ownership, business development and a state operations role at Elders Real Estate, where she oversaw roughly 12,500 properties across Queensland and the Northern Territory. She now steps in as principal of Taylors Property Specialists in the Whitsundays, taking over from founder Rob Taylor in a staged handover that keeps the brand and the 20-strong team in place.

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Added "professional cat climber" to my resume today 🐈‍⬛📈

TRUE OR FALSE:

In 1978 Richard Branson was shown a Caribbean island listed at US$6M, offered US$100K for it, and was left to find his own way home. He ended up owning it anyway.

And the answer is …

True. Necker Island sat unsold for another year, the owner's patience ran out, and Branson got all 74 acres for US$180,000. He'd only gone to the viewing to impress a girl – he married her on that island a decade later. via CNBC.