¶ Introducing Peter Morris
Hello and welcome back to the podcast we Are Selling Today . Our topic is play it down the line . And joining me from McGrath on the Central Coast , home of Matt and Jamie Matt Steinway , known to everyone , is Mr Peter Morris . Peter , welcome to the program .
Thank you , lee Pleasure Now , peter , it's quite amazing to have you in the studio and just for our listener . You've been part of the Matt Steinway world right from the beginning . Let's get started with your background . What age did you first start working for Matt ? I was just turned 20 .
And what did you do ? Sales cadet . So from there , it's just all the grunt work . You know the open home signs , even then the call flute signs , how to put them up , the sold signs , the deliveries , the pre-list kits . The letterbox drops the door , knocking all the starter stuff .
And being cadet is one of the greatest jobs in the world because you're just running around like a lunatic . Matt's got all these deals going on this dropped off , that picked up that over there . What did you observe by ? And back then you're working with Matt , who's only five or six years into his career .
what did you remember most ? There's heaps , but I guess at the time you just think you're doing the job . But as years go by , you created discipline and consistency and just learning how probably easy even though if you do it a lot it's quite hard but how easy it is to basically start real estate .
Now back . Then you did your time as a cadet , but then you moved out of the area . Where did you go ?
Yeah , well , after four and a half years with Matt , I actually moved , went back to Uluru . So I did a year of Uluru before I met Matt and Jamie so my wife now , but girlfriend at the time we went back out there and thought we'd save money and travel the world , but we had two kids instead , as you would .
And what did you do out there ?
Well , I went into retail , which was a bit odd , but yeah , I was managing an Aboriginal art gallery and non-Indigenous art gallery as well out there in the resort . So yeah , I fell into Aboriginal art .
I didn't know that . What did you learn doing that Culture ?
Respect how they see the world , and especially Australia . It shows how , I guess , ignorant I was as a teenager , and probably many of us could be , but learning true Indigenous culture was a maturing and eye-opening experience .
That's amazing . You then returned back to the Central Coast with your children and now to be wife , and you returned back to McGrath . Now you could work anywhere , but what returned you back to ?
McGrath . I think I was always going to come back to McGrath Actually , I definitely was . There was no way I was going to go for anywhere or anyone else Learning with Matt and Jamie . It was a university degree for real estate . Now people do an online course , but to do that timeframe with them , I just knew .
Plus , then you got the John McGraw factor and I got to meet him , obviously because we did become the first franchise on the Central McGrath factor and I got to meet him obviously because we did become the first franchise on the Central Coast at Terrigal . But yeah , it was a no-brainer and real estate has always actually taught me basic concepts .
When I was in retail and customer service , that real estate background actually helped me in other industries and vice versa .
And that's why I called today Play it Down the Line . You know Matt and Jamie with their little office in Terrigal and then obviously , my connection with John doing the Hot Topics program and then Matt doing the Matt Steinway system . You were there the whole time through that and today you've actually become a shareholder in McGrath .
So from being this young pup cadet right through , you're now sitting in the boardroom meetings with the McGrath . So from being this young pup cadet right through , you're now sitting in the boardroom meetings with the McGrath group for the Central Coast . Did you ever think that would happen ?
It was always like this imaginary dream . Like you know , someone says I want to be an astronaut and land on the moon . But when it happened , I don't know , it's new , fresh at the moment , so it's still sinking in . But I've got to set new goals .
Well , let's go back to this middle part . You returned back to the Central Coast . Did you go back into Matt's team or straight out by yourself ?
I actually went into a team , went into with Helen and then with Matt Dawson , after that all in the Edelung office and then had a little stint on my own . I was petrified . I was so comfortable and it is quite amazing in a team there's so many more advantages in a team and I think I got very comfortable with that . Plus there was just more benefits .
But then when an opportunity came to look after Arimba where I live , I took it .
What age were you when you returned back ? To come back into sales .
Well , when I came back , I actually came back in 2016 . And I'm trying to think Well , when I went out on my own , I was 36 . So when I started as a sole agent , so what was that ? So 34 , sorry , yeah , so I'm 43 now .
What an amazing journey . And one thing you've just brought to our listeners' attention which is really important when you're working in a team , you've got a Matt Dawson or a Matt Steinway or all these great people around you . They can make it look easy .
And then suddenly , when you went out by yourself , that's like where's all these calls , where's all this heat and rhythm that's around me ?
What did you do then when you hit the cold spot , coming in as an agent , as a solo ? Something I probably noticed is the difference when you work in a team you can do the same amount of hours but you don't have that stress about finding listings and sales negotiations , vendor service et cetera . So it's sort of mentally free .
But as a sole agent it's full on mentally
¶ From Central Coast to Uluru and Back
and physically . But because I probably trained myself or Matt trained me , even from a cadet , I was working six days a week , from day one . I think that helps mentally . You can do the hours , but it was really I work seven days . It's by choice .
I have balance in my mornings , but as a sole agent you've got to do everything and I think the goal was to get to a point where I can put on an associate or actually admin . That was my key .
How interesting that people think , okay , I'm going to go out solo , it's all mine , everything's yours , I can assure you the mailbox drops . Yet there's also this next fear of oh , I can't put someone on because I can't afford it . But you came from a team-based environment . It was played down the line to you .
So getting somebody else on , you knew you could play it down the line .
The team dream was always there , Whether I was going to be in a team and then be able to probably mould into that and be a team player with another agent . I was happy for that . But now I'm doing it myself because that didn't happen in the past , but I'm wanting to do that .
I do have Nate with me and I've now got him as basically a part owner of my business . So we want to grow and go to another level .
So you went out . Arimba came up as an area , which was an opportunity . So you've out . Arimba came up as an area , which was an opportunity . So you've shifted areas too . You were Terrigal Edelong , and these are all 20 minutes apart , which seems like a lot , but it is a lot . They're quite different , completely styles of real estate .
When you go over those bridges , Then you've gone over the train tracks and you've gone into a very different area . Take me into the day , one week , one month , one , of landing in a rimbar , your own area , and when it came up you jumped at it , but you went in as a solo . What did you do ?
Door knock for literally two years . It wasn't every day because consistency and discipline . It's hard when eventually you're trying to do everything at once . But I definitely mentally , I sort of punished myself my pretend day off on Thursday . I always called it because you think you're going to have it off , but you don't that . I just door knocked all day .
But doing that for two years , just introduce yourself at the beginning but then you're just offering either the suburb reports or CMAs that I used to do back in the day . That was just . I was just offering things . I really wasn't asking too much for the business . Of course it gets into a conversation like that , but the door knocking was big .
And then when I started to be able to have a bit of money to sponsor back into the community I do a lot of sponsorships with different sports and even the school . So as soon as I could do that , I did . But consistency with letterbox drops , Mum and I smashed it out every single day or week and month and just yeah , mum was a big help .
Wow , Didn't know that either , and I'm having a surreal moment here from doing the original Matt Steinway system of Matt talking about saturation and just get to know people and build it up . Been back in the studio with him two weeks ago , 22 years later , him saying the same thing that you've just said . There's definitely a sequence to it .
You claim the doors , which is what door knocking is all about . You weren't asking them to sell , just introducing yourself . You're building up those doors . You're building up the data .
What data did you build up in that timeframe ? Well , even now I sort of try to . I find people door knock and sometimes they say I met 20 people and you sort of say , well , did you get any names ? No , I'm like what . So you've just done a whole day's worth of work for nothing .
My minimum requirement was to get their first name , which is very easy to do when you're chatting at the door and you might have even a cold client that says I'm not looking to sell , but at the end of the convo you go look , my name's Peter . Sorry , what was your first name ? Lee , Lee , Thank you , Is that spelled L-E-E ? It is Perfect .
No worries , Lee , I appreciate your time . Have a good one . And then when the thank you card came later , at least I spelled your name correctly . And then I look on RP data , get your surname Back . Then I could do white pages , possibly get your phone number , and then I had a bit of data .
So it took a bit of time and that was more like my night time shift from seven till midnight trying to do data entry when you're a sole agent .
So you've got the data . You were using the CMA drop , that same one Matt was using back in that time
¶ Going Solo: The Arimba Challenge
.
Yeah , or the RP data , suburb report . What do you do today ? So a lot of it now is whether it's the Just Listed invite , just Solds Open House invites , the VIP Open Homes invites .
So it's sort of like just sort of getting the community involved in our process more than anything , of course , asking for if they just want updates , appraisals or thinking of selling , the thinking of selling thing , I know agents can hit it straight away , but I sort of leave that at the end . I don't want to come across that . I'm only there for a listing .
I just want to help .
Pete , we've just spent a good time understanding this background . Where is your business today ? What have you achieved over this time , from cadet to now , that's allowed you to have this team-based business that you've got ? Where are you today ?
So now I guess , if you're looking at a performance base or GCI , we did 1.35 into last year , so we're trying to improve , because the year before I did 1.32 . So it's still on par .
I'm not complaining , but we need to double that because my team is myself , Nate , so two agents Louise , who our backbone she does all the magic behind the scenes the admin , the marketing , edits and things like that . And then young Cameron , who's our sales cadet and yeah , he was a mini me , I guess .
So just for our listener . And in the UK and the US , what's the average sale price of property in the area where you are ?
$17,000 . Oh sorry , that's the GCI yeah .
Yeah , and then the average that's okay , good to know .
Yeah , but the actual average sale price sort of sits around that $9.50 . Sometimes you creep into a mil because you might sell a larger acreage which will get that sort of two mil .
Yeah , I just wanted you to confirm that , because it's bread and butter real estate . You're not doing things with wharfs , you're not oceanfront , it is a true regional area . What do you think and I'll take you through the steps of the stages in lead generation ? Did the door knocking , community connection , done the sponsorship ?
What else have you done in lead generation that's allowed you to get this sort of consistency ?
I've actually created with the team a process on Local Asian Finder , because they have swarmed the market with their clickbait so you do get inquiries from that , so we have a process to manage that .
So it's like a marketing calendar for your letterbox drops , but it's just for that , or open agent or any referral system thing like that , because you shouldn't take that for granted , and so we service that . Look , social media is great .
Of course , everyone's doing a bit more there and going with actual companies with real tech and algorithms better than boosting yourself . They're sort of the main ones .
But having the team , I'm able to do really good open homes and because I do Sunday open homes , that elevates us more helps with the letters , because it's the word Sundays on there , our social media Buyers who see that , they see that massive and if they're thinking of sell , most of them want that . So I find my Sunday open homes changed my career .
It's a sacrifice because that is your seventh day and that is your day off , but the reward's more important to me and the family . So , as I said earlier , seven days a week I don't mind .
So the layering effect happens on that , though , where you start to get the results because people know you're available and you're out there . What was the difference with the Sunday open for you ?
It actually happened in 2019 in a property in Orimba . I remember it very well because 2019 was Royal Commission . The market was going a bit flat , buyers were just waiting , loans were dropping with the affordability and I was getting zeros and ones .
It hit 100 days Orimba was over 100 days on market back then and I just asked to do a Sunday with the owner and I had seven groups and it sold and I went . That contradicted everything that people say the length of time on the market . Was it the marketing ? All these little things that you could use as a mental excuse ?
Defining moment .
Yeah , and that then went wow . And I tell people even today I meet more successful people to property on Sunday than any other day of the week .
So Sunday became the defining moment . What happened then ? You've got your breakthrough . Lead generation's kicking in . Take me into lead conversion , one of the hardest things you would have had to learn , because with your time with Matt the incredible Matt Dawson , another incredible agent , paul McGrath you learnt lead generation .
You learnt to pound the pavement and also do the CMAs . Take us into learning how to present and get Pete across as the lead agent .
Even right now I can feel my body sort of get nervous because that was my fear to being a sole agent listing presentations . Fear of the public speaking is always a thing , but for me I just like how do I present to hopefully have the business ? That was my fear , but now it's the fun part .
I think you sort of unlock how to talk to people in a way that how can I help them to maximize their outcome , their benefits , the positivities , and when there's a negative , how do I fix it ? And once you realize all that , it's actually quite fun . So yeah , mastering that listening presentation is great .
But using case studies and even talking about stories like a Sunday buyer and how they fell in love but they got to see it on Saturday and Sunday , and how it negotiated and how it created more competition , that helps .
But then also after Eric one year , a few years ago , I learned about VIP and so I've implemented VIP launches and that's another changing moment .
VIP and working that marketplace early is stage marketing . I know at a recent talk that we did for McGrath stepping that out , so the owner understands that difference is a key way of doing it . Do you use any props ? Do you use any visuals
¶ Unlocking Sunday Sales Success
? What are you doing there ?
I probably take more stuff into listening presentations than most . I've got my whole bag with the laptop and iPad . That's for your tech . That's really to go through recent sales , I guess , to gauge that . But I have a lot of materials , whether it's from social media , stats and case studies , vip case studies .
We've got marketing materials so they see what they're actually going to be investing in . But also , what else have I got ? Sorry , these are your tools of trade . Oh yeah , there's probably about six or seven binder little clips within my folder that I take to every property .
Whether I need to use every single one of them or not , that depends on the situation or the conversation . That depends on the situation or the conversation . But our marketing folder , the little booklet that we use .
If I don't have that , I say to myself you won't get the listing , because marketing is one of the biggest part of the listing presentation and sometimes when you do the proposal , it's the deal breaker if the price is like whoa .
But going through marketing , that changed how I do my listing presentations and again like benefits and what's the reason you want to do that as a vendor that unlocks it .
So , pete , this is like your marketing menu and you're using the technique of the talking pad and pen . Take us into that , yeah .
I guess some people might go in and present and just say , yeah , you're on the internet or realestatecom . But I break it down to every element and talk about them , because I wouldn't get an owner to do something I wouldn't do myself or advise mom and dad to do so .
Once they see the reasoning , the benefits , sometimes the value or the investment outweighs any concerns that they had .
What's a good week of presentations for you .
So , as in how many ? Yeah , look , probably a good one would be seven listing presentations a week as an average at the moment it's a little bit quieter at the moment , I guess , but look , we do probably 30 appraisals a month as a minimum . That's what we want to do , and then obviously some of those turn into a listing presentation without you really knowing .
But , yeah , 30 appraisals and probably half of those you want listing presentations in .
And stock on hand what's the right amount of properties for you to be carrying with the team .
What's the right amount of properties for you to be carrying with the team ? Yeah , you need to be at least having 10 to 15 listings at any time . But as I say that , I think now I've only probably got about seven on the books . But August , september is going to be pretty good , so you've got a lot going to drop in August , september .
That's when they're going to drop , and that was a very famous audio a couple of weeks ago of when will it drop . When will it drop ? People look at how much data they've got , but having that predictability of when they're going to drop becomes another technique . Take us into vendor management . This has been your strength , really .
Once you get an owner on board , the Peter experience gives you that method of introduction to the next one , where one sale should generate the next five . What have you learned about the vendor management process ?
I think it really starts from the moment you meet them , when you might share a story about the last sale in their street or around the corner and they talk about that scenario . That'll help them if they ever go near that exact same scenario . But even your listing presentation you're talking about how it's going
¶ Mastering the Listing Presentation
to happen . How was their last experience ? When they may have sold ? If they've built a home 40 years ago , then you're just basically telling them they've never understood real estate in the world . And I sort of do that for everyone , even friends or family .
If I list their property and they say , oh , don't worry about going through it , I go no , no , we're doing this together . We go through the journey and we need to be on the same page . And it's the same with my whole team . They sort of know how I talk to clients . But the best thing is it's all true . There's no makeup like you hear in the industry .
It's all just what's actually happened recently . I still won't just talk about something that happened four years ago . There's already new case studies and scenarios that happen every week . So that's a big part of just how to communicate to owners . But my process and the team especially from the VIP launch to going live .
That moment in there there's a lot of learnings that not only us as agents but the owners have , and we do it together Because if an owner wants a certain price , we can explore that at the beginning and then we might find out we're either right or wrong before you go live .
So that alone is a big part of doing it together and not just going live and then the agent two weeks later just hitting the owner down saying no , not enough inspections , no offers , you've got to drop your price , which is probably what some of them do . What about set up to sell ?
So in prep , so there's always that listing presentation , you do the paperwork , et cetera , or electronic paperwork , and then you have your set to sell meeting . But I do , you'll have a little one , but I have a big one between the VIP launch and going live .
That's really interesting because you're allowing the marketplace to take some of the heavy lifting . The VIPs can happen . These are our followers . This particular lady here has been looking for six months . She's missed out on three properties . She's only engaging at this level . She thinks the other homes had more volume to them , had more space .
So you're actually using VIP to launch is really the price setting moment .
Oh yeah , that's one benefit . I've actually got 26 benefits to why I do it written them down . But there because sometimes , Because sometimes as an agent you're not there to say your home is or isn't worth something , your job's to find out and then negotiate it , usually up .
So it is a journey together because as a homeowner you might have a certain price because you built the home so it's valuable , more so to you than the next guy . So , yeah , it's good to get actual factual market analysis or feedback . You can't beat it . It's not an agent just telling you .
When we look at playing it down the line . There are so many things and I was there at the beginning when you started and to see you do what you've done today , yet still always in a team-based business . You didn't make that error of I'm going to go and open my own shop . You and Matt are the same with that .
That's the worst thing on the world you could do . You're professional real estate people . You don't mind being part of the group , but to do your own little standalone thing is not you . You are from the brand and it's amazing to see the similarities between yourself and Matt . Now you're the lead agent . You're the leader of the team .
What's your focus with your team members ? To play it down the line , for them to learn .
I guess , like Nate Nate Waters with me , he's a mini-me , as in . He will talk and act and he even knows how I think now . So it's very easy for us to brainstorm and role play when needed . But , more importantly , at least he and I are saying the same things to clients , whether they're buyers or sellers . It just works .
And then even my young cadet I don't hold back . I'm not trying to hold back and say , oh , you don't need to learn this , you don't need to learn this . Whether they come or go or something like that , that's always in the back of your mind because you give them too much knowledge and they get excited . But I don't hold back . My background was in training .
When I left and moved to Uluru and whatnot , I got into training and training and doing courses on it . So I do love doing that , more so than if someone came and they learnt and left . That's okay , they've still got to do it when they leave .
But look , I do just train my team in how I talk so that if they're on the phone to a client when I'm not there , at least they understand probably the language which I probably learnt from people like yourself and others .
Words are so important . I've actually got a course coming up called the 90-Day Coaching Program , and when I was writing that , I didn't start with prospecting and listing .
I've actually started module one as words , because if you hit the phone with the wrong words , if you get into a lounge room with the wrong words , you meet anyone with the wrong words and words have this whole series of feelings and emotions that you know . It's like when we use the words . We need to improve the price versus reduce the price .
It's one word but it's so simple and I think if people get their languaging right and you were very fortunate to get languaging right early , without even knowing what you were doing there , you were just around someone who was very , very good with words and then you come to the training .
But I think going into retail was very important to you as well , because that's face-to-face and in a very different environment . So you've come to respect words and that's what you're playing down the line most now . Because the
¶ The VIP Launch Strategy
actions you're either going to do them or you're not . But if you're doing the actions with the wrong words , that's where it all falls apart .
Yeah , it's funny when you say retail . You know , in retail you walk into a shop and they say , oh , do you need a hand ? Are you okay there , can I help you ? And usually we all say no , I'm all good , thanks , just looking . But it's that second question .
Or asking the same question again , and that's the same when you're door knocking , are you thinking of selling ? No , are you sure you're not thinking of selling anytime this year and they go oh , maybe when the kids finish high school , bingo conversation starts . So yeah , it is interesting , just communication .
But I do , even with the whole office and our team and things . I do talk about language . Even when we're , say , the Monday sales meeting , someone says something , I'll put my hand up and say , hey , try and say it this way . It's just learning from human behavior , body language .
When you say a word and someone's face cringes , you've said something wrong , even though in your world you've just tried to help them . It's just how you say it . And also just the one word tweak . It's so funny . Like even say I've got to drop the price . I can even say to a certain client we need to make the price more sexy , and they giggle about it .
But you don't say that to everyone , they'll be like what ? But it works with some people . Right . But improving the price or a price I need to attract more buyers is me saying we need to drop the price or price isn't right . So yeah , just there's ways to soften everything and backing it up with why you're saying that , not just saying we need to do this .
There's a reason why , and here's the evidence . That's why activity reports and the daily WhatsApp chats always help , because selling homes with us is very active and live , versus someone just waiting for a Saturday open home and seeing if the agent rings after the open house .
So WhatsApp's gone right across the country as the preferred method of vendor communication . You've got quite a traditional owner and some senior owners in that area . How did they adapt to the WhatsApp ?
Yeah , it's funny at first and then if you get a bit of a weird thing on the news with oh China , like it's weird how people think , oh , we're just selling a house here , but I basically set it up for them , that's probably the biggest thing , Even if I think maybe they aren't tech savvy .
I'll just ask Even at the end of the listing presentation , it's a bit of a close as well when you're talking about how we communicate in WhatsApp , a soft close , and yeah , I just sort of set it up for them and have that notification on , which is usually auto .
There's probably only you might get a divorce couple that don't want to share the conversation , so one will be on that , but one will be on an SMS . Or , yeah , if you did have someone really like I'm not doing it , which is rare now yeah , it'll be just SMS group chats .
Perfect Buyer management . What's your plate down the line here ? What have you learned that ?
changes your career . If you do it well , not only with the prospecting , lead gen , door knocking and et cetera . In that first two years you might only have two listings for the month . You got heaps of time to talk to buyers .
Servicing buyers is the key to business in three to five years and I think too many people think the buyer today will be nothing tomorrow .
That buyer today is your client for life and it is amazing when you do get a call , even if it is only two years later due to sad circumstances , that they ring you based on your buyer work and I only had that this week where they'd been looking for over six months . They bought and they said we've met every agent around .
We're not even going to call any other agents , pete , we want you to list our property . That is the biggest compliment I think you can ever have in real estate . Apart from saying , oh , you did a good job selling my house and great price that buyer service .
I tell my team that , helping a buyer , they will probably tell more people about you than the seller who sold with you Because a buyer in their journey . They might not sell for five years , but along the way they're telling everyone you should give Pete Morris a call . He really helped us and that's huge .
Pete , an absolute incredible story from cadet to shareholder . And you know , there was a photo that I saw I don't know , it must have been a month ago of the opening of the new Maitland office in the most stunning building , and I saw you there and Matt Dawson was there as well , and I'm thinking that's like an hour and a half from you guys .
What are you doing at the opening ? And yes , it's one of the group openings , but I didn't know you were becoming a shareholder and it suddenly just happened . So congratulations on that . My final question for you what's , peter Morris , passionate about for the future with the real estate team you've created in the group that you've now invested in ?
What excites you for the ?
future in the group that you've now invested in . What excites you for the future ? To be a super team ? I want to be bigger . We want to provide more service and help more people . Growth is always on my mind , constantly , whenever something goes wrong , how do we make it better next time ? Not harp on why it went wrong , just what we'll do better For me .
Yeah , it's a team of four , but we want to be bigger within the office . I want to be an office size , really within an office . I see the future of real estate being dominated by teams versus being a sole agent , and we all start somewhere . But I think becoming shareholder now that was a huge dream . I probably didn't . It was a fantasy , really .
But now my new dream is focusing on the team , building the team with my team and actually basically one day having them financially invested within my team and getting those rewards back financially as well . That's sort of my goal at the moment .
What do you see when you look at when I came in to do that talk , it must have been four weeks ago . I'm sitting there watching the end of month and everyone's figures come up and the winner of the month is Mr Matt's team , steinway , with 830,000
¶ Future Goals and Team Building
in fees for the month . I'm standing in the room and I'm going oh my God , here we are in regional Australia . That is massive numbers . What do you see when you see that ?
Well , I'm happy to be number two or three , but I think I remember some company did some promo saying number two , always looking to improve something like that . We always work harder . Yeah , just things like that resonate . And Team Steinway , that's what we're going to be one day .
But it is amazing to have such I don't know a benchmark and leadership like that .
Yes , there's benchmarks all around the country , but in your own house it's something to admire and everyone , even in the network if you did get close to their GCI for the month or you maybe beat it like one or two have it's like the biggest buzz , like for people to say , wow , you beat Team Steinway .
Yeah , and Team Steinway would pat everyone on the back for that too . But yeah , it's good to have that , because if you are I guess if you are number one in your own network , it is a bit hard to be pushed to the limits . And how do you unlock growth when you think you're already there ?
Well , Peter Morris , an absolute pleasure to do your interview , from seeing you grow up in front of my eyes . And then I was only meeting with Jamie Woodcock the other week and he shared the news and I said , wow , because I'd mentioned you , because I was about to do the Matt Steinway Ultimate Real Estate Success Program , which was amazing as well .
You were mentioned in that . But congratulations and thank you for appearing on . We Are Selling , thank you so much , Lee . This is a huge honour , thank you .