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Doubling down on buyer work has paid off for NSW agent Matthew Everingham, who has climbed several places in the 2023 REB rankings.
The director and auctioneer at Sydney-based Richard Matthews Real Estate is placed in 13th position of the REB Top 50 Agents NSW 2023 rankings (up from 19th in 2022), and 11th in the Top 100 Agents 2023 ranking (up from 18th the previous year).
This is no surprise, given he sold 198 properties totalling $417.4 million in the 2022 calendar year, up from 177 properties worth $303.3 million the previous year.
He largely sold family homes valued between $1.5 million and $2.5 million to both owner-occupiers and investors.
“The investors are always looking to sell if the price is right,” Mr Everingham noted.
“Many of our off-market deals were for investors who were not overly motivated to sell their property but were prepared to do so if they got a strong price.”
Pay attention to buyers
Mr Everingham told REB that he credits his success to operating in real estate for over two decades, building relationships with clients, and as a result, attracting referral and repeat business.
“We’ve specifically been delving into our relationships with buyers,” he said.
“We’re really big advocates of doing great buyer work, and providing them with great service.”
This strategy has served Mr Everingham well in a more subdued property market as interest rates rise and the economy tightens.
While many agents may be driven by listings (which Mr Everingham acknowledged is important), he said this strategy did not particularly serve buyers because it did not keep them informed about properties prior to their listing and launching on online portals.
“Many agents look for short-term gratification and quick results, which is fine,” he said.
“But as the market tightened and it was harder to close deals and sell properties, our relationships with buyers that we built over many years and our ability to get in touch with them really helped us. We often sold properties before they were publicly promoted.”
Buyers who Mr Everingham built relationships with 10 or 15 years ago remember him for his service and provide repeat business when they want to sell, he noted.
The key to building an extensive database of buyers is to provide optimal service, Mr Everingham asserted, including providing additional information about properties that they wouldn’t be able to find online, and access to properties that were not yet advertised for sale.
Moreover, with offices in Strathfield, Summer Hill and Georges Hall, Mr Everingham said the agency provides buyers with choice across a wide area in Sydney.
Employing a marketing strategy
Alongside this, Richard Matthews Real Estate has a full-time marketing team with three staff, which Mr Everingham credited for his success too.
The team has not only built the agency’s social media presence, it has also employed old-school strategies such as dropping information directly into residents’ mailboxes.
Tapping into consumer behaviour is another marketing strategy, where the marketing team tracks people who visit the agency’s website, what brought them there and how they behave.
“If they like something we’re doing, we try to use that to our advantage,” Mr Everingham said.
Work hard, build experience
Mr Everingham said his success also boils down to longevity, experience and building relationships with clients, which have prepared him to weather the tough conditions currently plaguing the market.
“The interest rate rises haven’t fazed me. We’ve arrived at a normal phase, where rates aren’t extraordinarily high or low. I’ve sold in markets 12 or 13 years ago where we had much higher rates,” he assured.
“We felt that our experience and ability to have deep conversations with our clients have served us well. We’re not just riding the wave of luck.”
When asked how other agents could replicate his track record, Mr Everingham said there is no shortcut to success.
“You have to do the hard work, work late hours and be prepared to sacrifice your time if you want to see success,” he stressed, adding that he works seven days a week, including weekends at auctions and open homes.
He concluded: “You have to accept that if you’re starting out in real estate, you have to spend a number of years building a strong foundation.”
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