Big money for top agents
New Zealand’s property prices might have dropped but some agents are still making serious money. Homes.co.nz has compiled a list of the most successful salespeople operating in the Kiwi real estate market.
Anton Huang, from Ray White Howick, took the top spot in dollar terms for 2018, with 46 sales worth more than $63 million so far this year.
The agents who have turned over the highest volume of sales so far this year are Glenn Collins and Sonia Christison, from Hamilton, who made 53 sales up til September, worth $36.4m.
This is serious money for the agents, too.
A source said a reasonable expectation would be commission of 2.7 per cent, with a split of 57 per cent to the salesperson and 43 per cent to the franchise.
That means, so far this year, Huang would have earned $970,000 and Collins and Christison $560,000.
‘‘In today’s cooling property market, we expect the number of real estate agents to decrease. With competition for new listings heating up, it will be important for agents to continually innovate and adopt new marketing approaches,’’ said chief data scientist Tom Lintern.
‘‘New Zealand’s top real estate agents continue to do well, with sales worth tens of millions of dollars in 2018 alone.’’
Bindi Norwell, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute, said there were things that set top-performing agents apart.
They would work hours that fit in with what buyers and sellers needed, often working late in the evening to get a deal done.
She said they would often become local specialists, with a focus on a key area that they knew very well. ‘‘They won’t go outside that because they want to have that really high expertise in the local area and know the people and the property, know what’s been bought and sold.’’
Many were also making good use of social media marketing, she said, building hype about listings before they came on to the market.
High-performers built relationships for life, and would keep engaging with people over time, giving them information and advice.
They also tended to be realistic in discussions about things such as price expectations, rather than saying what the vendor wanted to hear.
Norwell said there were no signs yet that people were leaving the industry, despite prices softening in many parts of the country.
Although sales volumes are down from their peak, they now seem to be holding stable and the number of people with real estate licences hovers around 15,500.
Former business journalist Niko Kloeten has been working as a salesperson for Bayleys in Pukekohe for the past 10 months. He made his first sale eight months in, although an earlier deal fell over.
He said it was tough to get started. Once an initial scholarship period finished, he had to support himself until he started to earn commission. Kloeten said it helped that he had another job, on the local board, providing income to support him. ‘‘To be honest, I started at a pretty tough time in the market.’’
But he said that experience would help because he would have to build up good habits that would persist once the market improved.
‘‘It’s hard work. Nothing is easy. It’s really enjoyable but you’ve got to keep working at it. It doesn’t happen overnight.’’
He said agents had to work very hard for the first year in particular. Once they started to get leads, those leads would generate future leads and it could help create a pipeline of work.
Top performers by volume
Glenn Collins and Sonia Christison (Lodge) – 53 sales worth $36.4m Yvenna Yue and Craig Annandale (Harcourts) – 52 sales, $38.5m Ritesh Verma (Property Brokers) – 51 sales, $13.5m
David Scapens and Jason Whitaker (Property Brokers) – 51 sales, $17.7m Anton Huang (Ray White) – 46 sales, $63.6m
Nicki Cruickshank (Tommy’s) – 45 sales, $51.8m
Ben Stevens and the team (Ray White) – 41 sales, $32.4m
Rebekah Fraser (Ray White) – 40 sales, $31.8m
Shane Brockelbank (Professionals) – 37 sales, $22.9m
Mark Keesom (Ray White) – 36 sales, $19.9m