Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
🎧 Discover the agents behind the For Sale signs and the sales pitch.
Elite Real Estate Agents of SEQ is the go-to podcast for anyone buying, selling, or simply curious about the people driving Southeast Queensland’s dynamic real estate market.
Hosted by Adam Bell, each episode features a genuine, down-to-earth conversation with one of the region’s top-performing real estate agents. From the Gold Coast to Brisbane and everywhere in between, these agents share their personal stories, expert insights, and what it really takes to succeed in a competitive market.
✅ Learn how top agents win listings, build trust, and deliver results
✅ Get local property insights straight from the people making the deals happen
✅ Find out what to look for in a great agent—beyond just a flashy billboard
✅ Meet the agent who could be the perfect fit for your property journey
Whether you’re a homeowner researching agents, an investor watching the market, or a fellow agent looking for inspiration, this podcast puts a spotlight on the real people behind real estate in SEQ.
Transcript:
Welcome to the Elite Real Estate agents of SEQ podcast, where I sit down with some of the most successful and respected real estate agents working right here in one of Australia's most beautiful and sought after regions southeast Queensland. This podcast gives you a genuine behind the scenes look at who these agents are as people, what makes them stand out in the industry.
And most importantly, can help you decide if they're the right fit to guide your property journey. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation. You might just be listening to the perfect person to sell your property.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Elite Real Estate Agents of SEQ. Today's guest is someone who's seen it all in real estate and quietly built a reputation as one of the most trusted figures on the Gold Coast. Andrew Wright is the principal of professional Southport, a role he is held since 2008.
He's got decades of experience and thousands of successful sales under his belt. He's known for his calm leadership, sharp market insight, and unwavering commitment to his clients and team. In 2021 and 22, Andrew was recognized as the number one selling principle in Queensland within the entire professionals group, a testament to both his personal performance and strength of the agency he leads.
He's not one for hype or noise. Andrew. Andrew simply delivers year in, year out. Andrew, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much for having me, Adam.
Fantastic, mate. All right, so let's, uh, let's wind it back. Where did it all start? Where did you grow up, mate? What? Um, give me just a bit of background.
Yeah.
Born in, uh, Harvey Bay, Queensland and, uh, after, uh, six years moved to Brisbane and. Was sent to a boarding school at Ipswich Grammar School. Okay. Until, uh, 1987.
Yep. How did you like, um, boarding school? Best years of my life. Really? Absolutely. Okay. Why is that? I, I hear a lot of people love it. A lot of people don't.
What, what was it that, um, uh, well, that particular school, very much, uh, focused on, uh, sport. Sport and uh, as a border. Uh, three o'clock, the bell goes, you're out playing touch, football, tennis, rugby, cross country, athletics, whatever it was. All weekend, Saturdays and Sundays, most of the boarders didn't go home.
We just played sport. Sport. Absolutely loved it.
Fantastic. So what were your sports of choice then throughout the, the years? What were you, what did you, well, what did you enjoy and what were you good at?
Very early on I wanted to be a professional tennis player. Right. But learned very quickly by sort of 14, that I wasn't good enough.
Okay. Um, but did, did pay, uh, competitive tennis. Yep. Uh, cross country, middle distance, uh, and rugby union in high school.
Okay. So after, uh, after ips. Ips, it's grammar ips Grammar school. Yep. Um, what, uh, what, what was your first foray into, um, into the workforce? Was it straight into real estate? It was in 1991.
Really? I, um, I got a, it was only a brief role, uh, in surface paradise, uh, with a. A marketeer real estate office. They had, uh, it wasn't internet marketing back in those days. We had a couple of very pretty girls in surface paradise, uh, standing out the front with not a lot of clothes on, uh, attracting the tourists And, um, they basically used their marketing prowess to encourage them to listen to a, a marketing presentation to buy real estate estate on the Gold Coast. So a lot of those. Early clients were from Sydney and Melbourne and coming to the surface. So we're saying
here, there's probably plenty of people around with investment properties now that they bought and have made an absolute monster on because they saw a couple of girls in bikinis who got them to go to a st.
Well, I'm not sure, to be honest, that that brief stint in real estate didn't last a long time with me because it didn't align with with my value. Yeah. So yeah. Those ladies brought the people in off the street. Yep. Uh, they pre-qualified them as to how much money they had lying around in their borrowing capacity.
Sure. Uh, they brought them into the room and, and we did a, um, scripted, uh, rider hunt property research spiel on these seven year real estate cycles on the Gold Coast. And why now is a great time to buy. When we had people that had the capacity to buy, we, we literally threw them on a plane that day or the next day, flew them over to Russell Island and tried to sell them a block of land.
And, uh, back in those days that, that, that was a really hard sell. You know, or we've, you know, we've got you on this plane. You're over here. You, you've said you're in a position to buy. You've seen that. The research on property cycle sign here. Yeah. You know, which one do you want? And uh, yeah, pretty interesting way to cut your teeth in the, in the property game.
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But also just shows just how times have changed. Absolutely. I mean, I remember something, oh, sort of a little similar I think, but, uh, I can't remember whether those was Girls on the Street, but they were offering you scratchies or something to have to go in and then hear a timeshare presentation.
So, but uh, yeah, times have times have definitely changed. So, um, what, um. Look, I do wanna delve, obviously now further into your career and, and what moved on? Well, no, let's do that a bit more now. What, what, what was the next step after, after that role?
I, uh, built a, um, large financial planning business. I got about 16 years I was in the financial planning industry.
Okay, so it wasn't straight into real estate after that first? No, no.
I actually got into a bit of trouble there straight after that actually. I, I borrowed some money off my old man and bought a finance brokerage business right. As a finance broker, getting people loans to buy property and, uh. Uh, the people who sold us that franchise, uh, basically took our money and, and ran, disappeared.
So I started life as a, a 21-year-old outta uni, um, owing my dad 15 grand, which is a lot of money in those days. Well, in those days it was, and I still had a hex debt and I owed the old man 15 grand that I'd lost. I'd given it to these guys to, uh, yeah. You know, hold our hands through building. That's a pretty big thing to have happen to you as a young fella.
Yeah, it is. Yep. Yeah, so that was, uh, that was my first entrepreneurial. Uh, journey that, uh, that, uh, set me back and, uh, taught me a few lessons.
Fair. Right. So, so financial, um, sorry. Uh, mortgage broking. Mortgage broking, that's right. Then financial.
Then I, um, had to pay my debt off to the old man, uh, with that 15 grand.
So I actually got, uh, my one and only job for my, my lifetime, basically. And as a, a research analyst in a financial planning software company. And, uh, for six years, all we did was, uh. Uh, report the, uh, the performance of managed investment funds in Australia and New Zealand, and we collated databases that, uh, financial planning software providers used.
Mm-hmm. Uh, to tr to analyze the performance of investment funds.
Right. Okay. And then it was in the real estate?
Uh, no. Then I left that company after six years and set up a financial planning business for about 10 years. Okay. Yep. And, uh, had a. Reasonable size firm. I employed, uh, up to 35 people at its peak.
Yep. I had a fairly, uh, a fairly big business. Yeah. That's a's a decent sized business. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And all really good stuff as a, as a, as a base and a background to go into, into real estate.
Yeah. Well, quite a, a, a focus, even in that financial planning journey was, um, uh, commercial property investment.
We raised hundreds of millions of dollars for, uh, commercial property investments over that time. Uh, the downfall of my, uh, business there was in 2008 when the GFC happened and a lot of those investments went south due to the leverage that the fund managers had in those commercial property trust at that time.
Yeah. That's what forced me to, um, get into a different industry and actually set up a real estate business.
Yeah. Another, another very tough, tough period i'd, right? Imagine. Yeah. That's, yep. Okay, so, um, alright, let's move into the, the. The real estate sphere. Where did you start out?
Uh, well, real estate was always in the blood, uh, as a five and 6-year-old.
My father was a property developer. Okay. Um, built a block of units in Bribe Island and made a bit of money, then built another one, made a bit of money, and then, uh, got a bit greedy. Um, borrowed a lot of money to build a really big, uh, unit site in Bribe Island. I think that was around that 19, maybe 1980s, 1980.
It would've been 10 years old at that stage. And, uh, the market went south. Uh, dad was paying 18% interest and when in default, uh, an extra 5% penalty. So 23% interest, dad was paying on, oh goodness, borrowed money. And, uh, we end up, uh, losing everything at that stage. So that was my start, uh, to understanding real estate cycles and risk.
And, uh, I've always had a bit of a, an interest in, in real estate Sure. Since then. And look, they, they, you've probably learned a lot of lessons from those, you've mentioned a few things now. Absolutely. That seeing your father go through that, that 15 grand that you started off with, you know, I think, you know, most successful people in any industry or, you know, entrepreneurial, have had those, those, those, you know, they have the big wins, but big losses too.
And, and learn from them.
Plenty of losses. Yeah.
Yep. So, um, alright, so 2008, through that financial, you, you've, you've gotta make your shift. Um, yeah. Where did you, and you, you, you, you decide real estate's it.
Yeah.
Where was it? Was it straight into the professionals?
Straight into the professionals? It that in itself, a bit of a story.
I mean the, uh, emotional rollercoaster of where I was at at that point in time. Um, we were literally. Uh, getting sued by, uh, no win, no fee. Lawyers for all these investments that went bad, uh, even though they were, you know, the ones that we were told to sell the recommended approved products and without a global financial crisis, yeah.
Would probably be doing very well.
Yeah. I, I had also personally lost, uh. And close on $15 million of assets I'd build up in my mid thirties at that stage. Wow. Due to, I mean, that's gotta hit you hard. Yeah.
So I went from that to, to on bankrupt on paper at that time. So having had a lot of success previously I wasn't, I was unemployable at that time.
My mentality was never to go and get a high paying job, so I literally borrowed money on my credit card. To buy the professionals Southport Real Estate office. The gentleman before me had already sold his rent roll. So the, the, the business wasn't, uh, valuable, had no recurring revenue. It was just the name, the phone number, and the, the sales brand.
So I had no money at that time. I'd lost everything and, um, I didn't know how to run a real estate office either. So. Pretty ballsy. I actually put it on my credit card.
I was about to say, this is a big move, Andrew. Yeah. You just lost $15 million. Yep. Um, you haven't really done real estate before. And rather than just go and, you know, lob up at an agency and say, look, I've got this skill set.
Give a go. You've gone and bought an office.
Yeah, that's right. Well, there was no office. He, he, he, it was just a brand bought You bought, yeah. You bought a brand. I didn't take over his lease or anything. Right. I, I employed, um. Hi, his name. A, uh, a phone number that had been used for 15 years previously, and I took over one experienced sales person that he had employed.
And, um, in return for an extremely high commission split, I was paying him 80% of his commissions. I said, well, look, I, I'll do this, um, but you need to teach me about real estate and how to run a real estate business. So, I'm your boss, but you gotta teach me what to do. Right? Wow. Uh, shortly after that I employed a, um, very experienced, um, senior property manager who had 20, 25 years plus of experience and, um.
And she taught me how to build a property management business. I'd go out with her and get a rent roll. She built a rent roll and, and I learned how to build a rent roll from her. And I learned how to become a sales person from the sales person that I was employing. So that must have been the boss knew nothing, but, uh, just you, you're always learning.
And obviously you were learning from scratch there, but how long do you think that process actually took from the time you had both of them on, for you to say, yeah, I think I now get this. Well, um. Uh, I was never, uh, super smart or, or intelligent or educated or anything, but I, I always was very determined in anything I did.
And even that first year, uh, I signed up 120 new property management clients in year one. Wow. Which is, you know, pretty quick sort of growth for a, it is a real estate office. Didn't buy any of them. We, I just went out and, uh, learned. How to do it and, and just, and just build it quite quickly. So that was in addition to focusing on sales, I personally signed up 120 property managements year one.
So that's what sort of got me rolling. And, um, overall as a real estate sales person, I didn't make any money for the first five years of the business because every cent I made went into wages. Yep. Paying people to come and join the business and reception and property management. Uh, after making, um, you know, more than a million dollars a year for multiple years as a, someone in my mid thirties 20 years ago, which would be more than $2 million a year now.
Yeah. Yep. Um, I went to, that's a pretty hard earning. Nothing for five years. Yep. Everything just went back into the business, so
Wow. What a, what a story. Mm-hmm. And so it's obviously you've been a continual growth since, since then. For the, uh, for the professional Southport office. What, um, you know, at its peak, um, how many staff did you have?
Oh, look,
in the early years, I had more staff than, than now. So, um, uh, initially my business model, uh, was to get leverage and I had 12 salespeople. Uh, in my business in the early years in addition to the property management division, but, um, that seemed to, um, consume a lot of my time dealing with, uh, fights between salespeople on, you know, who was the rostered agent on the day to he handle leads that came in and, you know, that was my buy, that was my, yeah.
Right. And, uh, complaints from, um, from clients saying that this agent didn't do the right thing. Training people and then they'd get up and leave. So I, I changed my business model, um, five or six years ago, just having a smaller team and, um, doing a lot of the sales myself as a selling principal, because that's what you love, isn't it?
You love the sales, you love dealing with people. I love selling. I love dealing with people and with respect to the industry, it's improved a lot now, but, um. The integrity of a lot of salespeople, uh, that I was employing wasn't aligned with my set of values. Coming from a, um, an industry that valued, um, professional development and things like in the financial planning industry, the, uh.
Well, it's known as an industry. Well, it has been. And on the Gold Coast traditionally over, you know, 30 or 40 years where there, there are a lot of, you know, so-called sharks out there, isn't there? Yeah. Yeah. And, um,
I've employed a lot of them and, uh, some of the the, um. The practices just weren't in line with my values.
So I, I have a very small team now. It's me and my son primarily do most of the sales. Yep. With two part-time, uh, Chinese speaking agents who help bring in some big, okay. Big hitter buyers from China. I, I can't speak Chinese, but they, they fit in that missing link, uh, bringing in some, okay, well, that's, uh, big additional buyers.
That's a, a good strategy. Yeah. So tell me then. If not, uh, and this is just to get to know you a bit more, so you, obviously you love real estate. Mm-hmm. You've been doing it now for a very long time. It's, it's related to your, your history before that. Mm-hmm. If not real estate, what would you be doing now?
Oh, there's, there's no doubt, um, living a life up till mid thirties as a professional sportsman would've been a dream. True. I mean, I just didn't have the, the ability or genetics and tennis would've been it.
Well, I wanted, I tried in tennis. Yeah. But, but you know, by age 13 or 14, whether you're good enough.
Oh, absolutely. I was, certainly wasn't, and I had some mates of mine that were better than me that still didn't make it either. So it's, uh, you know, anyone who's become a professional athlete, you've gotta admire not just their natural abilities, but the work that they've put into indication and Yeah.
Absolutely. Drive everything else. Absolutely.
What are, what are your sports of choice now in terms of watching and following and,
uh, well, I, uh. I taught martial arts for a while. I'm a third degree black belt in karate. Uh, and I helped my two kids become black belts in karate, so I love fighting. And on, uh, TV now, I, uh, I only watch fighting or rugby league pretty much.
Okay. So any, any type of fighting or, uh, okay. And who do you follow in the, in the league?
Well, unfortunately on the Gold Coast here, we have a titan. So you do find the, which is bottom of the bottom of the ladder at the moment. Yeah. So, uh, I think there's 16 teams in the comp and they're coming 16th. So, uh, I've got a corporate box this the next two weekends actually, that we've invited a few clients along, so support them.
Yes. But uh. Nice. No longer get, uh, emotional when they lose. Okay. So, we'll, we'll talk about that corporate box once we've uh, actually finished the, uh, the podcast here. 'cause I am free the next couple of weekends. Okay, great. Just in case you needed to know. I'll get you along to one of them. Perfect.
Perfect. Alright, so, um, describe your, um, your sales style to me. Mm-hmm. How, let me rephrase that. How do you describe your sales style?
Well, I think, um, setting from a, from a high level, I like to think of myself more as an advisory, having an advisory relationship with clients rather than a transactional one.
So a consultant more so yeah, more so of a consultant than just, uh, than getting numbers. Um, you know, there's a lot. Of things that, you know, awards in the industry, uh, are based mainly on either the number of commissions you generate in a year or the number of transactions. I think there's a lot of other, uh, areas that you can assess metrics Yep.
That, that, that related to adding value to a client, that stats Yeah. Things that you don't get. Um, I, I recently had an example of a client that, uh, we took over the management of a building in, in, uh. Upper Mount Gravatt for, he had a building, an office building with three empty offices that were with a major global brand and they couldn't lease them.
Um, within six months, uh, I leased those three empty offices and uh, got approval to put a $50,000 a year digital billboard on the roof. And that that generated, that's an extra $220,000 a year I generated for that client. Wow. And added more than a million dollars of value to the building. And that, that's satisfying for me.
And, uh, that's, I mean, that's, yeah. The things you don't, you don't, you don't get awards for that. No. There's no awards for that. And, and to me too, for you to do that, and this shows your, your skill set across the whole industry, Andrew, that you know, you're a residential. Mm-hmm. Your, your class as a residential, principally residential agent.
Yeah. Yeah. But look, you've been thrown that and look, look at what you achieved.
Yeah. Yeah. I think, um. I mean, it, it's difficult in a podcast to, um, have the right words to come out with experience without maybe trying to oversell yourself. But as an investor, um, I have more than, uh, 20, 20 something investments in a portfolio.
So I can come from a perspective, uh, of giving people real advice on, uh, guiding them through the, or navigating through the choices they have as an investor, not just. You know, let me sell your property. Sure. People come to me and I can help them. Uh, I know how to build an investment portfolio. I've just got the experience with.
Whether it's investing or various property developments that I've done that I, I can add value and really help people.
Absolutely. I, I was gonna ask you about that 'cause I know it's something you don't like to talk, talk too much about, but you have done incredibly well for yourself through your own personal investments like you've just said, which, you know, does show that you can help others.
Absolutely. Others do that. Um, others do that as well. Look, you've probably mentioned a couple of these already, but, um, can you gimme a career moment that you're, you're proud of?
Well, I mentioned that one at Logan right up in Mount Gravatt. I mean, helping someone make over a million dollars, uh, is, uh, is extremely, um, valuable to me.
But probably one thing that is greater than that for me, and it may not be the, uh, agenda of this podcast, but the satisfaction that I get out of seeing my dev, the development of my son as a real estate agent, sure, there's nothing that beats that. Um, he's, uh, 20 years of age. He's been working with me for just three years now, and he's already, um, sold, uh, three or four properties more than that actually by himself as a 20-year-old kid.
Fantastic. Uh, his excitement for, uh, adding value to clients with social media advertising and using drone photography and all these things that I've got, uh, very little skillset with. Yep. Uh. Not only is just so proud for me as a principal and a father to see him develop, but it it, it's also very complimentary.
To what I do because he's a partner of mine, you know, he helps me. He goes in the listing presentations, he helps do the social media marketing for our clients. He does inspections, uh, for our clients. When I'm busy, he, he'll run out at short notice and do inspections, and he helps me get better results for our clients.
I'm just so proud that. My son's involved with me in the business. No, I can imagine how fulfilling that would be. Just be seeing that and doing that on a, on a daily basis. Yeah. So now you've got your own podcast. It's called, um, it's called Selling Southport. And I think I wanted to relate that to, because you did say earlier, you love to add value to your, to your clients.
And um, obviously I've, I've listened to a few of those episodes and you cover all the sort of things that, um, that people need to know and. And ask all the time how to prepare for an open hom.
Yes. Giving them tips on their listing, meeting, how to pick the right agents. So, um, I think, um, you know, a, a fabulous idea that you've, you've, you've gotten that out there and, um, people should, should check that.
Check that out. It's available everywhere.
Uh, it is, uh, selling Southport. You can just Google the name and hopefully it'll come up on, uh, YouTube or whatever. Spotify. Spotify, whatever, uh, everything else. Fantastic platform you, you choose.
Yeah.
All right. Can you tell me about maybe a time where a listing didn't go to plan?
Um, well, I mean, uh, just a couple of months ago, I mean, uh, we had a, a great auction lined up for a morga in possession, uh, company. And, um, uh, the bank appointed us to sell the property via auction. And we had, uh, plenty of people ready to pay good dollars and, uh. The overseas, uh, owner of the property promptly paid their debts to the bank and we just wasted our time because it was just withdrawn from the market.
Right. That's just one that recently comes to Yep, yep. Comes to mind. It just happens. Doesn't, just happens. Yeah. Half of
the half of the course. So, alright. I'm gonna now give you our quick fire round. This is where I throw four or five questions at you and I just want short, sharp answers that, you know, the first thing that that comes to mind.
Okay. Alright. One word to describe your negotiation style. Transparent. Great. How would your des clients describe you?
Experienced,transparent, mm-hmm. And determined. Great biggest myth about real estate agents?
Uh, not, not every agent is, uh, just out there to make a quick sale and, and, and get a commission under their belt. There are some that value. Helping clients achieve their objectives.
Great. Your one overall tip for homeowners when selling,
uh, presentation of the property is, uh, is very, very important.
So decluttering, um, making sure that, uh, everything's well prepared. And, uh, I'd say from a sales perspective, uh, overcoming building and pest objections. Well and surely before you put the property on the market, say. We'll typically go to our property management, uh, panel of tradespeople and fix things up that are gonna come up on a building and pest inspection report.
Sure. Final question, Andrew. Um, if someone's listening and considering using you as their agent, what would you say to them? Look at straight down the camera and give it to them.
Look, I've, I've got the experience in, uh, building a large investment portfolio. We've helped thousands of people sell and lease their properties.
We've overcome every objection and every problem that there is to go through with these transactions. So I sincerely believe that. More importantly, not just me, but my team of staff, can really assist in adding value to your investment portfolio or to one-off transactions.
Andrew Wright, thank you so much for joining me on the Elite Real Estate Agents of Southeast Thank you Adam Queensland podcast.It's been, uh, a real pleasure and I've really enjoyed hearing y your story. And, uh, I know this is gonna be one of the, uh, the episodes that our, uh, our listeners really love. So thank you very much. Pleasures all mine. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Elite Real Estate Agents of SEQ. If today's guest sounded like the right agent to help with your next move, please reach out.
You'll find all their details in the show notes and episode description. And if you're a real estate agent interested in being showcased on the podcast, visit www dot. Pod pro australia.com au to learn more and register your interest. If you enjoyed the podcast, we'd love it if you could like share and rate the podcast and let us know in the comments if there's an agent you've dealt with and you think they should be featured next.
Thanks again for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.